There are positives and negatives about your situation and coming into Vietnam at the moment. One would hope that the situation in HCMC will get under control at some point but it has been quite a mess for a long time now and the government is making one mistake after the other, also in communication (which was really good before this new wave started). Regarding the lockdown starting tomorrow, at first they said it would be full military lockdown, then this morning they said people could get out once a week and then later this evening they said it was full military lockdown again. It's just a mess in their decision making and communication and I feel you will be teaching online for quite a while.

Having said that, if things return to normal (or relatively normal), HCMC is a great city to live in with great food and plenty to do. Vietnam is amazing too, with plenty of travel opportunities within the country and cheap living. The quarantine hotels in HCMC city are also quite decent (definitely so if you are in one of the western chain ones, with delivery menus and variety of food), especially compared to Hanoi.

If you can handle a probably situation of a (likely) few months of boring living and some form of lockdowns, I would still be very happy to be in Vietnam (at the right school) and would just hope for better times somewhere in the next few months.

Thanks Heliotrope.

And just a general comment on this thread. Don't feed the trolls..

Can I just jump in here and ask if you both (last two posters) stop the 'I agree, I disagree' game you are playing, before it actually starts? It's pretty tiring.

Also, the entire part after his financial stuff is trolling so just let it go...

My bad and thank you for the correction. Though I feel my overall point still stands, that is indeed a bit better. Just want to stress it is not a bad pay for Europe, though I would still prefer to stay in my current Southeast Asian country for the savings potential. Obviously Vienna is great to live in, so it would still be good after an extended period saving money elsewhere. There is some money to be saved at VIS too, just not as much as in some other locations.

Maybe I should have said Southeast Asia instead of Asia, but having worked in Europe and looking at the VIS salaries (taxed at 55%) I am making significantly more money per month (with a good housing allowance and all taxes paid for by the non profit-school) at the moment. The cost of living in my current country and capital city (Southeast Asia) is also a lot lower than Austria, which means I save even more.

You are saying starting salaries in Asia are less than half, but that is exactly the case with the VIS salaries. They are under half of what is said in the brochure. Again, they are taxed at 55%. Let's say you enter on step 15 with a salary of € 80k a year. That means your actual salary is € 36k a year. There are some tax benefits and family allowances, so let's round it out at about 4000 USD a month. That will still give you a nice life in Vienna, but save? Not that much. You will probably pay at least a 1000 to 1800 dollars a month on housing, depending on family size. The only way I can see you save some money is if you are a teaching couple, preferably without kids. You do get a decent retirement contribution, so that is something at least.

You are correct that some schools in Asia do tax the housing allowance (like my previous school in another Asian country did).

In my mind, you will work for a school like VIS because it is a great school, Vienna is absolutely amazing and you can live in Europe. You will live a nice life, but you will not save a lot of money. I also enjoy living in my current country however and I have the option to save a lot of money. It all comes down to what is important but you will not go to Vienna to make bank.

It does look like a nice number but the page before that mentions you are only left with 55% of your salary. Granted, you do build up some pension with that, but that is a huge cut, especially considering places in Asia where you earn more, have a lower cost of living and have your taxes paid for by the school.

The situation in Thailand is not too good, but the advice about going to Phuket is. Schools in Thailand will indeed stay closed for a while, but if you can get to Phuket, you have a beautiful island (especially because there are hardly any tourists) to live on. Not sure if your quarantine is already arranged for Bangkok, but since all schools will stay online, it should not matter if you are there or not. My old school has said that teachers do not need to be in Bangkok at the start of the year, but they prefer them in country. One of my former colleagues has arrived in the Phuket sandbox and he will indeed just rent an AirBNB for the coming time and teach from there.

If that is possible for you, it is a great idea and a great lifestyle.

Don't listen to all the panic anyway, at some point everyone needs to learn to live with this.

For information, I was in Bangkok the last two years. I was making around 135k-140k THB pre tax (including 25k taxed housing allowance). Taxes are around 15%, during the January - December year. When I arrived, my first few months August - December were taxed at about 5% and when I left, my last months of January - June were also taxed lower. So you only get taxed fully when you work a full calendar year.

For what it's worth, my school was definitely not considered as Tier 1, but a decent Tier 2 school. The numbers Psyguy mentions are too low. There are a number of British schools that are certainly not 'elite' but are paying close to 150k (Harrows, Shrewsbury, Brighton), if you have a few years of experience. Schools like ISB, NIST and Patana certainly pay over 150k so that part is true.

Anyway, with my salary, it was pretty easy for me to save about 40k-50k THB a month, and that was including a few good holidays and weekend trips a year. Depending on your school, you could also get a nice payout at the end of your contract if your school has a provident fund or something similar. There are some good arrangements tax wise for that in Thailand so plenty of schools participate. Also, if you stay only one or two years, you can get all your paid taxes back. That being said, Bangkok is certainly not as cheap as it used to be. A lot of the prices are closer or over the big cities in western Euope or the US, though there are always some nice deals to be found.

Interesting and sad that this forum now has it's own Wumao with Fangpiren.

Fangpiren, are you really saying those camps are detention centers? And if they are, then it is fine? So harvesting organs, forced sterilizations, forced marriages and all is perfectly normal?

Also, your whole reply is the best example of whataboutism I have seen in a long time. You are not arguing or refuting any of the points made but just want to point to bad things that might be happening in America? All you are saying is 'look at your own country'. Is that how you usually react to valid points being made?

As a non native speaker myself, I got denied a work visa after having signed a contract with a school in Guangzhou two years ago (to start in August 2018). This was after having all my degrees certified and legalized by the Chinese embassy in my home country and after getting a medical and all. The HOS of the school I was supposed to go to told me mid April that the visa application was denied (he did not know of these rules and neither did the school). It was actually something I was afraid of, because I had heard that about six months before that, China had tightened up the regulations. They just said, either be a native speaker or have a degree obtained in a native speaking country.

I also had a job offer from a school in Beijing and they rescinded their offer. Apparently immigration in Beijing said no non native speakers unless they have four years of international experience (I had two at the time).

As far as i know, these are the rules, but as you can see it also depends on the local immigration department on how to interpret it. I do believe that some schools with sufficient influence might be able to get around these rules. Also, the less desirable the location is, the easier the local government will be.

In any case, official visa rules (tightened somewhere in 2018), say no non native speakers allowed in English speaking positions. Obviously there are plenty in China currently teaching, but for incoming teachers it is likely to be a problem.

If you can, I would look elsewhere.

Hi Brillo,

I am in my 2nd year here in Thailand and will be leaving so I am in the process of doing it. Based on recommendations of (mostly British) teachers, I made contact with Stephen Dann (you can find some info on him on TES forums too). He has his website here: http://www.siamtaxtreaties.com/ or you can send me a pm if you want his email address.

Basically, he is a British guy, been here for over forty years and has been doing tax refunds for years apparently. Total fees are 110.000 THB plus VAT. There are some shady people doing it for less it seems, but he came well recommended by ex teachers from different schools (Brighton, Shrewsbury and one teacher at my current school).

Met up with him a few months ago for a face to face, paid a deposit and signed a contract. If for some reason the tax refund does not work, he pays back the deposit. All in all an decent experience and will see in a few months how it turned out. But I have faith that it will be fine.

Same at my school.

They never post in the weekend, plus it was Thanksgiving.. So that's likely it.

https://internationalschoolsreview.com/ ... rta#p33726

Last few posts... trolling the forum since 2015 haha.