FWIW, I am in China, and my family (husband and two kids) is getting on a plane to Shanghai as I type this. And my school has hired at least three couples with kids - coming from outside of China - for Fall 2022.

So it really depends on the school, whether they will consider teachers with kids.

I'm an ESL teacher who went from a language school in Japan to public schools in the US and soon to an international school overseas.

To answer your questions:

1 - unless you're at a public school or international school, ESL jobs are typically 12-month contracts (so no summers off). You will probably have 4-5 weeks vacation scattered throughout the year. Depending on the school and country, you can extend your contract by 3, 6, or 12 months.
2- If you work at an English conversation school, most of your colleagues will speak English and take you out to restaurants and community events. I am still friends with my Japanese colleagues, even after 15 years. You should be able to make friends, but keep in mind, there may only be one or two other foreigners at your branch school, so if you don't click with them, it could be kind of lonely.
3 - In my experience, most ESL teachers at language schools are between 23-35 years old. However, I've known ESL teachers in their 40s, and actually, my 40-year-old husband just got his TEFL certificate and plans to look for ESL work in our new country. If you have business experience or previous teaching experience, you should be able to get a job.
4 - With ESL teaching in language schools, once you leave for the day/weekend, you're done. I don't remember ever taking work home, and I got to thoroughly enjoy and make use of my time on the evenings and days off.

That said, you're likely to make a lot less money at a language school vs an international school and have far fewer days off.

Good luck!

I've got a 2nd interview with a school in China tonight, but they're alerting me to the fact that the Chinese government is currently not letting dependents of visa holders in the country, so we're both kind of wondering what to do, since they're interested in me but I've got two kids and a trailing spouse. I assume the policy will change by summer, especially if a vaccine comes out, but since there's no promise of that...? What to do, what to do...so many of the jobs I'm seeing are in China...

So, I'm registered with ISS-Schrole and check their job postings daily. I search for my subject area, obviously. But today I searched for a different subject area for the heck of it, and there were multiple jobs for MY subject mistakenly posted there! The schools have clearly categorized the job into a different job category (I assume by mistake?). Fortunately, they're not schools on my wish list, but now I feel like I have to check two different job categories to find jobs I'm qualified for, and I wonder what other jobs I've missed. Anyone else have this issue?

Also, aren't schools required to take down their job postings once they've hired someone? I've seen some of the same jobs posted on ISS (and GRC) since mid-October. Surely those schools have hired for those positions by now? I know for a fact that at least a couple of them have closed (because I tried applying for them and got an email from ISS saying the position was closed and the school was no longer taking applications). Yet the job opening is still there...

PsyGuy wrote:
> @kellysensei
>
> Yeah they contacted you, found out your family logistical situation was and
> instead of having a potential confrontation with you at the time, just
> ghosted you and ignored you. It saved them a potential confrontation, and
> your wasted time amounts to all of zero for them. They dont care what you
> think of their professionalism.

No, you're wrong. They contacted me and I immediately explained my family situation, knowing they probably wouldn't pursue me. But she told me she was okay with my family and still very much wanted to talk to me. So I agreed to the interview and she is the one who told me the date and time and then confirmed it again. And then didn't show up.

PsyGuy wrote:

> @kellysensei
>
> What benefit would it be to them to respond to your emails or show up for
> the interview? You think they care what some IT thinks about their
> professionalism? Youre a commodity, youre the cow, no one cares what the
> cow thinks, if they did beef wouldnt be a food choice.

Um, they're the ones who contacted me for an interview; I hadn't even applied for the job. We confirmed the time and date twice. So, to get my hopes up then not show up is unprofessional.

I've had interviews and/or conversations with three schools in China, and they all told me they are interested in me but that HR has informed them they cannot pursue me due to my dependents (two kids and a TEFL-certified spouse), border closures, and visa issues. A fourth school set up an interview with me, knowing full well of my dependents, and then ghosted me - didn't show up for the interview, and is not responding to emails. (Very unprofessional.)

So again, I'm guessing I should cross China off my list, which is too bad, because I'm studying Chinese and would've like to go there.

Actually, it turns out this application system didn't specifically require an admin reference, so I just entered my school's instructional coach and one of my colleagues, and that was enough to allow me to proceed with the application. I can always give them my principal's contact info later, if I get to the interview stage.

I hope I am done having to fill out reference requests!

Are anyone else's references getting frustrated with so many reference requests? I feel like I'm annoying people. Over the spring and summer, I asked three people to write letters of reference for me. Then I registered with ISS-Schrole and they were sent a reference request. Then I registered with GRC and they were sent another reference request. Now I want to apply to a school that uses a whole different application system and, once I enter reference names, it's going to send them yet *another* reference to fill out. I just don't think my current principal wants to fill out a fourth form this week when we are making the switch to distance learning and she is already stressed to the max.

How are people dealing with all the reference requests? Are you sending requests to different people so that one person doesn't have to fill out multiple forms for you?

mysharona wrote:
> In the past Shanghai American School has professed to hired the best fit
> possible, regardless of the number of dependents. I"m not sure that
> policy remains given the current situation but we do have multiple teachers
> with multiple dependents.


Shanghai American School just posted some jobs today, but I looked at their salary/benefits page, and it clearly states that they will waive tuition for (only) one dependent per teacher. I assume I shouldn't bother applying, then.

For what it's worth, my husband has a TEFL certificate and plans to teach English wherever we end up. But I guess most schools might still consider him a dependent?

Well, it was just my first interview, and at least they liked me. I'll keep trying...our goal is somewhere in Asia; it certainly doesn't have to be China.

Is the trend in China to allow just one child dependent per teacher? Many, if not most, of the schools I'm looking up (because they've posted jobs in my field) state on their website that they will only waive tuition for one child. I had an interview with a TIer 1 school in China this week, and it went great, but I was told the next day that they couldn't pursue me due to my family size (two kids and a trailing spouse). Frustrating...Just wondering if I have to take China off the table because almost no one seems to allow one teacher to bring two kids...?

Seems like there's a lot of hassle no matter where you go, if you have kids like me. :(

The fact is that China still has more jobs than most countries, at least in my field, so I'm keeping it on my list (at least certain cities).

PsyGuy wrote:
> Those underwhelming experiences are typical of virtual fairs.

There's not much other choice this year, is there? Sounds like all fairs will be virtual, at least for the next few months.

I was also underwhelmed, partly because most schools didn't have many openings yet (to be expected this early in the season, I guess), but mostly because school representatives were not online much. There were two blocks of time in which ALL schools were supposed to be live, online - at least, that's what had been implied to candidates - but like the last person said, most schools were NOT online at those times.

I did get responses from reps when they were online, but it was always something like "check back with us in a few weeks and we'll know more" or "we'll contact candidates we're interested in later in the fair or maybe afterward."

It looks like there's already a different variety of schools (and growing) signed up for the November fair, so I hope they change the format a bit or at least really insist that all schools are online when they're supposed to be.

Did anyone actually get to do a video chat or an interview?