How is the ESL teaching industry in Vancouver, Canada?
My husband is a Korean male who holds Permanent Residence Status in Canada. His English is perfect (really!)He has a BA degree, majoring in Contemporary English Literature from a BC University, as well as 2 years teaching experience in Seoul, Korea. What are his chances of finding work in the ESL teaching industry? (any school or tutoring would be good...) Thank you in advance for any help you could give to us, we are moving back to Canada in September 2006. Bye^^
To be quite honest, it's not a matter of the market. It's more a matter of so-called 'native' speakers. In Vancouver, most of the ESL schools downtown (which there are quite a few around downtown) are owned by either Japanese, Hong Kongers or Koreans. And you know very well from experience in Asia that they are very discriminatory and only prefer to hire a 'white face', rather than an asian face. And they would tell you that it's the students' choice whom many of them are from Asia (Taiwan, Japan, Korea, etc.). So I hate to say that his chances of teaching ESL is very slim or zero. But one way to start off is to volunteer his service in a community centre where he can gain local canadian experience which can help him seek future employment in this field. So be prepared to face the discrimination or prejudice in the beginning and with self-preservance, he may come out alright with a school which is more open-minded and give him a chance. G'luck!
University of British Columbia (UBC) Vancouver - Tuum est - It is Yours