Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / March 2007

Hi.  I'm a 39 year old native English speaker - white Australian
living in Sydney.

I've got a degree in computer science and have worked for many
years as a computer programmer, but I'm basically sick of it, and
I quite like the idea of teaching English to non-natives.  I'm married
to a Chinese (mainland) and have spent 18 years communicating
with her and have had practice explaining English things.

I'm thinking of going to China or Taiwan.  I have already saved my
money as a computer programmer, and so I no longer need to save
money, I just need enough money to live on so that I don't have to draw
down my savings.

My only real entertainment is the internet, so I don't particularly care
where I live so long as I have internet access.

I have been doing some reading and it appears that a degree is not
what employers want, they want a TEFL certificate.  I have found
one here:

http://www.teflcorp.com/os-dates-fees.htm

for US$190 which you can do online.

There's one here:

http://www.teachinternational.com/courses/index.php

which costs US$1500-US$2200 (approx) which I can do in Sydney.

That's a huge price discrepancy.  Is the first one bogus or the second
one a ripoff?

Assuming the second one is the one I need, do I need the Foundation,
the Certificate III or Certificate IV?  Does Taiwan recognize these
different levels?  Do employers care?  Certificate IV is twice as
long as Certificate III yet only 25% more expensive.  Quite strange.
I wonder if I should go for the longer course as better value?

I found an FAQ here:

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/articles/index.pl?read=1838

but it doesn't specify the type of TEFL certificate required.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.  Paul.