03 Sep My TEFL Journey: Earnings from Thailand to Qatar

Let’s talk money. Specifically, my money, the money I’ve made teaching English around the world over the last two decades.

If you’re a South African weighing up whether TEFL is “worth it,” the honest answer is: financially, it depends entirely on where you go, what you’re teaching, and how many hours you’re willing to work for it.

In terms of a life decision, for me the answer is unequivocally yes, by the way. Doing a TEFL qualification changed my life. So even if I wasn’t earning spectacularly sometimes, the experience made everything worth it – and each stop on my TEFL journey led to the next one. I’m still here doing TEFL more than 20 years later – and loving every minute of it!

But let’s get back to the money. Here’s my actual paper trail, rand-converted, warts and all.

Read more: A Guide for South Africans teaching English abroad

Thailand, 2003 — ฿35,000/month

My first ever TEFL job. Private school in Bangkok, 25 hours a week, ฿35,000 a month — which today would land you around R17K. Not a fortune, but in Bangkok in 2003, with a low cost of living and zero responsibilities beyond turning up and teaching, it felt like plenty. To put it into perspective, my rent was just 10% of my salary. I was eating out every day (which is the norm there), and either going out on the weekends or going away to the beach during our holidays, which were plenty. And the shopping! This was my first “proper” job (I don’t really consider my jobs at Butler’s Pizza and the call centre as proper) and my salary really made me feel like a grown-up who got to do adult things!

This is the classic “get your feet wet” TEFL job, and I don’t regret a baht of it. It was the perfect first TEFL job.

China, 2005 — RMB 14,000/month

Two years later, I was in DongGuan (in GuangDong), teaching kindergarten for RMB 14,000 a month over the same 25-hour week. Converted to today’s rand, that’s about R35K — more than double what I’d made in Thailand for the same hours. Sadly, I only received about half of that because of my dodgy agent – but that’s a story for another day!

Plus, I stayed in teacher accommodation for free (fully furnished) and, if I wanted, I could get three meals a day at the school canteen during the week. And most of the time I did, except for the chicken feet soup days!

China has always paid well for TEFL, and this is where I really started to see how much destination matters more than experience level at this stage.

Read more: A Day in the Life of a Kindergarten Teacher in China

UK, 2009 — £2,000/month (or £15/hour)

From kindergarten kids to language school students in London and Cambridge. This job paid roughly £2,000 a month, or £15 an hour, for 30–35 hours a week — which today works out to around R45K. More hours, higher pay, but also a completely different cost of living to factor in. The UK numbers look great on paper; just don’t forget rent can eat most of it.

So even though I wasn’t earning the best salary, at the same time, my teaching job in the UK (London and Cambridge) helped me to develop the most professionally out of any of my teaching jobs.

Spain, 2009 — zero

Yes, zero. I did 5 hours a week at a language school in Barcelona for absolutely nothing. As a South African, it’s pretty difficult to get a visa to teach English in the EU but I’ve always been fascinated by Spain. While in the UK, I decided to take a break from teaching and do the DELTA. I could have done it in London or somewhere in the UK but I thought, why not do it somewhere else?

So that’s how I got a visa for Spain for 3 months. I went to Barcelona on a student visa, did the DELTA course and taught at IH Barcelona as part of my practical. An incredible 3 months – super challenging, but I was living my dream in Spain!

[Another way to live and work in Spain if you don’t have an EU passport is through a teaching assistant programme as an auxiliares de conversacion. You can read more about these different programmes here.]

South Africa, 2011 — R170/hour

And back home. Language schools in Cape Town, 15–30 hours a week at R170/hour. Depending on how many hours you can pick up, this ranges from really crap to semi-crap. TEFL in South Africa is not for the faint-hearted. While there are language schools and students, teachers are not remunerated fairly and teaching hours dip when student demand falls.

It’s not a solid, reliable career, but it’s a good way to earn extra money and gain teaching experience. Honestly, though, it’s more of a part-time option. The majority of teachers I worked with (including myself) had another income stream.

Qatar, 2014 — QR 8,800

Doha, language school, 12–15 hours a week for QR 8,800 a month — around R40K at today’s rate. Fewer hours than the UK for similar pay, which tells you everything about how the Gulf pays for TEFL: less time in the classroom, comparable (sometimes better) take-home pay.

This was a position I’d wanted for ages, teaching for the British Council. It was a summer position (which is usually when teachers in Qatar go on holiday to escape the heat!). It was an awesome experience, no doubt helped because it was so well re-imbursed. The British Council paid for my flights and organised my visa. They met me at the airport and took me to the apartment I would share with another teacher. It was Ramadan so for a few weeks I only taught 3 hours a day for 4 days. And it was a really good salary – espeically when you consider that I wasn’t really paying for anything.

Read more: Why I Went to Qatar and Why I Went Home

So, is TEFL worth it?

Looking at this whole map — Bangkok to DongGuan to London to Barcelona to Doha to Cape Town — the honest takeaway is that TEFL pay is less about your qualification and more about where you choose to teach and how many hours you’re willing to put in. Some destinations pay more per hour but the cost of living is higher. Some pay less but you can live better. And others pay well, give you great benefits and you work very little!

If you’re weighing up your first TEFL move, don’t just ask “how much does it pay” — ask “how much does it pay, for how many hours, in a place where my rand actually goes far”? That’s the real equation.

Read more: Level 3 vs Level 5: Which TEFL course should you do?