I guess teaching abroad attracts the free-spirited in many ways; you have to leave your home and set up in a new country. You have to find new friends and new colleagues and maybe eventually a new family. Therefore, it’s not surprising that something many English teachers seem to want to do is break free from the shackles of their employer.

Some TEFL employers are undoubtedly unscrupulous and the best thing you could do is strike out on your own. However, it’s wise to ask a few questions before you hand in your notice. Melanie Allen wrote an article for jobs.ac.uk that defined ten hard-hitting questions to ask before you quit.

Work for yourself

Freelancing is the obvious career choice if you want to regain your freedom. In a country like Japan, there are many opportunities for bright native-English speakers. Depending on your Japanese skills, you might want to try translation. If you have a business background, job opportunities sometimes come up in the world of technology, finance and advertising for English speakers (particularly in the larger and foreigner-friendly cities such as Kobe or Tokyo).

Lone teacher

Teaching English privately is another valid option. There is still plenty of work to be had in private lessons and freelancing for English Teaching companies. ELT World recently ran an article with 5 useful tips if you are going to work as a freelancer.  Salient among these is the advice to have multiple sources of income. If you are reliant upon one client, then it is the same as being tied to an employer, which is the situation you wanted to escape in the first place, right?

Be practical

Another wise move is to keep your visa in mind. Leaving your employer probably won’t invalidate your visa, but it may change your status. More importantly, when it comes time to the time for renewal, there is a whole different set of criteria for self-sponsored visas.

TEFLTastic recently asked if there was no alternative to Eikaiwa work in Japan. Freelancing is most certainly an option if you’re willing to put in the work to build up a customer base, and to have patience while things establish themselves.

Tags: freelance, private

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Teaching in Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.