ESL Jobs Forum

[Bruce]

I recently obtained my ESL certification and am looking for positions. I am over 50 and am hearing there are age limits. What countries either have no age limit or are liberally interpreting the rule? I am looking for suggestions.
Thanks.

[ICAL_Pete]

Generally speaking there is no cut off limit as such. Some countries will not employ a teacher who is very close to the retirement age due to visa implications, but in general it's down to the school itself whether they employ you or not.

Some schools like young teachers whom they can manipulate and mould, others prefer older teachers who bring a certain level of gravitas to the classroom.

It's just a matter of applying for jobs as normal and seeing what happens.

There's an article on this subject here.

[bonvivant]

This age thing is puzzling because all of the schools say that they want to provide the best educational services to their students; however, they refuse to hire the most knowledgeable and experienced of the applicants. They seem to believe that the quality of the services depend primarily upon books, most of which are of little value, that are read aloud to the students and the reactions of the students to very simplistic questions that could hold the attention of a 3-month child. Canned instruction is always a failure without some variation provided by the teacher whose judgment is dependent upon the interests and the abilities of the students. I once taught a German course at Berlitz, and the teacher used books, which were excellent, mostly for homework purposes; but the conversation was dependent upon the teacher's interests. I remember the conversations being all in German and being interesting and successful. The instruction came in the form of various corrections during the conversations, as well as corrections of the homework. What these ESL schools demand for the most part is a strict adherence to the book with no input by the teacher except for grammar, which has evolved into a flexible thing depending upon the emotional content and the information that is being discussed. What these schools do not understand is that the importance of grammar is very different from its importance in other languages, which flexibility is why English has become a favored language of the world. And to learn how to manipulate this flexibility requires someone who can explain the circumstances in which the flexibility is applied. It is the fluid use of the language that makes one an interesting person to listen to and to read. The information conveyed is only one part of language fluency. The other parts are the style and the interests that the listener and the speaker has. Without these things the conversation is flat and dead and is soon forgotten. All of this requires a person of a reasonably wide variety of interests and experiences. This is something that comes with age, which the schools and the governments, that apparently, attach no importance.