Home to uniquely phrased signs in English and the best veg food in the world: India. I spent five months there and found the diversity in landscape, culture and language remarkable.
But teaching English? It’s fairly well-known that English is one of the official languages of India, and in fact in many cases is used as a medium of instruction in schools and universities….so who needs to learn it?
The current trend for companies from English-speaking countries to outsource labor for call centers means that there is a whole industry which frequently looks for accent or pronunciation training to standardize Indian English for the non-Indian ears of callers.
My informal perusing of the India forum at Dave’s ESL Café as well as of job ads for such positions in the past leads me to believe that employers sometimes – but not always – require potential teachers to have management, IT or call center experience (in addition to teaching experience). On the whole, the wages seem to be quite good given the cost of living in India, even in cities. Working hours probably vary – call center employees will often work odd hours to fit the common call periods of North American customers, and English language training may be geared around their schedules.
At the moment there are no listings for jobs in India at Dave’s or Tefl.com, but via a helpful post in Dave’s India forum, some links for India job sites are:
Also check out IndiaMike, an online forum about India, for various India information as well as a classifieds section.
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Wondering if you need a degree…
Hi there – I don’t know a lot about it but a scan through the message board at Dave’s makes me think you probably do. I forgot to add in the link – here it is: http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewforum.php?f=51 – it sounds like first of all, many of the jobs require experience in the field (not just efl but the “call center” sort of field) and some even an advanced degree. Sometimes it is the visa regulations that require a degree as well – and I don’t know for India. There may have been a thread about that at Dave’s, so do have a look. Also, I wonder if someone could manage with private students (finding their own) in a major call center city like Bangalore. Good luck!
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