This was so well presented. You come across as very unbiased giving the problems then the solutions. Yes you want to grab some business but that's just fine when you present the issues so fairly. Great job! Also this didn't drag on forever. Ever minute of it was pertinent. This is what TH-cam needs to get back to. Concise, focused information.
The wrong people are getting trained. Vietnam needs to train its people (centre owners/schools/agencies) how to implement an effective educational course. Gov't should provide free/subsidized education to these people. Teachers are actually crying out for higher standards but will always have to reluctantly accept the 'nuances' of these places. The standards at some schools and centres are terrible and these are the people who need educating. It's time to stop blaming backpackers.
Public school in vietnam do offer English as a selective course for high school students. If you choose to study English to enhance your language skills to further job opportunities you must pay on your own, therefore teaching English has been a good work opportunity for digital nomads. There are Vietnamese who teaches English and popular in vietnam, for example Co Tien is very popular on TH-cam. You can check her out . Her TH-cam Chanel is Co Tien Tinker.
Finally! Vietnam is weeding the backpackers from the those with actual teaching degrees and certifications. Positive move forward for a quality English education.
From the comment below yours: "Though a great idea, reality and ideas don't always go hand in hand" Your last sentence sounds as if it was a 90's American television commercial 🤣
This video doesn't make it clear, but it appears that the tay ba lo who are peddling certificates and degrees in irrelevant disciplines will still be allowed to conspire with fraudulent schools and centers to cheat parents out of their money and children out of a quality education. Unfortunately, until EFL teachers are held to the same standards as foreign experts, the tay ba lo won't be going anywhere.
@@Huntermoody That’s why the OP said that they should have teaching degrees, not degrees in irrelevant disciplines. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the backpackers with fashion and other irrelevant degrees will be getting the boot just yet.
I'm a credentaled English teacher in California I taught 9 years at a middle school 7 years at a top 20 uni in China and now (due to covid) in my second year teaching English at my former school in California (they rehired me) I am optimistic about teaching at a university in Vietnam because I'm too old to start over in China and it seems Vietnam has less working visa age restrictions. I need to visit and check it out.
fei (for everyone's infomation), there are, let's say, english clinics around saigon. your job (english teacher) is to talk/speak english to working professionals, kids, etc. they book you for 45 mins to 1 hr. per session. you can work for them and/or work for yourself. you can advertise through social media and be sitting at a coffee shop, chit chatting for an hour for 10 or more bucks and hour...it's not my bright idea...it's been going on for a long time. GL everyone.
is now ilegals to teach childrens english without proper trainings! dont do it in cafe - it can mean your arrest if you spek english in vetnam with no trainings!
Vu Minh Duc from the Ministry of Education is quoted stating that that this doesn’t apply if the English teacher has TEFL, CELTA and TESOL certificates as per a vnexpress article. This is mainly to weed out teachers who haven’t had the training to teach
@@bunbohue369 I would think so. I had a look at the breakdown of the 120 hour requirement and a lot of it is actual teaching pedagogy which is already covered in 120 hour industry standard TEFL courses. If they wanted to emphasize more cultural sensitivity specifically for English teachers who already have TEFL/TESOL/CELTA, they would introduce a few extra cultural modules/requirements which can’t be anywhere near 120 hours
Thank you for this 🙏, I find that most people making videos about this new development are just alarmists who do not take the time to read and understand the nuances of the initiative, it's all about clicks,views and engagement. If I didn't read your comment I wouldn't have felt the need to go look for the particular article you referred to, that explains the purpose and scope of this new introduction to ESL teaching in Vietnam . God bless you 🙏
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting I’ve read the provision, quoted: “native English speakers having college degree or higher; foreigners having college degree or higher in English major; foreigners having college degree or higher and having certificate of level 5 foreign language proficiency in accordance with the Foreign Language Proficiency for Vietnam or equivalent” There is no mention of TEFL in this requirement. This course is itself a TEFL. 2 points: 1. I fully agree with your point on Vietnam wanting to maintain/taking English teaching to the next level 2. But rather than making it difficult for the English teacher, I believe they are trying to sanction certain language centres. Some language centres will employ anyone foreign who speaks English at their discretion, so this provision is more of an onus on them to comply and in turn support point 1 to ensure everyone is qualified. Of course I am not a legal expert like yourself but even I can see that there are grey areas in the provision you cited
I've been an English teacher in Vietnam nearly 6 years now. The issue with weeding out backpackers is that many English centers and schools will continue to hire them. Why? They're cheaper and do not require sponsorship, work permits, insurance contribution, etc from schools. Another issue is the constant demand (literal demand in job postings) for white teachers (preferably with no experience) to use for promotions of schools in lieu of other qualified teachers. A lot of teachers here have degrees in something unrelated to education and have been teaching legally. Changing that requirement will make it harder for them to teach. Demanding teachers who are already here legitimately to do a training module on top of our experience and prior education will hurt the system, in my opinion. It will make teachers want to leave and scare off new potential teachers. I'm not for backpacker teachers. Wanting a qualified teacher is one thing. However, a lot of the education system in Vietnam is based on finding someone quick and easy, not in investing in a qualified teacher. How will teachers here complete this course? Will it be out of pocket? Too many unanswered questions. Not to mention there are too many companies who will keep documents and passports from teachers so they cannot leave. The issue isn't the quality of the teacher. It is the system that allows companies to employ illegal teachers and who bribe their way out of doing things legally.
In theory, you post a good argument, but I know several English teachers without degrees in education and some without degrees at all that have a better connection with their students than teachers I know with that specialty. Some schools and centers employ teachers without documents because the businesses can pay the "teachers" less and won't need to provide health insurance, TRCs, etc.; the same applies regarding experience. Often the goal of schools and centers is to put a warm body in front of the class to entertain the students, regardless of anybody's ability to speak or teach English. Entertainment is often prioritized over education, which is why many VN citizens have been taking English classes all their lives, but not everybody can speak the language. Entertaining the kids makes them want to come back, so the centers can keep billing the parents (are you familiar with Apax?). I'd actually have a difficult time finding an English center whose entire staff speaks English. Viet Nam has many laws and regulations, not all are followed.
If this government would have really wanted its population to learn English, it would have applied measures for that instead of adding more and more obstacles.
In order for English centers to prioritise education over profits there will have to be a significant cultural overall and general viewpoint of what it means to actually educate an individual in Vietnam...
@@chrishamlin5863 The standards will never be raised. As long as the owner sees the foreigner as nothing more than someone who brings customers in the status quo will be maintained. This is why several foreigners have sometimes been robbed of their pay.
@@damienlee54 I agree that nothing will change if we have to depend on the owners to make the changes. I would like to see laws that give victems of nefarious actions more recourse.
@@chrishamlin5863 Wholeheartedly agree. With these new rules in place I hope this weeds out the shady language center owners looking to scam any and every foreigner they come across
$20/h isn't going to cut it if they keep increasing the standards. This is good news if you are wealthy and can afford the expensive high end centers because the quality of teaching will go up. However, budget schools are going to be priced out.
My brother is a Princeton grad with English literature major. He earns $25/hour with a contractual part-time job as an English teacher to various level of students in Boston, USA. This is annually negotiated contract and even then it is not a stable position. The only reason he can barely get by in Boston is thanks to his wife and they have no children. About ten years ago he landed an annual contract job in Saudi Arabia. That one paid barely 30K a year and was the best paid job he ever had. The contract was renewed three times before the contracting company closed doors to competitors. That blew away the myth of plentiful high paying job in Saudi. Engineers, military instructors or mercenaries might have earned big dollars in Saudi kingdom but that was certainly not true for English teachers. The average pay for full-time factory workers and semi-skilled laborers such as Grab drivers in Saigon today is $280/month and yet many are unemployed. The day of earning high pay with a part-time job and able to afford a nice life is not going to last much longer.
$20 is not a national standard, many provinces pay less. In Vinh Phuc Province, for example, English teachers don't get $20 an hour. Understand that foreign teachers cannot work for the Ministry of Education, they can only teach as sub-contractors. In Vinh Phuc Province, the companies that get the contracts from the Ministry of Education refuse to pay a decent wage because they're greedy. I've spoken to quite a few foreign teachers in the province and told them we should work together and refuse to accept less than $20 per hour, but they won't cooperate and will accept substandard wages. Those teachers are their own enemies.
The qualified teachers make about 90 million a month plus at schools like ISHMC. Its the langugage centres that dont need as high credentials as their teachers dont make much money
@@Paul-in-Viet-Nam earning $20/hour in VN is still much better than in their home country earning $40/hour. In the US Walmart pays its associates $15/hour and associates work like a dog. Cost of living in the US is five times as much as in VN. That's why they would not band together as you want and risk losing their employment.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting How much capital needed to open the english learning center? I’m intrested maybe i can afford so give me the average price. And ofcourse most of other people would be interested to know.
My first reaction when reading your video title was, "What the hell are they thinking." But after thinking about it and watching the video, it makes sense to me.
The private schools in Vietnam have absurdly high priced fees, low quality teachers, with hardly even 1% of these private school students ever becoming doctors or engineers. Most private school students end up simply doing degrees (mostly business or design) and the private investors led business keep minting money thru' a facade of lies, marketing, deceit. If you do a survey on all the private schools - The results might surprise this sad story.
When I was in HCM city last year I met an English teaching guy from the Philippines, after chatting with him for some time I found his English was terrible, not terrible enough to not understand but to be of teaching standard he wasn't close.
I am Vietnamese living in Canada. When I visited my family in Vietnam I did attend my niece's English class taught by Filipino teachers. Some of them are qualified some are not. There are female and male Filipino teachers made basic pronunciation mistakes. They pronounce -TION sound like in Spanish -CION which is so bad to hear. Sometimes they forgot to pronounce S in the end of the words or in plural forms and their intonation is also bad. I spoke to a few Russian teachers too and most of them do not have the correct English language pronunciation. I had to give a tour of all English teaching centers in the city to select a good one for my niece. I am glad a new law like this applied.
To make matters worse, the Pilipino English accent sounds terrible. I met a Japanese airline stewardess once. Her English was ok but I can tell who taught her English with a Pilipino accent!.
@@thumtlnguyen3626 To be honest, the English accent of Filipinos is slightly better than that of Indians. But in reality, when Filipinos speak English, their accent is considered the poorest and most difficult to understand compared to other Southeast Asian accents.
@@user-ik8wd9vm7r point out where I generalised, I talked about one particular person at one particular time, don't read into something that's not there.
😊 I am native USA 🇺🇸 English speaker ... With no regional accent ... and a TEFL Certification ❤ I can understand why Vietnam 🇻🇳 has increased the standards 😊 I am planning on a future in Vietnam 🎉❤ The increased requirements actually seen interesting 🤔 Even now, I am trying to learn as much about the country and culture as possible ❤❤ before I get there ..
By the way, Ken, I'm a happy subscriber 😊 I've watched all your videos ... Thank you for being a wealth of information ! ❤ Maybe I'll meet you when I get over there 😊
In my opinion what this will actually do is force out many people who have been teaching here already and some at a high level. There will be less teachers which means there will be less students able to find teachers. Price will absolutely increase now because of the standard being set for the teachers. So in turn this will actually cause the exact opposite of what they are trying to accomplish. Less Vietnamese people will have access. Some will resort to find tutors or online teachers overseas but ultimately the Vietnamese people will now have a much more limited access to teachers. On the flip side it is Vietnam so I’m sure learning center can simply bribe someone and keep the teachers who lack the required qualifications. 😅
In Vietnam, we've got more and more top-notch teachers these days. More and more of our own folks are nailing English pronunciation. And being Vietnamese, we've got that knack for breaking down info in our own language, making it a breeze to grasp. So trust me, there's no way English access is gonna be an issue for us Vietnamese folks.
Good for Vietnam. I can’t tell you how many non-native English teachers I’ve met in Vietnam where their accents were so thick I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. 🤷♂️
Vietnam education hiring process is a problem. My wife with a bachelors degree in psychology, minor in tesol and asian studies couldnt get a job. Not a TESOL, a MINOR in TESOL. They wanted her to have 9 months of experience. Really dumb requirements, while these backpackers with no education only a tesol certificate are being hired.
Same here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I have been living in Cambodia for over 2 months and am from the U.S.A. with a Bachelor's Degree and TEFL and still can't get a teaching job. The schools are in bed with the training centers that want you to pay $2100 for an in person training course and then they will guarantee you a $99-$300/month teaching job. What a ponzi scheme to make money off of people.
@@MyLifeThai371 For Cambodia you need to physically go to the schools and hand in your CV. A lot of the schools in Cambodia,will not respond to emails. It’s just a case of being proactive and going to as many international schools as you can and hand in your CV to the school.
This decree is largely misunderstood: The following individuals are obligated to undergo the training program: Foreigners teaching English at language and informatics centers in Vietnam who have: A non-teaching associate degree or higher in any field (not specifically in English teaching) and lack adequate teaching competencies for Vietnamese learners. An associate degree or higher in English but without a recognized English teaching certification or relevant pedagogical training. Those who are not obligated to undergo the training include: Foreigners with an associate degree in English teaching or higher. Foreigners with the required English proficiency (according to Vietnamese standards) and a recognized English teaching certification. In short: if you can qualify for WP with your existing docs, don't bother.
I am thinking the opposite. The next level of Vietnamese students learning English require the students to understand and know the English speaking countries cultures. How we communicate in English in the west and what we mean when we say certain words might not carry the same weight for foreigners. Example when we say "Expedite" in the US we are talking about getting thing done in a few days where in the Far East it could mean in a few weeks.
I had a brain surgery last year at a teaching hospital in Houston Medical Center. The entire neurosurgery team of nine was made up of doctors with non-English names and accent ranging from new immigrants to someone likely have been in the States for a few decades. One young intern, looking so young like she had graduated from high school the night before, with Chinese name came to me and asked "Do you know where you are at? and why you are here?". Several other doctors, interns and RNs had asked me that very question before her. I could not understand her thick accent but did not want to be rude, so, I said "I'm sorry, doc, my hearing is impaired, I am not sure I got what you said. Would you please speak slowly and CLEARLY, I'd appreciate it". She stepped right up to my bed, leaned over the bed rails, placed her mouth no more than five inches from my ear and YELLED her question to me. I was already hooked up to vital sign monitors and oximeter, I was startled but could not jump up due to the three different IV lines already in my arms. I responded to her in short answer " Houston Medical Center for brain surgery". She then turned around like a robot and walked out without saying thank you or "don't worry we will take care of you, everything would be fine" like all others before her. She obviously had zero clue about my being polite and did not bluntly tell her how bad her accent was. Her behavior was exactly due to her lack of cultural nuances. She simple-mindedly concluded that I needed higher voice volume. I did not feel offended after she left. I only hope she will pick up both the language and culture of the environment to acquire proper bedside manner in her medical career. My family doctor graduated in India and graduated from medical school in the US. He is a very good doctor and takes his job very very seriously. I have been with him for 20 years and never saw him smile once. Every year when I had the annual review with him he'd tell me " you are OVERWEIGHT. Look at the BMI chart here, you are not just overweight, you are OBESE. You must lose weight or you will drop dead early". One time when he gave me that usual advice, I smiled and said "Doc, I want to share with you a secret. You see, I am overweight lb wise but look at my belly, I have no pot belly, I still have a head full of hair and chicks love me. The extra lbs you see on the scale is actually God's blessing for my endowment". Going by the serious and stern look on his face he obviously did not catch the humor at all. His nurse standing behind him was all ☺ ☺ 😆😆 I deem for proper English language education both students and teachers must have mutual understanding of each others' culture and nuances on top of the shade of the English language. The only road block is the cost of the fees where only a few can afford.
I get what you’re saying, but the problem with that is that spoken language and even cultures are not homogeneous amongst English speaking countries, there are differences. Just think of the UK, where English is the spoken language but with regional dialects, accents, etc etc.
But all I heard was like not finding a teaching job but starting a training center and you become the administrator 😢😢… not you becoming a teacher in your own business but the administrator so who will pay for 160 hours and why just English language what if other languages…on my side it doesn’t make sense why it’s just English and according to my understanding on this video he never talked about after the course do they give you some certificate of each new school you will need to train for it again like I think on my side I miss the bone of this all thing cze in the end it come and invest in vetinam not you can come and teach in vetinam
I think your overstating the English abilities of general viet, even most young people still in big cities speak no English and I’m hard out finding any body I can have a real conversation with in English that doesn’t involve only simple halting English and difficulties with listening and comprehension
Much better than pretty much anywhere in Thailand, for example. More young office workers speak English with a good accent in Saigon than Bangkok. And the difference is striking compared to 10 years ago.
Learning English not only communicate language including writing. And also improved vietnamese peoples and benefits from doing business around the world.
They cleared out the itinerant the ‘ English Teachers’ in China starting around 5 years ago. These were young people from as far afield as the Urals and Chernivz and Romania and Bosnia. Covid hammered in the final nail!
Vietnam finds it hard enough already to find English teachers, this will make it that much harder. Though a great idea, reality and ideas do not always go hand in hand.
The system of teaching English in government schools is awful. The level of professionalism of Vietnamese English teachers is extremely low. Could this be because that the salaries of government teachers are so low? learning conditions are terrible with high numbers of students in each class. Many schools do not have any air-conditioning. The most worrying factor is the incredibly poor pronunciation skills of the majority of Vietnamese teachers. If the government improved the level of general education in schools for all subjects, especially English there would be no need for expensive language centres. I totally agree that the standards of foreign teachers needs to be improved dramatically but this also needs to happen with the standards of Vietnamese teachers in Government schools. Having taught in government schools, language centres and universities throughout Vietnam since 2010 my biggest concern is why cheating in exams is actually encouraged by Vietnamese teachers.
So, it is essentially another TESOL for only Vietnam. Yes, I can see that pushing out anyone who is not directly pursuing Vietnam, but it will be unlikely to improve the teaching ability of teachers that have already had extensive time in the classroom. So, it will just push more teaching underground and make western teachers more expensive.
Thank you for this insightful video! I am considering relocting to Vietnam to teach with my Fillipina wife bring along our two kids. We bove have 8 years experience in Thailand each, are TEFL certified, have C2 Level of English proficiency, and both have a bachelors degree. I am not sure if this video motivates me to try or to look elsewhere with our qualifictions and experience.. What do you think?
G'day Ken, Gee Vietnam is not making it easy. But overall it is good for Vietnam to have a better grasp on the English language. Cheers Louis Kats your number 1 Fan in Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺 🇻🇳
Higher education instructors have also been affected. Before COVID-19 all that was required to teach at a university in Vietnam was at least a Masters in the field (i.e. English). However, after obtaining my Masters in TESOL post COVID-19, they changed the rules and require 3 years experience AND a Masters OUTSIDE Vietnam, meaning an expat couldn't get their Masters online while still working in Vietnam and be able to get a work permit. Because of that, Vietnamese higher education is also lacking foreign teachers, most of whom fill those positions are Filipinos. There is also a rise in Filipino teachers being recruited in the United States public schools, so it's good to be a Filipino English speaking teacher in 2024.
Hello from Iran, nice video, thanks. I am a doctorate in TEFL from Iran and also run my language school here in Iran. I am interested in working in Vietnam, could you give me some more hints?
Duong you forgot Major Requirement- A Verification of a Credited DEGREE is a requirement Love you Channel & Lived in HCMC for 5 mths in 2019 then 4 mths in 2020
How does the new requirement correlate to better English? It sounds like Vietnam is trying to preserve their culture that's being influenced by foreign English teachers. Because a Vietnamese could easily pass this. Also adds a bit of money into the pockets, whoever's collecting this.
There is a world of difference teaching restaurant staff English versus preparation a high school grad for law school/political sciences career or international corporation board room positions. To that end the teachers themselves have to be well educated to meet the new and more demanding requirements. Vietnam is obviously pursuing long range goals to develop a new generation of professionals for global competition instead of just tourism and hospitality services. To that end the teachers do need to master Vietnamese culture and language nuances to be able to properly guide their students beyond the basic English for restaurant staff.
They are doing both and it is a right thing to do. The quality level of many so called English teachers in Vietnam and some other SEA countries is just a disaster sometimes. I met people who teach English and....some of them are not even aware about basic stuff about the country they are in. So instead just disqualifiying most of "those types" they are giving them opportunity to go through the course and become a better teacher. PS: like I met an Australian guy who thought US liberated Vietnam from China in 1970s. And complained why VN wouldn't give him free visa as Australia also helped in that war. No kidding. Can you imagine what he was teaching there.
@@alfaromeo6985 There’s a specialized profession for business level english. Students can search for a teacher who has their requirements in understanding different employment fields. You do not have to go to a general “big group” English class and learn along-with 15-30 other students. You can find a teacher for one-on-one learning. REGARDLESS, How does learning about the Vietnamese Culture have ANYTHING to do with teaching English?
@@VittoShulman There are tons of people who do not understand HISTORY. But this is about teaching English. Who cares their political views. When it comes to learning, understanding English.. it may make more sense to REQUIRE American history or English Language History rather than Vietnamese History.
@@QuantumVoyager Not so. A lot of English teaching involves talking to students, preparing teaching materials various exercises etc. My Engish is a second language and back in the days all I could talk about were dialogs and text we memorized at school. Now imagine what a student going to talk about if he learned from a guy who doesn't know basic life stuff. PS: and I can see it now where I live local kids greet everyone "hey bro, whats up bro" - who is teaching them "hey bro".
PLEASE PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE & THUMBS UP FOR KEN'S HARDWORK SO THAT HE CAN CONTINUE TO PRODUCE MORE VALUABLE VIDEOS. THANKS MILLIONS KEN FOR SHARING YOUR GREAT KNOWLEDGE. GOD BLESS YOU!
is better for the peoples learning computers coding! coding helps peoples make websites and softwares for monies instead of speaking to turists and doing tings for turists like giving them tours, doing their nail polishes and foot messages.
is better for Vetnams peoples! Can improves the speaking english peoples and the other countries! No more backpack teacher in Vetnam with no brians and skills!
Unfortunately, it will not rid Vietnam of the backpackers who are peddling certificates and degrees in irrelevant disciplines. For that to happen, Vietnam would need to hold EFL 'teachers' to the same standards as foreign experts (i.e. a degree in a relevant discipline and at least 3 years of experience).
For a post that criticises backpacker teachers, your written English is crap. Even Vietnam is spelt wrong, twice, ffs!! Next time ask a backpacker to proof read your posts.
Let's get something clear, the reason non-native speakers learn English is to communicate clearly because this is the widely used language. We have cultural diversity therefore it follows that we have language diversity too. Communication using English is NEVER equal to having the same accent as a native speaker. If parents want that then they should expose their children to English tv shows at a young age and speak English at home too. That's what my school and my parents did. It is sad that so many comments here belittle some Filipino teachers because of their "terrible accent". Some of these bullies named indians, malaysians and other nationalities having the worst ACCENT. Who doesn't have an accent anyway? Whay makes it right that your accent is correct?! When I attended meetings as a third party contractor at an International NGO, my Asian co-chairs always asked help with the EU, Aussie, Kiwi and US accents. They always say "How come when you repeat, it is easier to understand?" This is a constant struggle among my adult Asian learned peers. Can you imagine the difficulty if a child who is a non-native speaker hear these accents? No, I am not saying that these native speakers cannot teach because of their accent but they have to adjust. If my child is being taught by any of these cynical-prejudiced beings who belittle just because of accents, I would runaway from them as fast as I can with my family. I cannot imagine the kind of teachers these people are if they are impartial to accent only. The key to communication is grammar and then continuous practice of enunciation. Everyone has accents. I never heard these beef jerkies talk about Vietnamese accents at all but they have the most beautiful asian accents I have heard and they are not being criticized because it is their moolah source eh! Shame on these people. Get your priorities straight! Teach grammar.
I have a BA and Masters from a prominent east coast Ivy league university, as well as corporate experience in several domains. What are my opportunities if any? Just curious. Perhaps this is a subject for a video.
For those wondering the teaching centers themselves will do this training. For those thinking it will weed out the bad teachers, it will not. If the institute likes the teacher, they will just let her/him pass the training. It might be helpful for people new to Vietnam and teaching. Probably will just be a waste of time to actual teachers with relevant degrees and years of experience that have already lived here at least a year.
I am a Viet Kieu who have lived almost my entire life in the US, and I have extensive knowledge of the Vietnamese cultures. I hold a Bachelor of Science in IT, and TESOL certified since 2012. Do I still need to take this 120 hour course? Thanks in advance.
I can't advise on your question, but I do want to advise you to be prepared in Vietnam. If you do not have a BA in Education or English, you cannot teach at schools, but with TESOL you can teach at English centers. Stand your ground on the pay rate, because the locals tend to underpay Viet Kieu because they 'look Asian'.
@@ryansenglishlanguageintern8032 Thanks Ryan. I don’t have an Bachelor of Art degree, I have a Bachelor of Science and also a TESOL certification. My question was, am I still requires to go through that cultural training? Thanks again.
@@ryansenglishlanguageintern8032 There was a TH-camr couple where the husband was Vietnamese Canadian growing up in Canada. His wife was a Eurocentric Canadian. They came to Vietnam and stayed for about a year with their couple of month old baby in tow. They both went to several English language schools to land jobs because their TH-cam channel did not have enough subscribers to support their family. The husband was the main character on their channel. He did 98% of the talking and he spoke like a Canadian native. His wife rarely spoke anything in any language. The schools where they dropped in for jobs all wanted to hire her and rejected him for that very reason you stated. He made a video with the title "Hanoi is racist" to express his frustration.
This just pushes away potential great educators. Centres still hire backpackers because they’re cheap and get the bare minimum done. In paper these changes make sense but in reality it will just hinder the industry. Why go through all that extra crap when you could earn more in China and Taiwan without all the red tape?
Changing the degree requirement would be the most logical thing to do. Foreign experts must have a degree in a relevant discipline. I'm not sure why EFL 'teachers' get a pass. It wouldn't rid Vietnam entirely of tay ba lo, but at least they'd be forced to live on the fringes until they tire of being used and disposed of by those fly-by-night English centers.
If the Vietnam government spend some money to improve education standard in the country no need for all this under qualified English teachers Vietnam will alway be a third world country.
The English capabilities in Vietnam are amazingly good. Much better than in Thailand where I spend the last year and a half. This is just an observation. I’m not a teacher.
That depends on your location. In some of the provinces not frequented by English-speaking tourists (e.g., Cao Bang, Nghe An, Vinh Phuc, Yen Bai), English skills are abysmal. When I took my VN wife to Siem Reap, Cambodia a couple months ago, I was amazed by their English, both in quantity and quality.
yeah man, if you do it right and take it seriously its not an easy job. Native speaker, degree, CELTA at night school back in the uk and 10 years experience. Still fighting the good fight!
@duongglobalbusinessconsulting bro,I was just kidding, but I actually have a Tefol certificate and four semensters of experience teaching adults here in US. I don't have American passport though but I hold Mexican passport, now I was scammed by an African agent living in Guangzhou Chima, so I gave up my idea of teaching I'm Asia. If your are legit which I believe you are, tell me my possibilities.
Did you not read that those who have certain too certificates such as CELTA will not be required to do this course? Also bear in mind a lot of these centers have their teachers working ln tourist visas illegally. Nothing will change.
Hello Simon, by definition, it will not have a great impact on all those teaching illegally in Vietnam, as they are already not complying with the law in the first place.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting yes but I think you need to update on the fact that certificates like Trinity and CELTA do not need to do the course. It's really for the fly by night print a certificate mob and of course a massive cash cow for MOET
Although it less easy to het a visa for the teacher i think it is a GOOD move to make teachers understand the culture of the children they are teaching, so i would not not classify this as ‘it is BAD”
I think the new rules do make a lot of sense. Vietnam didn’t stop you from teaching English in vietnam but it rather asked you to be more culturally sensitive to the Vietnamese people. Most of English teachers are aware of Vietnamese culture before coming to vietnam. Now, they just have to prove that they are.
There is no such a thing as work permit exemption. Even on a TRC based on a spousal visa, you still need to apply for a work permit to work in Vietnam as a foreign citizen.
Really over complicating the explanation on that new certificate you have to get…. It’s literally a vietnamese TEFL….Which is hilarious because now you’re required to have an internationally recognized TEFL that you can use anywhere and a local one that you can only use in Vietnam…. The content is identical….
I also observed that blacks are scarcely given teaching jobs in Vietnam. And this guys are actually very good and well qualified. Is Vietnam not a place for black people to go ??
*edit: it seems that the actual intention was to say it is the easiest job to GET, not that it is the easiest job in the country.* I'll leave my original comment below. --------- Calling it the easiest job in VN? lol Super arrogrant comment to make I'm a western engineer, so it's not because I'm salty. I just think your commentary on this is weak
Perhaps the comprehension is actually weak. English teacher is one of the easiest jobs to GET in Vietnam. At no point our attorney made a judgment on whether or not being a teacher was easy.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting easy to get illegally perhaps. The costs I incurred to get all my paperwork certified, police check and finally visa costs (all at my expense) certainly didn't make it EASY to get a job legally.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting Not a comprehension issue on my end, if that's what you are suggesting. Read your own transcription at 00:21 and run it by any native speaker. He doesn't say "easiest to get". Now, if that's what he *meant* to say, great! That's a great correction, but not a comprehension issue from the audience (me) at all. Thanks for the video. Been watching on and off since circa 2020!
That is implied (considering the amount of people who find teaching jobs and want to live in Vietnam - see our other video with Phuc Map), as we are referring to Expats legally coming to Vietnam to get a visa and teach English. Why would our attorney make a judgment on the hardship of being a teacher? Native speaker here and knowing the channel, content and person, it is self-evidence that he is not minimizing the role of being a teacher.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting I have no idea why he would do that, which is why it sounded jarring to me. That's why we are having this dialogue now. I'm glad you could clear it up for me and the audience; I believe his intent was exactly as you stated. That can be the end of the matter. I won't accept blaming my comprehension when the sentence, as written, supports my interpretation though. I have no reason to fabricate an interpretation without a basis in reality. It was my genuine reaction to the words as stated. Is that clear? Lastly, I'm going to mention that you don't sound like a native Western English speaker when typing to me in either of these replies. I bring this up not to demean you, but due to its relevancy to the discussion. I'm referring to both your writing and cultural attitude towards criticism. Very Eastern. Self-evident btw*. I've edited my orignal comment to reflect your attorney's intent. After reflecting on the situation, maybe I'm splitting hairs a bit. It really did just genuinely surprise me when I opened the video.
Not only English Vietnamese people need management and technology engineering skill china have more engineering graduate more than US with innovation and quantum technology Vietnam is way way behind English alone is not enough still a third world without technology and infrastructure.
Teachers in Vietnam should require a 3 year Teaching degree, the same as they do in the West…. not just a TEFL/TESOL. The Students are losing out otherwise.
It's still way too easy. I was expecting EFL teachers to be held to the same standards as foreign experts (i.e. a degree in a relevant discipline and at least 3 years of experience to qualify for employment). This won't eliminate tay ba lo in Vietnam. Also, is this requirement waived for real teachers with degrees in TESOL?
I just made a comment related to this. The last I saw for lower education, BA in Education or English/TESOL are required at schools, whereas only a TEFL/TESOL certificate at centers. At the higher education level, at least a Masters in the field and 3 years experience OUTSIDE Vietnam, so if an MATESOL instructor has 3 years experience in Vietnam and 1 outside, they don't qualify for a permit. This seems counterintuitive to the topic of the video, because logically 3 years inside Vietnam should mean better understanding of the culture, but the legislators are not educators so their logic is up for debate.
The good news is this was a recommendation not a requirement. At VUS and EMG they still just need the standard of a Degree, TESOL/TEFL, Clean Criminal Record - and if you are a non native you need an IELTS score of 7.5. When the news broke last december a lot of people thought it would destroy companies like VUS and APOLLO but it turned out it was just poor wording on behalf of the newspaper that delivered the news
The median yearly salary for a teacher in the United States is $69,544. If they want to attract native speakers with those qualifications, they better be prepared to pay those salaries. (The low cost of living is not going to be enough to attract teachers from the United States or elsewhere, at least not enough to meet demand -- it hasn't thus far, and it's on the rise.) I was taught foreign languages from teachers in the US who had all of their teaching credentials and degrees. They were incompetent. I learned a foreign language by interacting with native speakers. The value that these "backpacker teachers" provide is in giving students the opportunity to interact with native speakers. You don't need a degree to provide that. (For that matter, you don't need a degree in mathematics or education to tutor someone in algebra. These degrees aren't worthless, but they're not as important as they are made out to be.) The advice for teachers is for each of them to open his or her very own language center. That's absurd. By restricting supply, prices will skyrocket and your access to actual native speakers will be severely limited.
and they leaves trashes everywheres and never pay the Vetnams peoples proper monies. why moit lets them stays in vetnam? tourist minister needs stop cepting bratpackers! sends them to layos.
That's a step to the right direction, but to fairness; it should be applied to all languages. Most cert holders do not have a formal education beyond high school, they should only be allowed to teach basic conversational English.
@@tdgdbs1 Nah, it's just a shame. Was one of the last countries to not overly regulate. Now it'll get more expensive for customers and lots of teachers that would do a good job won't be able to. Too bad...
@@garettjames6349 for every one good teacher you'll get at least 5 not so good. Higher level of entry means better quality. Not so shame. And if they really wanted to they would get the required certification. Win/Win
This was so well presented. You come across as very unbiased giving the problems then the solutions. Yes you want to grab some business but that's just fine when you present the issues so fairly. Great job! Also this didn't drag on forever. Ever minute of it was pertinent. This is what TH-cam needs to get back to. Concise, focused information.
The wrong people are getting trained.
Vietnam needs to train its people (centre owners/schools/agencies) how to implement an effective educational course. Gov't should provide free/subsidized education to these people.
Teachers are actually crying out for higher standards but will always have to reluctantly accept the 'nuances' of these places.
The standards at some schools and centres are terrible and these are the people who need educating.
It's time to stop blaming backpackers.
Public school in vietnam do offer English as a selective course for high school students. If you choose to study English to enhance your language skills to further job opportunities you must pay on your own, therefore teaching English has been a good work opportunity for digital nomads. There are Vietnamese who teaches English and popular in vietnam, for example Co Tien is very popular on TH-cam. You can check her out . Her TH-cam Chanel is Co Tien Tinker.
Finally! Vietnam is weeding the backpackers from the those with actual teaching degrees and certifications. Positive move forward for a quality English education.
From the comment below yours:
"Though a great idea, reality and ideas don't always go hand in hand"
Your last sentence sounds as if it was a 90's American television commercial 🤣
This video doesn't make it clear, but it appears that the tay ba lo who are peddling certificates and degrees in irrelevant disciplines will still be allowed to conspire with fraudulent schools and centers to cheat parents out of their money and children out of a quality education. Unfortunately, until EFL teachers are held to the same standards as foreign experts, the tay ba lo won't be going anywhere.
A college degree doesn’t mean anything! There are many worthless universities in the US.
Having a bachelors degree in fashion, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be a better teacher than, those who don’t have a degree.
@@Huntermoody That’s why the OP said that they should have teaching degrees, not degrees in irrelevant disciplines. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the backpackers with fashion and other irrelevant degrees will be getting the boot just yet.
I'm a credentaled English teacher in California I taught 9 years at a middle school 7 years at a top 20 uni in China and now (due to covid) in my second year teaching English at my former school in California (they rehired me) I am optimistic about teaching at a university in Vietnam because I'm too old to start over in China and it seems Vietnam has less working visa age restrictions. I need to visit and check it out.
fei (for everyone's infomation), there are, let's say, english clinics around saigon. your job (english teacher) is to talk/speak english to working professionals, kids, etc. they book you for 45 mins to 1 hr. per session. you can work for them and/or work for yourself. you can advertise through social media and be sitting at a coffee shop, chit chatting for an hour for 10 or more bucks and hour...it's not my bright idea...it's been going on for a long time. GL everyone.
is now ilegals to teach childrens english without proper trainings! dont do it in cafe - it can mean your arrest if you spek english in vetnam with no trainings!
How much in
VND can you charge per hour per person? What’s is the price range and where can I advertise? I can also teach another language Italian.
It's FYI, not FEI
Vu Minh Duc from the Ministry of Education is quoted stating that that this doesn’t apply if the English teacher has TEFL, CELTA and TESOL certificates as per a vnexpress article. This is mainly to weed out teachers who haven’t had the training to teach
so as long as they got certificates than they don't have to go through all these modules and 120hrs requirement?
@@bunbohue369 I would think so. I had a look at the breakdown of the 120 hour requirement and a lot of it is actual teaching pedagogy which is already covered in 120 hour industry standard TEFL courses. If they wanted to emphasize more cultural sensitivity specifically for English teachers who already have TEFL/TESOL/CELTA, they would introduce a few extra cultural modules/requirements which can’t be anywhere near 120 hours
Thank you for this 🙏, I find that most people making videos about this new development are just alarmists who do not take the time to read and understand the nuances of the initiative, it's all about clicks,views and engagement. If I didn't read your comment I wouldn't have felt the need to go look for the particular article you referred to, that explains the purpose and scope of this new introduction to ESL teaching in Vietnam . God bless you 🙏
You should read Circular No. 4159/QĐ-BGDĐT. A quote from an article does not turn it into a provision!
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting I’ve read the provision, quoted:
“native English speakers having college degree or higher; foreigners having college degree or higher in English major; foreigners having college degree or higher and having certificate of level 5 foreign language proficiency in accordance with the Foreign Language Proficiency for Vietnam or equivalent”
There is no mention of TEFL in this requirement. This course is itself a TEFL.
2 points:
1. I fully agree with your point on Vietnam wanting to maintain/taking English teaching to the next level
2. But rather than making it difficult for the English teacher, I believe they are trying to sanction certain language centres. Some language centres will employ anyone foreign who speaks English at their discretion, so this provision is more of an onus on them to comply and in turn support point 1 to ensure everyone is qualified. Of course I am not a legal expert like yourself but even I can see that there are grey areas in the provision you cited
I've been an English teacher in Vietnam nearly 6 years now. The issue with weeding out backpackers is that many English centers and schools will continue to hire them. Why? They're cheaper and do not require sponsorship, work permits, insurance contribution, etc from schools. Another issue is the constant demand (literal demand in job postings) for white teachers (preferably with no experience) to use for promotions of schools in lieu of other qualified teachers. A lot of teachers here have degrees in something unrelated to education and have been teaching legally. Changing that requirement will make it harder for them to teach. Demanding teachers who are already here legitimately to do a training module on top of our experience and prior education will hurt the system, in my opinion. It will make teachers want to leave and scare off new potential teachers. I'm not for backpacker teachers. Wanting a qualified teacher is one thing. However, a lot of the education system in Vietnam is based on finding someone quick and easy, not in investing in a qualified teacher. How will teachers here complete this course? Will it be out of pocket? Too many unanswered questions. Not to mention there are too many companies who will keep documents and passports from teachers so they cannot leave. The issue isn't the quality of the teacher. It is the system that allows companies to employ illegal teachers and who bribe their way out of doing things legally.
In theory, you post a good argument, but I know several English teachers without degrees in education and some without degrees at all that have a better connection with their students than teachers I know with that specialty.
Some schools and centers employ teachers without documents because the businesses can pay the "teachers" less and won't need to provide health insurance, TRCs, etc.; the same applies regarding experience.
Often the goal of schools and centers is to put a warm body in front of the class to entertain the students, regardless of anybody's ability to speak or teach English. Entertainment is often prioritized over education, which is why many VN citizens have been taking English classes all their lives, but not everybody can speak the language. Entertaining the kids makes them want to come back, so the centers can keep billing the parents (are you familiar with Apax?). I'd actually have a difficult time finding an English center whose entire staff speaks English.
Viet Nam has many laws and regulations, not all are followed.
@karlperalta3549most probably, the training is unpaid. Very high opportunity costs are involved.
If this government would have really wanted its population to learn English, it would have applied measures for that instead of adding more and more obstacles.
The Next step is to raise the standards of the English teaching centers, many of which emphasize profits over education.
In order for English centers to prioritise education over profits there will have to be a significant cultural overall and general viewpoint of what it means to actually educate an individual in Vietnam...
@@damienlee54 Perhaps, but there are more urgent issues to address like withholding teacher pay.
@@chrishamlin5863 The standards will never be raised. As long as the owner sees the foreigner as nothing more than someone who brings customers in the status quo will be maintained. This is why several foreigners have sometimes been robbed of their pay.
@@damienlee54 I agree that nothing will change if we have to depend on the owners to make the changes. I would like to see laws that give victems of nefarious actions more recourse.
@@chrishamlin5863 Wholeheartedly agree. With these new rules in place I hope this weeds out the shady language center owners looking to scam any and every foreigner they come across
$20/h isn't going to cut it if they keep increasing the standards. This is good news if you are wealthy and can afford the expensive high end centers because the quality of teaching will go up. However, budget schools are going to be priced out.
My brother is a Princeton grad with English literature major. He earns $25/hour with a contractual part-time job as an English teacher to various level of students in Boston, USA. This is annually negotiated contract and even then it is not a stable position. The only reason he can barely get by in Boston is thanks to his wife and they have no children.
About ten years ago he landed an annual contract job in Saudi Arabia. That one paid barely 30K a year and was the best paid job he ever had. The contract was renewed three times before the contracting company closed doors to competitors. That blew away the myth of plentiful high paying job in Saudi. Engineers, military instructors or mercenaries might have earned big dollars in Saudi kingdom but that was certainly not true for English teachers.
The average pay for full-time factory workers and semi-skilled laborers such as Grab drivers in Saigon today is $280/month and yet many are unemployed. The day of earning high pay with a part-time job and able to afford a nice life is not going to last much longer.
$20 is not a national standard, many provinces pay less. In Vinh Phuc Province, for example, English teachers don't get $20 an hour.
Understand that foreign teachers cannot work for the Ministry of Education, they can only teach as sub-contractors. In Vinh Phuc Province, the companies that get the contracts from the Ministry of Education refuse to pay a decent wage because they're greedy.
I've spoken to quite a few foreign teachers in the province and told them we should work together and refuse to accept less than $20 per hour, but they won't cooperate and will accept substandard wages. Those teachers are their own enemies.
The qualified teachers make about 90 million a month plus at schools like ISHMC. Its the langugage centres that dont need as high credentials as their teachers dont make much money
@@Paul-in-Viet-Nam earning $20/hour in VN is still much better than in their home country earning $40/hour. In the US Walmart pays its associates $15/hour and associates work like a dog. Cost of living in the US is five times as much as in VN. That's why they would not band together as you want and risk losing their employment.
I am confident you will hit 50K end this year. Cheers Ken!
We hope so.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting How much capital needed to open the english learning center? I’m intrested maybe i can afford so give me the average price. And ofcourse most of other people would be interested to know.
My first reaction when reading your video title was, "What the hell are they thinking."
But after thinking about it and watching the video, it makes sense to me.
The private schools in Vietnam have absurdly high priced fees, low quality teachers, with hardly even 1% of these private school students ever becoming doctors or engineers. Most private school students end up simply doing degrees (mostly business or design) and the private investors led business keep minting money thru' a facade of lies, marketing, deceit. If you do a survey on all the private schools - The results might surprise this sad story.
When I was in HCM city last year I met an English teaching guy from the Philippines, after chatting with him for some time I found his English was terrible, not terrible enough to not understand but to be of teaching standard he wasn't close.
I am Vietnamese living in Canada. When I visited my family in Vietnam I did attend my niece's English class taught by Filipino teachers. Some of them are qualified some are not. There are female and male Filipino teachers made basic pronunciation mistakes. They pronounce -TION sound like in Spanish -CION which is so bad to hear. Sometimes they forgot to pronounce S in the end of the words or in plural forms and their intonation is also bad. I spoke to a few Russian teachers too and most of them do not have the correct English language pronunciation. I had to give a tour of all English teaching centers in the city to select a good one for my niece. I am glad a new law like this applied.
To make matters worse, the Pilipino English accent sounds terrible. I met a Japanese airline stewardess once. Her English was ok but I can tell who taught her English with a Pilipino accent!.
But it's not good to generalise. There are good English teachers from the Philippines that are well qualified, those deserve to be acknowledged.
@@thumtlnguyen3626 To be honest, the English accent of Filipinos is slightly better than that of Indians. But in reality, when Filipinos speak English, their accent is considered the poorest and most difficult to understand compared to other Southeast Asian accents.
@@user-ik8wd9vm7r point out where I generalised, I talked about one particular person at one particular time, don't read into something that's not there.
😊 I am native USA 🇺🇸 English speaker ... With no regional accent ... and a TEFL Certification ❤
I can understand why Vietnam 🇻🇳 has increased the standards 😊
I am planning on a future in Vietnam 🎉❤
The increased requirements actually seen interesting 🤔
Even now, I am trying to learn as much about the country and culture as possible ❤❤ before I get there ..
By the way, Ken, I'm a happy subscriber 😊 I've watched all your videos ...
Thank you for being a wealth of information ! ❤
Maybe I'll meet you when I get over there 😊
In my opinion what this will actually do is force out many people who have been teaching here already and some at a high level. There will be less teachers which means there will be less students able to find teachers. Price will absolutely increase now because of the standard being set for the teachers. So in turn this will actually cause the exact opposite of what they are trying to accomplish. Less Vietnamese people will have access. Some will resort to find tutors or online teachers overseas but ultimately the Vietnamese people will now have a much more limited access to teachers. On the flip side it is Vietnam so I’m sure learning center can simply bribe someone and keep the teachers who lack the required qualifications. 😅
In Vietnam, we've got more and more top-notch teachers these days. More and more of our own folks are nailing English pronunciation. And being Vietnamese, we've got that knack for breaking down info in our own language, making it a breeze to grasp. So trust me, there's no way English access is gonna be an issue for us Vietnamese folks.
Good for Vietnam. I can’t tell you how many non-native English teachers I’ve met in Vietnam where their accents were so thick I couldn’t understand a word they were saying. 🤷♂️
Yeah, and those same people are just going to follow the new rule so they can keep teaching.
like this🎉
Vietnam education hiring process is a problem. My wife with a bachelors degree in psychology, minor in tesol and asian studies couldnt get a job. Not a TESOL, a MINOR in TESOL. They wanted her to have 9 months of experience. Really dumb requirements, while these backpackers with no education only a tesol certificate are being hired.
Same here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I have been living in Cambodia for over 2 months and am from the U.S.A. with a Bachelor's Degree and TEFL and still can't get a teaching job. The schools are in bed with the training centers that want you to pay $2100 for an in person training course and then they will guarantee you a $99-$300/month teaching job. What a ponzi scheme to make money off of people.
@@MyLifeThai371 For Cambodia you need to physically go to the schools and hand in your CV. A lot of the schools in Cambodia,will not respond to emails. It’s just a case of being proactive and going to as many international schools as you can and hand in your CV to the school.
This decree is largely misunderstood:
The following individuals are obligated to undergo the training program:
Foreigners teaching English at language and informatics centers in Vietnam who have:
A non-teaching associate degree or higher in any field (not specifically in English teaching) and lack adequate teaching competencies for Vietnamese learners.
An associate degree or higher in English but without a recognized English teaching certification or relevant pedagogical training.
Those who are not obligated to undergo the training include:
Foreigners with an associate degree in English teaching or higher.
Foreigners with the required English proficiency (according to Vietnamese standards) and a recognized English teaching certification.
In short: if you can qualify for WP with your existing docs, don't bother.
I am thinking the opposite. The next level of Vietnamese students learning English require the students to understand and know the English speaking countries cultures. How we communicate in English in the west and what we mean when we say certain words might not carry the same weight for foreigners. Example when we say "Expedite" in the US we are talking about getting thing done in a few days where in the Far East it could mean in a few weeks.
Excellent point 👌
I had a brain surgery last year at a teaching hospital in Houston Medical Center. The entire neurosurgery team of nine was made up of doctors with non-English names and accent ranging from new immigrants to someone likely have been in the States for a few decades.
One young intern, looking so young like she had graduated from high school the night before, with Chinese name came to me and asked "Do you know where you are at? and why you are here?". Several other doctors, interns and RNs had asked me that very question before her. I could not understand her thick accent but did not want to be rude, so, I said "I'm sorry, doc, my hearing is impaired, I am not sure I got what you said. Would you please speak slowly and CLEARLY, I'd appreciate it". She stepped right up to my bed, leaned over the bed rails, placed her mouth no more than five inches from my ear and YELLED her question to me. I was already hooked up to vital sign monitors and oximeter, I was startled but could not jump up due to the three different IV lines already in my arms. I responded to her in short answer " Houston Medical Center for brain surgery". She then turned around like a robot and walked out without saying thank you or "don't worry we will take care of you, everything would be fine" like all others before her.
She obviously had zero clue about my being polite and did not bluntly tell her how bad her accent was. Her behavior was exactly due to her lack of cultural nuances. She simple-mindedly concluded that I needed higher voice volume. I did not feel offended after she left. I only hope she will pick up both the language and culture of the environment to acquire proper bedside manner in her medical career.
My family doctor graduated in India and graduated from medical school in the US. He is a very good doctor and takes his job very very seriously. I have been with him for 20 years and never saw him smile once. Every year when I had the annual review with him he'd tell me " you are OVERWEIGHT. Look at the BMI chart here, you are not just overweight, you are OBESE. You must lose weight or you will drop dead early". One time when he gave me that usual advice, I smiled and said "Doc, I want to share with you a secret. You see, I am overweight lb wise but look at my belly, I have no pot belly, I still have a head full of hair and chicks love me. The extra lbs you see on the scale is actually God's blessing for my endowment". Going by the serious and stern look on his face he obviously did not catch the humor at all. His nurse standing behind him was all ☺ ☺ 😆😆
I deem for proper English language education both students and teachers must have mutual understanding of each others' culture and nuances on top of the shade of the English language. The only road block is the cost of the fees where only a few can afford.
I get what you’re saying, but the problem with that is that spoken language and even cultures are not homogeneous amongst English speaking countries, there are differences. Just think of the UK, where English is the spoken language but with regional dialects, accents, etc etc.
But all I heard was like not finding a teaching job but starting a training center and you become the administrator 😢😢… not you becoming a teacher in your own business but the administrator so who will pay for 160 hours and why just English language what if other languages…on my side it doesn’t make sense why it’s just English and according to my understanding on this video he never talked about after the course do they give you some certificate of each new school you will need to train for it again like I think on my side I miss the bone of this all thing cze in the end it come and invest in vetinam not you can come and teach in vetinam
Vietnam is an amazing country
The country yes but the party no!
Good day,can i still i apply Vietnam although i am 53yrs old yet Engr graduate
I think your overstating the English abilities of general viet, even most young people still in big cities speak no English and I’m hard out finding any body I can have a real conversation with in English that doesn’t involve only simple halting English and difficulties with listening and comprehension
Much better than pretty much anywhere in Thailand, for example. More young office workers speak English with a good accent in Saigon than Bangkok. And the difference is striking compared to 10 years ago.
you're*
Vietnamese*
@@papamidnite83Pedantic* douchebag*
Learning English not only communicate language including writing. And also improved vietnamese peoples and benefits from doing business around the world.
They cleared out the itinerant the ‘ English Teachers’ in China starting around 5 years ago. These were young people from as far afield as the Urals and Chernivz and Romania and Bosnia. Covid hammered in the final nail!
R u high?
Very Informative. Im interested in Investing and opening the Training Establishment to Vietnam. Please advise.
Hi, thanks for the info. In general around how much capital is required to establish a training center in terms of USD?
Vietnam finds it hard enough already to find English teachers, this will make it that much harder.
Though a great idea, reality and ideas do not always go hand in hand.
Is this a course given by a government agency?
The system of teaching English in government schools is awful. The level of professionalism of Vietnamese English teachers is extremely low. Could this be because that the salaries of government teachers are so low? learning conditions are terrible with high numbers of students in each class. Many schools do not have any air-conditioning. The most worrying factor is the incredibly poor pronunciation skills of the majority of Vietnamese teachers. If the government improved the level of general education in schools for all subjects, especially English there would be no need for expensive language centres. I totally agree that the standards of foreign teachers needs to be improved dramatically but this also needs to happen with the standards of Vietnamese teachers in Government schools. Having taught in government schools, language centres and universities throughout Vietnam since 2010 my biggest concern is why cheating in exams is actually encouraged by Vietnamese teachers.
So, it is essentially another TESOL for only Vietnam. Yes, I can see that pushing out anyone who is not directly pursuing Vietnam, but it will be unlikely to improve the teaching ability of teachers that have already had extensive time in the classroom. So, it will just push more teaching underground and make western teachers more expensive.
Thank you for this insightful video! I am considering relocting to Vietnam to teach with my Fillipina wife bring along our two kids. We bove have 8 years experience in Thailand each, are TEFL certified, have C2 Level of English proficiency, and both have a bachelors degree. I am not sure if this video motivates me to try or to look elsewhere with our qualifictions and experience.. What do you think?
Try it!
apply to VUS - we have filipino teachers with bachelors and a telf getting trc's this year.
This is.a great initiative.
G'day Ken,
Gee Vietnam is not making it easy.
But overall it is good for Vietnam to have a better grasp on the English language.
Cheers
Louis Kats your number 1 Fan in Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺 🇻🇳
Higher education instructors have also been affected. Before COVID-19 all that was required to teach at a university in Vietnam was at least a Masters in the field (i.e. English). However, after obtaining my Masters in TESOL post COVID-19, they changed the rules and require 3 years experience AND a Masters OUTSIDE Vietnam, meaning an expat couldn't get their Masters online while still working in Vietnam and be able to get a work permit. Because of that, Vietnamese higher education is also lacking foreign teachers, most of whom fill those positions are Filipinos. There is also a rise in Filipino teachers being recruited in the United States public schools, so it's good to be a Filipino English speaking teacher in 2024.
Also this has been repelled/changed now
Hello from Iran, nice video, thanks.
I am a doctorate in TEFL from Iran and also run my language school here in Iran. I am interested in working in Vietnam, could you give me some more hints?
Please email us to set up a consultation.
Duong you forgot Major Requirement- A Verification of a Credited DEGREE is a requirement Love you Channel & Lived in HCMC for 5 mths in 2019 then 4 mths in 2020
Looking forward to returning later this year to work with other Expats & Locals in the Tech Space cheers Tommy #lifeitshort
Great idea
How does the new requirement correlate to better English?
It sounds like Vietnam is trying to preserve their culture that's being influenced by foreign English teachers. Because a Vietnamese could easily pass this. Also adds a bit of money into the pockets, whoever's collecting this.
There is a world of difference teaching restaurant staff English versus preparation a high school grad for law school/political sciences career or international corporation board room positions. To that end the teachers themselves have to be well educated to meet the new and more demanding requirements. Vietnam is obviously pursuing long range goals to develop a new generation of professionals for global competition instead of just tourism and hospitality services.
To that end the teachers do need to master Vietnamese culture and language nuances to be able to properly guide their students beyond the basic English for restaurant staff.
They are doing both and it is a right thing to do.
The quality level of many so called English teachers in Vietnam and some other SEA countries is just a disaster sometimes. I met people who teach English and....some of them are not even aware about basic stuff about the country they are in.
So instead just disqualifiying most of "those types" they are giving them opportunity to go through the course and become a better teacher.
PS: like I met an Australian guy who thought US liberated Vietnam from China in 1970s. And complained why VN wouldn't give him free visa as Australia also helped in that war. No kidding. Can you imagine what he was teaching there.
@@alfaromeo6985 There’s a specialized profession for business level english. Students can search for a teacher who has their requirements in understanding different employment fields. You do not have to go to a general “big group” English class and learn along-with 15-30 other students. You can find a teacher for one-on-one learning. REGARDLESS, How does learning about the Vietnamese Culture have ANYTHING to do with teaching English?
@@VittoShulman There are tons of people who do not understand HISTORY. But this is about teaching English. Who cares their political views. When it comes to learning, understanding English.. it may make more sense to REQUIRE American history or English Language History rather than Vietnamese History.
@@QuantumVoyager Not so. A lot of English teaching involves talking to students, preparing teaching materials various exercises etc.
My Engish is a second language and back in the days all I could talk about were dialogs and text we memorized at school.
Now imagine what a student going to talk about if he learned from a guy who doesn't know basic life stuff.
PS: and I can see it now where I live local kids greet everyone "hey bro, whats up bro" - who is teaching them "hey bro".
My understanding is that you also need a bachelors degree in addition to a TEFL, and or TESOL certificate.
PLEASE PLEASE REMEMBER TO SUBSCRIBE & THUMBS UP FOR KEN'S HARDWORK SO THAT HE CAN CONTINUE TO PRODUCE MORE VALUABLE VIDEOS. THANKS MILLIONS KEN FOR SHARING YOUR GREAT KNOWLEDGE. GOD BLESS YOU!
is better for the peoples learning computers coding! coding helps peoples make websites and softwares for monies instead of speaking to turists and doing tings for turists like giving them tours, doing their nail polishes and foot messages.
Think of everyone ơn earth is doctor? Huh! What would it be as a Society?
I believed vietnam needs is cleanness from handle food to environmental.
Wrong subject
What about science teachers?
Watching from the Philippines
is better for Vetnams peoples! Can improves the speaking english peoples and the other countries! No more backpack teacher in Vetnam with no brians and skills!
I hope you don’t teach English in Vietnam neither 😅
brains
Unfortunately, it will not rid Vietnam of the backpackers who are peddling certificates and degrees in irrelevant disciplines. For that to happen, Vietnam would need to hold EFL 'teachers' to the same standards as foreign experts (i.e. a degree in a relevant discipline and at least 3 years of experience).
Dude not all backpack teachers are brainless. Don't generalized
For a post that criticises backpacker teachers, your written English is crap. Even Vietnam is spelt wrong, twice, ffs!!
Next time ask a backpacker to proof read your posts.
Love your content, Sir. I hope we'll be able to work together in the future. Peace from Da Nang.
Let's get something clear, the reason non-native speakers learn English is to communicate clearly because this is the widely used language. We have cultural diversity therefore it follows that we have language diversity too.
Communication using English is NEVER equal to having the same accent as a native speaker. If parents want that then they should expose their children to English tv shows at a young age and speak English at home too. That's what my school and my parents did.
It is sad that so many comments here belittle some Filipino teachers because of their "terrible accent". Some of these bullies named indians, malaysians and other nationalities having the worst ACCENT. Who doesn't have an accent anyway? Whay makes it right that your accent is correct?!
When I attended meetings as a third party contractor at an International NGO, my Asian co-chairs always asked help with the EU, Aussie, Kiwi and US accents. They always say "How come when you repeat, it is easier to understand?" This is a constant struggle among my adult Asian learned peers. Can you imagine the difficulty if a child who is a non-native speaker hear these accents? No, I am not saying that these native speakers cannot teach because of their accent but they have to adjust.
If my child is being taught by any of these cynical-prejudiced beings who belittle just because of accents, I would runaway from them as fast as I can with my family. I cannot imagine the kind of teachers these people are if they are impartial to accent only.
The key to communication is grammar and then continuous practice of enunciation. Everyone has accents. I never heard these beef jerkies talk about Vietnamese accents at all but they have the most beautiful asian accents I have heard and they are not being criticized because it is their moolah source eh! Shame on these people. Get your priorities straight! Teach grammar.
This is a good thing...quality over quantity.
I think this is good tbh but they should make the protocols easy to access
I have a BA and Masters from a prominent east coast Ivy league university, as well as corporate experience in several domains. What are my opportunities if any? Just curious. Perhaps this is a subject for a video.
Good thing you specified "east coast" ivy league school. All those west coast ivy league schools can cause so much confusion! :)
For those wondering the teaching centers themselves will do this training. For those thinking it will weed out the bad teachers, it will not. If the institute likes the teacher, they will just let her/him pass the training. It might be helpful for people new to Vietnam and teaching. Probably will just be a waste of time to actual teachers with relevant degrees and years of experience that have already lived here at least a year.
Sounds like Vietnam is gonna have a teacher shortage. I’ve noticed many teachers leaving this sumer
Where can I get that course? Is Vietnam hiring Science teachers? Highly appreciate it if this gets noticed. 😊😊😊
That's garbage and no one will follow the rules anyway. Even when I try I can't find centers that are willing to do all the required paperwork.
How much capital is required to start an english centre? Can a bank provide loan to meet capital requirements for investment visa?
This is probably intended to raise the quality level. Sounds like there were a lot of low-quality teachers just trying to skate by on mediocrity.
I am a Viet Kieu who have lived almost my entire life in the US, and I have extensive knowledge of the Vietnamese cultures. I hold a Bachelor of Science in IT, and TESOL certified since 2012. Do I still need to take this 120 hour course? Thanks in advance.
go and get a CELTA and you will be ok. Level 5 qualification, Internationaly recognized
I can't advise on your question, but I do want to advise you to be prepared in Vietnam. If you do not have a BA in Education or English, you cannot teach at schools, but with TESOL you can teach at English centers. Stand your ground on the pay rate, because the locals tend to underpay Viet Kieu because they 'look Asian'.
@@ryansenglishlanguageintern8032 Thanks Ryan. I don’t have an Bachelor of Art degree, I have a Bachelor of Science and also a TESOL certification. My question was, am I still requires to go through that cultural training? Thanks again.
@@ryansenglishlanguageintern8032
There was a TH-camr couple where the husband was Vietnamese Canadian growing up in Canada. His wife was a Eurocentric Canadian.
They came to Vietnam and stayed for about a year with their couple of month old baby in tow.
They both went to several English language schools to land jobs because their TH-cam channel did not have enough subscribers to support their family.
The husband was the main character on their channel. He did 98% of the talking and he spoke like a Canadian native. His wife rarely spoke anything in any language. The schools where they dropped in for jobs all wanted to hire her and rejected him for that very reason you stated. He made a video with the title "Hanoi is racist" to express his frustration.
@@alfaromeo6985 I agreed with you that the Vietnamese people treat the western better than they their own people.
I would wanna have these courses regardless before I teach
This just pushes away potential great educators. Centres still hire backpackers because they’re cheap and get the bare minimum done. In paper these changes make sense but in reality it will just hinder the industry. Why go through all that extra crap when you could earn more in China and Taiwan without all the red tape?
Changing the degree requirement would be the most logical thing to do. Foreign experts must have a degree in a relevant discipline. I'm not sure why EFL 'teachers' get a pass. It wouldn't rid Vietnam entirely of tay ba lo, but at least they'd be forced to live on the fringes until they tire of being used and disposed of by those fly-by-night English centers.
Where to enroll that course?
If the Vietnam government spend some money to improve education standard in the country no need for all this under qualified English teachers Vietnam will alway be a third world country.
The English capabilities in Vietnam are amazingly good. Much better than in Thailand where I spend the last year and a half. This is just an observation. I’m not a teacher.
That depends on your location. In some of the provinces not frequented by English-speaking tourists (e.g., Cao Bang, Nghe An, Vinh Phuc, Yen Bai), English skills are abysmal. When I took my VN wife to Siem Reap, Cambodia a couple months ago, I was amazed by their English, both in quantity and quality.
The ways of studying English in Vietnam are wrong.
Completely
Yes
yeah man, if you do it right and take it seriously its not an easy job. Native speaker, degree, CELTA at night school back in the uk and 10 years experience. Still fighting the good fight!
This is fair enough. This would not discourage me.
I subscribe but then when I email and got different answer from what you said then I stopped haha but i do like the content
What was the difference between the email and what we said?
My girlfriend is Vietnamese, does that count,?
This new policy only applies to foreign English teachers.
@duongglobalbusinessconsulting bro,I was just kidding, but I actually have a Tefol certificate and four semensters of experience teaching adults here in US.
I don't have American passport though but I hold Mexican passport, now I was scammed by an African agent living in Guangzhou Chima, so I gave up my idea of teaching I'm Asia.
If your are legit which I believe you are, tell me my possibilities.
That are good changes in my opinion.
Do the new rules apply to teachers in international schools?
Good. Remove the begpackers and the "let's play a game" people.
Good. Quality over quantity. And it should apply to all foreign languages, no double standards.
Did you not read that those who have certain too certificates such as CELTA will not be required to do this course? Also bear in mind a lot of these centers have their teachers working ln tourist visas illegally. Nothing will change.
Hello Simon, by definition, it will not have a great impact on all those teaching illegally in Vietnam, as they are already not complying with the law in the first place.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting yes but I think you need to update on the fact that certificates like Trinity and CELTA do not need to do the course. It's really for the fly by night print a certificate mob and of course a massive cash cow for MOET
Is data scientist in demand in vietnam ?
How much is the course in vnd?
Although it less easy to het a visa for the teacher i think it is a GOOD move to make teachers understand the culture of the children they are teaching, so i would not not classify this as ‘it is BAD”
What about good score of IELTS certificate, like 8 band?
7.5 for non native (filipinos are classed as native speakers though)
I think the new rules do make a lot of sense. Vietnam didn’t stop you from teaching English in vietnam but it rather asked you to be more culturally sensitive to the Vietnamese people. Most of English teachers are aware of Vietnamese culture before coming to vietnam. Now, they just have to prove that they are.
How much approximately would it cost to open up a language center in Vietnam?
Many monies. In blacksmarkets behind karaoke club in district 5, small monies, maybe 20-30.
Does this new rule apply to those who have a work permit exemption because they have spouse visa?
There is no such a thing as work permit exemption. Even on a TRC based on a spousal visa, you still need to apply for a work permit to work in Vietnam as a foreign citizen.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting I thought my employer only had to report to the Department of Labour that I was working for them.
Really over complicating the explanation on that new certificate you have to get…. It’s literally a vietnamese TEFL….Which is hilarious because now you’re required to have an internationally recognized TEFL that you can use anywhere and a local one that you can only use in Vietnam…. The content is identical….
I Would like to open a Training center in vietnam please how may i contact you please ?
You can send us an email to contact@duongbusinessconsulting.com
Good move.
I also observed that blacks are scarcely given teaching jobs in Vietnam. And this guys are actually very good and well qualified. Is Vietnam not a place for black people to go ??
*edit: it seems that the actual intention was to say it is the easiest job to GET, not that it is the easiest job in the country.*
I'll leave my original comment below.
---------
Calling it the easiest job in VN? lol
Super arrogrant comment to make
I'm a western engineer, so it's not because I'm salty. I just think your commentary on this is weak
Perhaps the comprehension is actually weak. English teacher is one of the easiest jobs to GET in Vietnam. At no point our attorney made a judgment on whether or not being a teacher was easy.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting
easy to get illegally perhaps. The costs I incurred to get all my paperwork certified, police check and finally visa costs (all at my expense) certainly didn't make it EASY to get a job legally.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting Not a comprehension issue on my end, if that's what you are suggesting. Read your own transcription at 00:21 and run it by any native speaker.
He doesn't say "easiest to get".
Now, if that's what he *meant* to say, great! That's a great correction, but not a comprehension issue from the audience (me) at all.
Thanks for the video. Been watching on and off since circa 2020!
That is implied (considering the amount of people who find teaching jobs and want to live in Vietnam - see our other video with Phuc Map), as we are referring to Expats legally coming to Vietnam to get a visa and teach English. Why would our attorney make a judgment on the hardship of being a teacher? Native speaker here and knowing the channel, content and person, it is self-evidence that he is not minimizing the role of being a teacher.
@@duongglobalbusinessconsulting
I have no idea why he would do that, which is why it sounded jarring to me. That's why we are having this dialogue now.
I'm glad you could clear it up for me and the audience; I believe his intent was exactly as you stated. That can be the end of the matter.
I won't accept blaming my comprehension when the sentence, as written, supports my interpretation though. I have no reason to fabricate an interpretation without a basis in reality. It was my genuine reaction to the words as stated. Is that clear?
Lastly, I'm going to mention that you don't sound like a native Western English speaker when typing to me in either of these replies. I bring this up not to demean you, but due to its relevancy to the discussion. I'm referring to both your writing and cultural attitude towards criticism. Very Eastern.
Self-evident btw*.
I've edited my orignal comment to reflect your attorney's intent. After reflecting on the situation, maybe I'm splitting hairs a bit. It really did just genuinely surprise me when I opened the video.
Not only English Vietnamese people need management and technology engineering skill china have more engineering graduate more than US with innovation and quantum technology Vietnam is way way behind English alone is not enough still a third world without technology and infrastructure.
VN NEEDS MORE THAN ENGLISH TEACHER'S, THEY NEED PLUMBERS & ELECTRICIANS.
is the new rules applyable to Francois teaching Vetnams womens French kisses or other Paris language?
Teachers in Vietnam should require a 3 year Teaching degree, the same as they do in the West…. not just a TEFL/TESOL.
The Students are losing out otherwise.
Great way to make money for the Ministry! LOL
It's still way too easy. I was expecting EFL teachers to be held to the same standards as foreign experts (i.e. a degree in a relevant discipline and at least 3 years of experience to qualify for employment). This won't eliminate tay ba lo in Vietnam. Also, is this requirement waived for real teachers with degrees in TESOL?
I just made a comment related to this. The last I saw for lower education, BA in Education or English/TESOL are required at schools, whereas only a TEFL/TESOL certificate at centers. At the higher education level, at least a Masters in the field and 3 years experience OUTSIDE Vietnam, so if an MATESOL instructor has 3 years experience in Vietnam and 1 outside, they don't qualify for a permit. This seems counterintuitive to the topic of the video, because logically 3 years inside Vietnam should mean better understanding of the culture, but the legislators are not educators so their logic is up for debate.
Everyone open to page 1 and repeat after me.
Me love you long time
low iq jokes for low iq people
hahahahahah 😂best comment here 😂
who is gonna pay for it?
who is gonna teach it?
Vietnamese teachers?😂
I have taught IELTS to them and the less said the better😂
Vietnam is full of hubris and other crab bucket behavior. Unfortunate.
The good news is this was a recommendation not a requirement. At VUS and EMG they still just need the standard of a Degree, TESOL/TEFL, Clean Criminal Record - and if you are a non native you need an IELTS score of 7.5.
When the news broke last december a lot of people thought it would destroy companies like VUS and APOLLO but it turned out it was just poor wording on behalf of the newspaper that delivered the news
The median yearly salary for a teacher in the United States is $69,544. If they want to attract native speakers with those qualifications, they better be prepared to pay those salaries. (The low cost of living is not going to be enough to attract teachers from the United States or elsewhere, at least not enough to meet demand -- it hasn't thus far, and it's on the rise.) I was taught foreign languages from teachers in the US who had all of their teaching credentials and degrees. They were incompetent. I learned a foreign language by interacting with native speakers.
The value that these "backpacker teachers" provide is in giving students the opportunity to interact with native speakers. You don't need a degree to provide that. (For that matter, you don't need a degree in mathematics or education to tutor someone in algebra. These degrees aren't worthless, but they're not as important as they are made out to be.)
The advice for teachers is for each of them to open his or her very own language center. That's absurd. By restricting supply, prices will skyrocket and your access to actual native speakers will be severely limited.
What is the median yearly cost of living for a teacher inn the United States though?
WHY do you say (IT'S BAD)?, actual standards are better for the Vietnamese people.
Did you even watch the video?
this is good! no more wt brits with no degree and drunk while on the clock
Backpackers are riffraffs not professional in teaching
and they leaves trashes everywheres and never pay the Vetnams peoples proper monies. why moit lets them stays in vetnam? tourist minister needs stop cepting bratpackers! sends them to layos.
Duu ma!😂😂😂😂😅😅😅
That's a shame.
That's a step to the right direction, but to fairness; it should be applied to all languages. Most cert holders do not have a formal education beyond high school, they should only be allowed to teach basic conversational English.
@@tdgdbs1 Nah, it's just a shame. Was one of the last countries to not overly regulate. Now it'll get more expensive for customers and lots of teachers that would do a good job won't be able to. Too bad...
@@garettjames6349 for every one good teacher you'll get at least 5 not so good. Higher level of entry means better quality. Not so shame. And if they really wanted to they would get the required certification. Win/Win