A job to pay off your student loans?

There has been some research done lately regarding paying off one's student loans if you have a Bachelor's degree (in anything) from college. One way to pay off your student loans is to teach English in a Foreign country. Or even with or without a college degree you can get a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language Certificate) like my daughter did in Colorado and teach here in the U.S. or abroad. Also, there are TEFL certificates available with online courses to which are accepted in many countries.

1. Teaching English as a foreign language - Wikipedia, the free ...

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_English_as_a_foreign_language

   Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) refers to teaching English to students ... institutions it is possible to teach without a degree or teaching certificate.
   

   Teaching techniques - Qualifications for TEFL teachers
2. TEFL online - Get Certified Online to Teach English as a Foreign ...

   www.teflonline.com/

   Get certified and get a job teaching English as a foreign language. TEFL Online offers internationally recognized certificates to teach English worldwide.
   

   120-Hour Master Diploma - Core Curriculum - About TEFLonline.com - Enroll
3. American TESOL ESL TEFL Online or In-class Certification Courses

   www.americantesol.com/

   Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Certification and .... and resources for teaching poetry to speakers of English as a second language.
   

   TESOL Courses - Careers & Jobs - TESOL International - TESOL Advanced
4. How to Get Certification to Teach English As a Foreign Language

   www.wikihow.com › ... › English › English as a Second Language (ESL)

   Would you like to travel the world teaching English? Getting certification before you go will help you to get a good contract and show you what to do before you ...

However, here is the thing. If you have student loans and need to pay them off without going bankrupt here is a potential way to do it. Teach English in a Foreign Country. Now, choosing which nations you might teach in and doing enough research might be useful. The two nations I now know the most about regarding this are Japan and South Korea. 

The most expensive place to actually live doing this is Japan, especially if you live in the Tokyo area. And it takes about 6000 to 7000 dollars of your own money to get started teaching there. And also, since it is so expensive to live there you might not be able to afford to rent a space to live while teaching and still have enough to pay off your student loans, even though Japan generally is a very safe place to be physically. (Look at the statistics) except for any radiation left over from Fukushima in the land, water, food or air.

So, another country to teach English in is South Korea. This is also a very safe place like Japan generally speaking unless you take what North Korea has been saying since the 1940s seriously. So, everyone has to make their own determinations about something like this. However, what I have heard is that if you work for the public school system of Korea, you are given your own studio apartment free of charge, you are given money (when you arrive there) to pay for your traveling expenses to Korea. And all you have to pay for is your utilities and food an transportation. And just like many teachers in the U.S. you get many days off while there and are paid, I believe between 1500 to 2000 a month for working there as an English teacher. The contract is usually 1 year if you do this. This would allow you to pay off your student loans while traveling to another country or area (China, Japan, Thailand, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bali, etc. during your breaks from teaching there) while you pay off your student loans. This sort of idea isn't for everyone because some people couldn't deal very well with the culture shock or being alone their without their friends or family. But, in many ways economically, South Korea because of Samsung, Hyandai and many other successful Korean companies, the Korean economy is doing much better than the U.S. in many ways and even better in some ways than Japan. So, if you want to pay off your student loans and aren't afraid of being alone and culture shock in a place likely safer than the U.S. (South Korea and Japan). Just look up the statistics about people being shot in these countries and how high Honor is to them and you will see how different it is there.

A friend was telling me that street shops will often leave out a pot of money where you are supposed to make change for yourself. A friend also told me that if you drop your wallet people will go to great lengths to get it back to you. It is about honor within the Korean and Japanese societies in regard to all this. So, you might be much safer there than here in many ways and have a job too to be able to pay off your student loans. There are also many other countries that want people to teach their children and adults English too. So, if you do your research correctly it might work for you.

I believe South Korea hires around 30,000 English teachers from around the world with about 50% of them from the U.S. each year for their public school system.

as of JUly 14th 2013 I found more information about this. Here it is:

		apc Asia-Pacific Connections English Teaching Employment Services for Korea
		Korean Hiring Preferences Teaching in Korea
Section Menu		Korean society is very homogeneous. Because of this, Koreans find it difficult to view race, nationality, culture, and language as separate elements; they tend to view these characteristics as entirely dependent on one another. That's the reality they've experienced for thousands of years. Most 'Westerners' have come to view ethnicity, nationality, culture, and language as separate, sometimes unrelated, elements of who someone is. Like people anywhere, Koreans view the world through their individual and group experiences of it and tend to extend these views to the new and unfamiliar, assuming that other people think like they do. This rather limited view is furthered by the fact that, until 1988, it was very difficult for South Koreans to get permission from their own government to travel abroad. Basically, Korea's experience of the world has gone from tribal to global in less than one generation. The result of this is a society and world view that many Westerners consider racist, sexist, repressive, ageist, homophobic, and generally discriminatory. Although most Korean school owners have dealt with many non-Koreans and hold more liberal views than most of their compatriots, they have to respond to their market, which is Korean parents. I consider many Korean hiring practices offensive, but I prefer to be direct rather than to pretend something isn't happening: Age The oldest person I have ever succeeded in placing in Korea was 44. Most schools are looking for people between the ages of 23 and 32. However, some schools prefer people in their 30s, especially if they have had difficulties with "unreliable" younger people. Men over about 40 and women over 45 have little chance of being placed at a reputable private school through the services of a recruiter; however, many public schools will hire teachers up to the age of about 50. Private schools that are willing to hire older applicants tend to hire directly as there are always more mature applicants for Korea than schools willing to hire them. Koreans tend to be doing similar things at similar ages. "I'm 26, so I'll be married in two years, and I'll have two children in five years," wouldn't be an unusual thing for a Korean to say. Doing something like moving to a foreign country for employment after the age of about 30 is hard for Koreans to imagine. Also, workplaces in Korea tend to be stratified by age, with older people in positions of power over younger people. A 35 year-old Korean man would feel very uncomfortable if he had a subordinate male employee in his 40s. Gender Most Korean language institutes hire men and women in approximately equal numbers and most like to maintain an approximate gender balance in their teaching staffs. However, between two thirds and three quarters of applicants to teach in Korea are men. The result is that it is generally more difficult for men to be placed. APC hires approximately equal numbers of men and women, but always has more difficulty placing men. Race / Ethnicity Ironically, it is very difficult to place ethnic Asian applicants. When some Koreans see an ethnic Asian, they automatically assume the person is not a native speaker of English. Since Koreans tend to view race and nationality as inseparable, many of them do not think of non-European Americans or Canadians as "real" Canadians or Americans or native speakers of English. This is changing, but it still influences how Koreans respond to diversity in North America and elsewhere. Thanks to the negative stereotypes so pervasive in American television and popular culture (much of which Korea sees), it is very difficult to place black men in Korea. Physical Appearance / Disabilities As there are fewer differences in physical appearance among Koreans than among Westerners, Koreans focus on smaller physical differences that many North Americans wouldn't even notice. What shade of black is her hair? What kind of eyelids does he have? Can she "pinch an inch," or an inch and a quarter? More disturbing, some Koreans, like many East Asians, view physical handicaps or less flattering physical differences as a reflection of personality or character. Concealing significant weight issues (i.e. 30 lbs or more) or visible physical differences (e.g. missing fingers or mobility difficulties) from us may increase your chances of being hired by a Korean employer; however, this will backfire as problems will arise upon your arrival in Korea. If your application is deceptive, neither I nor my Korean partners will take responsibility for the outcome. Be direct with me, and I'll be direct with you and give you the best advice I can so that you can make the most appropriate decisions for your own welfare and happiness. Nationality Our Korean client-schools usually expect us to find Canadians and Americans for them. That said, we have managed to place non-North Americans in the past and we do deal with some schools that accept non-North American teachers quite happily. Our ability to place non-North Americans has always been a direct function of the current teaching market in Korea and applicants' flexibility. It's common for Korean school directors to offer non-North Americans slightly lower salaries or demand ELT qualifications. If you are a non-North American with no experience or ELT qualifications and insist on being placed in central Seoul, we might not be able to help you. If, however, you are a non-North American with some experience (especially in Korea) and/or ELT qualifications, and you are somewhat flexible with desired location in Korea, please apply. First Language / Accents Korean employers in the children's market will not hire non-native speakers of English, no matter how good their English is. Of course, a Russian native speaker who holds a doctorate in English-Language Teaching is going to be a better English teacher than an American English native speaker with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, but the native speaker will get the job in Korea. The quality of English teaching and learning would improve dramatically if Koreans agreed to hire some of the many Filipinos and Filipinas who hold degrees in early childhood education and speak excellent English, but a 20-something blonde North American woman with no teaching experience and an unrelated degree will be preferred. Note that, even if you can pass for a native speaker of English among Koreans, your native-speaker co-workers may reveal to your employers that you are not a native speaker of English. Koreans involved in the language-teaching field are aware that eight million Canadians speak French as a first language and that thirty million Americans are native speakers of Spanish. If you are a native speaker of English with a French or Spanish name, be sure to emphasize that you are a native speaker of English on your resume. Koreans are fixated on accent and will sometimes blame a native speaker's "accent," for their inability to understand spoken English. "Standard" North American accents are strongly preferred by most employers. As mentioned above, this makes Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, and Irish applicants more difficult to place. Even regional North American accents can be problematic. Ironically, studies show that when Koreans actually have to use English for travel or business, the majority of the time it is in speaking with other non-native speakers (talking on the phone with a business partner in Beijing or Tokyo, for example); thus, this accent fixation is not serving Koreans interests, but it can be hard to overcome. About Taking Dependents Most language schools in Korea do not provide accommodation or allowances for dependents of teachers. For this reason, we are often unable to place qualified individuals who wish to take non-teaching spouses and/or children to Korea. Because of the cost of private English-language education and/or the cost of daycare, it is usually not practical, as a foreign teacher, to take children to Korea. Do not conceal from us your plans to take a child, pet, or non-working dependent to Korea. We will take no responsibility for the outcome, which will most likely be your school's refusal to employ you, or in the case of a pet, expensive housing relocations that your employer will expect to be compensated for. At worst, you could be left in Korea without a means of getting back to your home country. Applications that conceal such intentions will be treated as fraudulent. Couples / Groups Placing couples (or two friends) can be difficult as it is a challenge to find two jobs at the same school at the same time. Housing is provided directly by the employer, so it is not usually possible to teach at different schools and live together. Many schools have had negative (and expensive) experiences with couples. If one person is unhappy, the school loses two teachers. If one person is not competent, the school loses two teachers. Applications from couples are welcome; however, flexibility in terms of start date and preferred locations are essential. It is almost impossible to place groups of people. Please do not apply as a group of three or more and expect to be placed at the same school. Schools that have three or more positions open at the same time are usually either brand new (which means they are probably disorganized and not a good environment for someone without Korea experience) or it means that a large part of the staff of a school has quit or been fired for reasons that will probably become clear shortly after you start working there. Summary Before you decide that Korea is not a place any open-minded person would want to visit, bear in mind that much of the above is true of most Asian societies. Furthermore, North America, Australia, and New Zealand are among the few places on earth where prejudice is not routine. I've met Texan Republicans who hold more liberal views on some of the above issues than do many European social democrats. People are products of their environments. English has become the primary language of international communication because English-speaking societies have been more accepting of different people than other societies have. I sincerely hope that those surprised or offended by the above do not blame me for being honest. Many recruiters simply don't respond to applications from those in any of the above categories. While I may not be able to place you in Korea, I will do my best to offer you any advice I can about pursuing an English language teaching career in Korea or elsewhere. Please feel free to contact me even if you don't think I'll be able to place you in Korea. Here is a link to a large list of articles and books about Korean society and social history: http://koreaweb.ws/ks/ksr/ksrndx.htm