I have been living as an expat in Europe for just over a year now. Since January of 2017, I’ve been employed by EF Education First as a freelance English teacher.
The beauty of this job is that I can teach anywhere I have a wired internet connection, and there is no upper limit on the number of lessons I teach other than the fact there are only 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week.
My contract stipulates that I teach an average of 15 lessons per week. But I have taught far more than that as I make my full-time living teaching with the added bonus of some freelance writing for several other companies on the side.
Even without the writing assignments, I would be able to live comfortably in most places in Europe on my EF salary. As with most other online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) positions, the salary is tiered depending on your performance and tenure.
The freedom this kind of job allows is what’s most appealing to me. I can get up in the morning, work as many hours as I like, and then go out at night. I can go sightseeing in the morning, and then work all afternoon and evening.
Or I can work for a few hours in the morning, relax by the beach for a few hours in the afternoon, and work for a few hours before bedtime. I set my availability on Wednesdays and have a full slate of lessons assigned to me by Friday mornings. I can take longer periods of time off by simply notifying the support team.
For someone whose main goal is to be location independent, teaching English online is a fantastic option.
I teach adults, but there are many other online English-learning programs that cater to kids. My students come from all over the world and include high school and university students and businesspeople from all walks of life.
They say that if you are a teacher, you can’t help but learn. This is not just a platitude.
I have learned quirky English rules that I never learned in school and know a lot more now about the education, culture, and religion of people from Albania to Zimbabwe than I did when I started.
If you are interested in teaching for EF, you can apply here.
Let them know Elizabeth Hoke sent you.
BETH
About the author: Beth Hoke is rejoining the expat life after spending her childhood in Europe and the United States, then settling in Chicagoland to raise two daughters.
Now an empty nester, she is roaming Europe, armed with a TEFL certificate and an online position teaching English for EF.
Beth has been traveling around Europe for over a year. She’s filed posts from at least six countries including Italy, Germany, Croatia, and Madeira, Portugal.
More posts on Dispatches from Beth Hoke:
• Housesitting lets me travel the world without paying for accommodations
• How to stay in Europe (or at least in the area) longer than 90 days
• Digital nomad Beth Hoke: IKEA’s UPPTÄCKA backpack changed my travel life (updated)
• With each closed border, the world gets a little smaller … and sadder0
