Vietnam - defs hit up Hanoi, I think I liked it better than Ho Chi Minh. I was in Hanoi last month and hit up https://pasteurstreet.com there were dudes skating downstairs too! Also Vietnam has tonnes of yummy/ cheap vegan eats!!!
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English teaching in Japan is ... (like porn) something you do while you're young to pay the bills/ fund your travelling, I defs wouldn't do it long term as it can get stale pretty quickly. Bear in mind I'm talking about working for English conversation schools here and not cushy jobs at big name universities. Japan, in most cases, doesn't really give a fuck if you have qualifications, as long as you "look" foreign (i.e. white) you'll pretty much be able to get a job. Will you be coming on a working holiday visa? You'll need some sort of working visa and if you don't have one then a company won't sponsor you unless you sign on for a year or so with them. Most of the bigger English teaching schools are kinda like sweat shops and while their conditions might seem okay on paper, the reality is often quite different.
JET Programme is the cushiest way to do it but while you might only "teach" 22 hours a week, you'll still be required to sit in the schools (and rot) from 9-5. The only hurdle with JET is that it's quite competitive (?) and you have to apply from within your own country/ outside of Japan. Jive probs has lots to say on this too so I'll leave stop here and then chime in a bit later.
Jah, I've heard so many mixed reviews on Vietnam but no one's said it's not worth visiting. A good few many of my friends said they loved it and one's actually living in Hanoi now. Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely hit them up.
Cambodia is another story. Siem Reap looks to be a sprung up tourist town to base yourself in for seeing temples. I might not even do the temples since I'm pretty templed out at this point and it's $40 for Angkor Wat. Pub Street in Siem Reap seems like a bastard son of Khao Sahn road - which I avoid when in BK. Tourists being arrested fairly recently for "pornographic dancing" is pretty nuts:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/five-britons-arrested-pornographic-dancing-cambodia.
For some reason no one seems to be too fond of Phnom Penh. One of my close friends said it's just a sketch, dirty city full of child prostitution awareness billboards. Still, I'm more attracted to cities so Phnom Penh is initially more alluring to me when it comes to my interests: craft beer, vegan stuff, coffee, and skateboarding. There's actually a Skateistan in Phnom Penh. Not that I'm only looking for "western" stuff though - I don't think I've had any western food in 5 months unless you count craft beer/cold brew coffee haha.
What you're saying sounds about like what I've read while researching teaching English in Japan. Some people get stuck in schools with some combination of stringent bureaucracy / no holidays / odd hours etc... A general recommendation is to research the school before signing on and reach out to someone who's already teaching there for some inside info. This is all more if you're going through a recruiter/TEFL program which is what we were thinking about doing. It would be at a language school and they would want a one year contract so you're right on that.
If you're "feet on the ground" searching your odds are better. Dude straight up told us if we like Vietnam to just look around when we're there and we'd for sure find something. To my understanding, especially in Japan, they'd prefer to meet and interview in person (aka in Japan). My lady isn't so into the idea of dropping down and doing the search. She'd prefer the TEFL program since they do everything for you and it comes with the perks of things like end of year bonus, airfare reimbursement, apt. assistance, etc... A lot of the TEFL programs won't work with her though since she's not a native English speaker but she meets the requirements for some (high IELTS score, English degree) and is arguably whiter than me haha.
I'd have more options if doing it on my own. I initially emailed this guy about a shorter program in China (5 months) but he said they wouldn't take my lady and Japan would be our best bet. She's actually planning to apply for the New Zealand working holiday visa and if she gets it I might do the China one instead. I could do a working holiday in NZ too but for some reason it just doesn't really appeal to me.
For us it's definitely more of an experience thing and by no means do we have to do it. If I could work on my own stuff while "rotting" it wouldn't be so bad...I think. I'd prefer not to end up in a place like that though.
Anyway dudes, here's another giant post from me and thanks for the responses.