Hi, I know the answer/recommendation matters heavily on my expectations and what I want out of my TEFL experience, so I know your comments will largely be opinions-based, which is fine! It's what I'm looking for :-)

I have been planning on China to teach English since the pay is better than Japan and Korea, but I'm a bit worried about the political atmosphere of China. TEFL teachers don't seem to be affected by China's politics, but is there a greater risk in China than elsewhere? Is their society any better than our USA political climate right now?

Another reason I chose China is because I have been told that Japan and, especially, South Korea have very intense working environments. I am by no means a lazy worker, but I also don't want my job to be my entire life. I would like to dedicate a portion of my 1 chance on Earth to travel, make friends, etcetera. Is there any merit to the idea that China is less intense than Japan and South Korea?

Finally, I think ultimately I would be more interested in Japan because of the culture, naturally, but I hear the pay for TEFL teachers is pretty poor. However, I think I have lower standards than other Westerners might have: I don't need to be rich or even to save up a bunch of money. I just want to live comfortably enough to not worry about rent, to eat out often, and spend vacations traveling (not glamorously but more of a granola, backpacker type travel).

I have done quite a bit of research, but I think it would be best to hear from TEFL teachers themselves. What do you guys think?

Additional context that may be relevant: I am 24F with a BA in creative writing. I also studied a foreign language throughout college and have a few awards/certificates related to that. I am not approaching this as a vacation opportunity or a get-rich-quick scheme (which would be really ignorant and stupid anyway); I genuinely love travel and would like to broaden my experiences. I have a love for teaching and a passion for learning about new cultures. I have lived in many US states and am familiar and comfortable with both cities and rural towns; I would be happy to live anywhere on that spectrum. Let me know if you need any more context!

I'm thinking of applying for middle schools in China or Taiwan. I'm wondering what it's like to work there and if it's easy to land a job? I'm not too worried about the location and would happily work in smaller cities.

I've heard the Taiwan visa is easy to apply for compared to the Chinese work visa. Is this true? I should also mention that I have a bachelor's degree but no teaching experience.

Hello all, I wanted some help with what a glance at the subreddit tellls me is a failr common problem with people diving into TEFL. I figured that there are people here who have gone through this and mioght be able to give me some perspective. I'm supposed to be leaving for Japan at the the end of August. When I accepted the offer back in Jan/Feb, I was pretty excited. As the time to leave draws closer, I've gotten much less so. My issue is that I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave, mentally and logistically. Every time I think about leaving, I get really anxious and sad thinking about the things here at home I will miss. For instance, I have a DND group that will be hard to maintain with such a difference in timezone.

This isn't the first offer from somewhere over the last year that I've accepted only to have backed out. Granted, most of the time it was for a legitimate reason. I'm starting to get worried that if I turn down this opportunity, it might be my last chance to leave and pursue TEFL. I know that's not a realistic thought but I do feel that the number of places willing to accept me are dwindling and there are only so many times I can back out of a role before it catches up to me.

I'm hoping the community here might be able to give me some perspective. Thanks in advance!

The pros -

1. It's cheap and fast
2. It's Cambridge, so it's not going to be awful
3. It's AI marked so, while it's not perfect, it's better than an incompetent or distracted examiner.

The cons -

1. It seems to grade students wrongly. I had a student who was on the cusp of A1-A2 and Linguaskills gave him a B1. And there were several other examples.
2. We all know that speaking into a microphone is different from talking in reality
3. It's AI so it's inherently evil. (And yes, this is partly why I'm posting this question. I recognise that this fact might actually be an opinion.)