Are there restrictions to age and race?

This is a difficult answer as there are companies that accept teachers based on if they meet the requirements and then there are companies that only look at your age and race combined with being a native speaker. Note that companies won't tell you directly if they don't hire Spanish or Black people. Most of the time it's not the company but the request from parents as they only want Caucasian teachers. This should not be a deal-breaker, it is very unfortunate but there are plenty of companies that would be thrilled to have you.

What is considered a Native Speaker?

In the past when the ESL field was not over-saturated it was a lot easier for South African teachers to apply, but in the process, there have been people that are not native speakers. “Afrikaans or strong South African accents”  have given us somewhat of a reputation along with our status of having 11 official languages not to be native. Being South African and speaking English only makes you a native speaker to 50% of companies. So do not take it personally if you have a surname like Venter, Naidoo or Xoli that you might not be accepted.

Why don't South Africans not get as much opportunity as teachers from the USA/CAN/UK/AUS?

The first thing you have to understand is the culture the Chinese are brought up in. They want to learn “American”, not “ English” as we know . So the company's lifeline is basically the parents, they simply cannot go against their wishes and have to keep them happy. When it comes to offline teaching, South Africans are highly regarded as great teachers and there is no shortage of jobs for them abroad, but online english teaching is alot different.

Does it help if I understand their culture and way of business?

YES. YES. YES. The most important thing is to understand how Chinese culture works. The children have very different environments growing up to what we are used to, it's hard, long days and very stressful. The reason it's important to make note of this, is that your teaching style needs to adapt to suit the culture they have. Speaking a little bit of Chinese helps alot. So try to do more research on what it is to be Chinese.

FAQs for the course

Does this course prepare me to teach children and adults online?

Yes, this course prepares you for teaching children and adults on independent teaching sites and non-independent teaching sites. When teaching contractually on websites that only deal with children, you are provided material to teach within a set curriculum by those websites. This course provides a list of all the top-paying websites for teaching children online. Remember, this is not a “TEFL or TESOL” course and does not cover every learning approach that all the 600+ different online schools offer.

Am I guaranteed a job if I take this course?

If you have a teaching qualification or TEFL, TESOL or CELTA certificate, you are fully proficient in spoken and written English; you follow all the steps provided in this course and you do not make any spelling or punctuation errors in your applications to online teaching websites, you will be accepted in online teaching platforms.

Do online teaching platforms accept South African teachers?

They sure do. There are many online English teaching websites that accept South African teachers. Your instructor Chris is South African. There are, however, some websites that do not accept South African teachers because only 7% of South Africans are native English speakers. We are working on advocating against such websites as we believe that it is discriminatory to not accept applications for work based on their nationality. Regardless, there are many fantastic websites that accept South African teachers. This course will point you in the right direction regarding the highest-paying sites for South African teachers.