Are you looking for maybe a part time or full time job teaching English in Asia with a lighter work schedule? If all of the jobs for English teachers in Asia were for 40 hours a week, I probably never would have got into teaching.
You can call me lazy if you want, but probably like you I have other interests.
In my years teaching in Asia I pretty much always had easygoing teaching jobs with a lighter work schedule, except for one with a 40 hour work week.
There are jobs out there that are considered full time, but with part time hours. And there are jobs out there that will get you your visa and pay you $20+ an hour. All of my jobs were pretty much less than 30 hours a week, except for one.
Why go to another country to live and work all the time when you could be using that time to learn the language, explore the country, learn a martial art or focus on your hobbies?
In this article I'll let you know where you can look for these jobs in Taiwan, China, Korea and Japan.
Jobs in Taiwan
I'd say it's pretty easy to set up an easy going work schedule teaching in Taiwan. The places to look are:
Kindergartens if you don't care about the rules
Many of these have kindergarten students in the morning and elementary students in the afternoon. The schedules can be from about 9-11:00am with a two hour break and then from about 1-4:00pm.
I had friends on schedules like this. This set up is considered full time and you will be payed that way too. All kindergartens are not like this, but a number of them are.
It's illegal to teach in some kindergartens.
Some buxibans
Many buxibans (but not all) will give you a visa and an ARC for just teaching around 10 or 12 hours a week. I had two contracted jobs like this in Taiwan. I never exceeded 18 teaching hours a week. This leaves you with free time to do whatever and if you want you can add other part time jobs to this schedule too.
Universities if you are qualified
As far as I know you'll pretty much need a master's degree for this. If you have that then you'll be set with a good salary and easy hours.
You can look for a job in Taiwan on Tealit.
Jobs in Korea
It's not that easy to find an easy going job teaching in Korea. Public school jobs like EPIK and others are 40 hours a week. 22 teaching hours and 18 hours planning and sitting around a day. I did this for a semester and I would never do that again. Hagwons are usually any where from 30-40 hours a week.
While 30 hours doesn't sound like much, teaching six one hour classes in a row in a Hagwon can be very tiring.
After school programs in public schools
These are pretty nice, but not that common.
The hours are definitely lighter and you'll usually be getting all of the benefits and money of a full time job, but working and teaching less. Many of these are working from around 1-5pm. I knew of a guy with an even lighter schedule in one of these.
The TALK program if you have an associates, at least
The TALK program offers positions to public school teachers like EPIK, however the requirements are a little different and the teaching hours are less.
On their website it says:
"Scholars are not required to be at school for eight hours per day..."
Hagwons if you can find one w/ a light schedule
Occasionally you can find a Hagwon with a bit lighter work schedule. I had one that was about 25 or so teaching hours a week and not really any office time. I made more money there than most teachers who were teaching 40 hours.
Universities if you are experienced and/or qualified
For these you'll usually need some experience and/or good qualifications. But if you have that you can get a good salary, benefits and lighter work schedule working anywhere from about 10-20 or so hours a week.
Go there and get a "part time" job
This is possible to do not only in Korea, but in Taiwan (as mentioned above) and in China and Japan.
Most people go to Korea because of the benefits.
However, if you have guts you can fly to Korea and start searching for a part time job that will give you a visa. There are jobs out there that will give you a visa to work part time, but there won't be any benefits.
The benefits will be more time, freedom and getting paid hourly. And sometimes if you get a few of these jobs you can actually make more since you are making 30,000 an hour versus like 16-18,000 Korean won an hour on a salary.
You can look for a job in Korea on ESLcafe.com.
Jobs in China
There is quite a variety of jobs teaching in China.
Universities
This is probably the easiest place to get a university job, but experience and/or qualifications will help. Salaries aren't usually that high (4-9000RMB), but the benefits are pretty good and you'll have a lot of free time. I had a friend who taught 8 hours a week and made 7500RMB a month with free housing and a free ticket home.
Some training centers
In some training centers you can find a pretty easy going schedule. Big chains like English First and Disney English are pretty much 40 hours a week. I worked briefly in a small training center and worked around 17 hours a week and made about 11,000RMB a month.
It is kinda common to work 6 days a week though. Your busiest days would be Saturday and Sunday. Then during the week you might work just a few hours a day.
You can find a job in China on Echinacities and Dave's ESLcafe.com
Jobs in Japan
A number of private schools and ALT's in public schools work a 40 hour week teaching English in Japan, but there are opportunities below.
Some eikaiwas
Some eikaiwa can have a lighter work schedule as well. I have seen a number of schools with 20-30 hours of teaching/work a week. Big chains like AEON are 40 hours a week. ECC is around 29 hours a week although they may have recently changed this.
Universities if you have a master's
If you have a master's degree then you'll be able to get one of the highest paying and most easygoing ESL teaching jobs on the planet. Apparently I have heard that you don't always need a M.A if through a dispatch company, however you normally do and if you don't then I would assume that you will need experience. Teachers here often make great money and have a very light work schedule.
You can look for a job in Japan on Ohayosensei.
This is the end
Check this out for more info on how to find a good job teaching ESL.
If you can get a visa another way then that would enable you to just find a part time job. There are lot of different kinds of visas such as, working holiday visas (non-US citizens), spouse visas, student visas, heritage visas, etc.
If you don't need a school to get you a visa then you will have more freedom.