Cities abroad with good job market and excellent transportation?

[AppleLinguist]

This may sound like an odd question, but there is a method to my madness. Does anyone know of particular cities abroad (fyi, I'm American) that have a decent job market for teachers with Masters degrees in Applied Linguistics as well as a TESOL certificate that want to teach ADULTS either in corporate or university/intensive environment? The catch is....the city has to have a good transportation system because due to a visual impairment, driving is not an option for me.

I originally set my heart on Europe, but it will be difficult to get a job like that legally since I am not an EU citizen. Keep in mind I am only interested in adult education.

I know that places in Japan and Korea hire Americans but I am not familiar with their cities and their public transportation/pedestrian offerings....any ideas? Thanks.

[Tdol]

I lived in Tokyo for a while- the public transport is excellent and they have announcements and signs in English in the subway in the city centre.

[AppleLinguist]

Neat! I would imagine it's pretty costly to stay there though, right? Is it a pretty safe city? I've actually never been any further East than Western Europe and no further West than Chicago!

[Tdol]

It's very safe. It's not as costly as many think; it is for tourists, but accommodation costs are lower than in many coutries. It's also a lot more relaxed than I was expecting- there's not that much traffic on the roads and it's easy to move around in most areas, though the major train stations are huge and hellish.

[Ian McAllister]

I currently teach in Korea, and I would recommend Japan! To my knowledge, there are more opportunities offered in Japan with regard to teaching adults than in Korea. Employers also seem to be more professional there. I've been to Japan a couple of times, and spoken to teachers there who have also taught in Korea, and they all gave Japan, (in this case Fukoaka) the big thumbs up.

[AppleLinguist]

Thanks for the input! I will keep Japan in mind. I'm wondering though....for those of you who do not speak Japanese, did you feel alone? Was the cultural difference really tough to adapt to? I've been abroad before but to Europe and it was very easy to adapt.

[Tdol]

If you're flexible, it's not very difficult to adapt. I just accepted things around me and never really felt any culture shock, though my partner is Japanese so I had access to a lot of background information. Also, with the internet, it's so easy to stay in touch; I lived in southern Europe before the internet and that was a far more remote and lonely existence.

[hamlet554]

If you want to try Germany, I don't know how easy it is to actually get in as a US citizen. But I know we had a couple of US and British teachers at uni in Heidelberg. Any other bigger city in Germany is just as good as, as long as there's is a universitsy in town, public transport is usually quite good in our country.

The only real advice I could give you is to try and contact one of our 'German-American-Institutes' e.g. in Heidelberg or Tübingen: Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Heidelberg. Haus der Kultur. or dai-tuebingen.de - deutsch amerikanisches institut tübingen. There are more such institutes in other cities, too. Maybe somebody there can give you more information and help on how to find a job here

Something other I know about: a friend of mine taught at a private university in Istanbul. They are apparently allways looking for native speakers to teach English there. She herself is German but she told me about at least one American colleague she had when she was there. So I guess this could be a possibility for you, too. Don't really know too much about public transport there, though. Let me know if this would be of interest to you and I can find out more details.

[darenridgway]

Krakow or Warsaw in Poland. They both have a high requirement for teachers including Adults as they are a new growing country now competing in European markets. I do all my teaching through companies and private professional clients and earn a more than reasonable wage. It is phenomenally cheap and there are many Americans presently teaching here.