How To Start Teaching English in Vietnam (Top 5 Tips To Succeed)
Let’s talk about the top five tips for getting started teaching English in Vietnam. So, if you want to move to Vietnam, get a job, and start teaching English in Vietnam, this post is for you.
Teaching English in Vietnam is a great way to travel, earn, and make a difference through education. So, let’s get into the tips.
Tip #1: Plan Ahead
So, the first tip is to plan ahead. While a lot of the steps it takes to start teaching English in Vietnam can go very quickly—such as doing your TEFL certification and actually getting a job—you also want to give yourself sufficient time to prepare everything you need to get started, such as booking accommodation, getting your flight, getting your visa, and preparing all your documents. These can all take some time.
That’s why our program participants often sign up three months, six months, or even longer in advance so that they can get everything prepared. While it’s possible to get started on a tighter timeline, you don’t want to be in a situation where you’re feeling rushed and stressed about everything you need to do.
So, as far as possible, I recommend preparing well in advance so that you can get everything ready and aren’t stressed during that process.
Tip #2: Prepare Your Documents
Now, talking about what you need to prepare in advance, one of the most important things is your documents and getting legalized copies made of those documents. These are required by the Vietnamese government in order to work legally in Vietnam, and you need them to obtain a work permit and a temporary resident card.
It’s important to prepare these in advance, as they are requirements of the Vietnamese government to live and work legally in Vietnam, and it may affect your job prospects if you haven’t got these by the time you start applying for jobs.
The exact documents required depend on the Vietnamese government’s requirements, and these are subject to change, but they typically include:
- A bachelor’s degree in any subject
- A police background check
- An initial teaching certification like a TEFL or TESOL
- A health check
If you’re from a country the Vietnamese government designates as non-native English-speaking, you’ll also need an English proficiency test.
These documents also need to be legalized for use in Vietnam, which means they’ve been verified by both the issuing country and the Vietnamese government. The process can involve multiple steps, and where and how you do each step depends on your nationality, where the document was issued, and where you’re currently based.
Plus, the laws around this and the steps involved can—and do—change quite regularly, as is the case with a lot of things in Vietnam. So the exact steps really depend on your individual case.
That’s why, on our Vietnam TEFL program, we include pre-arrival support and document guidance to help you identify what you need and guide you through the process so your documents are done correctly.
If you’re doing it yourself, make sure you’ve researched and confirmed the latest requirements and gone through the legalization process. This will allow you to get started with your job search without unnecessary delays.
Tip #3: Be in the Country to Maximize Your Chances
The next tip is to be in the country to maximize the chances of getting hired.
At Ninja Teacher, we’ve helped over 1,000 people start teaching English in Vietnam, so I can say with certainty that schools in Vietnam prefer to hire candidates that are already in the country, versus those who are overseas.
One reason is that schools have a fast turnaround time when it comes to hiring—many positions are for immediate start dates or within one to two weeks. So it’s often not feasible to hire someone from overseas and bring them out within that time frame.
Also, schools may be hesitant to hire overseas candidates because if someone’s never been to Vietnam, they don’t know whether they’ll like it or adjust well. Schools worry that teachers might arrive and then leave shortly afterward, which is frustrating after investing time and energy into hiring someone. Whereas if someone is already in the country, the school knows they’ve been here for a while and are more likely to stick around.
So what this means is: to maximize your chances of securing a job, you should be in Vietnam at the time you’re sending your resume out.
If you’ve already completed an in-person TEFL course in another country or done an online TEFL course, you can come to Vietnam and start doing interviews while you’re here.
I get that it might sound daunting to come here without a job lined up—that’s actually what I did when I first came to Vietnam. There’s definitely some uncertainty and fear around that, but I was able to find work.
That’s why, in our Vietnam TEFL program, we include in-country orientation and arrival support, which makes the process of getting settled a lot easier. After our four-week in-person TEFL training course, our participants are ideally situated in Vietnam to get a job. That’s one reason we’re able to help them secure a job within 30 days of completing the course.
Alternatively, if you feel comfortable with it, you can complete an online TEFL course—like our online TEFL course at Ninja Teacher—then come to Vietnam and start applying in person.
Tip #4: Don’t Sign a Long-Term Lease Right Away
Which leads me to my next tip: don’t sign a long-term lease when you first get to Vietnam. Wait until you’ve secured a job before you find your long-term apartment.
The reason is that most cities in Vietnam are quite large. If you rent an apartment in one area but then get a job in a different area, you might end up with a really long commute—and traffic in Vietnam isn’t always pleasant.
If you want a good price on an apartment, most landlords will require a one-year lease and a security deposit. So, if you sign a lease but then get a job across the city, you either lose your deposit or you’re stuck with that long commute. You might even end up getting a job offer in a different city.
So, it’s a good idea to get short-term accommodation when you arrive. Something like an Airbnb works well.
If you’re doing your TEFL training course in Vietnam, you can stay in short-term accommodation during that and the job search afterward. Or if you’ve already done your TEFL, just stay in an Airbnb until you’ve secured work.
Once you’ve got a job, you can start looking for an apartment. There are lots of good real estate agents in Vietnam who will help you find something—and they typically don’t charge you a fee. Then you can choose a long-term place near your school or in a neighborhood you like that’s within commuting distance.
Tip #5: Get Practical Teaching Experience
Next tip—and possibly the most important—is to get practical teaching experience before applying for jobs.
This often gets overlooked, but it’s important to have actual experience teaching English as a foreign language in a classroom on your resume. Other types of experience—like working with kids—are helpful, but schools want to see that you know how to teach ESL specifically.
You might have heard that schools in Vietnam will hire first-time English teachers, and that’s true—but with a caveat: they still expect you to be able to teach a decent class from day one. They’ll expect you to do a bit of onboarding and then jump into the classroom.
They know you won’t be perfect right away, but they want you to have basic classroom competence. They might provide a little training, but not enough to take someone from zero to being ready.
That’s why TEFL certifications exist—to teach you those foundational skills. But a lot of TEFL courses, especially online ones, are very theoretical and don’t include real classroom teaching.
In interviews, schools often ask how you’d handle specific classroom scenarios. Without hands-on experience, it’s hard to give strong answers. That’s where a teaching practicum is really valuable.
If you’re doing an in-person TEFL course like our Vietnam TEFL program, you’ll get a lot of practical experience. Our course runs Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for four weeks, and you’ll be practicing the skills you learn in a classroom setting—not just listening to lectures.
You’ll also do six hours of classroom observations in real Vietnamese schools, and then six hours of actual teaching in those schools. So, by the end of the course, you’ll have taught several full lessons in real classrooms. You’ll get trainer feedback too, so you can improve and feel confident going into your own classroom.
If your TEFL course doesn’t include a practicum, I highly recommend volunteering to teach. Look for local ESL centers or language schools where you can volunteer. Try to apply the theory you learned from your course in real situations and build up experience you can put on your resume.
Our online TEFL course at Ninja Teacher doesn’t include a practicum, but it does feature video-recorded classes so you can learn from examples, plus it helps you create your first lesson plans. Once you’ve got those, go out and use them to teach and gain experience.
That’s really the key to getting a job—having practical teaching experience and showing employers that you know what you’re doing.
So, those are my five tips for getting started teaching English in Vietnam. If you’d like our help getting started, you can do so at NinjaTeacher.com.