TEFL Jobs for Retired People

Stories from Retired People Teaching English Abroad

There’s more to TEFL than student backpackers and thirtysomethings who’ve grown bored of their jobs. In recent years, an increasing number of retired people have been taking TEFL Courses and heading off to teach in warmer, sunnier countries. Many TEFL employers, especially in the lucrative business English market, prefer the experience and expertise of more mature people.

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Mary and Ted’s Story

Mary, 69, a retired teacher, and Ted 74, a retired soldier, met on a walking holiday in Greece and embarked on a post-retirement adventure together in China!

“I suppose the beginning of the story was when I resigned from my job as a teacher in South Africa and went to England for an ‘adventure’. Then on holiday in Greece I met Ted, a retired soldier, sometime journalist and author. Both of us were widowed, one thing led to another, and we decided to do a TEFL course and see where it would lead us.

After doing the course with i-to-i we put our CVs on the internet and got quite a few replies – mainly from the Far East. We were approached by the Yangzhou College in China and decided it would be far more interesting and we were right! The students were around 16 to 20 and each class had about 46 students. The salary was not great but living was so cheap that we could buy whatever we wanted and travel extensively at weekends and holidays.

Now we’ve published a book about our time teaching English in China, mixing our experiences of everyday life with teaching tips and accounts of our travels.”