Is teaching ESL abroad worth the ESL?

Well, all I can provide is anecdata, but I will say that as an English teacher in the Japanese public school system, I got to do nothing along the lines of "facilitating discussion and literary analysis". I didn't really get to do teaching of any kind. I was mostly a walking tape recorder, there to provide a native accent and speech pattern. Admittedly, I was at the middle school rather than high school level, but my friends who taught high school said that it worked more or less the same for them. I also taught an adult class that I enjoyed rather more because A) I got to teach it my way and B) the students *actually wanted to learn English*. Most high school kids didn't really care about learning English, whereas students in a private program generally do. I will note that the adult program was somewhat unusual. The more traditional Nova type programs are very locked down in terms of curriculum.

If you want to teach literature and have discussions, you should just get into a high school classroom. There are few experiences abroad where you can teach English literature - the closest I know of is a friend who taught drama in Lebanon for a few years. But that was a job she searched for and couldn't find for years...and she had a teaching credential, a MA in teaching, and about 20 years experience teaching in high school. Get into the classroom and see if you like it - if you don't, then commiting to a year overseas where you'll be stuck there just seems like a bad decision. Basically, it's possible, but not likely for you to find that kind of job. Get an intern credential here and get into the classroom while doing your credential at night. Memail me if you want more info (that's how I did it, and this is my 8th year teaching English to high schoolers). Then after getting some experience, they'll be more likely to hire you for the few jobs where you could teach English literature overseas.

Again, anecdata: I'm teaching at a Foreign Language High School in Korea and I have a LOT of leeway in what constitutes a lesson. I'm given the opportunity to be a fair bit more than just a walking tape recorder. However, even with my freedom (and I have a lot more than my friends who teach in non-foreign language focused elementary, middle, and high schools) I have a limited ability to teach writing (I'm only able to really teach writing to a TOEFL focused night class). As a native English speaker in a Korean school, your value is seen in your speaking and conversation ability, and even my pretty high level students don't have the ability to speak about literature and writing with a great degree of nuance. I think teaching abroad is a wonderful opportunity, and I really enjoy my work. But, I think if you're sure that you'd be absolutely miserable teaching the nuts and bolts of grammar and conversation, then teaching abroad (at least as far as my experience in Korea goes) may not be what you're looking for.

check your mefi mail.

Thanks for the input thus far! While I'm aware no one can tell me what I'd like, the fact remains that even I don't know (and am not sure) whether "teaching the nuts and bolts of grammar and conversation" would be fun for me or not, which is why that was sort of a side question. I may find out a little more, since I signed to help middle-schoolers at the Boys and Girls Club do more basic English HW stuff (or not). To wit, what's the attraction (especially if you like English) in teaching the basic stuff? How do you approach it so as to keep your interest? Is it simply seeing your students progress (which is important to me)? I keep thinking there's a chance I could simply, well, enjoy something I wasn't expecting to, or even view this as 'just a job' that gives me room to enjoy Hungary, do independent folklore research, travel, etc. As a side-note, I'm definitely a native-level but not actually native (that is, born) English speaker, so maybe this puts the final nail the coffin, not sure.

Would you be willing to go back to Russia? There are opportunities to teach in schools, and also to make much more money on the side tutoring business execs. Your Russian language abilities would be an asset, too.

Keep in mind that ESL is such a diverse industry to get into, it's hard to generalize what you'll be doing. But if you are involved in any sort of cram school or private after-school academy (common in Japan, Korea, Taiwan among others), you'll likely not be doing anything even close to teaching literature. I did a little bit of this kind of teaching in China, and frankly hated it. I felt it was largely a waste of time for everyone involved. I occasionally was able to do real teaching in small group extra-curricular activity which was fun and rewarding, but this was definitely more the exception than the rule. The lifestyle was pretty great though, I gotta admit.

I too would have loved to teach analysis/composition and ended up teaching basic English (in North America, not abroad). The grammatical grunt work? It felt like I was the captain of a rowing team -- when everyone in the class was rowing together, trying to understand the concept or practice it or whatever, it was great. But then there would be those days when everyone was rowing in different directions. The smartypants group wanted All The Answers To English Grammar (OMG, -ing versus infinitive after a modal, major controversy) and the other 60% of the class would be scratching their heads, "Uh, what does 'verb' mean again?" So I guess it depends on whether it's the literary discussion that gets you excited about teaching or whether it's your students' "ah-ha" moments that get you excited about teaching -- given that those moments might breakthroughs in pronoun use ("'he' for man, 'she' for woman! I understand!" "YES!!!") or breakthroughs in understanding the symbolism of some poem. That said, there are some really cool things that you can do with scaffolding and analysis and discussion at a low-intermediate to intermediate level. It's pretty neat when they try to discuss "This is just to say" by William Carlos Williams. But I guess you'd need a lot of autonomy in the classroom, and willing students, to be able to introduce stuff like this.

fakepalindrome's comment is pretty good. I was an English teacher at a Korean foreign language high school for four years, and it was great. I still do AP Lit prep, even. There are fantastic jobs out there for what you want, but many of them will require a particularly impressive education background, credentials, experience, or all three.