Teaching English in Indonesia

Teachers' advice / Indonesia

If you wish to teach in Indonesia just make sure all accommodation, and sponsorship is seriously taken care of. You must have all documents required by the Government, if not, you'll be uneasy, thinking that you'll be arrested for working illegally.

Before you decide in which place you wish to work, you should double check the sponsors or the employers. Are they reputable and reliable? Can they give you the best place to work? You can ask them to arrange everything you need as a foreign teacher; accommodation, round trip tickets to Singapore if you need to extend your visa are well taken care of.

Most Indonesian people, especially in big cities like Jakarta or Surabaya are hospitable to expatriates. Those cities are safe enough and nice to live in and the national language and local customs are easy to learn."
Kunti, 18/04/06
I have been working on dodgy papers since last September and may return with similar in a couple of months but I am an "old dog" and agree with Kunti - a lot of westerners are insecure and would not cope with my situation. The upside for me is that I get paid more!

Small town Indonesia can be tiring (small town might include the third biggest city!) they seldom let you forget that you are an alien (friendly? not really - lack of respect. They would not dream of shouting out to their countrymen unless they knew them. It can be similar to the unwanted attention given to zoo animals).

The usual pay is low - forget "good local salary" or similar. If genuinely qualified and with a little experience signing for 12 months they will (or should) kiss your feet. Recruiting halfway decent teachers for Indo is hard. If you are the-real-thing, hold out for a good deal. Single housing and 8 million a month (convert your currency)is good for most places here.

Another drawback is that - as they have trouble recruiting here/therefore cannot be too choosy - some of your western colleagues may be people who came here because they cannot cope with life back home! (who am I to speak? Well, at least I remember that I was nobody special back home so I do not become special just by sitting in an ex-pat bar drinking beer with other ex-pats and "tame" locals).

Cynical? You bet! Looking forward to a couple of months in Europe - especially some quiet and not being an alien. Then I will probably get bored with the controlled-safe existence and look forward to returning. Nowhere is perfect."
Siddharta, 11/06/06
Hello to all, I am a Romanian teaching ESL at a school in Surabaya. I am not sure if I just got lucky, but I am really enjoying my stay here. Salary is not too high (I am not a native and I never really bothered to get any certification), but my boss and my principal are really friendly and professional people. They listen to what I have to say, give me extra tasks to keep me busy and make sure everything I need gets to me on time. Weather is beautiful, food is fresh and tasty, people are nice, though, I admit, completely "Englishless". If you happen to be around Surabaya, please drop me a few lines and you are sure to get a reply." lena.bucatariu@gmail.com
Lena, 30/06/06
My name is Sebastian Reed. I was born in Australia, and I hold a TESOL certificate which I studied hard for one month to receive. I decided to teach English to foreigners because I thought that the world needs more balance, and my sharing my language would give English to those who didn't get the chance to learn it as easily as I did but would appreciate it more than me. Well, for some of my students it's true. They live a much harder life than I ever did and they really deserve my time. For those students, I often wish I was a better teacher. Then there are the spoilt kids. My school is not representative of the Indonesian population. Students at my school are better off and they are often lazy and unhealthy. Motivating them can be quite tiring because they're so unhealthy. The healthy kids are easier to teach because they can self-start and they can learn.

Even though my school is relatively clean, the conditions of work are terrible, even compared to a very poor job in Australia. The Indonesian islands aren't furnished with Western management principles and comforts.

The local teachers are friendly, yet I feel like an alien and I'm terribly lonely. My wife is a great friend to me, though, and helps me to cope. My wife is Indonesian; nevertheless she can see how lonely I am.

I follow the popular religion here, Islam, and I have no trouble reading it in English and accepting the teachings, yet even so, I feel lonely even when I talk to other people within my religion.

The level of English here is simply so low that I must learn Indonesian or get along with people in other ways (that aren't based on talking), which I do sometimes.

The good news is that it's always warm and there's mountains of tropical fruit available for next to nothing. The rubbish on the streets is disgusting, and I often feel like my city is a city of lost souls, yet life goes on and I hope my contribution helps the Indonesian society to develop. Indonesia is not the blissful peace and harmony that I imagined. It's really a country full of problems and corruption.

I am a legitimate KITAS holder, working in Kalimantan, one of the more remote provinces of Indonesia.

I recommend working in Indonesia. It is a great country. If you're not Islamic, it might be only a temporary stay, but that's up to you. Until more free trade in Asia, by maybe 2015, Indonesia remains desperate for native speaker English teachers."
Sebastian, 29/08/06
Working in Indonesia is one of the best experiences of my life. I worked for EF in Jakarta for one year. Not only did I get a discount TEFL course before I left, they also paid my flights, my visa, my travel insurance and electricity etc. I got paid around 7.5 mil and although I still had to pay rent, I had enough money to live a better life than I have back home.

The school was excellently equipped and the staff were lovely and friendly. Everything was geared to making it as hassle free as possible. The students are lovely, but remember, in a fee paying language school such as EF, you are going to get students from the top end of society. Sometimes they are lazy, sometimes they don't want to be there. Mostly, they are really friendly and nice. Grammar is hard hard work for them though. Indonesian is the easiest language I have come across, with hardly any grammar, so be patient with them.

As for the country, it is beautiful, the food is great, and the flights are cheap so you can visit lots of places. Yes, people stare at you, yes, everyone wants to speak to you, yes, it's like being a celebrity, get over it, wave, smile and carry on."
Anonymous, 20/06/07
As with anything, it depends on your attitude. I was able to go to Indonesia with positive energy and I counted the positive things every day. The negative things kind of melted away when I realized how many positive experiences there were. Be sure to balance it against the negative aspects of living back home. As the saying goes: "Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure." Truer words were never spoken. I'm going back soon for my 3rd year in Bandung, Indonesia's 3rd-largest city on the island of Java. I love it there."
Billy, 17/06/09

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