Teach English in Vietnam with CIEE

***Update, October 2018: CIEE's partner school is pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy at the expense of most of its staff. Management systematically looks for ways to financially penalize foreign teachers through unnecessary, draconian rules and regulations.

When I was researching this program, I searched all over for recent reviews but couldn't really find any. For that reason, I was hesitant. I still took the plunge, however. CIEE provides adequate support along the way, and there have been no surprises—what you see is what you get, thankfully.

One of the main reasons I chose the program was a placement in Hanoi, which I've really enjoyed since arriving. It's really hectic at first—overwhelming, really—but it's a lot of fun.

CIEE's partner school in Hanoi is one of the better ones to work for as far as I can tell. It can be totally disorganized at times, but it's hard to avoid that in this part of the world—be flexible and ready to roll with the punches. The staff have been nice and fairly supportive, but many things have a bit of a learning curve. They'll throw you into your own classes within a week of arriving, but there’s plenty of resources to use. The other teachers at the center have been nothing but friendly and helpful.

The CIEE staff have been responsive and accommodating, but the time difference (and correspondingly, work schedule) means it can take a while for questions to get answered since they must go through CIEE to the school. The included TEFL course was fairly useful and exhaustive if a bit of a slog at times. Sure, you could do this all on your own for less money, but CIEE provides so many failsafes (especially the travel insurance) that I found it really worthwhile.

My time teaching in Vietnam was incredible, but it had nothing to do with CIEE or its placement program. I wish I was exaggerating, but I have never experienced such incompetence in my life. I started in the CIEE program around July, and I didn't have a single interview for months--same for my sister who was going through the same program. Finally, we got one interview each, but it turns out it was for a Vietnam-based placement company, not even a school that would give us a job. We were planning on starting to teach in early January of the next year and in the interim, I had one interview for a school nowhere near where my sister or I wanted to teach. My sister received NO INTERVIEWS the entire time. As we called CIEE more and more we were constantly brushed off and told everything was going to be fine. One month before our expected departure date and I call CIEE again and they informed me that, 'oh, there actually aren't any jobs in Vietnam.' Well, thanks for making us wait. On top of not fulfilling her duties to place us with a school, or even get us a viable interview, our coordinator was rude to us and impatient with our well-deserved anxiety. My sister and I blew off CIEE and found jobs ourselves. Upon arriving in Vietnam we were able to find even more jobs. Strangers would literally offer me jobs in passing. How CIEE was not able to find a single job was mind blowing.

TLDR version: CIEE employee was rude and never found a single job for my sister or I, in a country desperate for teachers. The program gave us nothing and set us back on planning our trip, while we waited for them to tell us there are no jobs in Vietnam. Atrocious.

I am currently teaching aboard in a small city an hour and a half outside of Hanoi! The people here have been very welcoming but it is frustrating because Vietnamese is not an easy language to pick up. I have been getting a little bit of help from some of my students, but other than that I have no knowledge of the language. Communicating my needs and trying to talk to people has been an experience! Very day I have people wave at me excitedly and scream in my face "HelloOOOOa!" from their motorbikes! I would have never expected this to be my experience! As I begin to recognize people and they recognize me, I am slowly building relationships with people who are so kind and welcoming! These people are becoming my community and with limited phrases and a lot of body language I am becoming a part of their daily lives. This is why I sought this experience, to connect with people from a different culture and create strong bonds with them! Even though being shouted at is something I don't typically enjoy, it is so heartwarming to know that people want to get to know me and are excited to see me! As my year progresses I look forward to being able to communicate more with the people I see everyday!