What is a foreign language teacher and how to become one

The pandemic has only exacerbated the decline in enrollments in humanities programs that had already been occurring in colleges and universities across the U.S. This has resulted in graduates' academic jobs in Asian languages, literature, linguistics, and Asian Studies will be extremely hard to find for the next few years. The vast majority of higher learning institutions in our country have hiring freezes for this year and next, particularly in the humanities.

Anti-China sentiment in the U.S. has reached a fever pitch as the Trump administration has further demonized China and seeks to decouple the U.S. economy from China. Travel between China and the U.S. is severely restricted right now, and prospects for Chinese graduates seeking to enter the business world are not very promising shortly, as the U.S.-China trade relationship is strained and affected by the U.S. imposed tariffs. The Japanese economy, which had already been in decline for the past several decades, is further hurt by the pandemic, diminishing prospects of jobs in the business world for Japanese language majors looking for careers outside academia.

Given these factors, my advice to current graduates is to be patient. In a post-pandemic world and hopefully, with a more rational approach in Washington to our relationship with China, interest in learning the Chinese language and culture will once again increase, leading to job openings in academia as well as in the business world. Japan and Korea will continue to be essential players in the world in the years to come, and there will be jobs for graduates with knowledge of the languages and cultures of those two East Asian countries.

In the meantime, I would advise current graduates to seek jobs teaching English in China, Japan, and Korea. All three of those countries have handled the pandemic far better than has the U.S. and are, therefore, far safer places to be right now. Teaching English at a university in those countries will enhance your knowledge of the language and culture you've been studying. That, in turn, will increase the likelihood of you getting a fellowship for graduate study and your prospects of a job in the business world. The JET Program provides the best English teaching jobs in Japan. Many universities in China and Korea are seeking university graduates who are native speakers of English to teach in their schools. Best to get certification in ESL before applying, however.