Hello everyone.

I'm an American with a completely non-TEFL-related bachelor's and did seven years teaching at hagwons (language academies) in South Korea from 2014-2021. Most of my time there was teaching general English to kids (elementary through high school) though I did do some test prep and worked with some older students from time to time. The quality of life in Korea was decent, but I got burnt out on the (probably familiar to many of you) difficulties socialising long-term as an ageing expat in Korea, and with the rote memorization-focused education system in Korea where I never really felt valued.

In 2021 I moved to Ireland to do a TESOL MA course, with the plan being to use that qualification to find somewhere I could settle down to teach long-term where I'd be happier at work and in my personal life. During the second half or so of the course, I started working through my uni in several different capacities. I've been teaching online at a partner uni in China, including both EAP for STEM undergrads on a 2+2 degree program and general EFL for English major undergrads and graduate students across all faculties. I've also taught general EFL for Ukrainian refugees through my uni's community outreach campus, along with EAP for Ukrainian students who've come to my uni. I ran an English summer school through the uni last summer for Ukrainians as well. Finally, I've also been teaching academic literacies and EAP at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels at my uni, including on our structured PhD program for international students.

After finishing the MA in TESOL I transitioned to doing a PhD myself in Applied Linguistics (not really in a research area directly related to TEFL). I've also been working as a research assistant on two different EU-funded projects, one of which has sort of consumed my life recently. I'm at the stage where I've concluded that it's no longer possible to stay here in Ireland, for reasons that aren't really relevant to this post.

I'm at the stage now where I need to either transfer my PhD somewhere else that would fund it (and where I could potentially supplement any funding with teaching of some sort), or shelve the PhD (maybe permanently) and put the TESOL MA to use. I'm 39 years old and not really keen to move countries or continents several times in the coming years, so ideally I'd like to find somewhere where I could get a job teaching at a university or international school with my current experience and qualifications where I might be better able to assimilate into the local culture and feel valued as an educator. Somewhere where a nerd like me could settle down. I've read the Wikis here and I know that it will be challenging for a non-EU national to get work in an EU country, but I'm hoping my Irish degree and experience teaching and working in an EU uni context might make me a more attractive candidate. I would ideally like to stay in Europe somewhere, but I'm very open to hearing about your experiences elsewhere, or pointers about where I should be looking.

Thanks!

Hi all 🫶

I’m looking to move to prague in the fall and hopefully teach English and I’m wondering for those who have experience doing this what the best route is. I studied abroad there, loved it so much and want to go back. I also want to teach. From what I’ve read, it’s better to do TEFL/CELTA in country through a program. Has anyone had good experiences with the language house in prague? Any advice?

I also understand that prague and europe in general is oversaturated with Americans teaching English, but i am still holding onto the possibility. It seems like Czechia & Poland are the best countries for this. Spain as well but from what I’ve seen the wages are lower. Id really like to make it work in Prague. Thank you In advance!

I’ve already completed and passed assignment A, and I just submitted attempt 1 of assignment B, but I am feeling particularly anxious about it. Of course I’ve never had to plan a grammar lesson before and I have no idea if what i have put down is good or bad. How strict would you say they are when it comes to marking it? Surely they aren’t expecting the highest of standards from someone who has never done it before.

Also what should I expect for assignment C? I don’t want to start it until I know I’ve completed and passed B, but I’m still interested to know about your experience with it.

Took a break from teaching near Christmas and started working again after Chinese New Year. Thought I would be subbing and getting paid after a week a work but a subbing job turned into a full position which I didn’t account for being paid after a full month.

Has anyone had any experience with asking for pay in advance?

I’ve been using my US bank digital card but funds are running low and there’s still 2 weeks till next pay date. My concern is with food and small stuff like doing laundry which I never thought I’d be in the situation to be rationing coins. I’ve borrow money from some close friends earlier this month and want to avoid borrowing more.

I have a Mandarin-speaking student who’s lived in the UK for 15 years, but because she surrounded herself with other Mandarin speakers, she didn’t improve as fast as she hoped. She says people don't understand her because of her pronunciation.
Any resources / books that I can use as a guide for lessons? I looked at stressed/unstressed words in a sentence, but I don’t have a comprehensive book for this.
For example she struggles with the pronunciation of the sound in these words for example: uSually, meaSure, deciSion
Any help would be much appreciated.

Hi all,just wondering what I need to take overseas with me for teaching. Do I need to take the physical copy of my degree? Is that enough or do I need all my transcripts etc? Will they need to look online to verify,and if so,do I still need to take the physical copy? Heading to SEA. Thankyou in advance.

I am about to finish my Tesol and BA from York University in Canada Should I do Master of applied linguistics , TESol , or go for teaching school in Canada , specific Ontario OCT eg master of teaching in university of Toronto

I also wanna find international teaching jobs , I wonder which website is the best and reliable

Thx

Ive been offered a job with one. Its a drop down from my current salary but I'd consider taking it if there's a lower workload.

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I am a certified teacher in the USA. I teach full time right now. I’ve been wanting to move abroad, and I have been applying to international schools without much success.

I’ve thought about doing TEFL but I can’t tell if it would be worth it? Especially in terms of salary, benefits, and workload. But I’m not sure.

For example, I was accepted into Spain’s NALCAP program, but that’s just teaching English part time as an assistant, which is a lot less satisfying than being a full time classroom teacher. And I’d lose money by doing that.

I’m sure it’s not the same in other places, but I guess my TLDR is is TEFL worth doing as a certified teacher, and if so where should I be looking?

Hi! I'm half way through my science degree at an Australian Uni but I'm still unsure what I want to do post grad. My Japanese boyfriend is almost finished his degree but will probably need a few years' work experience in Japan before he could find a job in Australia.

I have recently been considering taking a gap year after my bachelors to teach English in Japan so I can spend more time with him and see the world. I speak and write only a little Japanese but I'm studying the language often. I was also considering ESL in France a while ago and have an interest in teaching. I've tutored before and done work experience in schools so teaching isn't so far removed from my interests.

If I choose to live in Japan for a year and obtain a TEFL certificate after I graduate, how likely am I to find work in Tokyo? What should I consider before making a decision?

Thanks for your advice!

Good afternoon all!

I'm just reaching out as I have two options for teaching in Mexico. Some context is that I have worked a corporate job for ~6 years and saved pretty significantly in that time. I want to take a year away to teach before potentially returning - as such I'm not too concerned with saving money in my year. My preference is to teach adults, as that is what I did before starting the corporate job. I have two options:

• Undertake a CELTA in Mexico (the IH course sounds excellent), and then apply for jobs when I'm on the ground
• Enroll for an in-person TEFL course in Mexico with MyTEFL, which features a guaranteed job placement afterwards

I am keen to teach adults in Mexico, and am (within reason) not too concerned about money so much as having an incredible experience. Which would be the superior route given these preferences? I know from my previous experience that CELTA is the gold standard for training and certification, but what's most important for me is being able to guarantee a job - as such, is it worth compromising the CELTA for a TEFL in order to guarantee job placement?

Any advice greatly appreciated, and I'm happy to provide further detail as needed.

Posting this again because the last time I did I didn't get any responses and my own research online hasn't brought up much.
But long story short ,I'm interested in teaching in any of the Central Asian countries. Specifically I am interested in Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan.

I've been taking a look at Dave's ESL cafe and there aren't many postings for this region. Is there anywhere else you'd recommend taking a look into?

Thanks!

Hey I'm just looking for some guidelines as I'm applying. I'm choosing to teach at a uni because I can only be away for a year, I want to have free time to improve my Chinese, and I want to be able to make ends meet during my stay. I will be 40 years old. Any advice would be much appreciated, specifically is this a realistic plan to improve my Chinese or should I just stay where I am in Europe and take online classes? Thank you

Hi TEFL sub,

Sorry if this type of post is overdone but I'm new to working in China and to teaching in general. This is my first job offer for an after-school/weekend school and I need to know if I understand it correctly, whether the salary is reasonable for my experience, and whether a "performance bonus" subject to deductions is normal.

A bit of background: I'm a British national and in a couple months I'll have a bachelor's and a master's degree in law, a 120-hour TEFL and about a year of informal teaching assistant experience at university. This is the first interview I've had and first offer I have got so far. I hit it off in the interview and they seemed really eager to hire me. Their original salary range was between 18-20k, I said I was looking for 22-25 at least. They said they could do 22k in the interview and within an hour they send the contract for 24k and a bit. I'll be going with my girlfriend as she goes back to Chengdu in August and this school is perfect location-wise for where we'll be living. They guarantee one weekday and one weekend-day off per week, for a total of 40 hours per week (2x 90 min classes per day plus office hours).

I've pasted the English portion of the contract below, the Chinese portion of which I've been assured by my girlfriend (fluent Mandarin) is the same. If I understand it correctly, the total salary should be 24,615RMB per month, but 3,000 of that is a "performance bonus" subject to not recieving any complaints. I understand that they provide a 6 week summer holiday on top of Chinese holidays and so the 9,000 "teaching bonus" won't be paid over that time which I guess is a fair trade-off as I intend to spend a fair bit of time exploring and learning Mandarin as much as I can in my free time.

My questions are:

1. Is this a fair total salary for someone of my experience, new to China and sorta-new to teaching?
2. Is the salary being broken down into basic, teaching bonus and performance bonus normal?
3. Would you accept the contract or insist on some changes?

Any comment or guidance would be extremely appreciated :)

Below is the salary section of the contract:

IV. Party B's basic monthly salary is 9500RMB plus 3000RMB performance bonus each month plus teaching bonus 9000RMB for 10 classes (each class lasts 90 minutes including 5 minutes break), plus 3000RMB housing allowance, plus 100 RMB full attendance bonus plus meal allowance 15 RMB per working day. Working day refers to the day Party B works. There will not be meal allowance when Party B is absent or on off days or holidays.) (Note: The above mentioned salary is after tax.)

1 . Performance Bonus:

a : After receiving 3 complaints in a month, the foreign teacher ’s supervisor will conduct an interview. If no improvement is made, 3000 yuan will be deducted from the month’s performance bonus .

b: A penalty of 200 yuan will be deducted for being 10 minutes late , and 500yuan will be deduct ed for being half an hour late. And so on.

c : A penalty of 3000 RMB will be deducted from the month’s performance bonus for absences without justification.

d: Party B agrees to accept instructional supervision and teaching training from Party A and deliver lessons in accordance with the teaching philosophy of the school. In the event of any lackadaisical performance during class, the individual will be subject to an instructional supervision interview. Failure to demonstrate improvement after the first interview will result in a deduction of 500 yuan from the performance bonus. Subsequent interviews with no improvement will lead to deductions of 1000 yuan and 3000 yuan from the performance bonus, respectively.

e : Sick leave/personal leave procedures A day off must be requested from the expatriate supervisor at least 24 hours in advance or it will result in a penalty of 500RMB.

Leave of absence exceeding one week must be requested one month in advance from the expatriate supervisor. Sick leave of one day must be requested at least 24 hours in advance from the expatriate Supervisor and update the corresponding teaching assistants.
Emergencies can be requested by calling the foreign supervisor, if you can't reach the foreign supervisor, you can contact the Chinese supervisor or the teaching assistant. If none of the situations listed in paragraphs a, b, c, or d occur, Party B’s performance will not be affected. That is, Party B will receive the full amount of performance bonus for that month.

2 . Teaching Bonus: Party B will receive teaching bonus 9000 RMB for teaching 10 classes every week (each class lasts 90 minutes, including 5 minutes break time) If there are no more than 10 classes each week, the bonus will be equal to 10 classes bonus. If Party B has more than 10 classes each week, Party B will get 800RMB for each additional class. If it is Party A’s failure to arrange 10 classes, Party B’s teaching bonus will not be affected. If Party B refuses to take 10 classes a week, one less class will result in 900 RMB loss per month.

4 . Full Attendance Bonus: Party B will receive 100RMB for full attendance on duty and teaching.

5 . Housing Allowance Housing Allowance: Party B will receive a monthly housing allowance of 3,000 RMB.

b : a penalty of 100 yuan will be deducted for being 5 minutes late, and 200 yuan will be deducted for being 15 minutes late. And so on.

I'm 33 m. I'm from Dublin but live in Belfast. I have a good job as an Account Manager for a tech company. I'm single and I live alone.

I'd like to do something wild and explore life in a totally different country, doing something totally different.

I like the idea of teaching English, but more so to adults rather than children. Private tuition would be good.

Is it possible for me to move to some place like Vietnam or China, teach English and earn a good salary? If so can I teach adults? What is the best CELTA course to do?

I have a BA (Hons) Degree and a Postgraduate Certificate.

Thanks.

Hi all,

I’m an English teacher currently working in Vietnam.

My employer (one of the large language center companies) has asked me to sign a new labour contract now my probation period has come to an end. I’ve been working here a few months.

The following clause in my contract gives me concern:

“During the Duration of the Contract and within twenty-four months after the termination of this Contract, Party B [me] hereby agrees to give the permission to Party A [my employer] to use their name, qualifications, testimonials and any photos or videos of Party B for any of Party A's promotional purposes.”

This seems like a massive overreach of corporate entitlement and highly exploitative.

I have a stereotypical European appearance. I don’t want to have my face and identity (or even my qualifications!) pimped out for the company to advertise that they have foreign teachers working for them.

I think I’d rather open an OnlyFans on my own terms than give this company access to use my identity to promote their brand 😂

I spoke to my manager and told them I was unwilling to sign this in its current form due to this clause, and they seemed a little surprised as it was “only for Facebook or class photos” but told me to send them an email about it and they can forward my concern to HR for me.

I’m wondering if this sort of thing is typical of employment contracts I outside the US or Europe? I have a local friend (not a teacher) and they told me that it’s not normal and I’m right to question it. Have other teachers encountered anything like this before?

If they won’t remove this clause then I’m probably going to stick to my gut feeling and give my notice. It’ll be very stressful as I’ll lose my residency card and have to leave the country in a few weeks, unless I can scramble and secure another job and work permit asap. But going through the stress of it honestly seems like the better option to me, if it comes down to that.

I just want a little reassurance (or someone to warn me, whatever is fitting).
I am currently finishing high school in the US and have like two weeks to decide whether I want to pursue a university in the US (for Linguistics) or in Japan (for an Education major).

I think that, if I go to Japan, I'd probably become an English teacher there for a few years after completing university there, then going back to school in the US to do some more classes that'd allow me to pursue something more specific in the education field.

I just am scared as to whether I'm going down a good path, because everyone around me has been talking about how they're going to go to college for engineering and other high-paying fields that are usually entered straight out of college. I'm not totally in love with the idea of getting a job and being there for the rest of my life with the exception of a one-week vacation per year. I feel like I have so much more to see.

But, at the same time I have no idea what it'll be like. Staying home in the US (California) would be the safe route, but is teaching abroad an unmissable opportunity I shouldn't pass up? Any input helps. Thanks

Hello! I'm contemplating applying to the U.S. State Department's English Language Fellows program. There are pros and cons for me, so if you did the program, I would really like to know if/how it benefited you professionally. For instance, I think I would like to stay as an adult ESL instructor for the next few years, but I may want to shift to admin/leadership in the future. Would doing ELF help me achieve that?

I want to go down a schooling path for teaching abroad, but have a partner that i would want to bring with me, and she may be able to get a little part time job depending on if the country would allow that, but she has physical limitations due to autoimmune diseases so it will depend on if she feels like she is able to. What countries would pay me enough to be able to support me + another person? thank you guys :)

So, there's the General Service List with approximately 2200 words - suitable for students up to B2 level. Then there's the Oxford 3000 and the Oxford 5000.

Native speakers apparently "know" about 40000 words. It would seem logical that somebody has created a list of the top 10 000 words in English, and yet it doesn't seem to exist.

Am I missing something obvious?

Hello everyone, so i am a uk citizen who just finished my bachelor's degree and tefl cert and want to start teaching tefl overseas, although i did my university in a spanish speaking country but still a normal accredited bachelor's, i know a degree in most cases is purely a visa requirement, but can it be from a non english speaking country?, even though i am a native speaker and citizen of one, my main goal is china or vietnam.

I'm looking for ideas for some activities to mix up my lessons with smaller class sizes. I have a couple of classes that are just 3 students, another that is just 2. I'm very aware of bamboozle and acting out scenarios for practice, but I'd like to mix it up. For reference, the 3 student class is learning science topics from a book, so for them especially I'm looking for alternatives to bamboozle to reinforce the concepts they're learning.

For context I work in a language centre in Vietnam.

I went home for the holidays (1 month) and just before I returned suffered a family bereavement. This made re-adjusting to Vietnam and work tough. To the point I was crying everyday, thinking about going home. I tried to give myself targets. Give it a month, give it until the end of PS school year, end of Summer, end of contract (My contract expires at the end of December).

I slowly got better, teaching distracted me, the kids got me through it.

Now 2 months later, I feel like I’m being hit in all corners. I had a bad week at work last week, I was downer than normal but able to switch on Teacher mode. I knew I needed a few days off and I was moving places - so I had that to look forward to.

On my day off, I slowly was getting better. Not myself, but getting there. Then some personal stuff in Vietnam hit me right as I was moving. This had put me downer than before.

And I’m struggling, I’ve not eaten a meal in 5 days. I’m not motivated at home to work or plan. The new place doesn’t feel like home yet. And I thought work would help. But now I just feel like crying when teaching. I get a pit in my stomach when teaching. I can’t pretend in front of the kids.

With the move happening the same time as this, it’s made the prospect of signing a long-term contract all the more frightening.

My family were willing to fly over next week but work denied me the time off. I really could have used the boost. And now these niggling thoughts I have had in the past few days about quitting and going home are more serious.

I already knew I weren’t going to renew my contract because I got screwed around with hours and broken promises that meant I had to taken on an unfavourable schedule just to get my hours. — I know that I need something that can give me social hours and consistent pay.

But it’s getting to the point where my mentality is “Do your time and get out”.

And the hard bit is, I don’t know if this is fleeting or not.

And I feel I need to for sure before making a choice.

But I am reaching to the point where I’m asking about penalties at different stages of my contract because I feel like I’m being expected to work and work until I’m okay.

Hi all, those who have been teaching English literature in a high school, how is it?

I see a lot of job postings looking for literature teachers, it's just I have no experience teaching it, so I am hesitant to apply for these positions.

I did take a few American literature classes at uni though and I enjoyed them a lot, I may enjoy teaching it as well.

I would welcome some info on this. How hard is it to teach it?

Hello, I am in university for english w/ an emphasis on linguistics and minor in Chinese. My plan with my studies is to teach english as a language globally. I was thinking about getting the TEFL as well to make getting a job more likely and to teach me to teach. Is the TEFL getting over saturated? Will I struggle getting and maintaining a job with it? I heard people don't last long in these jobs. Is it true? Also, can anyone tell me about their experience teaching English in China? Or any advice?

My student has done academic IELTS and obtained the scores he needs (7.5 overall). The problem is his grammar is still very unnatural, both in speaking and writing, and he still wants lessons with me to improve this.

His main issues are use of articles, reference (clear pronouns and antecedents), subordinate/participle clauses and tenses.

He has a good intuition some of the time, but other times it's like he's trying a structure he has come across but gets it confused with something else. For example, he might use a present participle clause with improper syntax where he could have just used a present simple independent clause. Possibly he is confusing present participle clauses with present continuous while at the same time not recognising that he needs present simple instead of present continuous!

I have been giving him proofreading exercises full of his target errors, going over his own writing with him, revisiting sentence types (starting from basic SVO main clauses and going into more advanced structures), article use and tenses.

He has been immersed in academic English for some years now. He's too far past the basics to be relying on simple syntax or to need to keep going over it, but I'm finding it really hard to correct his errors in the more advanced structures he seems to gravitate towards.

Any ideas?

Has anyone on here worked a career in the business world and then transitioned into teaching BE? More specifically I would be interested in anyone working online and/or from a financial background.

Thanks!

So please here me out.

Been teaching in Australia for 10+ years and after travelling extensively during my recent long service leave, I'm yearning a change.

Everyone advises me to teach my subject at an international school. But. This year I switched to teaching part-time here in Australia and I don't want to go back to teaching full-time. I also have a partner and we are expecting plus enjoy working out and YouTube hobby. So I prefer a work life balance.

I've never taught TEFL but will do one of these online courses to get some basics. I have heaps of classroom experience.

What is TEFL like at Chinese universities? Like in terms of level and skill?

I know I could go for Computer Science positions but the topics really don't interest me.

When researching Turkey on the forum I noticed many posts were old, I loved my time here and thought I would make a post which prospective teachers in Turkey might find helpful.

I will continue to update this with prices and formatting as I go to the shops and buy more essentials. Anyone wishing to contribute something important can leave a comment and I'll add it to the post.

This guide is based on Istanbul prices here are more expensive than other cities, but the job market is huge in comparison to the smaller Turkish cities.

Qualifications and certificates required:

TEFL certificate (Celta highly preferable)

Bachelor's degree in any subject (The best positions will want revelent BA's, such as education, English.

PTE or TOEFL certificate (Yes, you read that correctly: The ministry of Education now requires prospective native teachers to have a certificate designed for checking non-natives speakers understand English well enough for studying abroad)

Denklik belgesi (equivalency certificate) This is a certificate you will get once your education has been verified, aka, checked to correctly correspond with Turkish educational standards and level of education. (NOTE: this is applicable for those applying for a work permit as an usta öğretmen, or a "master teacher". This is what requires schools to pay you a minimum of 3 X the minimum wage) The process for this is slightly more complex, but you can also get a work permit as an educational consultant (Eğitim danışmanı) which provides you with a minimum of 2x the minimum wage.

NO health report

NO criminal record check

NO notarizing or translating your tefl certificate etc.

Two routes of work permit, Educational Consultant or Master Teacher:

As mentioned earlier, their process is slightly different, and the legal amount required by law to pay you is also different. Getting your work permit approved as a master teacher requires an additional step, being personally approved by the Ministry of Education. This also requires the aforementioned denklik. İf you want to work in a university, you are required to have this and be an usta öğretmen.

Many schools will assume as a native you have this, even if you were approved as an educational consultant, there seems to be no distinguishing of it on the Work Permit card you receive. İt is not a requirement for employment outside of universities, so they'll likely just offer you the 3x minimum wage salary (or more if it's a good school) anyway.

İf you did your degree via distance learning, the ministry won't accept it, like many gulf countries. They wouldn't accept my degree, so my contract was for an educational consultant, but they paid me the same anyway. The good schools are paying competitive salaries, so this wouldn't matter either.

The educational consultant doesn't require the equivalency denklik or the approval letter from the Ministry of Education. I would try and go for the master teacher pathway though, as universities can be a good option for work and they can pay quite well.

Process:

Receive your job offer

Sign a contract

Take your signed contract to a visa appointment meeting, alongside a letter of intent from the employer.

Also you will bring your passport and a photocopy, and 1 X biometric photo (no older than 6 months)

(İf going for the master teacher route, you'll also bring the letter from the ministry of education the sponsor employer petitioned during pre-approval.

You'll receive an application number from the visa centre which you'll give to the employer and they'll continue the process on their end.

Once approved you'll get your entry visa from the consulate, which grants 90 days. Upon arrival, you'll be able to collect your work permit card from your employer, which lists your name, employer, foreign İD number, etc.

Job opportunities

You could work at a university, private school, international school, or a language centre. The pay range varies substantially, but if you are able to work for a decent school, you'll be able to live alone comfortably, if you get accepted for a very good school or a recognised international school, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

I've gone on a mini job hunt recently and looked at some postings. There are reputable schools for those with several years of experience and relevant degrees being offered 2500-3000usd monthly. Schools slightly beneath this are offering around 2000, but in lira. The lower ranked schools (if above board) will probably pay you around $1400-1500 to meet minimum wage requirements.

3000 USD is NOT the norm, I'd approach normal schools with the expectation of around $1500 - $1700, but higher paying opportunities do exist

Avoid language centres, like English Time. They will try and pay $2-3 an hour and won't give you a work permit. The majority won't use native speakers, instead opting for Iranians, Russians and Arabs, which they can pay less for.

Indeed, kariyer, LinkedIn and the Facebook group Istanbul English Teaching Greenlist are probably the best places to look for jobs. You can also email schools and universities directly.

Cost of living

Here I will list some things I buy. I can't list or convert everything. As I'm British I'm used to the GBP exchange rate, but I'll list the exchange rate for GBP, EUR, USD, CAD, NZD and AUD. İt would take me too long to convert each item to each currency.

£1 = ₺41.13

$1 = ₺32.39

€1 = ₺35.12

1 NZD = ₺19.54

1 AUD = ₺21.11

1 CAD = ₺23.82

1 ZAR = ₺1.71

The current going rate (in a few months they will probably be more expensive because the lira is consistently, albeit rather slowly now, diminishing in value.

Bog standard 1 bedroom apartment: 15,000-18,000, of course nicer ones in newer complexes will go for more.

Chicken döner wrap outside of a touristic place ₺70-100

Phone bill: ₺220 for 15gb data with Turkcell

Fresh bread loaf ₺9

Packet of instant noodles ₺6-10

400g green peppers ₺20

700g mayonnaise ₺50

Metro ride (1 cost no matter which stop, you tap once on entrance) ₺15

Adana kebab ₺220

KFC chicken zinger menu meal ₺99

Double cheeseburger meal Burger King ₺170

Chicken with rice (tavuk pilav) ₺70-110

İnternet ₺80-200 average a month depending on your speed, line. You can pay more for high speed fibre if you live somewhere with the infrastructure.

Haircut and beard trim ₺100-450 depending on the area.

T shirt from Turkish brand store, LC Waikiki/defacto - ₺200-450.

Jar of pesto ₺60-100, brands vary.

Kit kat chunky ₺11

Milka bar ₺35

Premade Tomato sauce jar - ₺50

Water - ₺10 for a litre, I buy 19L bottles which are delivered to me and I return the empty bottle, this costs ₺99

Technology is expensive, a ps5/Xbox you're paying 50%+ more, if you like games, bring the consoles and PC parts from abroad.

Cultural factors to note:

Turks are loud, and Turkish teachers they've grown up in schools are also loud and authoritarian. Adult students especially expect this. İf you're very mild mannered and quite a calm person, this can be something you may encounter.

People drive like maniacs. Be vigilant crossing the roads, countless people are using their phones whilst driving, don't trust the green man, and mopeds will be naughty and drive on the pavement.

Despite being a Muslim majority country, it is still a secular country. İt is currently Ramadan and all the restaurants and cafes are still open. You can buy alcohol from many shops, and everyone is free to dress how they choose. You can see hijabis walking past people in tank tops. More conservative places in the east may not have the same experience, but the big cities such as İzmir, İstanbul, Antalya are very much like this. Istanbul is a beautiful blend of religion and non religious.

Important points (which I wish were made clear to me when I first arrived)

You are required to register your address within the first 20 days. To register your address, you need a rental contract and a utility bill. The contract needs to be notarised at a notary with the landlord present. Then you take these to the immigration office and pray to Allah that the worker understands English and wants to help you. Your address is now registered in the system and you can prove your address for many things using e-devlet, (e government). Turkey has digitalised many of it's processes, and through e-devlet you can do...well, many things. You can check your debt, bills, voting, doctors stuff, any fines, court proceedings, everything.

You can use Wise with a Turkish IBAN to both receive a lira salary and convert money from lira to GBP/EUR/USD with a minimal fee, then you can send the currency to your home bank....BUT, your Wise account location can't be turkey as they restricted what Turkish people can do with Wise. My Wise address is still registered to the UK, so my UK account can convert and use a plethora of currencies, but if you change your address to Turkey, or try to open the account in Turkey you are heavily restricted and can't do this.

Opening a bank account requires a utility bill and proof of address, however you can open an enpara account, which is like a branchless bank (a subsidiary of QNB Finansbank). İ did this and it works well, but the app is entirely in Turkish with no English option, so you'll need to screenshot and put the image into Google translate often.

Turkish tax on phones - as mentioned before, tech is extremely expensive due to taxes. People would buy phones from abroad and use them in Turkey to save money. A ₺20,000 iPhone can cost ₺55,000 lira here. They continue to increase the cost of registering your foreign phone, it is now a whopping ₺30,000, or £728. You'll get a message at some point, telling you that you have 120 days to register your phones IMEI number. İf you don't, the IMEI will stop working with Turkish SIM cards, you will still be able to use your foreign cards. The best advice would be to buy a new phone. You can get a cheap Xiaomi for around ₺5-8,000. Leaving the country resets this timer, and if you have a dual SIM phone, you can double your time by switching over the SIM to the other slot.

Your work permit supercedes the need for a residency permit. Your permit is tied to both your city and employer. İt lasts for 12 months. Renewals at the same job can be made for longer, 2/3 years. After a year you can apply for a residence permit, but it's not necessary to live here as the work permit covers it.

Edit: added a few more necessities