Mongolia

[TheAmericanNomad]

Anyone know anything about it? And I mean straight up Mongolia, Outer Mongolia. Not the Inner Mongolia that is a part of the PRC. From the little information I could gleam from the net, is appears you don't need anything besides a TEFL certificate (and likely not even that) and they always need jobs? (yet I can hardly find any job postings online.) I know it would be cold as f**k over there, but perhaps it would be a decent place to get one or two years experience before hopping over to Taiwan? I don't know, I wasn't interested in Mongolia at all until today, and now it might seem like a decent stop gap to gain some experience as opposed to going to Taiwan without any. (besides what I would get when I go for my CELTA and from my language exchange)

The only ad I find on Dave's forum only says "Very competitive salary" which could mean. . . anything.


Anyone ever teach there? Or hell, does anyone know someone who knows someone who's cousin went over there? I can find so little information I'll take hearsay at this point.


What little information I could find so far:

http://www.onestopenglish.com/community ... 41.article

http://www.eslbase.com/advice/mongolia

http://teflworldwiki.com/index.php/Mongolia Found this right before I pressed "Submit" said pay is around 800 a month with accommodation paid for. Anyone know the cost of living, etc?

EDIT: Also, the teflworldwiki.com site seems to have some incorrect/out of date information on Taiwan, so I don't know if I want to trust it for Mongolia.

[bababa]

It's very poor and so while the pay is low living costs are also low. However, if you want to enjoy life, expat things cost more. The capital is very heavily polluted. I would say it would help prepare you for Taiwan in the sense that Taiwan would look pretty good to you after Mongolia. I think that Taiwan would be a much easier place to start teaching though - there will be less culture shock in Taipei, for example.

[TheAmericanNomad]

Thanks for the reply!

I have no doubts that I will not enjoy Mongolia outside of the winter. I am actually dying for some culture shock, it has been three years since I've traveled abroad, (really haven't been living up to my online handle) and I am itching for an adventure. I have wasted a good five years of my life basically doing shit jobs, and so I will only just now be getting my ASSOCIATES degree (in education) at the end of the spring semester. My original plan is to get that, then get my CELTA, then do one more semester toward my bachelors, then head to Taiwan with that and just do my best while finishing up my degree online (not an online degree though, just some online classes at a real school).


But looking at the market that doesn't sound like it will be enough. But I simply can't stay here for much longer, Virginia is boring, Mongolia might not be fun, but it certainly won't be boring! I guess what I am asking is what will Taiwan employers think of my (potential) experience in Mongolia? Will saying "I have a CELTA, One (or two) years experience teaching in Mongolia, and an associates degree in Education" put me on at least equal footing with another F.O.B. who has a bachelors?


EDIT: Also, are jobs as easy to get as I am being led to believe?

[bababa]

Experience teaching is looked at as a positive, so an associate degree with a CELTA and some experience should make you about equal to someone with a Bachelor's degree and no experience. That you were teaching in Mongolia will not impress anyone, but it won't be a minus either.
If you want somewhere different with few foreigners, Mongolia is not a bad choice. The capital is grey and depressing, but there are interesting tourist sites. There are job opportunites simply because not many foreigners want to live there for a year.

[fruitloop]

I haven't taught there, but I have been there. As bababa says, Ulaan Baatar is a little drab and it is very cold from September onwards. There are other foreigners there and a pizza place, if I remember rightly. The warmest place is probably in a yurt but failing that there are underground heating ducts (like New York) in which street kids spend the winter.



I can highly recommend The Steppe Inn on Friday nights in the British Embassy compound, though the Ambassador cum bartender has changed and I'm not sure how you go about getting an invite.


The electrics in hotels are not necessarily to be trusted.


The locals are friendly and there's lots of space.


Should you fancy a day out, there's an abandoned Soviet airforce base somewhere in the Gobi. There's only one road so you should find it.


If the locals pull you over at 9am and insist you drink vodka, it would be rude to refuse. If they want you to drive their jeep, don't worry, there's nothing to bump into.

[TheAmericanNomad]

Cool, thanks guys! I have a while to make a final decision, but right now I think I'm going to head over there after I get my degree and get my CELTA. (Then, FINALLY I'll be ready for Taiwan) I didn't think Mongolia would be anything extra special for experience to employers, but it is one of the few countries that don't require a degree, so it is one of the few that will let me get experience, so, so long as that experience isn't worthless, then it is worth doing. Hopefully I can get reliable internet access there and continue towards my Bachelors education while there.


Thanks especially for the pictures fruitloop!

[Pop Fly]

We played hockey there against their National team.
Their players had to share sticks and gloves. They were pretty accomplished at changing sticks on the fly.


It's an extremely poor country. Yurts line the highway in downtown UB.

If it's culture shock you are after, this can be areal step back in time. We stopped our bus at a little Mom and Pop groc op and when they ran out of change, they paid us in Tic Tacs. Not entire packs of Tic Tacs, no. They broke it open and spilled a few minty treats in your hand.

I'd say a great place to visit, but teach there?

Dress warm man. It's the coldest place I've ever been. And I've been to Edmonton.

Hmmmmm, Facebook images can't be hosted as images here?

My Mongo Pics.

[yuli]

Anyone know anything about it?

In the course of doing translation and writing support work for a (retired) Okinawan proferssor who has written about Mongolia (and also visited there), I was in the enviable position of having to do some extensive background research concerning that country, but I have not yet been there myself. Meaning that, although i can't claim to know anything about that country that you couldn't find on the web, I have collected some information that i will use if i ever get to go there, and you can have some of that right here.
For example, I would recommend that anybody going to Ulan Bator (Ulaanbataar) to work there should make their lives easier by making personal contacts on the campuses of the universities there, since there you can find educated people who can speak English, Japanese, Russian, or Chinese (depending on your own language of preference).
To get started, here are the URLs to the English pages of four academic institions there:
http://www.miu.edu.mn/
http://www.num.edu.mn/eng/
http://www.must.edu.mn/must_en/
http://infosys.ife.edu.mn/ife_web/
I would also recommend reading the English language newspapers published in Mongolia to get an idea of what the issues are - try this site for a few links:
http://www.world-newspapers.com/mongolia.html (if your budget is too limited to subscribe to the papers, you can access them on university campuses)
And some information about internet services there can be had here:
http://www.ostamyy.com/ISPs/Mongolia.htm

[TheAmericanNomad]

Awesome! Thanks for the great replies!

@Toesave: Well, I am used to going back in time, for short amounts of times at least. I did some charity work in Mexico back in the day, and I'm not talking about Tijuana or Cancun or the tourist destinations, nor am I talking about big Metro areas like Mexico City, no, I'm talking about little shacks without running water and only sometimes electricity. But I never spent the night there, much less a year, so I am sure it will be interesting/hard/crazy. But, where else can I get experience with only an Associates degree? I am open for suggestions, but don't tell me to wait two more years to get my Bachelors, I'll be damn near 27 by that time. (Like I said, I wasted too much of my life doing shit jobs). I am also used to freezing cold, I used to live in upstate NY, where it can get below -30F (-34C) at times (when you count windchill). It is hell, and I hate it, but I can deal with it, and I have some good winter jackets and long underwear already. (I know it will be colder in Mongolia, but one can only be so prepared for that cold) Also, LOVE your avatar.

@Yuli Wow! Thanks for all the helpful info! But should it worry me that the link to "The biggest ISP in Mongolia" is to a down/dead website?

[yuli]

should it worry me that the link to "The biggest ISP in Mongolia" is to a down/dead website?

Temporary inaccessible not "dead" (Google has a snapshot of their site dated 2011年8月25日 04:15:21 GMT)... Anyway, the MagicNet website is hosted in the US - so I don't know what this means.
But when the professor i mentioned was in Mongolia recently he sent me mail from there without any problems, and the other sites i mentioned to you are up, so I wouldn't worry about internet access (especially since there are netcafes in town as well).