Aram is 41. He comes from Kaluga, a city in Russia. English is not his first language.
For nineteen years he worked as a lawyer. The same company the whole time, a big construction firm. He taught English on the side, mostly online, one student at a time. He never hid why he stayed in law. It paid the bills, and that was all it was.
In June 2026 he walked into a classroom in Dong Xoai. That is a small city in Binh Phuoc province, Vietnam, about 110 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City. It was his first day as a full time English teacher.
The part that stopped us
We asked what he earns now. Then we asked what he earned as a lawyer. They are the same number.
Nineteen years in one company got him to a salary. A language centre in a Vietnamese province he had never heard of offered him that same money as a starting rate.
I have been working for 19 years in my company to reach that basic salary. That is a basic salary, which was exactly the same as my salary in Russia in that lawyer job.
We said out loud that this sounded insane. He corrected us.
Yeah, that is crazy and shameful, I would say.
What he earns, and the hours behind it
A salary means nothing without the hours next to it. Aram gives both. His contract says 80 teaching hours a month. Six days a week. One day off. The pay for that is $1,400.
Then the summer happened.
Everything past the contracted 80 hours is paid on top. That is the only reason July looks like that. So $2,500 is not his salary. It was one heavy month.
His school is a new branch. It opened about six months before he arrived. He is the only foreign teacher there.
They need my face, not only my skills.
What his life costs
He rents a homestay house. Not a room. He has his own apartment inside it, plus a garden and a terrace. It sits back from the road, with trees all around. He pays $220 to $230 a month for it. Then he says, without being asked, that the same city has places for about $150.
His employer found the house and paid for the first three days. Getting the longer lease took someone local. Aram met a Vietnamese woman on his second day in the country, back on that April holiday trip, and they are together now. She works in real estate. The landlord did not want to rent for a long period because he did not know the rules for registering a foreign tenant with the police. She sorted it out.
Aram is blunt about what that meant. Without her, handling the paperwork, the accommodation and the daily admin would have been much harder.
He eats out nearly every day. That surprises people, so here is his reason. Buying food at the supermarket and cooking it at home costs him more than eating at the places on his street.
He has no motorbike. His city has no bike rental. So he walks fifteen minutes to school and back, and calls it the gym he has no time for. He says the cost of living where he is runs two to three times below Russia.
The parts nobody puts in the pretty version
We asked him what was hard. He did not soften it.
- He got one day off in June and one in July. He spent the July one at a consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, doing paperwork.
- Training was about thirty minutes of someone explaining the systems. He thinks a week is the minimum.
- He was handed a student to test on his first days, with no guidance on how to grade.
- Classes appear on days he was told he was free.
- He had never taught children before this job. He teaches toddlers now.
He also knows he has a legal right to a day off. He decided to wait until September before raising it, because the branch is new and everyone is stretched. None of that made him want to leave.
There is nothing that I could say that my life became worse in some way.
He had been to 45 countries and had never lived in one
This is the detail that says the most about why he went.
I visited about 45 countries, but always as a traveller. So I never had an experience of an expat life.
Two weeks somewhere teaches you nothing about paying rent there. Or arguing with a landlord. Or showing up to work on a Monday morning. He had thought about moving for years. At some point thinking had to turn into doing.
The only thing that I regret is that maybe I should have done it earlier. But then I always think that things in life come to you at the right moment of time, so no need to regret.
On being 41
The message we get most often is some version of I am probably too old for this. It usually comes from people in their late twenties. Here is his answer, and it does not flatter anyone.
Age does not matter. It depends on your feeling. If you are a person who is ready to move, to make changes in your life, then you can do it at any age, at 30, at 40, even at 50.
Then he adds the part people skip. The rules for foreign teachers change. Countries tighten them. Nobody promises the door stays open.
Watch the whole conversation
We recorded the full call. It runs about 43 minutes and covers everything above with the numbers said out loud, plus his working day, his students, and what he would tell somebody starting now.
Aram, 41, from Kaluga in Russia, on nineteen years of law, the salary that matched it in a Vietnamese province, and what his month costs.
What his story proves
Aram is not a native English speaker, he holds a Russian passport, and he is 41. Before this job he had never taught children and had never lived outside his country. He was hired anyway.
Nobody checked his passport for a native accent. They checked whether he could teach. Vietnamese schools hire on skill and on how you sound, not on where you were born. We have placed more than 700 teachers into schools in Vietnam since 2017, from over 40 countries, and most of them were not native speakers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a non-native English speaker get hired in Vietnam?+
Yes. Aram is Russian and holds no native passport. Schools care about your English level and how clearly you speak. You need C1 English, a bachelor’s degree in any subject and a 120 hour teaching certificate.
How much do English teachers earn in Vietnam?+
Most land between $1,300 and $1,800 a month for 20 to 25 teaching hours a week. Aram’s base is $1,400 for 80 teaching hours a month. In a heavy month with overtime he made $2,500, but that took 143 hours and no days off.
Is $2,500 a month normal?+
No. That figure is overtime on top of a normal contract, in a month with no rest. Treat $1,300 to $1,800 as the real range and anything above it as extra work.
What does living in Vietnam cost a teacher?+
Aram pays $220 to $230 for a house with a garden in a province, and cheaper places in his city start around $150. Food and daily life run him $150 to $200 a month. In the big cities rent is higher, roughly $220 to $400.
Am I too old to teach English abroad?+
Aram started at 40 and had spent nineteen years in another career. Schools in Vietnam hire teachers in their thirties, forties and fifties. Your energy in the classroom matters more than your birth year.
Do I need teaching experience?+
It helps but it is not required. Aram had taught English online for years and had never taught children before this job. He teaches every age group now, from toddlers to adults.
Do I need to speak Vietnamese?+
No. Classes are taught in English and schools give you a Vietnamese teaching assistant for the younger groups.
How long does the whole process take?+
Aram started in late October 2025 and taught his first class on 1 June 2026. That is about seven months, and he kept a full time job the entire way through.
See What You Would Earn
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