Teaching English has become a career with an ever-widening scope of purposes and potential partners. In the old days, being a teacher of English meant that you instructed students in the ways of English literature, grammar tips, and philosophical discussions as part of a high school or college setting. Among the available teaching tools are Google, Wikipedia, JuJu and English penpal forums.

These days, English teaching has a whole new array of stigmas and settings, the fastest growing of which is business opportunity, mostly in Asian countries and the Far East markets of Asia. We are talking about countries like Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Macau, and more. The BBC documents English teaching tools and opportunities.

Now that English has become a business, and not just a tool of literacy, all types of opportunies have arisen. College students and graduates from English speaking countries are now traveling across the world with free plane tickets and lodging to teach English.

Unfortunately it has lead to countless scams and criminal activity, such as fake volunteer programs and human trafficking in some cases.

A safe and free way to practice English is to join forums and chat with online penpals and friends from other countries who are also seeking to practice their English language skills with friends. Some people use Skype, MSN, Yahoo, QQ, or other chat programs with voice tools for speaking practice. Others post blogs or forum discussions for grammar help and more.