International School Teaching - you may not recognise culture shock for what it is...

All international school teachers experience culture shock, whether they're moving from the US to the UK, or from the UK to Saudi Arabia. It's going to happen, the best thing is to be prepared and recognise it when it's happening...

Factors that can contribute to culture shock are :

• People speaking a different language, dialect or with an unfamiliar accent.
• Dealing with a different currnecy, money that is a different colour, feel and value. Keeping track of exchange rates can become a tiresome chore when living abroad, so once you’ve received your first paycheck, don’t bother. Earn local, spend local!
• People behaving in unfamiliar ways, even local customs can vary from one end of a country to another.
• Spicy and/or unfamiliar food. You may need to substitute ‘like’ ingredients in your favourite recipes too.
• People staring at you, if you are in a country where your skin colour or facial features stand out as being different, this will happen.

On top of this you’ll be the new teacher in school, so the procedures and policies will be different to what you’re used to at home.

International School - recognising culture shock

International School Teaching and Culture Shock

Culture shock is the term used to describe how people feel when they are exposed to an unfamiliar culture or way of life, and the feeling of disorientation and separateness they experience. It’s a condition that every international teacher feels in varying degrees, whether they’re new to teaching abroad or old hands at it.

Luckily culture shock follows a fairly predictable cycle and there are a number of ways you can prepare for it and lessen the impact of it once you’ve made the move overseas.

Unfortunately, when describing culture shock, it comes across as a negative thing to be avoided at all costs, and I’ve just told you it’s inevitable for anyone wanting to teach abroad. It’s important for you to remember that teaching overseas is an opportunity to explore other cultures and enjoy a better teaching environment. Yes, you will experience culture shock, but you can manage this and it’s not all bad!

International school teaching - culture shock

International School Teaching - the best decision you'll ever make!

Teaching at an international school is an opportunity to put your credentials to good use. You’ll be able to support yourself, and often have more left over at the end of the month than you would at home, and travel extensively to exotic destinations you’ve only ever dreamed about.

And guess what? Internationals school principals have been discussing the looming shortage of international teachers!

That’s right, with the sudden explosion in the number of schools opening for business in the last couple of years there’s been an equal explosion in the number of positions recruiters need to fill… but as yet there hasn’t been the required increase in teachers applying.

You do the math on that one and it all comes out to be a positive move in your favour.

International School Teacher Shortage

Will I make enough money teaching in an international school?

Exactly how much is enough? Especially when you take into account the cost of living in some countries! This is a hard one to answer because we all have different opinions on how much is enough, don’t we?

However, my answer is this… do your homework! It is possible to make loads and loads and put your investment portfolio on the map (or cover the map with your travels! Or both?), but it really depends where you go. Western Europe doesn’t have the same potential for earning that the Middle East or South East Asia has, but almost all international schools will pay you enough to live reasonably well. Although even in Western Europe, some schools pay better than others, and Eastern Europe is different again because of the low cost of living.

International schools - how much will they pay me?

Do I need TEFL to teach at an international school?

Let's start with that acronym, TEFL is Teaching English as a Foreign Language. If you've been researching overseas teaching for a while you'll definitely have run up against this one. Whether you need one to get a job teaching abroad for an international school all depends on what kind of credentials and experience you already have...

A TEFL qualification is easy to get and can be a quick way into teaching jobs abroad. If you don’t have a teaching qualification, then you probably don’t have any other option. With a TEFL certificate you can teach the English as a Second Language classes that are offered at most schools catering to international students.

Based on my experience doing both, teaching EFL or ESL at an international school is preferable to teaching at a private language school, I'll talk more about this in future posts. So plan your job-hunt accordingly.

Also, if your experience is all in mono-lingual and mono-cultural situations, then getting a TEFL qualification to add to your current credentials will only improve your chances. It will show recruiters that you are prepared for the issues you’ll encounter in your multi-cultural classes abroad.

As I said you can quickly and easily upskill with a TEFL certificate. You don't even need to leave the comfort of your own home! I've assessed some online and 'vacation' courses that you can utilise to get yourself a TEFL certificate.

Read more about online TEFL courses, and courses you can do abroad...

International schools and TEFL

Will an international school employ me if I've got children?

Yes they will! You may have some trouble if you’ve got 7 kids and you’re a single parent, or something similar, simply because the recruiters know you probably won’t be able to manage on a single teacher’s salary and allowances.

Contracts for overseas hired teachers often include such perks as free tuition for your children (often limited to two, but not always), so you’ll get a private education for your children too.

It's safe to say that, within reason, teachers with children are in no way penalised for having children. In fact some schools prefer to employ teachers with children because families are believed to be more stable in the international education environment.

Will an international school employ me if I've got children?

Where can I teach in an international school? How can I find out?

There are over 4000 international schools of varying sizes worldwide and all of them need teachers. So the answer to the first question is… just about anywhere!

One way you can find out whether there’s an international school where you’d like to work is to ‘Google it’. I simply typed in ‘international school Bangkok” and up popped a whole page of listings.

For an even tighter search you can limit the results to show only websites with '.ac' or '.edu' the two website extensions for educational institutions commonly used.

Of course this isn’t the way to go about landing your new teaching job abroad, but you can certainly check out how many schools are available in the destinations you’re interested in.

Where can I teach in an international school?

Teach at an International School and Never Have to Supplement Your Income Again!

For 8 of the last 9 years I've been doing supplementary work to add to my income. I even took on extra work whilst I was teaching abroad, but that was before I started teaching at an international school...

Learn ways to supplement your teaching income at 5 Ways for Teachers to Make Extra Money, or secure a job at an international school and never have to take on extra work again!

My Guide will show you the quickest and easiest way to find your own international school teaching job (and it's possible to work in a place where you don't have to pay TAX, too!)

Don't work your butt off to make enough money to live on, you can work your butt a little and make more than enough money to live on when you teach overseas.

International Teaching - Life Long Learning

One of the catch phrases of recent years has been life long learning. Teachers are meant to instil this credo in our students and to model it. One of the easiest and most rewarding ways of modelling life long learning is to teach in an international school.

Living overseas is a learning experience. Nothing comes easy when you don't speak the language very well, don't have your own transportation and the products you're used to probably aren't available anyway.

Sound negative? Oh no! It's anything but... life is challenging and interesting and full of surprises when you're making your way through another culture and language. I move often because when it starts getting easy, it starts getting boring.

Teaching abroad is all about creative problem-solving. Learn more about teaching in international schools today, from teachers who are doing it right now!