The pros and cons of teaching overseas

Teaching overseas:
Teaching overseas is the adventure of a lifetime. It's an incredible experience that will make you more adaptable, open-minded, brave, knowledgable about the world and it will give you a fierce sense of independence. You will experience new things, save money, travel, meet new people, make friends from around the world and step outside of your comfort zone. Imagine this. You're on your own in a foreign country and you are surrounded by a completely new language. The food, the culture and the customs are radically different to your own. The little things like opening a bank account, getting a phone contract, going to the dentist or doctor can become huge challenges when you can't do it in English. You have no family or friends from home to help you. You work in an environment where things are done differently from your home country and you must adapt to a different working culture. If you are able to survive on your own in a foreign country where you can't speak the language, then you can make it anywhere!

Pros of teaching overseas:
1) You become self-reliant, adaptable, open-minded and brave. You don't have any friends or family from home to help you so you become very self-reliant. You learn to adapt to whatever situation you may find yourself in and this is always a valuable quality to have in life as we never know what life can bring. You will be forced out of your comfort zone. You will experience personal growth and become a stronger, braver version of yourself.

2) You will make friends from different countries all around the world. New people are always coming and leaving when you work in a foreign country but you have to learn to let go. Learning to let go of people is something we have to learn to do in life.

3) You will have a huge adventure. There are lots of places to explore and new things to do and see in a foreign country.

4) You can save money while you travel the world. In South Korea you can earn 2000 US dollars per month.

5) You will become more knowledgable about the world and you'll become a more interesting person. Travel is a fantastic teacher. You will learn about a new culture and probably learn a new language which is a very enriching experience. You'll have many interesting experiences and opinions to share with people.

6) You make memories that you will treasure forever. The stories you take home with you will definitely entertain people and you will experience things that some people won't even do in their wildest dreams.

The cons of teaching overseas:
1) Depending on your particular tastes, you may or may not like the food. I found that I enjoyed the food in Japan (sushi, ramen and donkatsu yes please!!) and Hong Kong a lot. I also enjoyed some Korean food like bibimbap 비빔밥, bulgogi 불고기, hottdoek 호떡 and hobakjuk  호박죽 (pumpkin porridge with sweet rice dumplings) but I never enjoyed kimchi or boendegi (fried silk worm larvae).

2) If you teach in Asia you might experience a lack of vacation compared to other teaching jobs in the Middle East or South Africa/ America/ Australia/ New Zealand/ Canada/ UK. In Japan, South Korea and the Asian countries the people work extremely hard and you will also work hard and have very little vacation. You only get 3-4 weeks of vacation a year. However if you renew your contract you can get extra bonus vacation time that you can use after renewal. It was so different to teaching in South Africa where I get around 9 weeks of paid vacation working in a public school.

3) Letting go of people. Athough you will make friends from all over the world, people are always coming and leaving, so you need to learn to let go and remember to always mainly be self-reliant.

4) Homesickness. You will miss the people back home and you must become good at staying in touch via facebook or email.

5) Culture shock. You have to get used to a whole new culture, new language and new customs such as bowing to people, to sitting on the floor in traditional restaurants, people staring at you in public,  the lack of English and eating new food.

6) You really have to be mentally and emotionally strong to handle the challenges of living in a foreign country where English is not the official language. The little things like opening a bank account, getting a phone contract or going to the dentist or doctor become huge challenges when you can't do it in English. Whatever difficulties you struggle with at home will be magnified by a thousand. The experience of surviving alone overseas will make you a stronger, tougher person.

Teaching overseas is an incredible experience. I never regret teaching overseas and it definitely made me a stronger person.