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FEATURED ARTICLES           Thursday, September 09, 2010                                Email to a Friend

Teaching English Overseas

Zoe Metz

Congratulations! You’re finally done your four years of university, only to obtain a seemingly meaningless degree in a field that is of no practical use. Now what?

As a university graduate there are several options for you to pursue. You can opt for graduate school in whatever field tickles your fancy. Or, there is always the option of working a boring office job until your career finally gets “kicked off the ground” - but who knows how long that will take.

If these two post-grad options aren’t there is always the travel. Many graduates have taken their dream of travelling and turned it into a career.

A considerable number of graduates are deciding that teaching English overseas is the next step in the lifelong adventure. World travellers and graduates alike drool over the idea of getting paid to travel to far away places like Taiwan and Japan.

But is teaching overseas all that it’s cracked up to be? Or is it highly romanticized? There is something extremely frightening about going to a foreign country with a foreign language – and on top of that, you are all alone. Teaching English overseas is not for the faint at heart; you must be a strong, independent, individual in order to emotionally and socially survive – and not everyone is. The feelings of alienation and culture shock are difficult to avoid and are highly common amongst those people who are overseas.

Think you have what it takes? There are several agencies that certify people to teach overseas. Oxford is one program that grants certificates to those who pass their program allowing their graduates to go and teach overseas. On the Oxford Seminar website (www.oxfordseminars.ca) there are testimonies of past participants all gushing about their wonderful experience. Obviously, the website only lists positive stories. Nowhere one the website does it speak of the possible problems that some participants usually face.

Anyone over 18 can complete the 60 hour seminar and be a fully qualified teacher. Although, Oxford tries to prepare their graduates for their new jobs, they don’t try to prepare them for their new lives. The curriculum is designed to teach only the basics of teaching and does not dive into how to prepare for the alienation and culture shock you might experience.

To get a better understanding of what it is like to be an English teacher overseas, two people who have taught in a foreign country were interviewed. Ryan Smith, 24, taught in Osaka, Japan for one year, while, Elena Phillips, 23, is currently teaching in Taichung, Taiwan. Although they both taught in different countries, they shared a few similar experiences.

Phillips explains that, initially, her biggest issue was money. “My first few months here were really tough… my first paycheck was pathetic. I had to borrow money from a co-worker to get by. I had used all my savings to get to Taiwan and thought the pay would be better so I didn't think about saving it, and it went quickly with all the set up fees of apartment, scooter, socializing in a new environment.  There's so much to see when you get here, you want to do it all. And I was disillusioned that I'd make more.”

Smith experienced negative encounters with his co-workers while teaching in Japan. “The worst part of my experience was encountering bitter, negative teachers. These teachers seemed to exist in every school and usually took the form of older men and women who had been in Japan for too long,” Smith says.

So what kind of person is suitable for this job? Phillips believes that there is a certain kind of personality which is more suitable for the job. Phillips believes there is a certain kind of personality which is more suitable for the job. “I think people who are open minded, not prejudice towards other cultures, people who like to travel, people who are a bit outgoing, a bit eccentric, and fun… These are the kind of people who are a bit more suitable,” says Phillips. Smith agrees with this kind of personality type. Smith believes that in order for a person to excel in this job they must be, “…confident and outgoing. Moreover, they should be adaptive, since most aspects of their life will transform.”

Lastly, are there any feelings of alienation since both of them are visible minorities – they are both white and both worked in Asia. “The feeling of alienation… was pretty common,” Smith says. “I was very obviously different from the local masses - people could see this in my appearance, could hear it when I spoke and could sense it from my cultural misunderstandings, and they either treated me differently from other Japanese people or avoided me altogether. At first, it's a little charming, but after a year it gets annoying” Smith says.

Is teaching English overseas for everyone? The simple answer is, no. It takes a certain type of person to be able to battle the feelings of alienation and the problems that they will most likely face while teaching. If you think you have what it takes, then you should try it.

“It’s [teaching English overseas] a great way to just get lost for a year,” Phillips concludes.

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