Sunday 9 November 2014

6 Things to Expect When Teaching Abroad

1. The pain of trying to pack your life into a couple of suitcases and realising that you can't bring your mountains of stationery or random resources with you.

2. The confusion of adjusting to another climate. If you've grown up in a country where  blustery weather is normal all year round, then your teaching wardrobe doesn't really vary from season to season. Then you get to a country where it's upwards of 30 degrees Celsius and you have to find a way to dress appropriately while letting as much skin free to the air. It can be quite the dilemma!


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3. The absolute shock when you realise it's Fathers' Day in your new country and you hadn't factored it into your planning. You'll also probably forget Mothers' and Fathers' day in your home country and pray that the post will get your card across countries/continents in a day.


4. The immense satisfaction of spreading your culture to another place. Watching the students in your school make decorations and take part in activities to celebrate a festival from your home country can make your heart bubble over with national pride.
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5. The fear when you realise that not all hand gestures mean the same thing in other countries. While you might think a simple "rock on" hand sign is innocent, think again! The students in your class may point out that their parents told them it was a bad thing! Check out this guide to offensive hand signals that you may have previously thought were perfectly safe to use in school!
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6. The joy of meeting colleagues from different places and learning lots about their ways of life. With that comes learning a lot about yourself and things that you didn't even realise were characteristics of your own people.


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