Teachanywhere's Christmas Message

Christmas Notes from the General Manager by Diane Jacoutot

It’s time for the Christmas break, here at Teachanywhere, though as usual there will still be a number of staff working over the holidays – because jobs are coming in even as I write this.  But it is time for me to shove off, and so to celebrate my last blog, I thought I would write a holiday poem for you.

Twas the night before leaving, I was sat working late. Last I looked at my watch, twas a quarter past eight.

And thus startled was I when a man did appear, stood fast in my doorway with a bushy white beard

Dressed all in red with round cheeks that were rosy.  Was I seeing things? Was I getting dozy?

I rubbed at my eyes, but it was no folly. The old man stood his ground, with a smile quite jolly.

“Are you lost?”, I inquired as I rose to my feet. “You’re likely not far – the pub’s just down the street”.

“Well no”, he replied, “I came down for a chat. I was just passing by and your demeanour looked flat”

I replied, “I’m just busy, there’s much to get done. Next week I am leaving, so there’s no time for fun.

I have budgets and projects with deadlines, you see.  I’ve been working since sunrise but I just can’t break free”.

He sat as he heard this, and pondered my case. I needed some help. He could tell from my face.

He seemed lost in thought; he was deep in the zone. Then his smile appeared and he whipped out his phone.

He barked out some orders as I sat by myself. “It’s Nicholas here, get me the Head Elf!”

“Send me Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen.  I want Comet and Cupid and Donner and Bitzen!”.

“There’s a woman right here who needs all of our help.”. Then a knock at the doorway. I let out a yelp.

‘Cause there to my wondrous eyes did appear a sight quite amazing- twelve full sized reindeer.

“Don’t you fret”, he then smiled, “They are here to assist. What do you need doing? Let’s make out a list!

My deer are quite clever, they can add and subtract. They can type with their hooves. It’s a little known fact.“

So he set them to working, he started with Dancer. “Take that monthly report, and you write it with Prancer

Cupid, you take the emails, and then do the budget. If you don’t have the figures, don’t sweat it, just fudge it.

China jobs, that’s for Blitzen -you can do it with ease. Your writing’s quite good and you speak Cantonese.

Donner there’s something for you –don’t get your tail in a fluff. I want you to work on that database stuff. “

Soon the deer were all busy, quite a sight did I see, when the man finally turned his attention to me.

“You now should be going. I’ll stay and patrol. We are quite good at this, it’s all under control.

Go off on your trip and don’t ever look back. If we find any problems, we’ll take all the flack. “

I didn’t know what to say as I gave him my key. “If you need some refreshments, the kitchen’s got tea.

I am ever so thankful. This has been a great gift”, there were tears in my eyes as I stuttered and sniffed.

The deer looked quite grateful, with their typing hooves flashing. And old Nick gave a smile that almost made him look dashing.

Said I to them all and to all who could hear, “Merry Christmas to all. And a Happy New Year!”

A Fish out of Water: Teaching Abroad and Culture Shock!

Notes from the General Manager by Diane Jacoutot

It was announced today that the EU has agreed to plans for an EU wide banking supervisor in 2013. The agreement is seen as a pre-cursor to allowing the European Central Bank to give emergency money to ailing banks without going through national governments and pesky, short-sighted politicians which should make crisis management go quicker. And it’s only taken us 3 years of non-stop crisis talks to reach this point.

Solving problems is something that we do all the time, and we know instinctively how it works in our home country. A child gets bullied in the playground? You know how the reporting is done, what is required and what to expect will happen next.  Your landlord won’t fix a broken tap? You know who to call and what to do if you cannot get your point across to the first person you speak to.  A parent politely asks you to change a grade on their child’s paper? You know whether this is acceptable or not, and how to react.

But when you are in a foreign country you can literally throw away your old rule book. You are a fish out of water. You must make a new rulebook and this can be very disconcerting until the new rulebook is written in your mind and only then will you feel confident again.  I think pretty much everyone has looked at news reports of something happening in a foreign country and thought – Why are they dithering around, why can’t they just.......   and imagined how you would sort it if you were in charge. But the fact is that if you were magically transported to that country and you tried to fix a problem in a way that works at home, it probably wouldn’t work.

Culture is the air that we breathe and the water in which we swim, and we don’t really recognise its impact until we are taken out of it.  It’s frustrating at first – and this forms the basis of “Culture Shock” which is a reaction (emotional and sometimes even physical) to this change of environment, rather like a fresh water fish being moved to a brackish pond.  To read more about culture shock and how to cope click HERE.   It's something that Teachanywhere tries to prepare all of its applicants for.

So how can you navigate the cultural divide between your new and old culture?

The best advice is to understand your new country as best you can.  A good place to start is with Gerte Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. It gives you a snapshot into different facets of culture by country and the trick is to compare the new country to your own.  Remember there is no right or wrong, just different.

For instance, if your home country has a low ‘power distance’ – i.e. decisions are usually made at a low level in a hierarchy – and you move to a high power distance country like the UAE or Russia where even small decisions have to run up the chain of command and then back down, it will seem like decisions take forever to be made and that the people at the low level with whom you are dealing are just being obstinate and useless. But they are not- they are doing their part and they know their part in the process even if you do not. It instantly becomes less frustrating and you can reset your expectations with this knowledge.  To find out more about Hofestede’s cultural dimensions for your country/ies, click HERE. Click on each of the dimensions to understand what they mean and then go to the “Countries” tab and click on your country and then your country of interest to see how they differ.

When on the ground, you should also seek out someone who can act as a cultural guide and ask them for advice before you assume things. The best guide is an expatriate with at least 2 years of experience in that country but try to find at least two guides if you can to get a range of viewpoints. If you cannot find an experienced western expatriate then try to find a person who knows a little about your culture and who understands that there is a cultural gap such as a host national who has themselves lived abroad.  These people can serve as the editors of your new rulebook and are invaluable as you make your transition.

You should also look out for and try to recognise the signs of culture shock and understand how this might influence your emotions and outlook on any problem you encounter. Usually it makes them seem worse than they are. The good news is culture shock is temporary and you WILL feel differently in about a month’s time so try to stick it out with as much good humour as you can muster.

But the message here, as always, is that the more you can prepare yourself for your cultural experience the better you will be.  The more research you can do and the more open minded you can be the smoother the transition will be for you. And when you make the transition and become accustomed to two or more different cultures, you will feel proud and special that you have this knowledge that few other people have.

It’s  a gift... but a gift you have to work for.

Notes from the General Manager: Looking East!

Chinese author Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2012, the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel in its 111 year history. This is an extraordinary achievement for a man who was forced to leave school at 12 and work in the fields due to the Cultural Revolution. In many ways this reflects the journey that China has been on and continues on now. I know China-bashing is in vogue in certain parts of the world, but personally I remain awed by the continued transformation taking place there – from country almost literally starving to a world superpower in less than a generation. And they are doing it their own way, picking and choosing what they want to assimilate. While we may not always agree with their methods, you can’t but admire their single-minded ambition and undeniable results.

All eyes were turning East this week at Teachanywhere, as we won two major contracts for recruitment next year. Woo hoo! First we were awarded a large contract to recruit Australians and New Zealanders to Hong Kong for their state school EFL programmes for the 2013 school year, which is making our Australian and New Zealand offices ecstatic. Then we were announced as the strategic recruitment partner for Dulwich College Schools in China, which is a rapidly expanding group of English National Curriculum schools with a very long and prestigious history in the Independent school sector in the UK (Dulwich College in London was founded in 1619 and it’s a member of the Eton group of schools to give you an indication).  We are assisting in their recruitment drive starting with an interview event in November in London.

Both opportunities are so very different in terms of what they are looking for, but both provide dedicated teachers with an opportunity to experience the very best of China and Hong Kong by working for very reputable and established operations. Both are very specific in what they want – in Hong Kong they seek only Australian and New Zealand trained teachers with a specialism in Primary and Secondary English/EFL. At Dulwich, as you can imagine, they seek very experienced (minimum 3 years) British trained teachers who have a solid history teaching the best and brightest children with a UK curriculum ideally with independent school experience.

Don’t get me wrong, the Middle East team had their share of success as well – we are in the midst of a huge recruitment drive in London, Ireland, Sydney and Auckland for teachers to work in state schools in Abu Dhabi for January or September starts, and the Middle East team has a huge variety of immediate start vacancies in international schools around the region.

All in all it’s been a super week for the company. As the weather is turning bad in London (dismal, dark and rainy yesterday. Hello October!)  the climate within the company is bright and sunny.

All the best

Diane Jacoutot

General Manager, Teachanywhere.com

Ps. If you want to send in your CV or express your interest in any of the above here’s the emails:

Dulwich:  LMC@teachanywhere.com

Hong Kong: HongKong@teachanywhere.com

Teachanywhere says Eid Mubarak

Notes from the General Manager by Diane Jacoutot

One of the pleasures of international teaching is celebrating holidays abroad and Sunday marks the first day of Eid Al Fitr, the celebration at the end of Ramadan.  Ramadan, for those who do not know, is one of the five pillars of Islam and is a holy month which marks the period in which the Holy Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.  During Ramadan, Muslims are expected to strive to a higher level of spirituality to nourish the spiritual side rather than the physical side of themselves, and this is achieved by fasting during the hours of daylight. This means no eating, drinking, smoking and other pleasurable activities from sunrise to sunset. Even drinking water is not allowed.  In addition, Muslim virtues are emphasised such as charity to the poor, patience, steadfastness, etc.

Ramadan ends with a three day holiday and celebration, Eid Al Fitr, the Feast of the Breaking of the Fast. This is time for family celebrations, outdoor prayer, large gatherings and the giving of money to children. This year Eid Al Fitr runs Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and these are bank holidays in the UAE and many other countries.  A traditional greeting is “Eid Mubarak” meaning roughly “May you enjoy a blessed festival”.

If you are fortunate enough to be in a Muslim country for Ramadan and Eid, I encourage you to participate wherever possible. If you are invited to a meal or celebration by all means go.  Your hosts are understandably proud of their culture and heritage, and by inviting you to participate, are sharing this with you.  Understanding another culture by firsthand experience is hopefully one of the reasons you have gone abroad in the first place. It’s what makes living abroad so much better than just going on holiday.

Speaking of holidays, I should also mention that World Teacher Day is coming up on 5 October and to celebrate this year Teachanywhere is having a fabulous competition to celebrate.  We are inviting schools and classes around the world to send us their poetry, artwork, videos and essays celebrating those who make such a difference – You!  

 Please see www.teachanywhere.com/worldteacherday for more information. The winning class, judged by a respected South African artist,  will be presented with £500 of free school resources.

All the best

Diane Jacoutot

General manager, Teachanywhere

Ps. Apologies to all of Ireland. Ireland has actually won 9 gold medals, not one. I should fire my researcher (me) and hire a new one (someone else)! Thanks to all the Irish readers who gently pointed out my error.

Teachanywhere: Olympic Success

Notes from the General Manager by Diane Jacoutot

The Olympics are drawing to a close this week, and as someone who loves all things international I have loved every minute of it. Whether it was Ireland winning their first gold medal ever (Anne Marie was going wild in the Teachanywhere office yesterday), Usain Bolt’s historic 200m win (Nick was going wild in the office as well), Michael Phelps’ amazing medal count, the first brave Saudi female athletes, flawless Chinese divers, or Kazakhstan’s 6 gold medals, it’s been a feast of national and international pride.

There were calls in the paper yesterday to make the 70,000 Olympic volunteers a national Sports Personality of the Year, which is quite an honour here in the UK. Having been to some of the events I can say that they certainly deserve recognition as unsung heroes.  Pink jacketed “Games Makers” have been absolutely everywhere and incredibly helpful to the millions of visitors who have come to the games as well as those wandering around London doing touristy things. I met some lovely ones in Trafalgar square last weekend and they gave me great directions to a restaurant I was trying to find which I would imagine was somewhat outside of their call of duty.  Extending the friendly hand of welcome makes such a difference when you are new to a place and I was proud of the UK for doing it so well.

It is precisely that hand of welcome that international teachers experience when they arrive in their new country, and one that is just as unsung.   International schools will have representatives meet you at the airport, and take you to a hotel or your new apartment. You will then meet the other new international teachers for an organised orientation that covers culture, language, and everyday necessities such as setting up bank accounts, residency paperwork, medical forms, curriculum and school policies. It’s so ironic that many of the fears teachers feel before embarking on their new jobs abroad are so unfounded – the lifeblood of an international school is an international teacher and you are welcomed with open arms.   I was corresponding with a teacher yesterday who is about to embark on a job in Kuwait and I told him how jealous I was – I love the feeling of excitement tinged with trepidation that accompanies the start of a new journey. I love the challenge of working in a new environment where you don’t know precisely what’s around the corner, because once you overcome personal and professional challenges in this way, the rush of satisfaction when you turn the corner into the relative unknown becomes quite addicting. 

Speaking of personal challenges, for those who have been following the story, my 16 year old son returned home from Tanzania this morning having summited Mount Kilimanjaro and completed a community service project. He’s slightly skinnier, definitely fitter and more confident with a higher tolerance for vegetables, a hankering for a big steak and a newfound love of coffee.  He’s also got a head full of indelible memories and the knowledge that if you set your mind to something and put your fears to the side, you can do the most amazing things. 

 I think I learnt a bit of that myself in letting him go.

Teaching Overseas: Goodbye and Hello!

Notes from the General Manager by Diane Jacoutot

It’s been a week of goodbyes. First Bob Diamond stepped down as the head of Barclays bank after his initial anaemic response to the latest banking scandal to merely go without a bonus for 12 months (ie downsize from his typical magnum of Cristal with Sunday Brunch to a mere 75cl bottle this year. What will the neighbours think?) almost caused a riot in the streets. Then Katie Holmes bid farewell to Tom Cruise and his friends from Xenu. And finally in Florida USA, lifeguard Tomas Lopez was bid adieu (aka fired) for saving a drowning man because the man was drowning in a section of beach slightly outside that which Mr Lopez was paid to patrol.

Saying goodbye can be easy, as in the case of Mr Diamond with his hubris and ethics-free lifestyle, but in most cases it’s hard when you say goodbye to people you care about and familiar places to which you have become accustomed.  When you work abroad, saying goodbye is a fact of life. 

Probably the hardest goodbye is when you leave for the first time because you know what you are leaving but don’t know where you are headed and you are less practiced at easing your way out the door.  Family and especially parents often sneak in that special kind of guilt-laden goodbye that only caring parents have access to (do they teach this at Parent School? I wonder). 

“Oh  Diane”, my mother said last time I left, “It was so good to have you home. It’s a shame you live so far away”

With friends you get more of a mixture of sadness because you are leaving and jealousy because they secretly wish they were going too. But this is tempered with promises to visit... and usually they do.

 Of course the flip side of saying goodbye to those you know and love is saying hello to your new school and your new friends.  It may be comforting to know that, on average, international schools change 20% of their staff every year. So you will certainly not be the only New Kid in class. And it also means that international schools are set up to greet you and help you settle in because staff movement is normal and welcomed as a source of fresh ideas. Those who choose to teach in international schools are people who love travel and are unafraid of meeting new people, so you can be assured that you will be saying hello to some very interesting and welcoming people indeed. One of the reasons I really love working with international schools and organisations is that the clients I get to work with and the candidates we meet are so open-minded, bright and balanced that the whole working abroad thing, whilst difficult on one hand because of who you leave behind, is so easy because of who you get to work with.

Goodbye is hard but you cannot have goodbye without hello, just like you can’t have happiness without sadness and light without dark. 

Of course actually saying hello and goodbye and being understood is another matter when you go abroad. So below is a handy cheat sheet for you to start you on your way:

	Hello	Goodbye
Chinese	Nin Hao	Zai Jian
Russian	Zdravstvujtye (zdrah-stvooy-tee)	Do svidaniya! (duh svee-dah-nee-ye)
Arabic	Salaam Alaykum	Ma salaama
Malay	Hello	Selamat tinggal

Teaching abroad and the cost of living

Notes from the General Manager by Diane Jacoutot, General Manager

I hope you are sitting down as you read this shocker, but it appears that there is very little market in Vancouver Canada for $450 pizzas.

This surprising news was discovered by Canadian Nader Hatami when he offered a pizza named C6 on his menu that features black Alaskan cod, lobster thermidor and a side dip of Russian Caviar. So far he has only sold one. On the other hand, his second priciest pizza- the $120 version (a relative bargain I suppose) with Icelandic scampi and lobster ratatouille has flown off the shelves to at least 7 people.  Who would have thought that there is any market at all for super gourmet pizza?  The Canadian economy must be doing better than I thought. Perhaps $120 is not a lot to spend on a humble meal which got it start when southern Italian bakers decided to approximate the Italian flag in food – red tomatoes, green basil and white mozzarella on flat bread.... What did you say? That $120 is not chump change in Vancouver?

No, I thought not.

Cost of living is something which is really hard to explain to people and doesn’t really impact you until you live it. When we live at home, we instinctively know how much something costs.  You know what a can of Coke or a bottle of water costs. You know about how much a taxi ride to town costs. And you know about what percentage of your take home pay you lose to taxes and rent and electricity and phone bills. All of this is subconscious, really. It’s the air you’ve been breathing for years.

But when you go away all of these costs change.  And often they go down. So you might get free housing – wham! There’s several hundred dollars each month that’s not slipping away. Food might be 50% cheaper so bingo, there’s another hundred. And taxes might be 10% as in the Far East and Kazakhstan or 0 in the Middle East so whoa – there’s an extra 30% of your salary you can pocket. And so on...  It really adds up.

This is the answer to the Big Question we get at Teachanywhere from those who are new to the international circuit. “Everyone says you can save money when you go abroad. But I don’t get it because I’m making so much less money on this salary”. 

Of course it does depend on what you spend your money on. Those of us who have been on holiday abroad and have wandered into a shop looking for a favourite snack that is common at home but clearly must be imported to this foreign country have had sticker shock. I will never forget when I found a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese in England for £4.50 ($6.75) and my jaw hit the floor. (And no, it was not even the deluxe kind.) In the US the stuff goes for $1.25 – it was highway robbery.

But then again, I reasoned, someone went to the trouble of getting it all the way over here and frankly, since most Brits have no idea of the cheesy (?) goodness that sits within a box of this highly addictive foodstuff, it is not going to be a big seller, hence the markup.  So if you live abroad and eat like a tourist, it’s going to cost you more. But if you live abroad and eat like a local.... well this is where you save big money.

For those of you who want to play around, the cost of living calculator on Expatistan does the job fairly well. But keep in mind that it includes housing which is often free to teachers living abroad so take that out of the calculation. You really care about food , travel and entertainment.  It’s HERE 

Finally, in other fascinating Canadian pizza-related news (sorry Canada, it’s one of those days) the Winnipeg Sun reported that 22 year old pizza delivery man Justin Labrie is going to jail for 6 months after an overzealous attempt to get a pizza to the customer on time at all costs. Apparently he led police on a high speed chase where he forced two pedestrians to dodge to safety, ran a red light and gave the police the finger as they signalled him to pull over before he sped away with his precious cargo. 

There is no mention of whether he received a good tip for his efforts.

All the best

Diane Jacoutot

Now is the time to Teach Abroad! Don't delay...

Notes from the General Manager - Diane Jacoutot

A 63 year old man was detained in Washington DC, USA for murder this month when he interviewed for a job.  A standard pre-employment background check determined that there was an outstanding arrest warrant on him in a murder-for-hire case back in 1973.  Apparently it was a surprise to both potential employer and employee.  They say justice never sleeps, but it appeared to be taking a 39 year siesta in this case.

Internationally, an equally old but very unpopular law in Egypt was given a siesta yesterday, and this was a cause for much celebration.  The current government in Egypt ended a 30 year old emergency law which gave police broad powers to detain and arrest people, in a victory for pro-democracy activists.

And at the same time the Egyptian stock market increased 34% since the beginning of the year, making it one of the biggest global winners this year.  It’s good to see Egypt, which had been a powerhouse in North Africa, returning to normality. The international school market appears to be rebounding as well and we have just taken in a number of jobs in a very good school based in a suburb 45 minutes outside of Cairo.  The consultant who recently visited this school, who also lives in Egypt, commented on the warm family atmosphere and high quality of resources available so if you are looking at North Africa I encourage you to take a fresh look. It pays quite well and has a much higher savings potential than in the nearby Gulf States such as the UAE.

Now is the time of year when we get a raft of really interesting jobs in all over the world, and clients become more flexible (within reason).  As we approach the end of the academic year which is typically end of June for most international schools, we find that clients are willing to consider candidates with a bit less experience, or less consistent experience, than previously they would and this is good news for many. The UK May Resignation deadline has passed, and this means that a vast majority of English and Welsh teachers are locked into contracts until January, and whilst this is bad news for English National Curriculum schools because they have far fewer teachers from which to choose, it’s good news for teachers of other nationalities because they get a look in.

If you are still looking for work abroad, I would encourage you to contact your Teachanywhere consultant (or if you do not know who it is, contact teacher@teachanywhere.com)  so that we can reactivate your file. It’s a good time to be looking for work because there’s lots of it. Do it before your afternoon siesta, please, because at this time of the year, jobs come and go within days.

Don’t get caught snoozing!

Teachanywhere: Home or Away?

Notes from the General Manager, By Diane Jacoutot

A missing parakeet was returned to its owner in Tokyo this week, after it told the police its address. The owner, a 64 year old woman, had previously lost a parakeet and vowed to never have it happen again so the first thing she taught it was where it lived.  Clever.  As long as she likes the parakeet.

I left the confines of Teachanywhere London this week and returned to the States to help my parents move away from the house in which I grew up . It’s been interesting to pick through the dusty bits and pieces of my life, and that of my family, trying to decide what to move, and what to give away ...or toss in the bin.  Among the things I found were my Barbie dolls, old photographs in settings I had forgotten, letters from boyfriends I don’t even remember anymore and keepsakes from my first trip to Europe when I backpacked through with my Eurail pass at 19. Even then I had a desire to fly the coop.

I guess one of the things about living abroad is you really can’t take it with you. Unless is small, packable, weighs far less than 20kg and can be squeezed in between your socks and your comfortable shoes. You ask yourself not just ‘do I want this’ but ‘do I want this more than these other 10 things’. It makes you prioritise what’s important. I contemplate each thing I pick up from my childhood,  size it  and weigh it....  before usually deciding that someone else can benefit from it far more than I, and I’m left with a small number of very special items that are really worth lugging around the world.

There are good things and bad things about living abroad. On the negative side you are usually far away from family (though I realise some might see this as a plus but not me). On the positive side it makes you really evaluate where you have been and where you are going and what’s coming with you. And even if you can’t hold on to too many physical souvenirs, you will have tons of memories.

And these pack very nicely indeed.

Teaching Overseas and man's best friend!

Notes from the General Manager, by Diane Jacoutot

Police in Druisberg Germany were called to investigate a ‘striking looking’ prowler hanging about outside the home of a couple who felt harassed as the prowler was standing directly outside of their window, looking in. "About 1.80 metres tall, yellow shirt, blue check trousers, green rucksack and a 'striking' face," says the official log of the call.

Police arrived in quick time and found that the culprit was in fact the Easter Bunny.

A 6 foot plastic statue was stolen and put outside the couple’s house as a prank. Striking indeed.

Humans and animals have been hanging out together for thousands of years in relative harmony. Dogs were domesticated 15,000 years ago and now almost half of all UK householdsown a pet, In the US, 37% own dogs and a similar percentage, cats. But pets can cause huge problems when moving abroad.

Firstly, you need to remember that you will likely be living in rented accommodation which is typically of a high, expatriate standard. And no landlord likes to take a risk on a pet – there is really very little upside for them and lots of risk. Dirt, fleas, and noise are just three of the rather large downsides. So most schools will reject you outright if you can’t leave your pet at home, especially in the more popular locations where schools have plenty of choice or in areas, such as the Middle East, where cost of accommodation is high and contracts to rent are not negotiable.

Secondly, as opposed to western societies, pet ownership is not seen as a common occurrence, but rather as a far flung unnecessary luxury, or even, in some Muslim countries, as something approximating vermin.  In one apartment building in Abu Dhabi, the Arab neighbours insisted that the porter wash out the lift every time a western pet owner got in it to take his dog for a walk!

Thirdly is the cost – no schools that I or Teachanywhere know of will pay for you to bring your pet with you. Airline tickets for you? Sure. For your family? Sometimes. For your pets? Never.  Pet passports, microchipping, import and export permits and vaccinations can easily cost you £300/$500. And then the airlines will charge you as well.  Each airline is different but your dog or cat is 6kg or more and they travel in cargo, the minimum cost is around £300/$500, but it goes up from there. Many low cost airlines ban pets altogether so it may mean that you have to pay for an upgraded ticket for yourself as well as your pets. Each way, every year, every trip.

Finally, as I said last week, one of the main benefits to moving abroad is the opportunity for inexpensive and frequent travel. And pets will certainly tie you down. As much as landlords hate pets, you had better believe that hotel owners hate them more. Who will watch your pet when you have a weekend in Bali? What about spring break in the Seychelles?  Kennels and catteries are pretty much non-existent in many parts of the world so you had better make some non-travelling friends quickly and trust me when I say that they will be hard to find.

I have nothing against pets but I do think I made the right decision when, 9 years ago, I left my pets behind. My dog is happily ensconced with my in-laws and my elderly cats lived out the rest of their lives with friends. Whilst I miss being greeted at the door, I realise that life abroad is much more flexible without furry friends. 

So I encourage you to make your pets the plastic variety. Just don’t leave them outside your neighbours window.

Notes from the General Manager, by Diane Jacoutot

I’m writing this from a bed and breakfast in Ballymoney (love that name) in Northern Ireland. I’m here on behalf of Teachanywhere to do a presentation about teaching abroad to some trainee teachers.  This is part of our new campaign to reach out to teachers who are in the beginning of their career to educate them about what is available in the big wide world – what kinds of schools there are, what salaries/packages an NQT can expect versus a 5 year experienced teacher, and I even created a video montage out of bits of international school footage we have (no it’s most definitely not Hollywood quality. I won’t be expecting an Academy Award for best documentary).  I’m going to shoot off after the presentation to knock something off my Bucket List which has been there for many years – 5 miles down the road is the Giant’s Causeway which is a stunning rock formation.  It’s sort of on the way back to the airport. If you programme your SatNav to veer a bit north rather than south. Ahem.

Travel is one of the reasons people first get interested in going abroad, and it’s certainly one of the many advantages. When you are living in a foreign country you have access to all kinds of special rates and discounts, not to mention the ability to find out about ‘how locals do it’ which believe me is about 100 times cheaper than the way tourists do it!  One of the teachers we interviewed in Indonesia is really into scuba diving and mentioned that because some of the parents own dive shops he never pays full price for his dives, and often gets freebies.  Another teacher in Egypt told us about 11 pound (16 USD) hotel deals on the Red Sea which are available only if you have a residency card for Egypt.   And the list goes on.

Obviously you are going abroad to teach and I always say that you must be teachers first and travellers second when you are going the international school route, rather than the TEFL route which is more forgiving. But travel is an amazing feature of life abroad.  

Many teachers are on break this week, or just coming off break. I hope you have experienced your own adventures. The world is an amazing place and I can never see it all... but that doesn’t stop me from trying!

Teaching Abroad: The Commitment issue!

Notes from the General Manager, by Diane Jacoutot

 A 56 year old unemployed Austrian man sawed off his left leg just above the ankle this week in order to avoid looking for a job.  Just hours before a meeting to determine if he was fit to look for work, the man decided to take matters into his own.. um... hands and used a power saw to put the matter to rest more permanently.

Most people enjoy going to work, though it’s fair to say that every one of us has days they would rather experience, say , as a Hollywood style video montage rather than in real life.  And one of the things that puts people off teaching abroad is that nagging little devil whispering in your ear “What if you don’t like it? What will you do then, eh?”

Teachanywhere are always warning people about that devil of doubt that almost always appears before any big decision – whether it’s going to University, buying a house, getting married, booking an expensive holiday, starting a new job or indeed, moving to another country.  The fact is almost all the time you do enjoy it especially when you find a job that is well matched to your skills and experience and you have an open mind. Otherwise why would ever growing numbers of teachers  happily do it year after year?

Teaching abroad does require a commitment, and often this commitment is 2 years. Some people find this slightly scary – two years seems a long time. But from a school’s perspective they are investing lots of money and effort in bringing you halfway around the world. They take time away from school to interview you, answer all of your questions, give you an orientation, find you housing, support you while you settle on top of the considerable time and money to get you a work/residency visa (which can often be upwards of £2000 in some parts of the world).  On top of this, because much of the first year is spent really settling into your new school, curriculum and country, you often don’t hit your stride until the second year when it all comes together beautifully like.... well.... a Hollywood video montage.  So 2 years to a school doesn’t seem like a long time at all.

There are a few exceptions to the 2 year rule. These are schools that either are not allowed by law to require 2 year contracts such as some countries in western Europe, or they are in more offbeat locations and so use the lure of the 1 year contract to entice teachers to consider a place they otherwise might overlook. Kuwait and Kazakhstan are two examples of countries that frequently offer 1 year options.

For most teachers this is the ‘fact of life’ of international teaching. It’s reasonable from a school’s perspective to expect a teacher to commit to two years after they have committed a large amount of time and money getting you there. And I do understand that teachers might feel somewhat uncertain about committing 2 years to the great unknown which is gives the less known regions that offer 1 year contracts a leg up.

And to put the little devil of uncertainty on your shoulder to rest, if you really do not enjoy teaching abroad, most schools have a clause in the contract that outlines what happens if you break it. In most cases you don’t get end of contract bonus payments (which I find reasonable because you did not make it to the end of the contract period) and in some cases schools will not pay for your return flight home. In some countries such as the UAE and Qatar you will face a work ban, meaning you cannot work for another school for a certain period of time to prevent job hopping. But in no case will you be held against your will in a job you don’t like. 

So there’s no need to pull out the power saw.