{"id":9766,"date":"2018-04-09T12:18:47","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T19:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.internationalschoolsreview.com\/?page_id=9766"},"modified":"2018-04-23T04:51:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T11:51:41","slug":"not_for_everyone","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.internationalschoolsreview.com\/nonmembers\/not_for_everyone.htm","title":{"rendered":"Article – International Teaching is Not for Everyone!"},"content":{"rendered":"

International Teaching is Not for Everyone.
\nBut then Neither is Bungee Jumping!<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/h1><\/h1><\/div>

by: Judith Blake<\/h2><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Living overseas was the most exciting, fulfilling, challenging, interesting and exhilarating\u00a027 years of my 40 year teaching career. Those 27 years were also the worst, most awful, loneliest, and difficult. Still, I wouldn\u2019t trade my overseas experiences for 40 quiet years in a small Connecticut town for anything. But those who remained in that same town would not have enjoyed my life at all.
\n<\/span>
\nIf you like a challenge every day, facing the unknown and difficult with a sense of humor and sharing your life with people as opposite of you as can be, then, perhaps this also is the life for you. However, if you can\u2019t do without peanut butter, cable TV, the local disco, alcoholic beverages and fast cars, you\u2019d better stay home. You’ll just hate it.<\/span><\/h3>\n

You have to be ready to face something new all the time when you live overseas. Every school, every country, indeed, every day presents a new challenge to enjoy or suffer through. It\u2019s up to you. I\u2019m not talking about learning another language when you discover how few people speak English in your host country. That\u2019s a given. And even that\u2019s no piece of cake when you\u2019re working full time. Neither am I referring to learning to drive on the wrong side of the street, understanding exchange rates, trying to mail a letter or finding your favorite food. By the way, I\u2019ve decided pizza is the true international food. Seeing a Kuwaiti family in full local dress happily chomping down a Super Supreme brought that home.<\/span><\/h3>\n

No, what I\u2019m referring to is culture shock. Even veterans of many years\u2019 experience overseas go through this. At first everything is romantic and exciting; trying to buy groceries, to get a tooth filled, to get a taxi, to buy a pair of shoes that fit, to treat that strange rash. But if you don\u2019t learn quickly and have plenty of patience, it all gets old about late October, if not before. It\u2019s called the \u201cJ Curve\u201d. By November, even the best of us reaches that bottom hook. If you persevere, you usually follow that hook right back up again. And then again you may not. Things get worse. You can\u2019t build a social life, much less a romantic connection. You\u2019re tired of having to soak the fresh fruits and vegetables in vinegar before you serve them. The list goes on.<\/span><\/h3>\n

For those of you with a significant other (often not accepted in many schools; married couples only), your relationship had better be very, very stable. Double culture shock is not pretty at all. Families can simply compound this for each addition.<\/span><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s not the worst thing in the world, culture shock. On the contrary, you learn to adapt beyond your wildest expectations, to reevaluate your life and relationships to other people as well as to your possessions. You learn what is truly important to you, to go for it, and to reap the benefits of a full and exciting life that no one at home will ever relate to.<\/span><\/h3>\n

There is no tenure, no security, no bargaining table, and often no grievance procedure. You\u2019re on your own. Yes, friends will stand by you, to a point. With dozens of other well qualified teachers waiting in the wings for your job, many employers would be all to happy to see you leave if you\u2019re all that unhappy. \u201cIt\u2019s my way or the highway\u201d\u2019 was the favorite phrase of Director Richard Holtzman at CIC Caracas years ago. And guess what? Everyone of the foreign hire staff did leave during his stay. The school is still very much in business without us. Be sure to refer to\u00a0International Schools Review\u00a0and avoid these sorts of situations.<\/span><\/h3>\n

So, if you happen to be the \u201cunhappy camper\u201d type, with lots of complaints and few positive suggestions, this is not for you. Yes, owners and administrators are interested in improving their educational establishment and keeping their faculty and staff happy. They do want to know your needs and interests. Many will put improvements in effect as soon as possible. If you\u2019re the type who must have things \u201cjust so\u201d and rankle and rave if you don\u2019t get your way, stay home. No one overseas wants to work with you.<\/span><\/h3>\n

You\u2019d better be well prepared for your job and ready to work your tail off. Actually, if you\u2019re really into the profession and love what you\u2019re doing, you don\u2019t mind, or even notice (sometimes) how much you\u2019re putting into the job. I certainly got high on working long hours on planning lessons, researching information and skills, taking extra courses, writing my class web site and working with individual students after school.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Lots of these kids are sharp. You\u2019d better know your stuff because they\u2019ll call your bluff, you can be sure of it. And they remember misinformation you\u2019ve given them, too. They don\u2019t expect you to be a walking encyclopedia. You can admit you don\u2019t know something. But you\u2019d better have all the necessary information and skills you need before you take on a job. There are virtually no resources you can fall back on when you\u2019re in the hinterlands of Venezuela, Thailand, or Mali, for example.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Leave your social prejudices behind, by all means! We all like to think we\u2019re open minded and accepting of all kinds of people. Nothing tests that belief more than total immersion in a different race of people and their culture. It was a very humbling experience the first time I was the one who was different. My first overseas home was in a Colombian \u201cbarrio\u201d, or ghetto, in Caracas, Venezuela. I couldn\u2019t afford the high rise apartments most foreigners lived in, so I took this hole-in-the-wall little apartment in a virtual beehive of dwellings on the side of a hill. The neighbors were very wary of me and I of them, to be honest. I spoke almost no Spanish and none of them knew any English.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Gradually, we began to trust each other, I learned enough of the street language to make myself understood and to barely understand them. I laughed at myself all the time and kept my sense of humor obvious. Soon I was one of the gang. They were very kind to me and protected me, I think. Nothing bad ever happened to me because of the people there. One day I overheard a woman telling her teenaged daughter to go with me when she wanted to go into town. I knew then I was trusted and respected.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Before this, I had had very little exposure to people of color, especially those who spoke Spanish only. Those years in the barrio were among the richest of my many years in Venezuela. I learned and grew so much. And I knew well that these people had welcomed me far more than they would have been welcomed in my old neighborhood in Connecticut.<\/span><\/h3>\n

You must be truly open to understanding and respecting, even enjoying all the cultural differences. People know immediately if you\u2019re reluctant to associate with them. Students know immediately if you have any reservations about their race, religion, or lifestyle.<\/span><\/h3>\n

There\u2019s an interesting and exciting life outside the borders of the US that far too few of us get to experience by living there. There are far too few of us who even want to. I have ridden camels, and elephants, eaten indescribable foods, sung karaoke at a Chinese festival as well as high in the mountains of VietNam. I have dined with ambassadors, danced with a prince, jammed with a native musical group in Borneo and studied weaving in a cooperative deep in the Ivory Coast. I\u2019ve been cursed by a witch, robbed of my wallet more than once, rescued from a stalker in a souk, been left behind by my tour bus in Istanbul, and tear gassed in Peru. I could write a book. I think I will.<\/span><\/h3>\n

But it\u2019s not for everyone. How about you?<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>
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