Once you have some experience teaching in an international school, you enter into a rather small world and you have a good chance (if you're good at your job and have had good experiences with your principal and/or superintendent/director) of getting a job without attending a fair. I've obtained my last two positions this way: once by having a former principal hire me directly, and the second time by having him recommend me for another job. This saves you the considerable expense of attending a fair, not to mention the hassle and stress that goes along with these cattle markets.

How much do overseas jobs pay?
Salaries vary widely in overseas schools. Generally teaching English pays considerably less than working in an international school. English positions in Bangkok run from around 20,000 baht per month to 50,000. At the current exchange rate of about 40 baht per U.S. dollar, that means you would be making from between $500 to $1250 per month. Not a whole lot of money. As I mentioned before, jobs in Taiwan, Korea and Japan pay more.

International school positions pay more, but there is a wide range in salaries depending on experience and location. Generally the more favorable the location, the lower the salary. Schools in South America and Africa usually don't pay as well as schools in the Middle East. The small ISS or company schools in remote locations usually pay quite well and have some nice travel benefits. School ads in the ISS and TIE newspapers often have salary ranges listed. In some countries you have to pay local taxes on your salary; this is often picked up by the school, but occasionally it isn't. Americans teaching overseas don't have to pay taxes on the salary that they earn outside of the country. A nice overseas salary would be something in the mid 40s range, tax-free of course.

Housing is a big issue for overseas' teaching. Housing is usually provided or at least compensated for. I have lived in small bachelor type apartments, ranch style type houses that you would find in a US suburb, a really dingy flat in Pakistan and then in a much nicer three bedroom one while working at the same school. One of the most common complaints from teachers is about their housing.

Some schools offer free cars, some will provide interest free loans if you want to purchase a car, while others have no transportation allowance included. At LAS, we were provided a car for $50 a month which went for service, insurance and fuel costs. Health insurance is usually provided for, and some schools offer retirement benefits while many don't.

Are there positions in developed countries or only in remote or "dangerous" locations?
There are international schools just about everywhere in the world. All of the major capitals of the world have international schools and most of them are quite large. Jakarta International School, for instance, has several thousand students and hundreds of teachers. My current school has 53 students and eight teachers. As I mentioned above, some of the remote schools pay quite well in order to attract teachers. Schools in Pakistan pay well because of the problems of attracting teachers to a country that is considered by many to be dangerous, although this is far from true.

What is it like teaching overseas?
That varies from place to place. Big high-powered schools in major capitals with a student body whose parents include CEO's and diplomats tends to be fairly stressful from what I have heard, but working in small schools can be just as stressful because of close parent contact and high expectations and demands. I've worked in a middle-sized school and three small schools, and I've enjoyed both experiences. My own preferences led me not to want to work in the larger schools, but I know teachers who have spent decades working in large schools and love it. There are certainly many more opportunities for entertainment, night life and shopping when you live in a large city.

Generally you can expect to have many of the same problems that you would have in a school in the States with homework, parents and administrators. You can also expect not to have to worry about gang violence, crazed people coming in off the street to shoot up the school, and all the other traumas of urban existence in the U.S. (see below). Some schools will have a large population of non-English speaking students. Drug problems may exist in larger schools, but are generally absent in the smaller schools.

Some schools follow a U.S. curriculum, others have an international one, and still others have a mix. Lahore American School followed a U.S. curriculum even though by the time that I left the school our student population was almost entirely made up of wealthy Pakistani students.

Teaching overseas offers a lot of opportunities for travel. For example, while I was teaching in Lahore, I would go back and forth to Bali on vacation and usually transited in Bangkok which I really enjoyed. Many of the teachers there explored the incredible Pakistan countryside and also vacationed in places like Malaysia, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam which were all quite accessible from Lahore except during the war in Afghanistan.

Grateful thanks to Dr Bruce Pohlmann, full time teacher and long-time resident of various Asian countries, for his permission to include the above information.

On a lighter note, there are noticeable differences in teaching students in Asia compared to the US. Here are some of the 'joys' of teaching in American public schools. Those that take up teaching in Asia might miss some of these 'perks':

• You want to hit the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8:00 to 3:20 and have summers free."

• You think "unbelievably annoying" should have its own box in the report card.

• You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

• When out in public you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.

• You reflect that marking all A's on report cards would make your life SO much easier.

• You think people should be required to spend two years teaching middle school before being allowed to reproduce.

• You wonder how some parents ever MANAGED to reproduce.

• You encourage an obnoxious parent to check into home schooling.

• You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

• Meeting a child's parent instantly answers the question, "Why is this kid like this?"

Go to the next page, where you can learn more about teaching English in Asia without needing to understand the local language! But learning an Asian language will be an asset in many ways, and you will enjoy living and socialising with the locals much more. Visit our language learning and talking dictionaries pages. 

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