The benefits and rewards
of teaching English
overseas may be of
secondary or no interest
to some potential
teachers. They are
looking for another
excuse to leave their
home country, and seize
upon English teaching as
a means to do it.
Unfortunately, their
students and employers
pay the price for this,
and it rarely amounts to
more than a temporary
fix for the “teachers.”
These are some of the
reasons why you should
not become an
English teacher
overseas:
Escape. You may
want to get away from
financial difficulties
(up to and including
debt collectors), or a
bad relationship (up to
and including a spouse
and children) or even
the law. Running away
to another country may
give you temporary
relief, but understand
that the problems you
left behind will only
get worse in your
absence. Debts will
increase, your credit
rating will sink even
lower, and your family
will resent you even
more than they may
already. At some point,
you’re going to return
home, and that day of
reckoning will be far
more painful than it is
today.
Seeing the world on
somebody else’s dime.
This is actually one of
the benefits of teaching
overseas that we
mentioned earlier.
However, that implied a
commitment to being a
teacher first and being
a tourist second. If
your priorities are the
reverse, you won’t be
good employee or a good
teacher, and you’ll soon
find that the jobs you
can get are
poorly paid and for
disreputable employers.
There is nothing that
lowers the reputation of
the TEFL community more
than the backpacker who
spends a couple of
months in one place
teaching English and
then disappears in the
night, only to resurface
in another city or
country and repeat the
process. These are also
the people least likely
to get any teaching
training whatsoever:
unfortunately, many
schools in Asia are more
interested in a native
speaker than in a
qualified teacher, so
there will always be a
job for even the worst
teacher if s/he looks
hard enough.
Making lots of money
tax-free. This book
will examine typical
salaries in various
regions in later
chapters, but a few
myths can be dispensed
with right now. First,
you have to carefully
weigh a local salary
against the local cost
of living: teachers make
a good salary in Japan
compared to China, but
Tokyo is one of the most
expensive cities in the
world in which to live.
For most teaching jobs,
the salary and benefits
are enough to live on in
relative comfort, but
there won’t be much left
to spend on shopping,
entertainment or
travel. With rare
exceptions, there won’t
be anything left that
you can put in the bank
back home: this is not
only because the
salaries are
commensurate with local
expenses, but also
because the exchange
rate and bank transfer
fees will whittle your
extra money down to a
fraction of what it is
worth in the original
currency in the local
economy. For example,
if you teach English for
a company or a good
school in central China
(i.e., not in expensive
cities like Beijing or
Shanghai) you can live
very well compared to a
native Chinese worker in
the same town. You
might be able to buy
lots of Chinese goods,
eat at restaurants most
of the time, and even
hire a cleaning person
to maintain your
apartment. But the
minute you try to
transfer some of your
salary back to Europe,
Australia or the USA,
you’ll find that the
amount is very little in
euros, pounds or dollars
(especially since you
have to pay transfer
fees to both the bank in
China and the receiving
bank).
Contrary to received
wisdom about working
overseas, you are not
going to escape the
taxman: you’ll pay taxes
in your home country, or
the host country, or
even both! Most
employers will deduct
health insurance costs
and some amount of tax,
and may even deduct
contributions to a
pension fund. You can
have this pension
contribution transferred
back to your native
country’s treasury and
credited to your
retirement (e.g., the
American Social Security
system) when you return,
but you can’t avoid the
deductions being taken
in the first place.
Americans who earn less
than approximately
$80,000 per year in U.S.
dollars don’t have to
pay U.S. taxes, but only
if they can prove that
they’re paying taxes to
the resident country.
Europeans teaching in
the European Union will
have their salaries
taxed and some of the
money returned to their
home countries,
especially pension
deductions. Many
schools advertise
“tax-free salaries,” but
that just means they’re
evading the local laws,
and putting you in the
position of being a tax
evader as well (both
locally and in your home
country). Can you get
away with this for a
period of time? Of
course you can, but at
some point one or more
national tax agencies
are going to require you
to account for the money
you earned overseas. At
that point, you’ll not
only have to pay the
taxes due, but also
interest and penalties.
Virtually every teacher
who has been teaching
overseas for more than a
year can tell you how
s/he or a colleague were
suddenly faced with a
massive past-due tax
bill. And, since the
local government knows
your passport number,
you can’t run away from
them when they come to
collect.
Having sex with
foreign women or
children. It’s a
sad fact of life that
some men travel overseas
to engage in
prostitution with local
women at lower cost and
risk than they can at
home. Becoming an
English teacher is just
a way for them to extend
a sordid vacation from
weeks into months or
years. What those who
do this in Africa or
Asia forget, however, is
that in pursuing
anonymous sex away from
the prying eyes of
family, friends and the
authorities back home,
they are just the
opposite of anonymous in
the local environment.
The white Westerner who
patronizes brothels in
such areas is going to
be far more memorable
and identifiable than
the local African or
Asian customers are,
because he is the
exception to the rule.
Therefore, when he
strolls the streets, he
will quickly be
recognized as the man
who likes to buy
prostitutes; it’s only a
matter of time before
that information becomes
widely known at his
school. Of course,
that’s not the worst
thing that could happen:
prostitution is often
controlled by gangsters
and pimps who see the
foreigner with something
to lose as fair game for
intimidation and
extortion. Imagine for
a moment being suddenly
confronted in a
prostitute’s room by a
group of menacing men
demanding something from
you in an unknown
language: how much would
you pay to get out of
there unharmed?
There are also some
Western males who have
difficulty relating to
women from their native
land, and think that
Asian women are
“different” (meaning
more submissive and less
demanding). These men
have obviously never met
a Korean female, one of
the toughest sub-species
of Homo sapiens
on the planet!
Nevertheless, this myth
is widespread, and
encourages many Western
men to travel to Asia to
find a fantasy
girlfriend or wife among
the locals
or—worse—among their
students. Needless to
say, such relationships
are almost always doomed
to failure. The same is
true for men from
affluent countries who
teach in poorer
countries such as
Ukraine, Russia or
Southeast Asia. While
the women there may be
open to dating or even
marrying their
relatively wealthier
suitor, it’s almost
certainly because they
are looking for a ticket
to—and citizenship
from—his homeland. Once
there, they tend to
quickly divorce the
hapless husband and
claim as many of his
assets as the law
allows. This mutual
victimization would be
pathetic enough without
it also involving the
profession of English
teaching: as with the
itinerant backpacker,
the whole TEFL community
is tarred with the same
brush.
Nor are these practices
limited to men. Any air
force pilot who has been
stationed on a foreign
base can tell you about
the Western female
English teachers who
work in nearby schools.
Quite a few of these
women are anxious to
snag a husband who will
be well-paid and not
around very much when he
returns to civilian
life! Fortunately, they
don’t usually involve
the locals in their
schemes, although many
Japanese, Arab and other
affluent men have
similar stories to tell
about foreign fortune
hunters.
Finally, if you are a
pedophile who is seeking
children to exploit
outside your home
country, nothing I say
about ethics or the
reputation of other
English teachers is
going to matter to you
in the slightest. Let
me just repeat what I
pointed out before: your
racial differences are
going to attract
attention and make you
more vulnerable to
criminals and the legal
authorities than you
would be at home. And
you really don’t
want to be locked up in
a foreign prison and
labeled as a molester of
native children.
You hate your country
and want to get away
from it. This is,
of course, your
prerogative. However,
you may be surprised to
discover that—outside of
Paris—criticizing your
homeland will make the
natives you encounter
lose respect for you
rather than applaud
you. Asians are still
very much influenced by
Confucian values, one of
which is respect for
one’s country and
leaders. Besides,
people who constantly
badmouth their own
culture and country
quickly go from being
non-conformists to just
being bores. Your
students will be very
interested in the
differences between your
country and theirs as
you perceive them, but
they won’t be
comfortable with you
mocking your own culture
or countrymen. Instead,
they’ll view you as a
loser who couldn’t make
it at home and fled to
their country; needless
to say, they won’t want
to have such a person as
a teacher for long.
You’re a bigot or
xenophobe. This is
the reverse of the
person who hates his/her
own country. Instead,
this person is obsessed
with all the things s/he
sees as stupid or
inferior in the host
country, and is happy to
list them to everyone
s/he meets. Naturally,
the reaction of fellow
expats or locals will
be, “If you hate it here
so much, why don’t you
go home?” There are
thousands of messages on
internet discussion
boards that consist of
the rants of foreigners
who hate various things
about the local customs,
rules and/or
population. It’s
important to understand
that culture shock is
unavoidable when
moving to another
country. Everyone
experiences it to some
degree or another, and
it gets worse before it
gets better.
Experiencing another
culture means
experiencing it in full
and adjusting to it:
otherwise, you’re not an
expatriate, you’re just
a tourist who has stayed
too long. If you’re
unwilling or incapable
of adjusting, then
please stay home.
Fussy eaters.
Living abroad means
eating strange foods:
the alternative is
dining at MacDonald’s
every day. Even more
daunting than eating
unfamiliar things is not
knowing what you’re
eating because the menu
is in a strange
language! If you plan
to move to a particular
country, find a
restaurant serving that
cuisine in your area and
eat several meals there
before signing any
contracts. Invariably
you will discover
several things you hate
and several things you
love—write them down in
the native language so
you’re prepared for
eating in restaurants in
your new home. If,
however, you simply
can’t live without all
the things you regularly
eat in your native land,
you’re going to be very
frustrated and unhappy
living for a year or
more someplace else.
You have a very
strong attachment to
family and friends.
Let’s face it: working
overseas means you are
going to be away from
the people you love the
most for extended
periods of time. You
can telephone, exchange
e-mails, and even use
webcams and microphones
on your computer to keep
in touch; still, you
won’t be sharing meals,
movies or hugs with the
people who are most
important to you for a
long, long time. You
will be surrounded by
strangers, only a few of
whom you can even speak
with in English. You
are going to be homesick
after the initial
euphoria of the move
wears off, and that
condition will only
increase as the months
go by. You need to
think long and hard
before accepting a
job overseas and decide
whether or not you can
cope with such a
prolonged separation.
If you can’t, you’re
only going to be
miserable every single
day you’re there;
moreover, you’ll
probably quit the job
and return home, leaving
your students and
employer in the lurch.
Those with elderly or
sick parents should also
consider whether they
might need suddenly to
return home due to a
medical emergency or
death, and even whether
they would arrive in
time.
You have misplaced
faith in your government
to help you get out of
trouble. When I
moved to Korea to teach
English, I telephoned
the American Embassy in
Seoul to give them my
name and contact
information (a prudent
step, since South Korea
is still technically at
war with North Korea).
When I was finally
connected to the
appropriate staffer, the
first words she said to
me were, “Don’t call me
if you have problems
with the Koreans!”
Countless movies have
shown a visiting
foreigner being arrested
and shouting out,
“Contact my embassy!”
The reality is that the
only thing your embassy
can do for you if you
get into trouble with
the law is to suggest a
list of local attorneys
who speak some English!
They will not bail you
out of jail, try to
intervene on your side
with the local
authorities, or
otherwise go to bat for
you. The best they can
do is to attempt to stop
you from being severely
mistreated, but even
that isn’t guaranteed.
Nor will they give you
money to fly home if you
find yourself without
funds or under attack
from an enemy country:
if you’re lucky, they
will offer you a loan
for plane fare that must
be repaid within a few
months (indeed, if you
need to escape from a
war zone and you are
lucky enough to get on a
military plane out of
the country, you will
most likely be
transferred—for a fee—to
the nearest safe
country, not taken back
to your homeland).
When you move to another
country, no matter what
your nationality, the
assumption is that you
will obey their laws.
The last thing your
embassy wants is to hear
that you’ve gotten into
some kind of trouble: it
makes them look bad, and
puts them at odds with
the host government if
they try to help you.
For all intents and
purposes, you’re on your
own.
