TEACHING ABROAD

Christie Tucker
Dose

This story appeared in the local Vancouver Free paper and as the recruiting for the new Teacher year starts in Aparil, reading this just might gives you a heads up of what could happen if you are not fully prepared.

HAPPY NEW YEARS

It's a career you or someone you know has likely considered: teaching English overseas. But while it can be an exciting and rewarding way to spend time in an exotic place, it's also fraught with its own set of potential pitfalls. Today through Thursday, Dose takes a comprehensive look at teaching abroad, focusing on what you can expect if you sign up and how to avoid having the experience turn into a nightmare.

I am, you are, he is, she is, we are, they are — confounded by the banality and the illogic of the English language?

Thousands of young Canadians — mostly recent graduates — have left home, family and friends to teach this bizarre, yet globally vital language to people around the world.

They’re English teachers, called upon to teach, plan and command respect from people who understand little to nothing of what they are saying, and to get by for months, even years, in a country nothing like home.
Lesson 1: Learning the ABCs
It is difficult to know exactly how many Canadians are teaching English overseas, since the government does not keep numbers on the amount. But chances are that most Canadians of a certain age have either taught internationally or know someone who has.

Most teachers go somewhere in Asia — at first Japan was the hot spot, then Korea and now China. But there are also positions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Ben Glickman, co-owner of Footprints Recruiting in Vancouver, said the English teachers generally follow the path of industrialization.
“In the ’50s, countries like China and Korea were basically Third World countries and now they’ve become industrialized. The next destinations will probably be in South Asia — Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam,” he said.

The different countries vary by pay and requirements. Some, such as Japan, have been so popular they can now hold applicants to higher standards and pay less, where others, such as Saudi Arabia, pay extremely well to make up for the isolated life many westerners must live.

Some new teachers go through recruiters, others travel to their destinations and hope to find an opportunity once they’ve arrived.

A lot of facilities exist to help prepare and sustain teachers while they’re abroad — Boggle’s World (bogglesworld.com) and the ESL Teachers’ Board (www.eslteachersboard.com) or Dave’s ESL Cafe (www.eslcafe.com), a website where teachers gather to discuss issues and ask questions about their new lives. Dave Sperling quit his own foreign teaching career in 1999 to run the site full-time — which gets millions of hits a month.
Lesson 2: Reality check
One of the biggest concerns many new teachers have is whether they can trust their new employers to be everything they were promised in the job ad. Horror stories abound between veterans and newbies about teachers being forced to do unrelated work when they’re not teaching in class (like standing in a mall promoting their school or working for a corporation on their day off) or being given a room in the principal’s house rather than their own apartment, or being trapped within the confines of impossible contracts.

Sperling says new teachers can tell if the opportunity is a legitimate one fairly fast.

“Sometimes right at the airport,” he said. “It's important that teachers find out as much as they can before accepting a position abroad. Get online, network with other teachers and try to communicate with past and present teachers from the school that is offering you the position.”

Sandy Thompson is the director of studies for the CELTA program in Canada, a teacher training program widely acknowledged by international schools. She suggests doing proper research beforehand can help reduce those fears.

“Talk to someone else who works there — make sure it’s not just a business proposition, that they do care about students and teachers,” she said.
Lesson 3: Culture shock therapy
Former ESL teacher turned history teacher Kirsty Cunningham recounted the severe culture shock she suffered.

“When I got to the apartment I was going to be living in, I went into the bathroom for, like, 20 minutes and kept shaking my hands, saying ‘I can’t do this.’ On the first day or two, I took a lot of Gravol. I just wanted to sleep as long as I could. I called home and said ‘I’m just going to come home,’” she said.

But after a few days of sleep and regret, things got better. “On my first day of teaching there was a guy who just came up and said ‘Hey, I’m Jamie. I’m from Vancouver. Want to get a beer later?’ It was just such a relief,” she said.

Going through culture shock when they arrive is terrible, but it gets even worse coming back to Canada. “When they’re in Asia, they’re not anonymous at all, everyone is coming up talking to them, inviting them home for dinner so they can practise their English. But then they come home and they’re invisible. That’s the biggest shock for people. It’s huge,” said Thompson.
TEACHER PROFILE

Kay Huang, 25
Has been in China twice to teach, once in 2001 and again since 2004
Why leave home to come to Asia?
I have a dual bachelors in Chinese language and political science, both of which led me here. As a political science major, I became interested in the orphanage, foster and adoption system in China and am still interested in putting my two cents in to help.
Why teach English?
Teaching English was the first and easiest job I could get here, so I started there. I wouldn't say that teaching English is specifically my goal. I’ve recently moved to teaching subjects other than English in English, but teaching for me, is a means to an end.
What were your biggest challenges at first?
Culture shock. I guess everyone has that problem. Maybe I wasn’t expecting things to be as different as they were. I am a first-generation American-born Chinese with very Chinese parents. I don't think I consciously thought it, but at least subconsciously, I think I felt I would be more prepared then the average Joe for life here. In fact, I think the opposite is true. I think I came with outdated, preconceived notions of how it would be here.

People here have the idea that if you're Chinese you speak Chinese. Let me explain that in another way. I once came here with a whole lot of ABCs (American-born Chinese) and people wouldn't believe that we were American because we didn't have blond hair and blue eyes. For a lot of people, the idea of ABCs kind of escaped them. As if being born in the U.S. caused blond hair to grow out of your head and for you to have blue eyes. To be fair, more educated people wouldn't say or think these types of things, but common people would.
What are your biggest challenges now?
Frustration. Dealing with people who are still suffering the initial culture shock as I did. A lot of people also have it a lot worse. There are some people who can't stand their school, can't stand their job, can't stand their students, can't stand the food, can't stand the people. Sometimes, out of frustration with language/culture differences or just out of bigotry, foreigners here often turn into Chinese-haters. It's hard to deal with.
What will you take back with you from this experience?
I think I understand my mother better having lived here. I've learned how to make things last longer here ... and, although I feel this is an extremely commercial society, I've learned to live without things here and look forward to living without them at home.

I should be at least a near-native speaker (of Chinese) when I go back. I hope to keep that going, too.
I hope to have a more open view of the world and my own country, having been able to see it from a different perspective.

When a temp job turns to life
Teachers abroad break laws they don’t even know exist

Outside a Korean karaoke bar on her way home for the night, Kirsty Cunningham held her friend’s bag while she rifled through looking for a cigarette. As she lit up, two soldiers armed with machine-guns grabbed them and forced them in the back of an unmarked van.

She didn’t know it yet, but Cunningham was under arrest for aiding and abetting public female smoking.

An English teacher in a small Korean city between 1997 and 1998, Cunningham was taken to the city prison and told she would face a year there along with a two-million Won fine (about $2,245).

“There was a guard who would come by the cell over and over and say: ‘Say goodbye to your mommy, you stay here forever.’ I cried until I was dehydrated. I thought, ‘I’m gonna die here,’” she said.

But just as suddenly as she was arrested, the guard returned, threw her things at her and said, “You go.”

Her friend’s boyfriend, an American military police officer, had come by with some friends to lean on the guards. They were both free.

“I got immediately into a cab and said ‘Air Korea office, please.’”

Public smoking by women is an obscure offence, mostly used to cause trouble for westerners. But many English teachers have been getting into more serious trouble in places like Korea — for doing things that aren’t serious at home.

Before July this year, Korean officials made 43 drug busts, with many of the drugs coming into the country through the mail, a trade blamed largely on English teachers. Even if teachers themselves are not smuggling the drugs, they often assumed to be the ones driving the trade.

Jon Kolskog, a Canadian who taught in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for several years, said drugs and alcohol were available in both countries, despite being legal only under certain circumstances. In the UAE, drug trafficking is punishable by death.

“The drugs and alcohol in Saudi Arabia were available only in the compounds, which were sometimes such crazy party places that, for me, they were nearly less comfortable than outside,” he said.

But trouble comes in more than one form when you’re immersed in a foreign culture. Experts warn that learning and obeying the rules of your new home can be the biggest challenge to many Canadian teachers. Some Canadians in Korea, for example, get into trouble for inadvertently buying stolen vehicles, or for having documents forged by recruiters.

Cunningham said that as she tried to leave Korea the night before her contract was completed she, like about 10 or 12 others, had to lie to officials in an interrogation room in order to get out of the country. She told them she had been given permission by her school to leave and that she had a sick relative at home in Canada.

“If you don’t do a whole year, you have to pay them for your ticket back. You have to show you left your job legally,” she said.

The man told her angrily: “You Americans come to our country, you take our money and when it’s bad you leave.”

South Korea hot teaching spot
South Korea was the second rising star for Canadian English teachers after Japan’s popularity in the early ’90s. At its height, Korea saw about 2,000 Canadians swarming its shores to teach English every month. While many go with certification from specialized English teaching institutes, others go with just a university degree in the humanities and a sense of adventure.

There are several types of foreign-language institutes and programs on offer in South Korea. Hakwons are private foreign-language institutes, most of which are located in Seoul. The average monthly salary is about $2,025 to $2,200 a month in big cities, according to Canadian Consular Affairs. Many corporations also have built-in language training centres, which pay about $2,811.

University foreign-language institutes are among the best-paying and most prestigious gigs in the country, and are therefore the most difficult to get. Foreign-language departments in most universities will be light on required hours and pay about $2,200 a month with several months of paid vacation a year.

Consular Affairs warns Canadians going to Korea that they may experience alienation as Korean society can be quite insular against foreigners, especially North Americans.

Teachers, however, are generally treated with respect, although women may experience working conditions inferior to those of their male counterparts. Teachers do become minor celebrities, especially if they’re in areas that do not get a lot of non-Korean visitors.

Author: Christie Tucker