Reason #1 - Change
“Things do not change; we change. ”
The changes described in this post come under the heading of emotions. You’ve taken charge of you life, you feel connected, and the black-and-white picture of your current life might burst into full color.
The Reset Button
One of the most unexpected and pleasing results of teaching overseas comes under the heading personal growth. No matter how well (or badly) the experience turns out, you will absolutely be a stronger person than the one who got off the plane in Shanghai or Stockholm. Gym rats know the only way to get stronger is to stress the muscle; same thing with overcoming the inevitable challenges of an unfamiliar environment.
Another of the biggest payoffs of the teaching overseas lifestyle is that you can start over every two years if you want to. You’ll be working with a completely new set of teachers, parents, and administrators. This reset button can be immensely invigorating.
New Worldview
Your school may have students from 50+ countries and their parents will be well-traveled and multilingual Embassy staff, CNN reporters, and leaders of NGO’s or important business people, all of them with a background as unlike yours as possible. All this diversity will crack open your shell as you grow, change, and become more tolerant and open.
A Thai person might pity you for eating alone or a European may laugh to see you blush at a topless city swimming pool or nobody pays the slightest attention to baseball, cricket, or AFL scores. Adjust or go back home.
But you really can’t go home again, because your worldview has changed forever and you can never again see your home country uncritically. But overall, that’s a good thing.
Reason #2 - Sense of Community
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. ”
Bonding
Another impetus to personal growth comes from features peculiar to the world of international schools. For a start you’ve been dumped into a world of unfamiliarity and culture shocks.
All this stress produces the instant bonding that happens in close-knit environments with a common purpose. Think sports teams; think freshman college dorms; think the military. These stressors build a tight community immediately, unlike everyday life in your home country.
I remember our middle school kids on their first day at AIS Vienna. They were swarmed by the other kids who wanted to know all about them and had already begun absorbing them into school life and friendship circles.
The reason for this openness is obvious, once you think about it. Most all of these kids had been in the same situation themselves, especially those with Embassy parents who move every few years.
The same dynamic applies for teachers. The community can always use a member with new and interesting stories, maybe a potential travel partner.
Expat World
Since you’ll be living in an expat bubble and probably don’t speak the local language fluently, your chances of socializing with host country nationals are slim. This only serves to draw you closer into the school and expat community.
Family
Marriages in a new environment can flourish and refresh; you share a common challenge and spend a get deal more time together than usual.
Children will grow, adapt, and change utterly. They will engage with kids unlike themselves and begin to take a changed worldview for granted.
In a good international school, their peers expect to attend prestigious colleges, work hard at academics and possess the habit of success. For a parent, what’s not to like?
Singles
Several practical day-to-day features of school life also promote community and encourage friendships, particularly for singles and especially for women.
Frequently, schools will supply housing in a particular building or even a compound. Then it’s just like a college dorm where you can head down the hall and knock on a door to arrange a shopping expedition or happy hour.
Singles then have some relief from loneliness and the opportunity to make quick connections. This lifestyle can be a godsend, making a return to their home country unbearably isolating.
In ordinary life, making new friends can be difficult and take a great deal of effort and cultivation. Overseas teachers have an enormous advantage in this effort, mainly the openness of the community to welcome new and potentially interesting members.
Teaching overseas can provide an automatic sense of community, if you open yourself to it.
Reason #3 - Richness of Experience
“Travel is intensified living. ”
Memorable
This feature of the overseas teaching life is fundamental, but I need to pound home the idea once again: teaching in an international school isn’t just a job but is life-changing.
In your ordinary life in your home country, chances are that you may not remember what year such and such happened except for the spectacular anomalies: had a baby, first job, bought a house.
But milestones of your overseas career will not fade into mush, guaranteed. First job in Russia? Two years in Vienna? These dates are clear mileposts in my memory and remain so.
No Regrets
Of all the overseas teachers I have ever known, none regret having gone. They may have suffered plenty of negative experiences and regretted a particular school or their own behavior. But no, they do not regret going. Plenty of them regret coming back home, but that’s a story for later.
To repeat my overarching theme: Go.For.It.
Reason #4 - Alienation
“Almost every truly creative being feels alienated & expatriated in his own country. ”
The feeling that I never really fit into my home culture provides the unacknowledged motivation of many a happy overseas teaching experience. At some partially unconscious level, you just never felt like an ordinary citizen of your home country.
The thought of living in the same neighborhood you grew up in gives you the willies. You cannot imagine why anyone would stay at a chain hotel or go on a tour. When you travel, you bumble around on your own seeking new experiences and finding them. You have just always felt like an outsider.
I am here to tell you that there is a cure for this particular affliction, which is to teach overseas. That makes you a citizen of a new country or an Expat.
Expat
Expats exile themselves from their home countries either permanently or temporarily. Many find themselves breathing a deep and invigorating sigh of relief – they feel, at long last, that they finally fit: I have found my tribe.
Overseas teachers live in a self-selected community of like-minded souls, colleagues who take for granted that, at least for now, overseas is better than being back home. Plus the lifestyle is a tremendous amount of fun.
“The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. ”
What if you’ve read this far and decided you want to teach overseas? If so, it’s time to explore this new and exciting world. Let’s start with some definitions and categories, mainly what exactly is an international school?