06/23/2022
hello hi everyone linda here from itt back
with another live session this week how is everybody doing hope you're doing fine thank you so much for tuning in and
spending um taking some time out of your day to spend it with me today as always
uh we go live and our live sessions take about 45 minutes sometimes even an hour
depends on how many questions you guys have at the end we always have a q a part so
this is a time where you can ask me your questions about teaching abroad about
tefl about tesol about our courses about anything teaching related that's on your
mind that you want to know and today's topic is dedicated to new teachers so i'm
going to be sharing 10 pieces of advice that you need to know as a new tefl or
efl english as a foreign language teacher if you're going abroad or also
if you're teaching online um these are things that i think everybody should know as a new teacher
so that's what we're going to get into today this was kind of a topic suggestion
from somebody in my previous live and i thought it was a great idea and so
that's what we're doing today if you also have a topic suggestion what you would like me to talk about next week
feel free to let me know and we can make it happen unless we already covered that topic we
already have so many different topics in our playlist do check that out as well
and um yeah we are live on facebook and on youtube at the same time my name is
linda i'm gonna do a quick introduction in just a minute if you're watching for the first time
um and please don't forget to like and subscribe so you don't miss any of our
upcoming live sessions as i said we go live every week last week yes i did take a break sometimes i gotta take a break
but um i'm back now and i'm gonna be back for the next few weeks as well so
usually there are no breaks in between live every week with a new topic
so don't you worry so if you like our facebook page if you subscribe to our our youtube channel you're going to be
up to date you're going to get a notification on youtube you can turn the notification
bell on so that you're aware whenever we do go live and you're able to join us
these are completely free whether you are a itt um
graduate you've taken an ittt course or not everybody can join completely free
we're just sharing this information um teaching related information because
we're passionate about this topic obviously this is what we do and we just want to spread the word and help
each other out also we do have 30 percent off i believe that
should be next yes 30 off today any tefl or tesol course from
itt if you've watched before you know that we are very generous and we do give
out 30 discounts during our live sessions so if that's something that interests you if you're thinking about
getting teflor tesol certified you're not yet certified you're thinking about it you're not quite sure
um this live session is for you and if you decide to take that step towards
your adventure of teaching english abroad or also online i highly suggest
you take advantage of this offer and what you can do is you can either scan this qr code right here
or we also have a link that i'm going to share in the comment box right now which looks like this so you just copy and
paste this link and you'll see an application page you fill out this application totally no
pressure no commitment and when you hit apply um the next page you're gonna see the
discounted price and you're gonna see your payment options if you're not ready yet to make a payment you can come back
to it later no problem you don't need to do that right away um that's all cool but so just that you
kind of know how it works the process that is that and i also really would like to know
where you are right now where are you guys watching from
just drop like a high watching from blank in the comments and maybe what
time it is there i'm always very curious i am actually in south korea and it is
10 a.m after 10 a.m 10 6 a.m friday morning so i'm very excited
friday i feel good the weather is good we are getting into rainy season here in
korea um but today the weather is beautiful blue sky we have beautiful white clouds
so it's nice how about you guys where are you watching from today how's the weather what's the time
how are you doing just let me know a little bit about yourself in the comments and then we'll get into our
topic today just leave a little high in there um
and meanwhile i'm just gonna go and introduce myself real quick and i'm just gonna make this bigger so you guys can
see oh now and it's covering it up that's not what i wanted
so let me know where you are and i'm just gonna introduce myself real quick my name is linda i am a travel writer
and content creator that is uh one of the things that i do um under the name linda goes east east
because i've always been super interested in asia so now i live in south korea or i've been living in south
korea for seven years now over seven years and before that i actually also lived in china i taught english in china
i've been teaching english in south korea as well and i have my own personal website
lindagose.com and on there i just share um information about what it's like living
abroad in asia in china in south korea travel tips if you're not ready to make
the move yet you just want to go and travel in asia also great platform for that so do check that out and also on
instagram actually i share a lot of content over there very passionate about photography that's one of my big things
so if you're interested in that go ahead go over to instagram give me a
follow i would really appreciate that and if there's something that you want to ask like one on one send me a dm on
instagram i'm always up for that as well i am originally from germany and the us
so my mom is german my dad is american i spat i spent time in both places i was
born and mostly raised in germany and then i also lived a little bit in the u.s before i moved to china into korea
currently like i said based in south korea and i really like it here
and i'm also that's why i'm here i'm also a teflon tesol marketing professional and a tefl teacher an
english teacher and i also actually started teaching german which has also been super exciting
um yeah for i t t what is itt itt stands
for international tefl and tesol training so we specialize in teacher training
people who want to be english teachers abroad they come to us we provide the training you get your certificate and
then you're good to go you can find itttt online at teflcourse.net and we're also on all
social media platforms you're watching on on youtube some of you are watching on facebook
that's where we are we're also on instagram at international tefl training you can also head over there and check
us out and itt is a leading teflon tesol course provider we've been in the business for over 25 years since 1997ish
and we operate worldwide we have a variety of different courses i know that many of you have already taken our
courses so we've got online courses we also have in-class courses and combined
courses of different hours and different specializations and all that so do check
it out if you haven't yet and like i said you can have 30 off today so that's
very exciting all right let me have a look at our comments here we have juliana hi juliana
how are you doing watching from illinois 8 0pm right now it is too hot here how
have you been i've been doing really well um thank you so much like i said we are
also kind of it's really hot in korea as well but we're kind of getting into rainy season so i think that's very
special about korea that we do have and that's something um kind of a funny
thing but if you are studying korean maybe you've come across this that in every single textbook for learning
korean they always say oh korea has four seasons and they're very proud of that but i think the more special thing is
that korea has four seasons and they have a rainy season as well i think that's very special not a lot of
countries have that both things or maybe maybe it's just me i'm not sure um but
yeah today the weather is great here it's very hot as well i actually haven't gone out yesterday all day so i'm
probably gonna go out later a little bit just to get some fresh air anyways we also have javelin here from
the philippines but watching from hong kong awesome just got my teasel this
month and now trying to get a job as an esl the weather in hong kong now is too
hot the sun shines so bright outside today how are you hope you're good i'm very good yeah and i love hong kong and
i love the philippines as well but i've been to hong kong several times actually right before kovet one time so
i really miss it i went to one of my friend's wedding over there she is from
hong kong and it was just a great experience and i really miss hong kong i really want to go back
so i'll let you know when i go again and congratulations on your tesol joplin
that's awesome then we have rudine hello linda i'm
watching from thailand 8 a.m okay great where in thailand are you watching from
i'm visiting thailand this year again finally i'm super excited it's the first
well actually it's the second but i went home to germany in december so it's not the first
international kobe trip but it will be sort of so i'm super excited about going
back to thailand um so that's nice and we have margie
also in hong kong cool hi hi margie how are you doing
great okay thank you guys for joining me that's super exciting um where everybody's from and uh we have
people who have completed a tea so i want a tefl and all that so that's very exciting
thank you guys so much all right then hold on
[Music] i think we're gonna turn this off and then we're just gonna go into today's topic
and my first question for you all is actually oh probably nobody can read this right now
what is your biggest worry about moving abroad so moving abroad to teach can be
a daunting undertaking i know many of you have already done that though people um who was a javelin
from the philippines but already in hong kong so what was your biggest worry or what is
your biggest worry what are you most worried about when thinking about going abroad to teach english what is like
your number one um worry basically that's what i'm really
curious about so this is something that's kind of tied to today's topic
today's topic like i said 10 pieces of advice every new tefl teacher should
know and it's more focused on people who want to move abroad to teach um because it is just more daunting than
starting to teach online obviously we are also i was very worried about uh teaching english online also
actually of course because it's different but moving abroad to teach is just a whole nother level because you're
moving to a whole different country a whole different culture you don't know anybody there so it's a whole different
thing than just teaching online so what is your worry when it comes to
moving abroad to teach what are you most worried about or it can be several things
let me know and maybe there's something in there that i'm actually gonna touch on today that would be really great
so obviously one of the things uh that we hear a lot is just culture the different
culture if you're able to deal with a new culture when there are many cultural issues
language issues of course can be a problem
um also if you're doing this alone you're moving to a place where you don't know anybody that can be very scary as
well um because you don't have a support system all of those things but what is it specifically for you
what are your you most worried about when you're thinking about teaching
english abroad or are you not worried at all that could also be the case let me know if you're like yeah i'm not worried
everything's cool i'm excited i just want to leave maybe that's maybe that's the case let me know too
just giving it a couple of seconds here for your answer before we done we're then going into um
the different pieces of advice we have 10 pieces of advice to cover today
so quite a bit of information to go through so we'll see how it goes today but let
me know your biggest worry when it comes to teaching english abroad it can be
very daunting um luckily these days it's i feel like
it's a lot easier than it was let's say 20 years ago because we all have um you know there's internet everywhere
so we can just skype with our family back home it's easier to stay in touch
with compared to like say 20 years ago right so that's a lot better
but yeah i just wish somebody would say something guys don't be shy
amitabha hi how are you doing i'm doing very well it's 6 46 a.m in kolkata
great it's so early wow thanks for taking some time to join us that's awesome amitava
thank you all right maybe you guys are shy today
and you don't want to share you worry that's okay i just named a few that a lot of people have just to worry about
the different culture cultural issues when you're moving to a completely different place
um language barrier and just the worry that you're doing this all alone you
don't have a support system you don't know anyone there um [Music]
yeah i think those are very common worries a lot of people have if there are any other ones that you have that
you're thinking about do let me know um but then i'm just gonna move on to the next slide
i just wish somebody said something i know you guys are watching maybe you you can't really type
anything in the comments at the moment that's cool too we can come back to this later as well
okay here routine says my biggest concern was the transportation issue
okay what transportation issue could you elaborate
like how you get to the country oh okay i'm still learning how to ride a
motorcycle got it okay so you are
in thailand um and maybe there's no are there no public
buses a lot and no subway perhaps
or you can't have a car there oh and then drive on the left side don't they in thailand so that would also be scary
for me because i always drive on the right side i've never driven on the other side of the road
um so that can be scary too interesting
okay very good
all right so i'm just gonna put this slide on again uh this is the topic that we're
talking about today if somebody just joined now this is what we're going to talk about
okay amitabha says what are some culture shocks that one must face when one moves to another country also how much money
should one carry with oneself whilst shifting abroad very good questions
we're going to talk about those in just a minute okay routine says buying a car is quite
expensive gotcha okay and he you said um know how i move around the
city i teach in la booty central thailand they have no grab cars
in liburi only in bangkok okay got it yeah i do remember there are quite a lot
of motorcycles down there so i'm glad that you were able to um get one
but you're still learning how to drive a motorcycle okay nice
that's exciting yeah i also got a car here in korea after a couple of i think after four years of living in korea i
got a car it's just different isn't it driving in a different country even if even in
korea they drive on the same side as i'm used to on the right side um
[Music] but i mean there's still some you know how people drive is different and some
of the uh regulations and rules are different so that's definitely something you need to
get used to for sure all right and then amitabh was talking about culture shocks and also the worry
about how much money you need very good so we're gonna touch on a couple of these things so let's get into
it 10 pieces of advice you need to know as a new tefl teacher
especially if you want to move abroad this is what our focus is on today so let's have a look
and always feel free to add your comments please during this live session
so advice number one what i have um put down here is teaching is
actually not that hard when you are prepared okay this is the key when you
are prepared i feel like there are two sets of people
usually when it comes to this one side is like yeah i know how to speak english i can teach and those are
usually the people who don't even bother getting a tefl certificate they're like hey i'm a native english speaker i can
teach english of course i can why not and then they get a job um they
set foot in their classroom and then they realize like oh my god i have no idea what i'm doing
this is one set of people the other set of people they are worried about oh my
god i don't know how to teach i can't do this this is too difficult all of these different teaching
methodologies and they're getting a tefl and they're buying books and they're kind of
too worried i feel like so either you are not worried about at all about that at all or you're worried
about it too much perhaps but when you are prepared teaching is actually not that hard
so let's get into it so what i just said being a native or
fluent english speaker does not make you a great teacher okay i know this i think everybody by now
knows this that just because you're maybe of a native english speaker
it does not mean that you are also a good teacher those two things are completely different
okay um that's why obviously fluent
non-native fluent english speakers also make really great teachers because they have learned english themselves they
know all about the learning process native english speakers don't they don't
they've never really had to learn english like like an english learner like the students that they're going to
teach so they are lacking this this knowledge um that's why it's really important for
both uh native english speakers and non-native english speakers to do to
take a tefl course to do the work to get teflor t-cell certified so taking a
teflor t-cell certification course will give you the perfect base of know-how to
be able to lead a classroom abroad it's not just about being able to speak english it's about knowing about
the things that matter in the classroom and so really quick i know many of you
know this but a teflor tesol course content if you have no idea yet if you haven't taken a course yet
what is it all about so the course content of a teflor tesol course is instruction and practice in the
primary skill areas required for a graduate to teach english as a foreign language efl so this includes but it's
not limited too those are just the biggest points of the course content
theories methods and techniques of teaching you'll learn about classroom management very important how to manage
a class of say 25 different students 25 children 25
whatever or 10 or how whatever your class size is can be very challenging
you'll learn all about lesson planning very important as well lesson planning how to plan your lessons again if you've
never taught before and if you're just an english native speaker and you think like oh i'm
just gonna go in there and i'm just gonna i'll just figure it out that's not gonna work you need to know how to lesson plan
you need to know how to properly lesson plan we teach you um the different kinds of uh
theories and techniques to follow um then we uh uh tafflortis of course also
teaches you about evaluation and testing very important how to give feedback
to your um students we focus a lot about on pronunciation
and phonology very important as well receptive and productive skills such as
listening uh writing reading and what's the other one speaking
those are receptive and productive skills how to focus on what and how to mix them all
together and obviously there is also a grammar component of a teflor tesol
course which is usually highly appreciated by native english speakers
because native english speakers usually don't get into the grammar nitty gritty of the
english language and they really appreciate these units of our course because those
units they don't only go into um the grammar terms you know parts of speech
and conditionals and all those things gerunds um the vocabulary but also
um which grammar issues um are the most difficult for english learners and then
how can you effectively teach those uh grammar topics to your students
so yeah that's basically that that's the first point the first advice again it was
teaching is actually not that hard when you are prepared so that's why we recommend get prepared whether or not
you are a native english speaker okay and daniel here has a comment hello
linda this is a great topic to elaborate on i agree becoming an english teacher is definitely more than mastering the
language per se yeah i believe daniel didn't you recommend this topic last time or was it
somebody else um but thank you yeah i agree as well
okay good so this was advice number one let's have a look at advice number two here
advice number two not all of your lessons are going to be great okay
now we're following advice number one you you followed advice number one you got a tefl course your certification you
you are prepared now you're stepping into the classroom and you're still it's not great
your first lesson most likely is not going to be great my first ever lesson
was not great my second lesson probably was also wasn't great my third fourth and so on
it just takes time not all of your lessons are going to be great even after 10 years of teaching
there's gonna be a day and your lesson is just not gonna be great and that's okay
that's okay just know that and especially as a new teacher it can be very challenging
so just keep in mind you will get better at it and learn to develop your own
personal teaching style it takes time teaching is not something even though we
recommend taking a tefl course and a tefl course is great it teaches you the
theoretical stuff you still need to figure out the actual practical
side of things and that and then those two things the knowledge you get from your tefl course
and everything that is in your brain and you know um you've learned it it's in your head
taking this then and uh using it in
the classroom and actually getting practical teaching experience this is how
it's done and how you actually become a teacher and it just takes time it's not going to happen
overnight and you shouldn't get discouraged it's perfectly normal
every teacher will tell you um and it still happens to a lot of teachers with years of experience some
lessons aren't just gonna go aren't just gonna go great and they're not gonna go according to your lesson plan and that's
okay because you're dealing with real people you're not dealing with predictable machines right
and sometimes there it's also our mood we don't feel great one day and our students are not going to have the same
good mood every day so it's a lot of different factors and sometimes it's just not going to go great so be patient
and you will figure out your own style as you go everybody's teaching style is
different also what works for me might not work for you what you read in your
tefl course we provide you with many different options to choose from and then you're gonna
take your own uh you're gonna put your own spice on it basically you're gonna make it your own
following our our instructions and our advice and then you're going to turn it into your own
teaching style and that's cool too so that was advice number two
i think we all agree on that one as well and i'm sure all of you who are already
teaching you've definitely had lessons that were not great i mean i've been i'm in many like groups
about teaching and i read this all the time where people are like yeah i spent hours on lesson planning and i had this
great idea for a lesson on this and this topic and i played it
out all in my head and it was so cool i was so excited to do it and then they walk into the classroom
and they start and then they realize oh this does not work at all how i imagined it would it's
not my students hate it it just doesn't work out so this can happen too
and that's okay next time we can make it better
all right good advice number three also kind of related to your teaching style is
all kids are the same now this is a little bit controversial or it sounds a little bit controversial i'm not saying
all students are the same the thing here really is all kids are the
same and what do all kids like think about that for a second what do all kids like
and i'm gonna look at this comment danielle says yes i think so i was happy when i learned about today's live
session topic i'm taking notes oh cool yeah i think you did um recommend that
topic so thank you so much for that daniel keep taking notes you can always watch
the replay as well so don't worry don't take too many notes alright so advice number three
especially if you're teaching kids and most of the efl teachers abroad are
actually teaching children especially if you're moving to asia asia is all about
um english instruction specifically for kids i would say 80 90 children
so just keep in mind all kids are the same and what do all kids like games and one more thing
one more thing they like uh so no matter where you teach you can apply the same teaching strategies to
young students all around the world okay incorporate a lot of fun activities a
lot of visuals a lot of props as well those will work anywhere whether you're
teaching in china whether you're teaching in korea or you're teaching in germany or you're teaching in peru it
doesn't matter kids all over the world they love activities they love using their bodies
and their hands so if you incorporate things like that into your lessons the children they will love you
and at the same time what they also like are rewards so classroom management in a class
filled with children works like a charm with a reward system so if you're taking
notes one thing you should write down is reward system two words reward system
write that down and i have an example for you as well and this is even something that i use in my online
lessons i and when i teach online i mostly teach adults but i do have some children that
i teach um and i also use reward systems for them
online because it just works they love it and i will have a sticker board i'm
just gonna show you that right now an example so in my school when i was teaching my
first year in korea i was a full-time kindergarten and elementary school teacher and for our children for our
students we had reward cards that looked similar to this or sticker boards where
they would collect stickers and then they can put it on their sticker board at the end of the day
and then we had well there would be re there would be sorry there would be rewards so
if the sticker board is full then kind of uh turn it in and get like a small gift like a pencil or like an eraser or
something like that so there's some reward for that um in my online classes i also use a
similar system to this with my young learners and what i do
at the end when they have um when the sticker board is full then the
next lesson after that we would play a game and what i usually do we just don't
play a game and it's fun it's a review game so i would make a game of including like all the things
we've learned before and make it into a game with like a board game and
the students can pick like their characters i put up like disney characters they can use um to move
across the board and stuff so that's what i do online so this works online as well as in the real world you just want
to have a reward system kids will love it and it's gonna make your life as a teacher so much easier
routine says all kids really are the same i was teaching in namibia before i
came over to thailand games and props work everywhere a reward system really
helps a lot and makes life easier for teachers yes exactly and you really need to use the reward
system not just have it there but really refer to it when you notice your students like in the classroom or also
online they're getting rambunctious they're not paying attention or they're misbehaving you can remove stickers or
you can just remind them hey if you're not behaving you're not going to get a sticker and you want a sticker right you
want to play the game you want to be able to get your reward right and then they're like oh yeah yeah and they they
you need to remind them they forget too so always have it visible and um just
remind them so they are behaving so you see kids in namibia are the same as kids in
thailand as kids in korea as kids everywhere that's awesome thank you routine
okay so this was oh which number was that number three right yes so remember all
kids are the same use a reward system and apply the same activities and games
and you'll be good this will really help you
okay advice i have for you number four now we're really getting into it don't
underestimate culture shock and who was it in the beginning was talking
about amitabha right amitabha was talking about culture shock yes so again amitabha is
asking what are some culture shocks that one must face when one moves to another country this will be completely
different from person to person because you come from a culture you're going to a different culture
my culture is different from yours if you're then going to different countries so like all our cultures are different
even if you're from the same country inside the culture of your family might
be different so there is no answer um one answer for all of this
um it will really depend on you but there are some things that
people associate with culture shock and it can be all of these things so for me um because i live in south
korea where literally 99 of the people are south korean
um a big culture shock is just that i always stand out right i can never no
matter how many years i live in korea i will never blend in because i obviously don't look korean so
whenever i am out on the street or anywhere people instantly are aware
oh this is a foreigner right so this is one of the things you have to deal with um
if for example you're moving to a country like korea now this is not going to happen to you likely if you're moving
to a place like in europe or just a place uh that is more multicultural
where there are people of different backgrounds and colors and shapes and sizes but if you're moving to a country
like korea or china or japan countries like that
you're just going to stand out more for example then obviously all the other things of a
culture the food you could have issues with the food own experience obviously food in korea
and food in china is very different from what i'm used to back home um
those are things and then just little parts it can really just be little parts
of uh the little things you know um that might be different right
uh so this will be just different for anyone and those are just a bunch of words that uh people usually associate
also fashion definitely people here dress differently than what
i'm used to for example so yeah it really depends some countries
are more traditional than other countries or some countries are more
open-minded whereas some might be more conservative it just really depends
yeah and so what you can do to kind of minimize the effects of culture shock
you're gonna have culture shock no matter what because you can't you're you're not just not from that culture right so you're gonna experience that no
matter what but how to minimize it is just to do as much research about your
desired location as you can to understand the local culture you can watch movies from there
you can watch tv shows or programs definitely learning the language will also help you better understand the
culture um and also will help you then when you're there to communicate so it's a
win-win um so you can read blogs of people living there you can engage with people
from that country through social media or forums we on itt in it at itt we have
a blog teflcourse.net blog and we will we share a lot of
stories from our course graduates who move abroad and they share their thoughts about what it's like living in
a certain place so just do as much research as you can or maybe there are people from your
country who move to that country where you want to go to and they have a youtube channel so you can watch their
videos or just stuff like that um the more you kind of learn about the culture
beforehand the less you're gonna be shocked and surprised or at least you're aware and you know
okay this is kind of how what will happen or might happen so you're kind of aware um oh people are gonna stare at me
and then you're not gonna be too shocked when people stare at you all the time things like that
so that's my take on culture shock um it's really gonna depend on
from person person there's no one answer but just my advice do as much research about
your desired location as you can and don't underestimate culture shock so some people think like oh yeah i'm gonna
be fine like i've traveled i'm gonna be good and then it might hit
you really hard and the feeling of not fitting in um
and not being able to adapt can be really devastating so don't underestimate it and really
kind of do your research and kind of dive into it it's gonna make it easier
all right so this was advice number four let's have a look at advice number five
you will be confused and that's okay so kind of also associated with the
culture shock of things uh even though you do your research you do everything you can um you're still gonna be
confused and that's okay don't try and place your way of doing things onto the locals that's a very
important thing as you are after all a guest in their country right so um
this is what i've seen also happen from a lot of people they come to a different
place the culture is different and then they're just like oh why are they doing this this our way is so much better or
uh i don't understand why they're doing that you should do it like this and it's just like
come on like give it a chance first of all and don't be like that and at the same
but at the same time you should also stay true to your own values and don't completely change yourself so i think
living abroad is all about this this mix and compromise so yes adapt adapt but
don't change all of yourself right to make desperately make you fit into this
box like if you just don't fit in anyway it's all about compromising and finding
a balance that's what i'm saying basically
um so yeah i think there's nothing more to that i hope it makes sense it's kind of um just
an extension of advice number four with the culture shock and just number five
you know no matter how much research you do or you think you know uh
a lot about this certain country you you're still gonna be confused or you're gonna be confused i mean i was i'm still
confused here but i was extremely confused a lot of times about how things are just done and when
i lived in china [Music] i'm very used to a certain kind of
german bureaucracy and china works very differently
so i was confused at many times going to a bank going to um a post
office they just work completely differently but you just can't let that get to you
you can just take note of it oh okay that's just the way they do things but don't like get too much into it and be
like oh my god why are they doing this this is so annoying like it's just the way it is and you just need to deal with
it and just take note of it and then move on from that i feel like
if that makes sense all right we have letharg here great advice this is a nice topic thank you
for sharing linda i would watch the recorded video later i was late happy
friday oh yeah sure no problem that's the great thing about our our live sessions you can
always come back later watch the replay it will always stay in our playlist on youtube
and on facebook so don't worry it'll always be here for you
forever for eternity okay this was advice number five
now we're moving on to advice number six also very real
very important these days be prepared in case you get sick
okay um very important yes you're human you're going to get
sick so think about this will you have access to health care in the country you choose if
you don't know the answer you need to do some research many countries they are going to have
you on public health care as a foreign teacher uh many countries
include you in the national uh health care system some countries do not so in
that case you need to be aware of that and you might have to get health insurance for the duration of
your stay abroad from your home country so that you're safe
on top of that you should also pack a health kit with all essential medications you might need i also do
that and i still do that i have my mom buy some medications from germany and send them to me or bring them to me when
she visits um because i just want those
i do use korean medication but again cultural things they are different sometimes and i just prefer
taking other things from what i'm used to back home anyway uh
things like this might include painkillers headache medicine allergy pills those might be
different in a different country also contact lenses and also birth control pills things like
that birth control or birth control pills or other kinds of birth control make sure you have that and at least for
let's say bring uh if you can have contact lenses for maybe six months or even a year if
you can and also birth control and any other important medication that you need
if you have any allergies or any other diseases make sure you stock up on your
medication before you go so that you have time to figure out how to get
a refill of your prescriptions etc in the new country
and with this i also have another pro tip here for you guys
uh register with your embassy in your host country i know that a lot of
embassies can are doing this and i'm registered um so i have two passports i have an american
passport and a german passport and i'm registered with both embassies in korea
so i receive information for all german and u.s citizens living abroad
and in case of any kind of disaster i mean god forbid but any i mean in
today's world really anything can happen i think we all know that by now um
so just in case anything happens they know that you are here
the american government the german government wherever you are from they are aware that you live abroad in this
country so if anything happens they will be able to contact you you will be able to contact them and get
there and receive assistance so that is very important you can check that with
your local embassy in the country where you want to move to and they will likely have some kind of mailing list some kind
of um online system where you can register and you put your name and your passport
number and usually also your address and you can also add any family members or
any additional people to that and to your um record there
so that's just my tip and i feel like um especially these days with cobit and
with wars going on this is a very smart thing to do so you're on the safe side
and you'll also receive some newsletters on different things and travel regulations so you're always up to date
so this is something you should definitely do okay
moving on number seven also good to know uh some people do not
realize this but your friends and family might not be able to relate to your
experience if you have friends or family who have obviously never lived abroad before or they have never been to that
particular country before where you are they might not be able to relate to any
of what you're saying so it's important to not only have your family there as
people that you talk to but you're also obviously gonna make friends abroad who are going to understand what you're
going through just be aware that maybe your friends and family might not be able to relate
and they might make some comments that are not that helpful to you in that
situation so uh yeah a lot of english teachers abroad
they're gonna get that when are you coming home and get a real job type of
comments um so you know just take that with a grain of
salt uh no matter what people say don't take it too personally they just don't know
what you're going through and after all it is your life and you can live it the way you want just keep that in mind that
should actually be the advice advice it's your life and you can live it the way you want this is your advice
i i see this with a lot of my friends also where they get a lot of pressure from back home they're like hey just
come back home why are you living there um just come back home and like get a real
job and like stop you know chasing this dream of living abroad like why are you doing
that and you just then just need to take a breather and you're like yeah you know i
actually really like it here you know you should come visit you should see for yourself
um yeah so that is some advice that i have for you
don't take it too personally just think about hey they have never left the country maybe or they have never been
here before they just don't know what it's like and i mean living abroad is not gonna be
all great and rainbows every day and every time so you're gonna have bad days
as well just as you would back home so it's perfectly normal that sometimes
you're gonna be frustrated and sometimes things are not just gonna be uh
great just like back home you're gonna have good days and bad days and that's just how life is
thank you daniel i appreciate it i hope i'm making sense sometimes i feel like i'm just not making sense but
i appreciate that
okay all right so that was advice number seven i think this was it for number
seven yes so now we're going to get into advice number eight also very very
important read and understand your contract your teaching contract or any kind of
contract you're gonna have to sign in your new country whether it is a phone telephone contract for your cell phone
cell phone plan a rental contract any kind of contract but this is more
focused now on the teaching contract so read and understand your contract very
important don't just sign it teaching english is big business and
there are more vacant positions out there than teachers to fill them this is just how it is it's a reality so when
interviewing for a job abroad ask as many questions as you can about the
employer and see if they seem trustworthy okay
um and take your time to read the contract don't just sign it and if it if something feels off it's better to walk
away because like i said there are so many vacant positions you can find something
better if this feels off no trust your gut with this as well and
um i did a live session back in april about what to watch out for before you
sign your teaching contract so this is something you should definitely check out um very flattering picture here but
anyway check it out there are more details about what to really watch out for when
you sign all the little details in the contract that might be overlooked by some people so do check this out i can
share the link with you let me see
if i can find it right away hey
okay maybe if i click on this right now hold on i want to share the link with you because this is very important
let's do this yes okay
so you can watch this if you've missed uh previously
and then i'm gonna share that in the comments section so you can watch this video
because this is really important so i want to make sure that everybody has access to that
if you haven't seen this yet you can have a look
this video
okay so i just shared it so this is the video about teaching contracts and what to watch out for before you sign there
will be more information in there um this is from april of this year so it's not too long ago it's still up to date
um so you can watch it and get a better understanding of what you really need to
watch out for there's some really great tips in there okay
and then we have advice number nine just to know you might not go back home this can be
very real uh you know me too i never imagined myself living in korea for seven years i always
thought i would not be here this long um so just be aware you might not go back you might like it so much that
you're not gonna go back be aware of that there are many reasons why many teachers
actually decide to stay abroad so there are just so many attractive career opportunities for qualified efl teachers
abroad and it it's not to say that you stay in one place the whole time but maybe
after teaching a year in korea you're moving on to teaching a year in china and then you're going to teach in dubai
or wherever so um just be aware many teachers actually they are staying
longer than they initially thought pretty much everyone i know
most people came here oh i'm just going to stay a year and then they liked it so much they stayed another year and
another year and so on some of these people they even open up
their own schools so you could even open up your own business here or some people actually
move away from teaching and get a job in that country at a different company can
also happen and others they even find love and settle down and start a family
abroad so this is this is something very real that happens to a lot of people you might meet somebody
and then you're actually going to stay there so this is a whole nother thing so teaching abroad turns into actually
living abroad and having a foreign partner and having children and having your
entire life there so just be aware that this is something that can happen because you just can't predict the
future me too i always was like yeah i'm gonna go to china for a year and then i'm gonna come back i'm going to go to
germany i'm going to work for audi or bmw
in the asia department because i could speak chinese and that's that well it didn't turn out that way let me
tell you didn't turn out that way now i'm i've been here in korea for
seven years married four six to korean man um and we have two cats
very different okay amitav was saying i was wondering whether to undertake a car driving
course and obtain an international license before moving out from my home country to a foreign one or to obtain
one while staying abroad in that particular country this is because in india it is mainly a
right-hand driving country whilst mostly in europe they're obviously left-hand driven countries
yeah that's an interesting idea so this actually depends on um the different countries so
here in korea they drive on the right side of the road same as in germany and
i was actually able to exchange my driver's license i did not not have to
take a new uh test or anything a new driving exam or nothing because the rules are the same pretty
much and we drive on the same side of the road now i know that people for example i know a lot of people from
south africa coming to korea they i think need to take another exam because
they like they drive on the left side of the road so different countries will have different regulations
when it comes to driving and driving licenses and who can you know exchange their license and not
so this really depends on where you want to go so i recommend maybe reaching out to the embassy
of the country like of your country the indian embassy in the country where you want to go to
and ask them if you're able to exchange the license or if you have to take a whole new license there get a whole new
license take a whole new course it depends um so either way could be better for you
it depends really on the country it could be better for you to obtain a license in india it's probably cheaper
than getting one in getting one in europe or it might be better to get one in
europe because yours might not be recognized i'm not sure ask your embassy they will know for sure
okay then we are already oh yeah oh i wanted to share this with you as well about um
you might not move back so this was actually a 21 2021 survey of teachers who are currently teaching
abroad and i hope this is not too small but it says the majority of teachers they feel comfortable about teaching
abroad in 2021 so they did this survey um basically during covet and how
teachers abroad were feeling about the covet situation and if they were moving back or not so
as you can see the majority here 37 percent are very comfortable and
comfortable so they did not leave uh very uncomfortable five percent and
those teachers i'm not sure if they've left actually so the majority of teachers they plan to
continue teaching abroad in 2021 despite all the stuff that happened so they plan
to continue teaching ninety-seven percent only three percent of the people
um no longer plan to teach abroad so as you can see teaching abroad and living
abroad is very um has a huge impact on people's lives and it's not something that they um easily just give up and
stop so generally once you're teaching english abroad
people are very comfortable they like it and they are more likely to stay than to return
home actually
all right hello next slide
you go all right this is advice number 10 and i have last advice of today
you won't be the same person just be aware that you're not going to be the same person
as when you left when you have lived abroad
like we talked about culture shock is very real and so is reverse culture shock so actually a lot of people um who
lived abroad for a long time um because you change and you adapt to
your surroundings so when you go back home you also feel a culture shock and that is called reverse culture shock so
you're gonna experience another culture shock when you go back home because you've been used to living in a new
place you adapted you changed um every place there is a saying like
every place you go uh you take a peace with you in your heart
or something like that so um that's definitely true you know you change you're not gonna be
the same person um and people back home might not like that right they're like oh you changed
like why why are you doing this now like um they might be confused but also you
might be confused because to you you left and in your mind everybody stayed a
certain way right but also life goes on for those staying
back home so a lot of us we live abroad and then suddenly somebody's getting married somebody's having babies and
you're not there life goes on for them as well right so that's something to keep in mind
you won't be the same person when you go back and they are also not going to be the
same people maybe as when you left
and that can be something that's really tough to realize right you're gonna miss so many holidays you're gonna miss so
many birthdays right you're gonna miss so many babies being born and weddings and
things like that so uh just be aware of that and at the same time you're also not going to be the same
um you're not going to be the same person that you were when you left
i believe that is it with advice number 10 i hope you enjoyed this
and um i hope that you are now more ready moving abroad to teach english just got
a little less daunting i hope that was my goal for today to make it a little less frightening and a little less
daunting to kind of ease your mind and help you through with that um so i hope you feel a little bit more
ready now to do that and to pursue your passion follow through with it of course
it's still going to be daunting and still going to be scary but just know that you can do it
why why shouldn't you thousands of people have already done what you want to do you can also do it
why why shouldn't you be able to do it if you really want to go abroad and experience life abroad you should go for
it and what's the worst thing that could happen the worst thing that could happen is it you hate it and then you just go
back or you go somewhere different that's the worst thing that could happen
you always have the option of going back right you don't know until you try
so that's just what i wanted to say as a final note
um so before we sign off and before we do a q a i forgot about the q a here's just
how to reach us itttt if you're not feeling inspired and ready to teach english abroad
reach out to us we will help you find the most suitable teflor tesol course for your destination where you want to
go on our website you can actually request a call back you can speak with us or you can also reach out to us via
email courses at t cell minus tefl.com and on our website teflcourse.net you
can check out all the different course options and um we do still have 30 off any
teflor teasel course from itt today you can scan this qr code or you can also um
follow the link i'm just gonna share that with you one more time that is the
same link if you can't call um if you can't scan the qr code you can copy
paste this link and follow the instructions and you can get 30 off your tefl or tesol course
um and with that uh if anybody has a question now before
i sign off i'm just gonna give it a couple more minutes um we're already now over one hour but it's okay i still have
some time for you guys i just want to make sure if anybody has a question that i i can answer the question before i
sign up for today
oh and i missed this comment actually from daniel daniel said it does make sense since you
went through the learning process of teaching abroad you're living your dream and that's inspiring thank you so much
yeah i appreciate that amitav also said yes indeed whatever you
are saying makes perfect sense great and please keep it up i'm glad guys you enjoyed that um that makes me feel a lot
better um so thank you so much and daniel also said advice number 10 was the best piece
of advice every future english teacher can get as far as we can see teaching
abroad is a life-changing experience i dream of it great thank you so much it really means
a lot to me um that you know even if i just inspire or take
some doubts from one person watching today that's already a win for me
um literally i mean it sounds cheesy and all but this is why i'm here that's why i'm doing this i
just want to show you guys that you know there's nothing to worry about and if
this is what you want to do you should just go for it the worst thing that can happen is you don't like it and then you
just go back home that's it that's it you're not going to be stuck there forever if you hate it
um yeah and
oh juliana said thank you for sharing this help for helpful information with us today hope you have a wonderful
weekend thank you you too same to you and do let me know if there are any
questions um that i might be able to answer before i sign off if there is anything um i can
help you with before leave before i leave i'm still going to be on now for maybe two minutes i'm gonna wait a
little bit i don't want to leave too early i want to give everybody the opportunity to ask a question so if there's something on
your mind feel free to ask or um if you don't want to ask a question here in front of everybody
you can also just go to instagram and dm me
at linda goes east and i will help you out as well if you don't want to ask here in front
of everyone that's fine as well
okay so if there's anything on your mind
right now about teaching abroad or anything that i talked about that was not clear any information you want to
add perhaps or any topic suggestions you have for upcoming live sessions i'm all
here let me know
we have about one more minute if there's no more question no more
questions coming through that's cool too that means i did my job
today i uh left no questions unanswered so that's a good feeling as well
but if there are any questions don't hesitate don't hesitate
oh cool amitabha says thanks a lot linda for your kind inspirational advice words
support suggestions and the best wishes here's wishing you a happy and wonderful
weekend thank you so much avita amitava that's so nice thank you i hope everybody also has a
nice weekend um maybe you have some fun plans let me know about them next week when i'll see
you again hopefully same time same place um
so yeah thank you guys then i think i'm going to sign off there are no more questions you can
always reach out to me like i said on instagram and i just want to show you here again um email us courses at t-cell
minus tefl.com go to our website you can also request a call back and just don't forget the 30
percent if you're ready to start this adventure um yeah and i hope everybody has a great
weekend and i hope to see you all again next week and yeah stay safe and stay happy
and then i'm out i'm out i'm out thank you guys for
watching see you next time bye bye
