The skinny: I keep thinking of ways I want to parlay my teaching degree into something useful outside of, y’know, actually teaching in the public schools. My latest job has me seriously thinking about some seriously outrageous options.
F’rinstance: I’ve read ads on the internet about people in other countries, mostly places like Korea and China, who want to hone their conversational English skills by conversing with a native speaker. The qualifications are so general (a little college education, no teaching experience) and the benefits so generous (they fly you there, and back, and there’s a bonus at the end of service) I can’t help but suspect there’s some sort of catch.
But hey, I’m a native speaker. African-American, but y’know, I speak authentic American. I’m fairly proficient in my spoken and written word. And I’m a former teacher. The pays sucks but I figure the cost of living abroad will be low enough to offset my American need. Plus: I’ll finally get a chance to see the world, eat foreign food, live in a completely different culture. And it’ll only be for a year.
As I always enjoy reading Doper opinions, I’d likewise enjoy to read some here, especially from people who’ve actually done this, know people who have, or have worked in the Peace Corps.
there are posters that do this in china. my experience is 20 years out of date but it can be a lot of fun. if it’s china maybe we can help identify what places are hellholes and what might be interesting for someone that wants to maximize the experience.
Teaching English abroad you say? African-American you say? Hahahahaha. Sorry, you just reminded me of this guy. He’s in Japan with the JET program teaching English. I dunno if he’s exaggerating some aspects of life in Japan, but it’s a pretty entertaining read, and I guess it’s fairly informative too. Watch out for small children trying to stick their fingers up your ass.
… Yanno, my 11th grade teacher was all excited that year about going to Japan as a JET teacher. He’s probably over there right now. I wonder how he’s doing?
Check out the JET program. My sister taught in that program for several years. You earn good money, and my sister said she was exempted from both US and Japanese taxes (one of her colleagues basically saved up enough money to buy a house in 4 or 5 years of teaching). Having said that, I’m not sure how race relations are in Japan, or if you would encounter serious racism there.
Not sure what you mean by ‘conversational English’ almost every place I’ve worked there have been a mix classes with different objectives - pure “conversation” groups being few and far between. In theory you’ll have some preparation and admin tasks to do even if the group is just for conversation.
The link csharpmajor posted may be extreme but at the same time it’s only fair to let you know that it’s still a very white dominated industry. In eleven and a half years out of the 200 or so teachers I’ve met there’s been one Afro-Caribbean teacher, ona Afro-Norweigian teacher (!) and three Asian* ones (four actually but one only stuck Paris for a month - citing the cultural isolation as one of his reasons for leaving). Obviously this isn’t a reason not to do something but just to be aware of how isloated you could end up feeling.
AFAIK the JET scheme tends to be teaching kids so you may not get as much out of it on a cultural level - the real fun is talking to your contemporaries from another culture. A fried/colleague of mine had a fine time in CHina in the early nineties working with the UK based organisation the VSO, which is very similar to the Peace Corps and he loved it. A female friend did VSO in Africa, loved it but was hindered by the fact she was a woman, making friends, life outside work was difficult - her boyfriend went over to visit and was playing footie (soccer) with the locals within hours !!IIRC the VSO expects a minimum two year commitment.
(THere have been other threads on teaching English as a foreign/second language, it might be worth doing a search.)
*Britspeak for people of Indian/Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent