Job Discussion Forums

Jetgirly · Joined: 17 Jul 2004 Posts: 741

Inspired by a recent post (that I firmly believe is a joke) in the Newbie Forum in which someone expresses some concern about needing to obtain a passport in order to get an EFL job in Asia , I am interesting in knowing if anyone here had never been out of their home country before going abroad to teach.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Teaching in Mexico was my first (and current) trip abroad...not including tripping around Canada and the US.

I understand your skepticism on that post you refer to, but I see those kinds of questions all the time. I'd say the majority of people back home really have no idea how to do what we do, so those that do start to venture into this unknown are likely to ask those kinds of honest questions.

dixie · Joined: 23 Apr 2006 Posts: 644 Location: D.F

First time abroad was when I moved to Honduras to teach. And quite the trip it was. I all ready had people giving me crazy looks when I told them where I was going (alone) to live for a year, but then I arrived, spoke no Spanish, couldn�t use the phone because of the card system and was forgotten!! Thankfully there was a small internet cafe and I caught the VP online (not a regular thing for her during the weekend). Several hours later I was finally picked up and had a fabulous year!

Thus, begain the insanity.... Wink

tedkarma · Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 1:52 am Post subject:

Other than relatively short trips to Mexico, my two-year Peace Corps experience in Africa (89-91) was the first time I really spent serious time overseas - or even had a passport.

I agree with Guy - there are a LOT of people who just have no idea about how to do this. I didn't either when I was a newbie and I only ever heard of TEFL because the Peace Corps had a lot of teachers (I wasn't a teacher in the PC).

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

Nope. I went to Ireland during high school for a summer study program and then to Guatemala when I finished university for a summer Spanish study program. My first teaching job in Prague was my third trip abroad... which for some reason really amused one of my colleagues! "This is ONLY your third trip abroad?" I guess I was a "newbie" compared to Europeans who could easily just pop across each other's borders.

d

fraup · Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:14 am Post subject:

I traveled to Germany and Eastern Europe in the 80's on business (banking) but had done a summer in Vienna as an undergrad. Next time was Poland, 1990-92 and the rest is history...

william wallace · Joined: 14 May 2003 Posts: 2869 Location: in between

yaramaz · Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 3:22 pm Post subject:

I had been living and travelling abroad for nearly a decade before I started teaching and moved to Turkey. Got my first passport at 18, then spent most of my 20s in Europe and Africa. Turkey is the most settled down I've ever been.