Job Discussion Forums

rho_e · Joined: 26 Dec 2008 Posts: 1

My husband and I met whilst teaching English in Korea, and we both love the ESL lifestyle so much. Currently, we are in England so that he can take a Master's in TESOL, and we are planning to start our family! After his schooling is completed, we want to get back to our international lifestyle. My query relates to the fact that when we do go back out, we will have at least one addition to our family (twins run in the famly, LOL). What I am wondering is how does the lifestyle work for those of you with families? If any traveling moms and dads out there would be willing to share their knowledge and experiences on the realities of living abroad and teaching ESL with children, at any age, we would appreciate it so much!

Thank you for all of your advice and expertise!

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

It works well if you settle down in one place and have the assurance that you-ll continue to have a job and visa

Schooling maybe in issue. In some places it-s stressful, others it-s expensive. It depends what part of the world you want to go to.

Also, if you-re working in language schools, rather than schools, it can be hard to get by money wise. See my PM

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Plus it also depends on the age of the kid(s). If they are not old enough for schooling (or otherwise ineligible), one of the parents will likely have to stay at home. Bye bye income. That's the life in Japan, anyway. Little to no daycare here.

keitepai · Joined: 23 Feb 2008 Posts: 143 Location: Istanbul

Hello,

We came to Turkey with 2 kids then 3.5 & 9 years. We have had a great run with them, my package included free school tuition luckily plus medical etc.

Some other people I know here that are teaching ESL to adults (which is more your situation I think) are paying a nanny to care for their baby while they work. Nannies here seem to be inexpensive compared to our home country so it is still worth it for them to teach. The nanny can take the children to playgroup or similar for social contact - they don't need preschool too early in my opinon.

My advice is choose a country that are friendly to kids - Turkey is great for that! Everyone including teenagers are so kind to them everywhere we go.

We plan to move on for another contract in 2009 - our kids are excited and help plan my applications with an atlas and the help of lonely planet website. Depending on your children's personality and dispositions they adapt easily to an international lifestyle and are often much more global -minded (is that a word?!) and well adjusted as a result.

Happy families!! Very Happy

BOBBYSUE · Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 100

Brunei is great for kids, with many teachers with families and also single parents (check out the teacher interviews and photos at www.cfbt.org)
You get a big house, home help is good and very cheap, good private education for two kids, often only work til 12.30 with nothing to take home as all preparing and marking is done during free periods at school. Only downside is the weekend is Friday and Sunday, but the holidays are good and so is the money, and people spend a lot more time with their kids in general than they do in their home countries.
Perhaps the other downside though for anyone considering Brunei is that you must be a state qualfied teacher...purely ESL qualifications are not accepted...

BOBBYSUE · Joined: 15 Mar 2007 Posts: 100

Brunei is great for kids, with many teachers with families and also single parents (check out the teacher interviews and photos at www.cfbt.org)
You get a big house, home help is good and very cheap, good private education for two kids, often only work til 12.30 with nothing to take home as all preparing and marking is done during free periods at school. Only downside is the weekend is Friday and Sunday, but the holidays are good and so is the money, and people spend a lot more time with their kids in general than they do in their home countries.
Perhaps the other downside though for anyone considering Brunei is that you must be a state qualfied teacher...purely ESL qualifications are not accepted...

Tom Le Seelleur · Joined: 27 Dec 2007 Posts: 242

Hi
We have 5 kids and live in the UAE. We used to live in Saudi Arabia with 3 kids. Once you have your MA both of you could pick up good jobs at colleges or universities that also pay schooling (from 5 years old), housing, flights, medical and yearly gratuity. The Middle East is perfect for bringing up kids as the countries are kid centred. However, you may not want to come here as you can get stuck and not leave to see the rest of the world which might be a reason why you started out in ESL in the first place. Having kids 99% of the time changes everything and you need to become less selfish and think more about what you want for your kids. getting a nanny here is cheap but then the nanny may not have strong English skills hence you send your kids to kindergarden to interact with English speakers etc... If both of you have an MA, with the generous salary that is paid here, only one of you needs to work full time while the other could pick up seasonal/temporary/part time teaching work. It is up to you.
Tom

Lhenderson · Joined: 15 Dec 2008 Posts: 135 Location: Shanghai JuLu Road

I have a young daughter from a broken marriage.

When I gotz into EFL I thought long and hard bout it.

Decided I need MY FREEDOM and that the past wouldnt be me anchor because the EFL lifestyle is different than we are all used to back home.

She is now with a loving family. And I am free to learn and earn and rediscover the youth I never had!

I couldnt be happier!

just_a_mirage · Joined: 11 Nov 2008 Posts: 169 Location: ecuador

I am a single mom with three kids, and have been in Ecuador for about three years. Although at times it has been a struggle, it has been a rewarding experience for me and the kids. One of my goals was for my children to see that they are part of a bigger picture, and that there is more than one way to do things. I wanted them to become accepting, flexible people who are open to things and people that are different from them. I am happy with the people they are, and at the very least, being bi-lingual is something they can have for the rest of their lives. Sometimes money is tight, but we have learned to budget and to stretch out money the way Ecuadoreans do. As far as school goes, for the most part we have home-schooled, although my children have attended local schools part-time to increase their Spanish.