I'm trying to decide between an MA Applied Ethics and MA Educational Leadership. One is in my teaching subject and super interesting while the other sounds boring af and is being considered purely because I don't know what I will want from my job in 10 years.

I saved $1k a month in Daegu, Korea as a single teacher in a hagwon in 2013. I spent a lot on booze and not much on travel.

I had flights and accom covered. I contributed to my medical (about $30 a month) and paid my utilities myself (about $100 a month all in all).

Edit: I should say at that time I was earning W2.1mil monthly, which was the equivalent of almost exactly $2100 USD. Not sure if the exchange rate is still there.

Thanks Dredge. But classes to prepare for in what window? Each day?

I keep seeing this term used, but I'm not familiar with what it means. My basic guess is something like 'individual classes that need planned each week' or something like that but do we not do that for every lesson? I figure I'm not quite on the money with it. I guess also this is an American phrase?

How many weekly preps would people be content with? What do you feel would be an average number vs a high/stressful number?

Hey guys. Just wondering if anyone could give me some basic/general information about their experiences or understanding of what it's like teaching South American students. For the purposes of what I am after, generalisations are totally fine - I understand the limitations associated with generalising/stereotyping but I'm interested in an overall picture of these students. For example, I *generally* found Asian students quite diligent but always tired, and I *generally* found Arab students to be quite difficult. I would be delighted to hear any information you may have about your experiences with these students.

Thanks in advance!

Immortus, you're trying to avoid generalising and stereotyping, which is great, because it's what we were taught in school again and again and again. Ultimately though the 'don't generalise' rule is a nice idea but kinda complicates things. I see no problem with generalising - it's making a 'general' comment about the way things are that would probably hold up 'generally' correct if you took a large cross section of data. Generalising itself isn't necessarily bad. There's a difference between the generalisation 'Generally, IS' with local headteachers are less rigorous with standards and ambition than IS' with western headteachers' and 'women aren't as smart as men'. One of those (to me) is clearly daft and should be discouraged, while one of those is simply a general comment about the way things are. Is making the generalisation 'Men are more aggressive than women' incorrect purely because we don't want to stereotype?

Anyway, yes it can very well be true that ISs run by local headteachers can be more 'for-profit' than those run by international headteachers. It is my understanding that the very best schools all have western Heads, while the local for-profit IS-in-name-only schools are almost exclusively run by local headteachers. The schools in the middle are all on the somewhere in-between. So, maybe we can't say 'having a local headteacher means the school is more likely to be run heavily for profit and with lower standards' but surely we can say something like 'local for profit slack schools are usually run by local headteachers'. Alternatively, maybe I've very publicly shown myself up to be a racist, sexist ass who knows nothing about nothing.

Don't go to Egypt. The country is desolate and unwelcoming. The people are generally rude, entitled and hostile. They will lie to your face and say whatever is the easiest answer, and then do something completely different. My partner has been basically locked away at home because every time she goes out to do something she is heckled, harassed and grabbed at. Students run the schools and admin are vicious in their treatment of staff.

People say it is safe here, and if you go by who is targeted, then yes, teachers generally are safe. However, it feels like just an illusion of safety. The housing compounds are all gated with security, but 95% of the time those gates are just left wide open as security play cards or smoke cigarettes. Shopping centres have manned metal detectors but people just stroll in and out through them, with the machines going off, and no-one cares or checks them. Trust me, if anyone wanted to attack a school or a residential compound where foreigners live or anything like that, they would have absolutely no problem doing so.

I have hated this last year in Egypt. I am leaving and never looking back. I really, really encourage you to avoid this. You're often posting around these forums and I would imagine you can find other jobs.

Be careful about the people you work with. I have found that the people who were the most open and friendly at first have turned out to only be interested in me because they want to gossip and bitch and talk about everyone's personal lives. I avoid that and I have become friends with people that I would never have expected at the start of the year.

Ask for help is fine. Most locals are happy enough to try to help you (in most countries; I can't speak for Taiwan). If they ask you 'You like Taiwan?' you say 'Yes I love it!' regardless of how you feel. No need to spit in their faces. I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but the number of people here who sit and complain to the locals about their country astounds me. It's so rude.

Go limp. Let things wash over you. It is not easy uprooting your life and moving to a new country, but you WILL BE FINE. Give it 6 months before making any decisions about the place - it takes a long time to get used to things and meet people, and you really have to work at it. You're an Aussie - join a rugby club, play cricket, look for Aussie groups etc - they will exist. Sport is in my experience the easiest way to connect with similar-minded people that you don't work with. Don't just hang out with people you work with or you'll talk about school all day and night and you'll want to hang yourself.

There WILL be locals trying to take advantage of you because you are (I guess?) white, or at least an expat. Expats = rich. That's the way we're seen around the world. So if something seems expensive, it's probably because you're paying the foreigner price. Try to buy local where possible for effective cost of living.

Thanks for the advice guys. I feel a bit better. Today was another shit day but I'm going to adjust and try to practice 'going limp'. Instead of giving multiple warnings, I'm just going to kick those worst students out immediately. I'm not going to make all these lessons by scratch anymore - we're switching to pre-made resources from TES, the occasional worksheet, and videos. Etc.

Fight the good fight - at least until this year is over and I can get out of here. I'm going to leave whether I have a job lined up or not, and just teach ESL in Asia or something while I search for a new opportunity.

Advice will be taken with gratitude...

I'm going crazy in my current IS. Crazy. I'm losing myself here (ME).

- Vindictive, lying, snakes for admin
- Completely ineffectual SMT just picking up paychecks
- A vile student body who doesn't give a shit, and aren't required to give a shit
- No parental support whatsoever
- No ability to discipline students as parents complain every time any detention or punishment is given to their children
- A threadbare curriculum that I am essentially making up as I go along
- One single set of textbooks as resources. No pens, no computer access for students, etc.
- A school that hoovers up cash with no flow downwards
- A toxic environment where local staff treat foreign staff like holiday tourist teachers.
- Completely inconsistent standards across the school in terms of behaviour management/letting students out of class/etc

I'm slipping and I'm losing faith. I would love a 'go get em, tiger'-esque comment. Alternatively, other stories that others have about how horrible their first school was and how happy they are now in their next school. Or even 'this happened to me...' would probably help.

Anyone else want to punch themselves in the face just to distract from the poison around them? How do you survive? What do you do?

My view on this would be quite simplistic. Ignoring the cost, the location, the time, etc - I think you can ignore all of that for now. Teaching is no mug's game - it's pretty difficult, especially at the beginning of your career. It has taken me five years to feel I have reached a basic level of competence. I only reached this level because I did my cert, then I did the NQT year (the hardest year of my life; fighting children, being hounded by experienced teahcers, and having to justify myself/reflect on absolutely everything) which was the single most important year in shaping my abilities. Until you do that first year of full time, on the ground teaching, I believe everything else can wait.

P.S. - a LOT of people drop out of this job. My school has lost 4/8 NQTs it took on this year because stepping into a classroom is a shock to the system. I guess my point is this: take your time and do things the right way, make sure you actually enjoy teaching first etc, because otherwise it's a lot of time and money down the drain.

Alternate possibility: PsyGuy regularly posts the raw reality of situations, but people often don't like to hear that - they like to hear butterflies and rainbows. The reality of this expat life is tough, and people shouldn't be encouraged to do it at all costs just because others have enjoyed it (casting an eye back on some other posts that PG has faced a lot of criticism in).

PG has become vilified in these forums and I honestly feel there's a bit of mob mentality here. People post something and then as soon as PG posts everyone jumps on him an attacks him. Hey, a lot of the stuff he writes I disagree with as well, but a lot of it I think is accurate, and with this one here...well, I don't know many details of the case and I am certainly not on the ground as the local police and judiciary are so I'm not going to make much comment on it because I simply don't know.

As for PG himself - well, that ridiculous post made by this post's OP saying that 'I'm leaving the forum because *PG* disagrees with me and is a nastypants always writing things I don't agree with' is unbelievably childish, especially calling someone out like that (we all knew who you were talking about). He is repeatedly personally attacked in these forums when he comments, yet no-one seems to have a problem with that.

PG - keep doing what you're doing, keep commenting and offering your input. Some of us find it valuable.

I'm currently working in the same general region as you're looking. I bank about $2000 per month after expenses, car, bills, everything. I'll leave here with enough cash in my pocket to pay for an MA, but as far as my own development...well, my behaviour management skills are increasing daily, but other than that I'm pretty miserable. Cash isn't a substitute for general happiness and ability to go and do things, have a beer, easily chill with friends, etc.

Someone more experienced than me will come along and probably tell you everything I say now is wrong, but no-one has written anything yet so I'll offer my opinion.

You are not in a good place just now. You're a non-native English speaker (I understand how widely English is spoken India, but most ISs have quite narrow perimeters on what constitutes a native English speaker - UK, USA, SA, Aus, Ire, Canada). You will likely run into problems here.

You also need a teaching cert to teach in any decent IS. The only ones that would hire you without a cert would be the bottom of the barrel (probably bi-lingual, or 'native school teaching English with vague curriculum parameters around it' schools). However, they do exist. A poster was talking just the other day about how her and her partner teach in a school in Bangkok while doing their teaching certs, so they do exist. However, these examples are the exception, not the rule. My current school has a few unqualified teachers and it's a school I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy.

As for your partner - you've not told us what nationality she is, aka what first language she speaks. Again, she's a non-native English speaker. BUT - there are plenty of European schools around. There are French schools everywhere - Japan, China, Vietnam and Egypt are places I know they exist, and I'm sure that's the tip of the iceberg - and I've also seen/heard of a few German schools. These schools will conduct their teaching in their respective language. However, take the European International School in Saigon, Vietnam - a decent school, but teaching is conducted in English.

Online teaching degrees are a potential way in to a job, I guess, but they also suck. When I compare what I learned on my PGCE compared to what I learned when I was actually thrown in the deep end, it's obvious to me that the PGCE was nothing other than a piece of paper to open doors. For me, it has all been the in-classroom experience that matters. Others may not entirely agree with me there. My point is that doing the PGCE physically (including the in-classroom time) and then getting a few years teaching experience in the UK would be significantly better for your development that doing an iPGCE.

A few questions I'll leave you with:

a) If you are just looking to take some time off your current career, is this journey really the way to go? This process takes years, and it will likely take you 5-6 years before you're in a good school that you're content with.

b) Can your partner teach her native language as a foreign language in one of these schools? Most schools offer French, and many also offer German and/or Spanish.

c) You just graduated with a PhD in Quantum Physics. You're obviously incredibly bright, and an academic. Have you thought about the transition to studying/teaching a level significantly below what you are used to? Children are unlikely to be able to engage with the concepts you have been engaging with for the last 7-8 years, and it is difficult to 'lower yourself' to a lower level. This will be especially magnified if do indeed end up in a fourth-rate bilingual school where the students are likely to be highly unmotivated, apathetic, and struggle with English, your accent, and you teaching difficult concepts in English in your accent.

d) How far are you willing to drop your standards? If you want in, you are going to have to drop your standards significantly (at least in the beginning).

The good news - Maths and Physics are arguably the two most in-demand subjects for ISs. There aren't many candidates who teach these subjects. Once you got qualified and had a few years under your belt, you will likely find yourself highly employable to good schools who don't mind your country of origin so much as your English proficiency. But please understand - teaching children is an unrecognisable landscape compared to the research and learning environment you are used to. You really do have to adjust significantly, and I have seen many subject experts (in particular, one History PhD) fail spectacularly because they are unable to evolve to the different learning landscape.

Again, all of this is just my opinion based on various things I have read/seen. I could well be wrong on some of these, and I encourage other posters to correct me.

TL;DR: You are not starting in a good place at all, and you're going to have to bust your balls and make significant compromises to get where you want. However if you are willing to slog through the bullshit for 5-6 years, you and your partner may very well be highly employable, and I see no reason why the two of you couldn't be a power-teaching-couple at a really reputable school in 10 years. Are you willing to go down this lengthy path?

And yes, I guess I'm trying to balance my personal interest with something marketable. I am aiming to remain in British-style education, but I am totally flexible. Money is very important to me, I'll just say it, so while I want to do something that interests me, I am also looking at that salary ladder. We could debate all day about the pros and cons of that, but for now let's not ;)