As a woman, when I tell people about my experiences teaching ESL in Saudi Arabia, the question they always ask is “Did you have to cover your face?” They are surprised when I tell them that I didn’t have to cover my hair, let alone my face, though sometimes I chose to cover both. Wearing an Abaya I lived ...
As a tourist, you never really get a full sense of another culture. Instead you only see a limited, surface view of the culture and never really get to experience how that culture actually feels and functions. Actually living in another country, on the other hand, can give you a much more in-depth and organic experience of that culture ...
You wanted to do something different and off the beaten path after college so you decided to teach English abroad. Your plan was to spend a year in South Korea working at a language school while paying off some debt. It sounded both fun and practical and would be a pleasant way to spend time until you returned to your ...
Volunteer With Elephants in Sri Lanka! About five years ago when I was teaching English at a college in Oman, I spent part of my summer vacation in Sri Lanka. The Millennium Elephant Orphanage there advertised for volunteers to work with their seven elephants in Kegalle, a town about an hour from the capital city of Colombo. I didn’t ...
As a foreign woman traveling in Oman, and one who did not cover her hair, I was constantly stared at by men. They weren’t threatening stares, I soon realized, but curious ones, which at least in part spoke of the locals’ curiosity about me (and about my many colleagues both female and male) as newcomers and obvious foreigners. Although ...
Teaching English Abroad is an exciting and life-changing experience. It gives you the opportunity to travel, make new friends, and earn money while exploring an entirely new culture and way of life. But it can be a daunting and nerve-wracking experience as well. Many new and first-time teachers worry about what it will be like living in another country, especially one where ...
Due in part to India’s long history of British colonization, its population is generally very well-schooled in English. India itself has so many native Indian English teachers that the number of English teaching jobs available to foreigners is quite small. But for the ESL teacher whose heart is set on visiting India for an extended stay, you need not ...
How well do you know Korean food? It's amazing how you think you know something until you actually live it and breathe it. I found this to be very true during my time teaching English abroad in South Korea. Trying Korean Food for the First Time I knew before arriving ...
When I went to Thailand, I went with an open mind. Still, I didn't realize just how different the culture would be from what I was accustomed. From my living conditions to the concept of time and religious influences, my life has been forever changed in a positive way. I was fortunate to ...
It was Saturday, the first day of the school/work week in Oman. Younis, one of my students, came in looking noticeably tan. Of course, Oman is the land of 363-days-of-sunshine-per-year and many Omanis have tan faces, but Younis was usually quite pale. On this Saturday morning, he looked as though he had spent a solid week at the beach. ...
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