To stare or not to stare, that is the question!

Of course, if people look physically different from you and your own culture group, stare.  It’s natural, right?  Everyone does it, no matter where you live or where you are from….I think.  However, some culture groups have made a choice to believe that staring is not culturally acceptable and frown upon their people who stare.

On the other hand, some culture groups LOVE to stare and go as far as to interact with the person they are staring at to take a picture with them.  How strange it is to want to take a picture with a complete stranger?  (I think I’ve done it 1000s of times.)

The fun part is the more people that you are around, the easier it is to stare at them.  How cool it would be to get to know what everyone in the group is thinking.  Maybe that is why we stare.  It’s because we want to know more about them.  How embarrassing though when the person you are staring at looks back at you?? Most times you just look away as fast as you can like you were never staring, but they know you were.  People never say anything though, especially if you are staring at someone while you are traveling in a foreign country.  That’s what happened to me with this woman in Belgium.


There is one person you can stare at though, and it is a baby.  They are the masters of staring.  I don’t know why, but they sure enjoy staring at me specifically, and not always with a smile on their face.  I feel very comfortable to stare back.

Let’s just admit it. All people everywhere must stare.  So, don’t get so worked up when you get on a bus in India and there are 100s of eyes on you.  Soon, you will be the one staring at the locals when you get off and walk into the spice market.  I mean who wouldn’t stare at this couple dancing in the park?

Go ahead and share your staring stories.

Great website – The International School Teacher

My friend told me about this relatively new website back in November 2010.  It is called The International School Teacher.

It is a forum/social networking/information gathering website designed for the international school teaching community.

Parts of the website I like:

International Schools
How can one increase their chances of getting a job?
Get married… and to someone who’s not only good looking, but also teaches! No really, if you happen to be what is referred to as a teaching couple, then you are indeed much more marketable. If a professional club were to sign a striker and get a defender in the mix… Schools do indeed kill two birds with one stone when hiring couples. Also, for many schools in cities where housing is an issue, they simply can’t afford to provide single teachers with their own housing.

As much as I don’t like to constantly hear people and schools say this, it just might actually be true.  A school does “save” money by hiring a teaching couple, and they do kill two birds with one stone.  I don’t really believe though that married couples are more “stable”  I’ve seen many couples leave after 2 years (even 1 year one time) at schools I’ve worked at.  One reason they leave early is because they find out their salary is sometimes not covering all their expenses (I’m referring to a school on the Mediterranean for example).  Sometimes, one member of the couple is not completely satisfied working at the school because the school really wanted to only hire their partner and have placed the other member in a position they don’t 100% enjoy or find fulfilling.

What you really love about your host country
I really appreciate this section because it highlights the positive aspects of our lives as international school teachers, something International School Community strives to do as well.  No matter where you are living in the world, there are always things that you enjoy and reminding yourself of those things is a very good idea sometimes (especially when you go through all the different stages of culture shock).  Here is an excerpt of one of the member’s reasons for why they like living in Cyprus:

– I can drive forty minutes from my house in one direction and be in the beach. I can drive forty minutes in another and be in snow.
– Large, luscious lemon trees in my yard
– Ottoman, Greco-Roman, and Venetian architecture

Check out the rest of the website here.

Types of International Schools – Do you know how many there are?

Check out this article about all the different colours and varieties of international schools.

Types of international schools that are listed in the article:

  • original expatriate
  • broadly international
  • local international
  • bilingual
  • state school teaching

Highlights of the article:

– “We often find that teachers considering working abroad get quite confused by the breadth and range of international opportunities out there. It’s hard enough to consider working in another country in another culture, but it’s complicated further by the fact that there are different types of schools serving different populations. When you are at home, you know instinctively which is a posh, academic school versus one that serves, say, children with special educational needs. Internationally its not so easy.”

– “You are unlikely, for instance, to get an invite to attend a local wedding when working at one of these schools.”

– “We find these schools in areas with a high influx of foreigners such as the UAE, Singapore and China and these schools are more of a melting pot.”

– “At most of these schools you will still get a mix of children but more than half will be locals.”

What a great resource for information related to international school teaching – http://www.teachanywhere.com/default.aspx

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