As a career international teacher, I have had to learn the hard way about international school finances and savings. As an established teaching nomad, I have made the conscious choice of forgoing my national teachers’ pension and accepting the reality that when retirement comes, I will be fully responsible.
Having worked in 4 schools, on 4 different continents, I have learned that work contracts never tell you enough about the real cost of living. Many international teachers find it hard to save money, as the cost of an expat-lifestyle can be more costly than our home country.
It is possible to save ANYWHERE, but it does require a plan and some helpful hints from teachers that have worked in the international teaching circuit for a number of years.
Helpful Hint #1: Save 70% of your Salary (Anywhere)!!!!
In every country, I have always saved at least 70% of my salary.
For countries around the Indian subcontinent of South Asia, that is very easy because of an exceptionally low cost of living. I managed to save 97% of my salary simply by eating locally, avoiding restaurants that never agreed with my gastrointestinal tract, and only succumbing to the $9 bag of Doritos on super special occasions.
While working in China, the online food applications were a lifesaver, as the food was at your door faster than you could walk to the grocery store. A little help from locals with a basic understanding of Chinese was needed, but after the learning curve was mastered, the savings were exponential.
Many of my colleagues would shop exclusively at the expat grocery store and spend more on one meal than I would for an entire week. The high cost of expat food is justified in the name of organic, natural, GMO-free food, that was grown with the same soil and water as everything else. Yes, you can buy the $5 green pepper if it makes you feel better and safer, but that security is mostly an illusion. In China, you can easily spend half your salary on food and daily living. Starbucks can be delivered to your school, but the local apps are just as good and less than half the price.
Anywhere you live, saving 70% of your salary is not only possible but easy to achieve.
Stay tuned next month for Part 2 on Save $$$ ANYWHERE!
This article was submitted by an ISC member and veteran international school teacher. If you are interested in being a guest author on our blog, please contact us here.
Tell us about your background. Where are you from?
Hi,
my name is Jess Gosling and I’ve been living and working abroad for more than
10 years. I am from England, originally born in the South-East. I moved to the
North of England when I started university and I consider the North-East my
home. Travel has always interested me and my first overseas trip backpacking
was when I was just 16, with a best friend. We took the ferry from Wales and
toured Ireland staying with relatives. I didn’t think this was especially
unusual at the time, but now I realise this was pretty adventurous! My next
trip abroad was at 19. I saved for a year to pay for a five-month trip around
South East Asia. I meticulously planned it, reading the Lonely Planet from
cover to cover. Once in Thailand, I loved almost every moment. I was crushed
when it came to the end of the trip. I have always been interested in other
cultures, and feel most connected and alive when abroad.
However,
I returned to the UK to study for a degree in History and Race and Ethnic
Studies. During the degree, I spent one semester in California and travelled in
Central and South America. After completing the degree, I worked again for a
year to save to fund beginning my first overseas job in Japan. I knew I would
need money for the first weeks and furnishing a new home. I was very keen to
see what teaching would be like. I joined a programme that offered teachers
with degrees the opportunity to become Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs).
There was nothing ‘assisting’ in the role. In reality, I planned, created
resources, and taught independently. I taught in fourteen local primary schools
throughout Niigata, a city with almost no expats. This placement was
fascinating, a city nestled between mountains and a beach. In the evening,
after work, I’d go for a swim in the sea. At the weekends I’d drive through the
surrounding mountains.
After
a year in Niigata, I transferred to an area just outside Tokyo where I worked
in ten primary schools. There was a fantastic expat community here and I made
friends for life! The work was fun but exhausting. I knew I loved teaching,
especially in the younger years. Living in Japan was eye-opening and a first
taste of living outside of the UK. Working in local Primary schools was
rewarding and interesting, but I felt that I didn’t know enough about my
profession to do it justice. Hence, I decided to return to the UK to train to
become a qualified teacher and move abroad again.
How did you get started in the international teaching community?
I
decided to return home to qualify to teach, through the Post Graduate
Certificate in Education (PGCE) route. Before beginning the PGCE, I worked as a
teaching assistant within Year 2 and Reception classes in a state-maintained
school, which was a brilliant experience. I was able to observe teachers closely
and I learnt a lot about classroom management. I completed the PGCE and worked
two further years in the UK and gained QTS. After a total of three and a half
years at home, I married and moved with my teacher husband to Egypt for our
first experience teaching abroad in international schools. Whilst in Egypt, I
experienced the H1N1 panic (akin to the pandemic we experience now) and
resulting school closures, in addition to the Arab Revolution, it certainly was
a baptism of fire!
Which international schools have you worked at? Please share some aspects of the schools that made them unique and fun places in which to work.
My first school was Cairo English School. It was a great place to work. I worked in Foundation Stage, which was the largest intake of the school, with 16 classes in Nursery and Reception! However, although it was a huge cohort, it felt like a community and the staff were close. The second school I worked at was in Vietnam, the ABC International School. This school was smaller, with approximately three classes per year group, on separate campuses for infants and juniors. One Headteacher I worked for there made it his mission to have ‘fun’ experience days for the children, which included a circus day and on Chinese New Year, dragons and performers came to the playground. He was such a lively spirit, I remember seeing him trying to outdo the children waiting for their bus by standing on one leg. It’s lovely to see management with a sense of fun and interacting with children on their level. In Taipei, I have loved working within Reception. We have developed our activities to be hands-on and experiential. We developed language through the five senses, which included bringing in animals.
Describe your latest cultural encounter (or reverse cultural encounter) in your current placement, one that put a smile on your face.
The
Taiwanese take hiking very seriously. They are always fully kitted out with
walking sticks, expensive sporting wear, and large hats. I usually meet them
just wearing shorts and a tee-shirt, sunscreen too if I remember it. When our
paths meet (literally) they are always exceptionally friendly and it’s nice to
get a greeting, often with an excellent English accent! Out and about in Taipei
city, this never happens.
What are some important things that you look for when you are searching for a new position at an international school?
This
is a great question and one I discuss in-depth in my book. A good management
team is very important to me, representative of gender and diversity. This team
should listen to their staff and take on suggestions and feedback. They should
not be afraid to share their power and celebrate their staff’s strengths. Then,
I would look at the school ethos and how they work in practice. I like schools
that work on developing the whole child and have a family feel. Furthermore, I
love when schools embrace becoming ‘eco’ schools with gardens and working
within the local and wider community. Then, I would consider the environment in
which I would live. At this age and stage of my life, I would like to live near
other families, so my daughter can have a social life close by outside of
school. These priorities are very different from when I first started teaching.
Then, my focus was on location.
In exactly 5 words, how would you describe the international school teaching experience?
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Interested in comparing the schools and comments in Thailand. Check out our blog post here.
As international teachers, we all left our home country for a reason. The motivations to become an international teacher are varied. Some of us wanted the adventure of seeing the world before its gone.
Others fell in love with a foreigner, started a family, and became an “international” teacher in name only. Others had so much personal debt, that if we worked in our home country, we might be debt-free before we retired. Or maybe we just wanted to be respected in our profession, and we wanted to live in a place where it was still safe for our kids to play ball games on the street in front of our houses. The motivations for international teaching are varied, but all of us are in some way or another. We are not just chasing our dream school, we’re searching for our new home.
We have all sat down with a recruiter or a Head of School, and listened to their sales pitch on why their school is “THE DREAM SCHOOL”. Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10, it ends up being an illusion. As an international teacher we must endure a lot; we pick up our lives, move two countries over, and settle in for a few years before repeating the cycle. Upon each new recruiting cycle, we hope that we have gained enough experience to finally get into the coveted Tier 1 international school, and that will be our “DREAM SCHOOL”.
But what do we and our families have to endure along the way? Over my last 10 years of international teaching, I experienced a school that hired and fired six principals in six months. Upon landing in that new country, Principal #7 informed us that all our contracts would have to be renegotiated. Our passports were then taken for “processing” and escorted to our new school compound and prevented from leaving for 13 weeks…”for our own safety”. The school was subsequently banned from ISS and Search Associates, had a 100% turnover of teachers two years in a row, but still received its full IB certification. After everything we had endured, we were escorted to the airport, given a large bundle of cash, and told to not bother applying for jobs in this country again. We took our bag of silver, shook our heads, and left happily.
International teaching
is a balance between precarity and privilege. We accept the unknown and
unstable working environment for the promise of a salary and lifestyle we could
never have in our home country. When we are young and single, this is a great
deal. But as we grow older, and have families, we start to look for more
stability. Any international teacher who watched their once happy and thriving
child leave a school they love, and then come home crying every day from their
new school, understands the guilt and sadness it causes.
Recruiters and Heads of School are playing a finite game. Their focus is on hiring for this year and getting the best teacher they can into the classroom for this year. Most international teachers only last 2 years in a school anyway, so the “right fit” turns into the “right-now fit”. As an international teacher, what I have endured is nothing compared to what my family has endured. As I complete another contract and listen to another sales pitch, I am not chasing my DREAM SCHOOL, I’m searching for a home. I’m searching for a school that understands, if you take care of my family, I’ll renew my contract (time and time again). I’m searching for a school that understands, there are no such things as a dream school. We are searching for a school that aligns with our values, prioritizes family, and treats us like a member of the community, and not just a 2-year rental. That is my “DREAM SCHOOL”.
This article was submitted by an ISC member and veteran international school teacher. If you are interested in being a guest author on our blog, please contact us here.
