Lessons Learned From My Experiences Teaching Overseas (5 Countries)

One of the most commonly asked questions I get about my experience teaching overseas is; “if you could do it all over again Caz, would you?”

It’s a hard question to answer, as my teaching days offered me the chance to explore the world, make new friends, and total cultural immersion.

It also presented some challenges, some that I hadn’t anticipated until I got out there and started teaching.

So I decided to write this guide on my experience teaching overseas, to help anyone thinking about teaching English as a foreign language abroad, or teaching anything really.

This is based on my personal experience, and some of these opinions and stories may not apply to everyone, but I hope it gives you an honest view of what this experience is like.

My Experience Teaching Overseas

London (1997-1999)

Talk about being thrown in the deep end.

I had my interview with a teaching agency in the UK before I finished Uni. I was accepted and so when I arrived in London in 1997 on my UK working holiday visa, I was ready to start my teaching career in Hackney, East London – an area I was soon to discover to be one of London’s most challenging areas.

I wasn’t quite ready to settle into a full-time job as I had travel on my horizon, so I went straight for the supply (casual, substitute) teaching.

This meant I was running all over the East End going to different schools every day. It was a great way for me to get to know the city… and lose a whole lot of weight.

It was also a fantastic way for me to learn how to be an adaptable teacher – different students, different classes, different experiences, every day.

There is nothing like stopping students from throwing chairs at each other; teaching a whole class of Bangladeshi students with limited English; and having a 7 year old boy you just met scream at you “You f**king b***h” before compassion hits you as you realize he was the boy whose mother you saw getting arrested in the school foyer that morning; and learning how to manage a Somalian refugee with severe autism.

Yep. That is real learning right there.

In the midst of this, I did have a couple of permanent days at some schools throughout my one and half years of supply teaching.

For the last six months, I decided to find a more permanent position, and had a Year 5 class at a pretty good school.

A highlight of that was the Class Space play we created and performed for…