Living Abroad

Living Abroad

Why live abroad? Maybe you’re bored with your hometown or home country and want some excitement. Or maybe you want to travel the world but you can’t get enough vacation time. The exciting and glamorous life of a globe trotting ex-pat awaits.

It won’t be easy, but if you’ve got the right attitude, it’ll totally be worth it.

“A person does not belong to a place until there is someone dead under the ground.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, from One Hundred Years of Solitude

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Why Give up your life and Move Overseas?

The Experience

There’s absolutely nothing like completely uprooting yourself and delving into another country and culture. You learn about your limits and what you’re truly made of. If you can live abroad, you can do anything.

Permanent Vacation

Yes, you’ll have to work if you live overseas. However, if you do it right, you won’t have to work that much. And you might get enough outside stimulation that it doesn’t feel much like work at all.

Living overseas can also give you numerous opportunities to travel and see the world.

The Downsides of Living Abroad

A weird broken wall sculpture thing in Shanghai, China

Culture Shock

No matter who you are, you’re going to experience culture shock if you live overseas. That’s just how it goes. However, you can prepare for it and learn how to keep it from turning you into a racist scumbag. Click here to read more about culture shock.

It Can Be Lonely

You are going to miss your friends and family back home. That’s also just how it goes. You also might find that your experience abroad has changed you in an utterly profound way, but your old friends are still the same. Remember, you can always make new friends, right?

You’ll Always Be a Foreigner

You’ll make new friends in you’re adopted culture, but no matter how much you learn the language and integrate yourself, you’re still going to be an outsider. Learn to accept it, if not embrace it.

Teaching English

Why is Teaching English Best Way to Live and Work Overseas?

Chinese English student dressed up like clown Darth Vader

There are so many jobs

I’ve rarely turned down jobs before. When I was applying to be an English teacher I turned down at least three within a week. Japan, Korea, and China are all English teaching hotspots, but there are job options all over the world.

It’s Rewarding

Nothing warms your heart more than seeing someone who has been struggling with conjugating the past tense suddenly tell you a story about what their pet cat did yesterday. And the kids can be pretty darn cute.

But be Responsible About it

English teachers have a reputation as being kind of the losers of the ex-pat world. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes true. People rely on you to help them study English and are probably paying a lot to do so. This goes double when you’re teaching kids. The least you can do is sober up before class.

If you want to teach English overseas, you should have these three basic things going for you: be a native English speaker, have a bachelor’s degree, and have a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate. I’d suggest getting a bachelor’s degree at a cheap community college. I got my TEFL certificate from Teaching Nomad and thought they were pretty good. Keep in mind these ‘requirements’ can be flexible depending on the job market where you go.