Just thinking about everything I have explained to everyone this summer before I head back to the Land of the Morning Calm.

Number One: I am not teaching English, I am teaching in English. I cannot make this any clearer to people. People always ask what subject I teach, or if I teach Korean, or how teaching in English works in a foreign country. Well to keep it simple, think back to when you were in 4th grade. Did you have a homeroom teacher that taught all subjects? I know I did. Well, I’m one of those homeroom teachers.

Number Two: I did not pick the country first, then the school to teach at in the country. Instead I picked the school first, and the country came with it as an adventure. Most international teachers do not have a country in mind when they start their job search process, they start by looking at individual schools and what each one offers.

Number Three: I cannot get a VISA for any single country with only one year of teaching experience. Getting a VISA for work at an international school is different then getting a VISA to teach English overseas. I have a specialized job with a specialized license and therefore many countries require that I have a certain amount of teaching experience before I can teach there.

Number Four: It is not about how much money I make working overseas, it’s about how much money I save. People always want to know how much more money I make as an international educator and the answer to that question without considering the lifestyle is that I actually make less money.

Number Five: Although most of my students are Korean, I do teach non-korean kids as well. And all my students speak English fluently with little to no accent. In fact, many of my Korean students were born in America, lived in America for several years, or have family in America. My expat kids have parents who either work at the school or work for a local company. Having students from around the world is what makes the school international to begin with.

Number Six: I am teaching a different curriculum then I would be using if I worked in the US. The US uses Common Core Standards which focus on achievement levels for literacy and maths. I am using a curriculum called the Primary Years Program, which is a multidisciplinary approach that combines math and literacy in with an overarching theme, such as health. The curriculum is also value and skills based, putting just as much emphasis on how to communicate and organize oneself as learning academic content.

Number Seven: Most of my students are going to US colleges. Parents who can afford the international system start looking for a school for their child as soon as he or she is born. There are a waitlist to get into these schools, and an entrance exam for Kindergarteners. Many of the students I teach will go on to top Ivy League schools for college or attend boarding schools in the states in high school.

Number Eight: International schools hire at different times than public US schools. The hiring for international schools starts in October of the prior school year with the bulk of hiring happening in December or January. Of course jobs open up later, but it’s not as simple as an interview the summer before if you want to work at a decent school.

Number Nine: I live in an international city. One of my favorite restaurants is an Indian place down the street, and I often get a burrito on my walk home from work. And yes, there is a Forever 21 at the mall and an H&M.

Number Ten: I feel extremely safe in Korea. We do drills for national emergencies/threats in the same way that elementary schools in the US do drills for shootings. We also have staff who specifically monitor the situation at all times.

Number Eleven: Korea is only a 10 hr flight from California. The other side of the world really just is not that far away . . .