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Living Abroad
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Has anyone done this? Where did you live? What did you do while you were there? And how quickly did you learn the language if you didn't know it already?
Post edited by JustV on
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I was studying AS German at the time, so I could get by, espescially as they were all fluent in English anyway, but I tried my best at speaking German.
I'd love to live in Austria or Germany permanently some day, but I don't see it ever happening. I'd also love to live in somewhere like Thailand.
I'm seriously considering a complete change of plans (for now) and going to live in Japan for a year or two, which is why I'm asking basically. They need English teachers, I speak English pretty well, and like all foreign countries, the lessons take place entirely in English (you'd think our foreign language teachers could take a hint) so you don't even need to be able to speak Japanese (but obviously I'd learn it if I was living there). Seems like a match made in heaven to me. Plus I've got a mate who's already over there doing the same thing.
I already spoke pretty good, or what I thought to be pretty good Spanish before I went and I'd say acheived fluency in about 3-4 months.
Worked in a web/graphic design company. Was quite fun and I lived like a king.
I lived in Austria first, and moving to Hamburg was borne out of that experience really. I moved there to be a children's ski instructor (The first month of living in Austria was doing the test) and also worked in a late bar three nights a week. When I went there I hadn't ever learned German before - if you can call what they spoke there "German" :razz: - but I self-taught for a few months before I went, took a course at the VHS while I was there, and manage to pick up a lot of vocabulary and improve my understanding in day to day life. I lived in the ski instuctor's accommodation, so it was very easy in that I didn't have to arrange anything. Especially since I had only just turned 17 at the time!
After that I moved to Hamburg, which was really the time of my life. I lived in a really student-y area where I rented a huge old apartment with two Australian blokes I met... for pennies, really. Or should that be cents? We got all our furniture from the German version of goodwill and basically sat on our mattresses playing guitars and getting high most of the time. Good times. While I was there I was a chambermaid (worst job ever), a waitress at a Movenpick restaurant (better) and in the summer I worked as a rickshaw driver which was the best job ever. Cycling 'round the Alster lake with some really interesting fares, and basically doing whatever the hell you wanted all day as long as you were back at the depot for 8pm.
Now I'm more grown up and responsible things are a bit different. When I used to take off for random destinations I would just up and go, and wind up where I wound up. We've had to be very rational and think things through, though we're quite lucky that Stephen has family in Sweden who can help us to acclimatise, especially since there are dependants to think about! He has managed to get himself a nice little job which will start in September, but in places like Sweden it's impossible to get a job unless you speak Swedish. If you applied for a job that required English skills you'd think you'd have the edge, but your rivals for the job would probably speak wonderful English anyway. That's definitely something to bear in mind in some countries.
Are you thinking about moving abroad? Or just curious? I can't be emphatic enough about what a fantastic experience it is. Far be it from me to think I've had superior life experiences to people who've always lived in their home country
I can't really fathom wanting to stay in the UK permanently. It just pales in comparison now I've experienced life in other countries. Especially Germany... Hamburg has got to be the best city in the world (though I reserve the right to change my mind
Munich and Berlin beat the hell out of Hamburg, if we're talking German cities.
Mind you, I never really spent alot of time in Hamburg, which was strange seeing as I stayed with a family very near to it - we went out in Bremen and Lubeck more often.
I would recommend you did a proper TEFL course, in all honesty, or just don't bother. My mum, brother and boyfriend have all done the CELTA course in the last couple of years (and my mum is a TEFL teacher at Newcastle College) and I was always of the opinion that anyone could do it, and all this training was a waste of time and money. Wrong! My fella finished the course in May and he says it is the most he has ever learned in the shortest amount of time, the skills and methodology he has picked up are totally invaluable and the 6 hours of assessed teaching practice were just fantastic for him. All that feedback and seeing the improvement over the months.
They will, of course, "train" you. That said, in Japan you are more likely to be teaching in the form of working through a textbook with your students so it's not as necessary to have all the skills to create a lesson with targeted aims etc as the books do that for you. It's worth thinking about, anyway. I haven't heard of a weekend TEFL course but I don't imagine you could really learn a lot in that space of time. However doing a month intensive course is really for the hardcore minority, I think it would probably kill most people. Anyway you should definitely go. Fly my pretty, fly!
Berlin is cool, not a big fan of Munich. You have to give Hamburg a proper chance, most Germans I've met (from all over) agree that HH is Germany's premiere city. It's got it all... and the Reeperbahn :thumb:
Oh, and as for contracts, that's obvious. If a company is sponsoring your visa, then if you try to break your contract, then your visa will no longer be valid. But the contract works both ways. In Japan, after the first two weeks of employment, you can't be fired unless you agree to it. One of the many rights that immigrant workers don't usually know about.
Is that only if its a Japanese company though? I have a friend whos going out to work for Nova teaching English in Japan in September, and I'm sure it doesn't always work like that. He went out there for a year for his degree, so hes been before but if you have any specific questions about Japan/teaching there I can ask him at work tomorrow if you like, he looked into it for ages before he got it all sorted
I'm pretty sure that Nova are a Japanese company, so yeah, Japanese law applies to them. The mate I mentioned is with Nova, as is the Facebook group though, so I've got plenty of advice about the actual company.
Nothing beats a piss up with a bunch of rowdy Bayern fans in the Hofbrauhaus though.
I looked into this before, and I was reccomended the best place to look was on the Japanese Embassy website. There is all the information you could ever want to know about teaching in Japan and how to apply.
Just google it. :thumb:
Fair enough, I'm just telling you what I have gathered from the many, many qualified TEFL teachers I know. I will also say that in a vocational field like teaching, courses that are mainly online aren't taken very seriously at all, because it is all about whether or not you have done observed teaching practice. I'm sure you'll manage to get a job no problem, I'm just making you aware of how best to go about things and how you'll get the best position possible.
Training up in a language school is different to training under a TEFL qualification accreditor like Cambridge or Trinity, there's no doubt about that. Schools have their own methods and use their own preferred text and you will be taught to teach to THEIR liking. With a UK qualification you are taught the EFL standards and the CELTA (Cambridge) certificate especially is held in very high esteem all over the world.
As for contracts, you'd be surprised at the mistakes people make when accepting jobs. Things like minimum contracted hours (which vary greatly, especially in places like Japan where there are peak seasons for EFL), accomodation, resource support.
Watch which online resources you use, a lot of them are really misleading and teach incorrect English! When I was helping my bloke out with his CELTA I found some unimaginable problems.
The good things I have heard about Japan from my friend are: the women, the women, the women. Apparently they are breathtaking... and easy, but of course I didn't say that. My pal is a 6ft blonde adonis so I think he's being revered as some kind of demi-God over there. The biggest disadvantage in his opinion is that they aren't big drinkers and when they do they don't go about it in a social (read: crazed revelling) way. I think the women make up for him, going by his general mood when we talk
I say its soemthing you should do. You will learn alot about yourself as well.
Wouldnt change it for the world I had some of the best times out there.
I picked up conversational Spanish but im by no means good at speaking it. I can understand most of whats being said to me though. I wish I'd got chance to learn it better but everyone I worked with was either english or spoke english so it was harder to learn it.
Damn, you discovered my real reason for going.
Yeah, the advice I've been given is that you can either work in the centre of Tokyo, Kyoto or Osaka, and everyone speaks English, so you barely learn anything, or you can go somewhere a bit less cosmopolitan, and spend the first 2 months trying to work out how to do everything, but learn Japanese really quickly.