Family
In the western world, when we talk about family we are talking mother/father and kids. When we have a portfolio day or parents evenings at school in the west,  we tend to expect mother or father to arrive at the school. 

In my experience in Asia, as often as you will get parents to visit, you will get grandparents who tend to live with the nuclear family in the same house and often take care of the kids when the parents work. 

I used to hold what I thought was going to be  a parents breakfast once a month and more often than not it was the grandparents who arrived and discussed the school with me and not the parents at all. 

So if you want to discuss a particular student often you will discuss the child with the parent and grandparent. 

In Asian culture, it is important to note that the child is considered THE CHILD, and not a young adult which will have a big impact on how you think about teaching and interacting with the family.

Noise

It will be a challenge when you try to get your students to do cooperative learning for a few reasons. One is that they are so used to doing individual work that when you ask them to work in groups they think it is cheating or something like that and it is hard to get them to consider what you are asking them to do is serious work. 

Secondly, once you convince them that it is important and serious the noise level will be dramatic. I think the reason for that is that many Asian languages are tonal so that you must be able to hear what the other person is saying because each word has a different meaning depending on the tone that is used. 

If you are prepared for what will happen, just emphasize to the students that everyone has the right to hear which is impossible when they are talking so loudly that is sounds like an explosion! Tell them to use their "quiet voices"

Personal Space

If you look closely on the picture on your right you will see the western concept of space. Westerners tend to be three feet apart when they are talking or sitting. Anything closer starts to make westerners feel uncomfortable. In the picture on the left, although there are more than two people so the pictures are not really parallel, Asians tend to "cluster" more. Unconsciously if you are a western teacher you may begin to feel somewhat overwhelmed when students tend to surround you at your desk or in the hall. You may not quite realize why you feel uncomfortable but if you think about it, it may just be the case that you feel someone is intruding on your need for space. Once you realize why you feel uncomfortable, you should start to feel comfortable again because you have this knowledge....get it?

Being Aware
One culture is not necessarily better or worse than another culture...just different. Awareness is the critical piece. The more you are aware the more you can develop your own approach and examine your own innate bias. Being aware is more than half the battle. 

What makes this world a beautiful place is that there are clearly cultural differences between the east and west. Rather than be annoyed by it as a teacher, embrace the differences and use them to your own advantage when you are teaching. I will highlight a few differences here just to make you aware and reduce some of the culture shock your first few weeks. 

Assuming you are a westerner, I am sure you are governed by that thing which is on your wrist. or if you are young, in your back pocket that looks like a phone.

If you have been trained in the west,  you really expect your students to come to class when the bell rings. Well, guess what, most international schools do not have bells.If someone is in your class when it is supposed to start, it is because he or she got lost

In the west, if one of your students looked like this you might understand that the student was angry with you. In the east you will never know when anyone is angry or even if they disagree with you.  There will always be a polite smile on everyone's face. When you ask a secretary in English to do something for you, there will be a very polite smile but when you do not get the the test run off or the key or whatever else you asked for, it is likely because the secretary did not understand you and was too embarrassed to lose face!

The last time you will see a straight line like this will be the day you leave your home country at the airport and the next time you see people waiting in line will be the day you come home. Asians have no concept of a straight line as you will quickly discover the first time you disembark or try to get something organized at your school.

Which face would you rather have, the one on the left or the one on the right? If you do not embrace the differences between the east and west your face will constantly be the one on the right!

If you picked the second picture for the Asian setting you are right. The emphasis in any Asian school I have ever worked in is on the individual working alone. I think the reasons behind it are philosophical and speak to the Confucian system which puts the emphasis on the teacher, listening to instructions and doing exactly what is asked. In Asia, when the teacher says to jump the answer is "how high"

In the west the answer would more likely be " why." I remember doing a workshop in Mandalay and I said a whole lot of very controversial things with absolutely no responsefrom any of the teachers involved. In fact, it really started to bother me so I said more and more controversial things just t get a response but there was nothing. Afterwards I got the typical polite response of clapping and that was it.

On thinking about it later, it was the only response they knew how to give. This, after all, is the Confucian model of education. I was the "expert" the leader and the audience of Asian teachers were taught to listen, digest and then produce based on what I was saying. 

On the other hand, the whole model of the west is on analysis and inquiry. We are taught to question and reflect. In the next few blogs I will look at a number of specific differences between Asian and western thinking and if you are not ready for it could lead to a whole lot of frustration on your part.

However, know this. If you are white, a little older, you will be respected before you even open your mouth. The lesson for you is to keep quiet, listen a lot and don't ruin your good image until you actually have something to say. You have an entitled position so take it seriously 

Unless you are applying to become the principal of the school, you are not likely to have a sit down interview with the school personnel. It will likely be over some medium like Skype.

If you are applying for a principal's job at a prestigious international school after the skype interview they will likely fly you over for a one on one interview and if this happens write me and I will tell you what to do. 

For the rest of you, a few hints. Skype is a funny medium. When I was interviewed for one job the owner of the school told me to make sure I brought  lots of pairs of shoes. When I asked her why after I had arrived, she told me she thought I was much bigger than I am and shoes did not come in large sizes in that country. By the way, I am 5 feet seven inches so not that big at all. 

Another interviewer happened to see all of my books behind me and was quite impressed. I did not set up the interview that way, but it just happens that I do have a lot of books and that owner was very impressed. In fact, I reached back and took a book and we started to talk about it. You may want to arrange some props like that although mine were serendipitous. 

So...make sure you have a good space to talk and keep your "cheat notes" handy by the computer. Do make sure you make eye contact with the interviewer, but you can certainly pause and look at some notes out of range of the camera to remind you of what you wanted to say. Being thoughtful and pausing occasionally is not a bad thing,

You might be quite intimidated if you knew there was a whole committee watching you and your face was up on some screen for all to see but thankfully you will not know that probably. Just be yourself and say what you believe. After all, they are going to be hiring you so you may as well be honest. It will make it a lot easier once you get the job because you can be yourself!

Do's

1. Speak clearly and slowly and articulate every word. As my father would say, make sure you take the marbles out of your mouth when you speak.

2. Take your time. You are not in a race

3. Be as specific as possible when you answer questions about what you did in the classroom. For example, if they ask you about discipline, tell them how you handled a specific situation, or if they ask you how you assessed some piece of work, be as specific as possible. These are the things you have to think about before the interview so you have your "ducks in a row" It will be a descriptive behavour interview so they will assume that how you behaved in the past is how you will behave in the future.

4. You might want to have some artifacts of student work on a web site you can refer to or a youtube video but you better be pretty confident that the software will work and if it doesn't keep a good humour and do not be flustered. You can, when talking about a student piece of work, just dangle it in front of the screen realizing it is not the artifact that is so important but what you say about it. 

Don'ts
1. Do not start asking about money, holidays, time in classroom  and so on until the interview is over. You first have to make them believe they should offer you the job.

2. Dress appropriately...women no cleavage, guys wear a tie, even if you are the only one in the interview wearing one

3. Do  not badmouth any former employer and if you have to give a personal weakness if they ask you, say something like you work too hard at school and should have more balance in our life.

4. Do not frown and use inappropriate language

If the interview lasts about 30 minutes, you know you have a shot at the job. If you are out of sight  out of mind after five or ten minutes you know you blew it. For your own information, it would be good to find out what you said wrong. After a few weeks you may wish to write and inquire and if  they answer you consider it a bonus and learn from it.  Most principals will just ignore such an inquiry. 

Don't forget that we learn by failure.

I have been a principal at various international schools for a long time and I have seen literally tons of resumes. I can tell  you what I do immediately. If there are any mistakes in spelling or syntax I throw them immediately in the trash or in this digital age just delete them.  You might think this harsh, especially considering all of the mistakes I make in this blog but a blog or email is totally different from a resume. A resume is a thoughtful precise summary of your working career and we want and expect perfection. If you cannot give me your best work on a piece of paper, why would I think you could perform in the classroom?

Secondly, if it is too flowery, which is the style in many countries like the Philippines or India I immediately discard. Get to the point immediately. Principals are busy people and do not have a lot of time to sift through descriptive accounts of your life.

Thirdly, do not list every workshop you ever attended.  It is not helpful for me to know this. I am far more interested in what you learned at the workshops than whether you attended or not.

Fourthly choose which experiences  you wish to highlight wisely depending on the job you are applying for. You have done tons of teaching either in your practice teaching or your teaching career. The challenging thing is to figure out what is important to note for the school you are applying to. For example, if you coached basketball and the school has a basketball program, you may want to mention that in your resume.

Do's

Read the ad carefully and find out everything you can about the school and I mean EVERYTHING. Contact someone at the school if you can and get the inside "scoop"

If you know they want someone with language skills, coaching experience, classroom experience, team player and so on I would be inclined to write my resume in that order. That is, have a section on each of the skills they are looking for. The advantage of this is twofold. It shows you are an individual who created their own template for a resume and secondly you are handing the principal information on a platter about your skills. I can't tell you how boring it is to see the same Word template on a hundred resumes for the same job. It is just human nature to pick a resume that stands out. 

Make sure you include a flattering picture where the reader can see your eyes and ensure that your clothing is appropriate. Make sure you look professional. Attach whatever other information the school is looking for such as a police report, educational documents and passport. Failure to attach what they require can also mean immediate disposal of your application. 

Make sure your references are willing to say nice things about you. Surprisingly, when I call references about a candidate I am often shocked when they tell me what a bad experience they had with a particular candidate. Phone or write your references before hand and ask their permission. Hopefully, if they are going to give you a bad reference they will tell you and if they do....do not use their names. 

Send the materials in a manner that was asked. For example, some schools want everything on a PDF form and others insist on Word and so on. If you are rejected, you want to make sure you are rejected for the right reasons, not based on incomplete applications... so  Just do what they ask for.

By the way, if you are rejected after an interview do not despair. It is probably a good thing because you would not likely have been a good fit in that school. Just keep applying until you get the job you want. 

in the next installment, let's get to the interview stage and I will tell you the do's and don'ts of an interview. 

The purpose of the blog. 
As I stated in the very beginning, I wrote the blog for three reasons:
1. to promote teaching in Asia
2. to encourage everyone who reads the blog to at least consider travelling to Asia
3. to sell my book

From the sounds of your responses to me, I have done a good job showing you where to look for jobs, how to decide  which country to teach in, the different types of schools and what your options are. 

Surprisingly many have written in and asked my why I wrote my novel It All Started In Mandalay so in this blog I will try to answer that question.

For me the choice was easy. At my advanced age, I just thought I have two or three books in me and I did not want to take five years to get an agent, have a publishing house buy the story, spend a year editing and then finally have the story produced. 

I took the easier route and just self published. I will be delighted to give you the details of what it cost and who I might recommend and who to avoid,  but the key for me is it was wrapped up relatively quickly. About five months from the time it was created to publication date. 

The two major drawbacks were quality and now distribution. When I read other authors it seems they go on for pages thanking all of the people who helped them develop the concept, edited the book and so on. When you self publish you are basically on your own. Secondly, although my book, It All Started in Mandalay can be bought anywhere, I am the only one promoting it so it takes so much more time.