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Michael Allan Charles

Where to Teach-Part Two

6/1/2016

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Beach or City?
What turns you on...beach or city? If you want to have a beach, go to some place like Phuket where you can go to a different beach every night, just to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. I also worked in places like Singapore, Bangkok, and Ho Chi Minh where you can walk around every night to the throbbing pulse of city life. You can eat dinner on the street, where they practically pay you to eat their food, to wandering around city streets teeming with street activity which includes watching a volleyball or kicking game under the lights, dancing at the Olympic Stadium every night in Phnom Penh, the nightclubs of district one in Ho Chi Minh or the massage parlours of Bangkok...or do you just prefer rural life which you can find all over south east Asia which is undoubtedly a different experience. 

If you choose a rural existence, you will have to learn the language. I did learn the alphabet in Thai but that was about it. Because of the six tones, it was impossible for me to say anything that resembled anything Thais could understand. At least in Vietnam they use the Roman alphabet, but in my experience, make no effort to try to understand anything you are saying, even in District One, which is full of tourists. They speak more English in Yangon, Myanmar than Vietnam. Of course, if you want to just speak English, go to work in Singapore or the Philippines, although you might not recognize the English they are speaking in either country. The Singaporean janitor used to ask me every night whether he wanted me to have him "off the lights" in my office and you certainly have to get used to the Filipino accent, especially in the south. 

Hey, pretty nice choices to make, right?

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Service

How about how you feel about your work?  Clearly, if you want to feel good about helping other people, I would choose Myanmar, especially now under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi.  I was here when she was still under house arrest and they had   the rule of the generals and the country was clearly repressed in every way, from talking about politics on the street or even travelling where you wanted, which would be out of the question.

The other country where you can really do some good, especially if you are a bit older, is Cambodia. Most of the older intellectuals like teachers were all killed by the Khmer Rouge, so the leadership of the country now  is around 40 years old. They really need and are looking for people who are older and have the experience of people who might be their grandparent's age. 

If you teach somewhere like Singapore, I often feel you might have well have stayed home, since they have such a modern amenities and well equipped schools. Do they really need foreign teachers?

Food
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Everyone raves about the hawker stalls in Singapore, where you can have any kind of food you want at a very reasonable price, unless you want Singapore Chili Crab which is really expensive even in the hawker stalls and a Singapore Sling is out of the question, unless you want to take out a mortgage on your house, if you are lucky enough to own a house!

I felt the food in Myanmar had a very Indian flavour to it and you could go to any corner restaurant and eat with your fingers with plenty of towels provided to wipe yourself clean. I never quite got used to that . if you fancy a Western meal with a knife and fork you can always go to a western hotel for a meal. Of course, you can do the same thing in Phnom Penh but you can always get good and wholesome food down by the river. When I was in China, by the way, if I could not figure out how to eat with chop sticks I would have starved to death because I did not see a knife or fork anywhere.

The best food, in my opinion, where there is the best value for money and good taste, is Thailand. They have a unique taste because they mix the four flavours westerners are not used to. No matter where you are in Thailand, you can always have a good meal, although don't expect to be served in the order you might expect in the west. If the soup is made last, it will be served last, and the fish is served whole. The first time I went to a restaurant and asked the waiter t take the fish back and fillet it, I saw all of the chefs laughing at me. They had never heard of anything so silly. You can also get any kind of food you desire in cities like Chiang Mai or Bangkok which have so much variety.

You do have some personal questions to ask yourself about what kind of experience you are looking for and whatever the answer to that, you can certainly find it in south east Asia. I invite you to write in with your experiences and I will post them here if you do. Again, thanks for reading my blog and I do hope it is useful to you. 

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Where to Teach, Where to Teach?

5/27/2016

1 Comment

 
 The purpose of the above slides are to give some colour to Asia and to emphasize one thing....kids are kids. You cannot go wrong teaching anywhere in South East Asia because you will enjoy the classroom work and the children very much. You will have to make your decision about where you want to teach based on criteria like cost of living, what you like to do on weekends, type of accommodation, infrastructure and ease of getting from one place to the next, transportation and so on. Since I have worked all over South East Asia either as a principal or a consultant, I think I can answer most of your questions. If I do not answer any question in this blog, please write and ask. I do appreciate the comments and letters very much and I am very appreciative of those who already  bought and read my novel It All Started in Mandalay to get some insight into what is it really like to work in Asia. If you have not read the book you really should!

Cost of Living
The most expensive place to live is probably Singapore and the cheapest Cambodia, but that is like comparing apples to oranges. They call Singapore "Asia Light" because if you are just starting out a teaching career in Asia and you do not want much of a change from what you are used to, Singapore is not a bad place to be. You will get the most money for teaching, but beware that it will cost you the most money to live.What you want to do is figure out how many minutes or hours you have to teach to buy whatever it is you like to eat or drink, like a bottle of beer or a nice juicy red tomato. That is, essentially, what we call cost of living. Note that if you are paying more than 25% of your net salary on accommodation, you know you are living in a place with a high cost of living. When I say net salary, be sure to know whether the school pays your taxes or you do. t could mean a lot of money in your pocket if you get or can negotiate the right answer. 

Cambodia is a developing country, so although you will make a relatively small amount of money in salary, it will probably be tax free and I doubt you will pay taxes. The school usually takes care of this in their own way and it is their business how they want to handle it. However, if you are looking for fancy shopping and air conditioned buses, give Cambodia a miss. Personally, I really dislike the air conditioned buses in Singapore because they were way too cold and whenever you walked passed a department store on Orchard Road I was always caught with a blast of cold air which I hated. However, when you are searching for an air conditioned restaurant in Phnom Penh, you might appreciate that blast of cold air. 

If you live in a main centre in China, like Beijing or Shanghai, it will cost you dearly for accommodation, as will Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh, but if you choose to live in a rural area, you will make less money but your money will go a lot further. If fact, you will live so cheaply you will for sure bring money home or at least have lots to spend on week-ends for travel. 

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Travel
Of course you are not going to South East Asia to stay in one place and prepare lessons every weekend. You want to get out and see the country and a lot of that will take place on a plane, unless, of course, you live in China where there are 300 kilometer an hour trains that are so much faster to use that airports. 

However, if you do want to travel a lot, live in a place like Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur  as opposed to Phnom Penh or Hanoi, because Bangkok is an airline hub like Chicago or Atlanta and it is easy to get a plane to anywhere. If you live somewhere like Mandalay in Myanmar you will always be taking a bus to somewhere to get a plane to somewhere else before you can even begin to think about where you want to really go. 

Talking about buses, there are some really great buses like Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh ( as long as you use the right bus line) but there are also some really awful routes you should be aware of that will seem like the longest ride of your life. Most of the travel in South East Asia is by bus and you will be very happy when you pay for you ticket. No matter where you live, the cost will delight you since it will be so cheap. 


Renting a car is probably out of the question. I rented an old clunker in Phuket and the first day I hit another car parked on the side of the road. You know, when you are used to travelling on one side of the road and suddenly drive on the other side, it is very hard to judge distances. Most teachers buy or rent a motor-scooter but since I have not done that I have very little to say about it. All I can comment on is my observations on Monday mornings when teachers come limping into school with broken ankles and other assorted pieces of bandage attached to different parts of their bodies. 

I think I will do more of this "comparison shopping" in my next blog. This is probably enough now to get you thinking and I will add more in the next few daysl

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OK Tell me where to teach?

10/29/2014

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Hey,which picture turns your crank? Are you intrigued by the boy in Myanmar and what he is wearing on his face or are you more into a tranquil setting of Thailand on the right? Or are you an amateur archaeologist who is fascinated by ancient temples found in Cambodia.


Here is the deal. All international schools and kids are virtually the same. The good ones have great resources, great expectations of their students and a lot of pressure from parents. They are fun to teach in and you can't go wrong as a professional. But as to which country to choose there are so many factors to consider.
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I guess the question is not how much money you want to make but how much money you want to save? If you want to come home with a bunch of money to pay off student loans or put a down payment on a house or something like that go to a developing country like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos where the prices are cheap for food, transportation and accommodation  and you can save.. If you go to a Singapore or Thailand and live in a city like Bangkok you will likely end up spending your salary. You will have enough to live on comfortably, that is for sure, but you will not take home a lot to your home country.

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What do you want to do on week-ends? Do you want to go to a beach that is an hour or two away or in fact work in a beach community.? There are lots of opportunities all over Asia. You know, even if you live in a city like Ho Chi Minh you can still get to a beach one hour away at Vung Tau or if you are in Bangkok you can go to a place like Koh Samet two hours from Bangkok which is like paradise on earth. Look at an Asian map and if you are interested in beaches you sure do not want to teach in Beijing for example.  In that vein, if you want heat stay south in Asia

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Culture is also very important. Part of culture is religion, of course and as a foreign teacher in Indonesia, for example, you have to be willing to respect Muslim culture or if you choose to teach in Myanmar, for example you should be well aware of Buddhist religion and its impact on culture. In Thailand, for example, you do not talk about the king and in Myanmar you do not talk about family or religion. I find that all of these cultural differences to be the reason I travel and work in these countries but if you are a devout "whatever" you better be empathetic to other religions and cultures or go to a country that has your religion as the dominant on.  

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What kind of food do you like to eat? No matter which country you go to each has its unique attributes. No mater which Asian country you decide to live, I can tell you when you come back to the west you will be much healthier. My blood work is always fantastic when I return after a year away. If you love bread, you can't go wrong in Vietnam where they make beautiful breads, probably as a result of the French occupation. If you love noodles, Singapore is not a bad bet. If you love vegetables, Thailand is the way to go. If  you can't do without rice, work in the Philippines, or if you cannot live without dim sum China is the place to be. 

Lots to think about, right? Start looking now for next September and if you have a choice of a few schools, please write in and ask for advice from me or the readers of this blog. Let's be frank. All of the above factors are critical, but the real issue is that you must be happy in your work environment or the most beautiful beach on the weekend will not make up for a terrible week.
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    Michael Allan Charles is the first time author of It All Started In Mandalay

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