I've been living outside of my own country for nearly 3 years now. When I first came over here to the great wild unknown I thought it would only last one because that was the length of my contract that was arranged before I moved. While Covid had more than a little to do with it, I ended up staying quite a lot longer.
I'm not going to stay around here much longer but I have learned an awful lot about the world and the people who live in it and I wasn't really planning on doing that. I was just going to work, drink beer on the weekends, and take a break between college and getting a career.
Here's a few of the things I've learned by taking a gap year that ended up lasting several.
src
Teaching is tough
When I was growing up I had a certain level of admiration for teachers but also kind of resented them, especially as I got older. Since I have been on the other side now I can say that I think they have some of the most difficult jobs in the world. Not only do you have to deal with a classroom of kids who more than anything just want to run wild all the time but you also have to deal with administrative bullshit and having several bosses, some of which are not actually educators themselves and they have rather ridiculous demands such as in my case they wanted the kids to be fluent in English after a year of studying once per day. All of this they wanted the teacher to accomplish with very little salary or even supplies. Let's just say that my classrooms never even came close to accomplishing that and I don't think any other ones, at least on the level that i am employed, ever do either.
People from all countries are mostly good
We all have some sort of bias that was put into our heads about certain nationalities and from what I have seen, not much of that is actually deserved. Let's just think about what the perception of Russians are for example. Russians have always been portrayed as the bad guys in movies and if you want your villain to sound extra intimidating, give them a Russian accent.
I've met quite a few Russians over the years and they have all just been regular people. In fact, the ones that i met had to work a lot harder than I have because they have to be fluent in English as well because nobody is in a hurry to learn to speak Russian. You can insert almost any nationality and I have found that they are mostly all good people. Sure you get a bad apple here and there but for the most part I would say that 85% of all people are good people.
I don't really want a "real" career
src
now that I have seen what the half-assed jobs in ESL are like, I have to say that I would almost rather take a pay cut and live a more relaxed lifestyle than join the corporate machine. When I talk to my friends who went on to their careers right away back in the USA almost none of them are at all enthusiastic about what they do. They also have a lot more pressure to always be making more money when that mostly just gets chewed up by increased cost of life. I think that if I could find a way to make around double what I get paid now that I would be content even though on paper it would appear as though I make substantially less than my American counterparts.
I'll ask you this: What is the point of a higher salary if your cost of living just ends up taking away all that money anyway?
Over here in Asia I feel as though it is much easier to live a frugal, yet happy lifestyle. When I think about life in America, almost everything is driven by wealth.
I plan to eventually live over here
I should probably travel a bit more before I make that decision final but one thing I know for sure is that by speaking to people both younger and a lot older than me that live the expat life, they seem to be happier than people who live back home. I will eventually go back home and start a career but hopefully with the idea being that this job will not be a permanent thing for me. I will always be thinking about how I just need to save up enough money in order to get back to here in Thailand or somewhere similar.
You can keep your "west is best" crap.... because I don't really think that is the case at all.
I understand the situation, and even though I am biased, I believe you're on the right path. Whether you go back to the states or not, your idea to resettle elsewhere is a good one, especially somewhere that provides free time and a social way of life like SE Asia.
I didn't have any student debt or loans to stop me from going abroad, but because of this I can also earn a better income/cost of living ratio here, and that kind of prevents me from thinking I could go back to the USA and work hard for a few years to have retirement money for SE Asia. But if you have the uni degree and ability to earn big, you could easily go work a career job for 2-3 years while living rent-free in in an RV or something, then just flee after you pay off debts and build a little nest egg.
Not having student debt is a really big plus in your corner and I agree with the earnings or ability to save money living over here. I think it depends a lot on the kind of person you happen to be. I know people that guy into consumerism over here as much as they would back in the USA and those people are always broke. I think they will end up that way no matter where they choose to live.
The problem for me is that there just aren't very many non teaching jobs that are available for foreigners because the company can pay 10 Thai people to work the job for the same salary requirements of one foreigner.
Well if you'd really like to stick around this part of the world but get out of the teaching game, there are ways to do it. It was really hard for me to break out, but I found a way to thrive without teaching after a lot of trial and error.
What's your educational background and/or the kinds of non-teaching things you'd like to do for work?
I've been investigating doing something online. I've been talking to other digital nomads and been working on web design even though that seems like it is probably a nepotism based industry. My educational background is in economics.
I taught myself web design several years ago but I haven't kept my skills up to date, that stuff changes so fast. I think in the early days it was easier to break in, but now with so many easy to use website builders, many people are able to make a good-enough site on their own, so basically you're left with nepotism like you mentioned, and that's why I never pursued it.
With an economics background, you could easily offer services (at least here in Cambodia) to Microfinance companies here, possibly even major banks. Perhaps specialty English classes for the finance sector could give you a backdoor into other types of work within the industry. Once you're foot gets in the door I could imagine it would be easier to find more ideal jobs and get away from teaching.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ