Tom, welcome…you have taught in New Zealand, Newquay, Peru, Singapore and currently Jakarta to name but a few..……you seem to generally end up teaching near where there is surf, is this a coincidence and can you elaborate on your choice of countries ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been living the dream as a teacher and as a surfer. I love my teaching job and have really made my career work for me! After I working in a comprehensive in Cornwall for 6 years. I wanted more from my career and decided to go to New Zealand to live. But since leaving the UK I have never looked back and my life has been a real adventure to date.

Can you number them in order of favourite place to teach ?

1. Peru

2. Jakarta

3. Singapore

4. New Zealand

 3.       Tell me a little about your current  position.

I am teaching IGCSE ICT now and the kids are focused and quite easy to teach. I have fewer classes a day and so have more time to plan better lessons.

 4.       Having never been to Jakarta how would you describe life there! How’s the traffic?

The Traffic is like the weather in the UK, consistently bad and talked about all the time. Everyone finds a way to tolerate it.

 5.       What can a teacher expect to pay for a decent apartment in Jakarta ?

For a good apartment in a quality Condo. your looking at 600 dollars a month And sometimes you wont get paid enough to afford that sort of place. So make sure of your contract housing allowance.

6.       How do you get about the city?

Ojek (on a motorbike) or taxi, all very cheap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.       What do you get up to outside of school?

I like to get out of the city and go to the country as much as possible where there is a range of activities or cultural things that you can do. Obviously food is always a number one priority and the Indonesians love their food and so restaurants are great and well the nightlife caters for all and ranges from sophisticated to downright dark and edgy.

8.       How do you get on with the food ?

I love the food. try Nasi Padang food is everyone’s favourite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9.        I love Singapore and often thought I would like to work there, how did you enjoy your time there?

Singapore is a great city and I had a great time there. But I’ m glad it wasn’t a choice destination for a long period of time. Its small and so you have just about worked out the whole place quite quickly. Having said that, there is always another food court to find or maybe a nite-club/pub you have never been too. For me Singapore doesn’t allow freedom of expression and the population is quite controlled, well has to be because it’s so small. The salaries are high and so if your motivated by money its a great place to work.

 10.   What best describes you…career motivated or lifestyle motivated– or can you pull the two off together !

I really want a simple lifestyle. A school by the beach where I can teach and then go surfing, would be the dream. I am now in working in Indonesia and so I can surf in Bali or here in Java on my holidays and that makes me happy. If I’m lucky I could have it all here so watch this space.

 11.   Will you ever go back to teaching in the UK or like a lot of teachers on the international scene, is the standard of living just too good ?

I love the UK, as I am from Cornwall. But its just so competitive to get a good job back in the UK now.

 12.   What’s the 3 most enjoyable things about teaching abroad?

Meeting different people from all over the world.

Learning foreign languages.

Seeing the world while working

 13.   Anything you have struggled with ?

Some places/locations have been a bit dodgy. And administration is always a hassle. (work permits/visas).

14.   When I taught scuba diving, I had a royal marine who couldn’t clear his mask very well. One of the exercises on the course is to fill yr mask and clear it….the guy instead of bolting for the surface which is common with all students, he used to drink a mask full of salt water through his nose at depth of 5m..it was a sight to behold…. Can you give us one of your best ‘teaching’ related stories?

In Peru, as the top school in Peru we organized a charitable work/surf trip whose aim was to help a couple of poor Peruvian schools with no money and to build them concrete paths and steps into their school. It was an amazing experience and so rewarding to see these people so happy with our efforts!!  What was quite scarey!! was, that after we had finished each days work we then took about 15 -20 young kids (aged 12-15) surfing in 4-5ft conditions at ‘Pacasmayo’ one of Peru’s heaviest surf breaks. 13/14 yr old kids!! mmm bit dodgy. Never see that happening anywhere else in the world!! But so much fun – ‘Boys’ fun.

 16.   If you have long weekend, where would you normally head for ?

I would go to Bali or another of the Indonesian Islands and take my surfboard of course.

 17.   How do you normally go about finding a post abroad, job fair or internet ?

I teach Technology and ICT and so have been quite lucky, but you do have to work hard on your CV and application these days. I have never been to a job fair yet. But you need to have a specific idea of where your going and which job fair to choose. which part of the world you want to be in.

 18.   Where do you see yourself in ten years ?

I’d love to think Bali near the beach. Carpe Diem I guess.

Many thanks Tom..any questions please feel free to leave a comment or email me directly on ian@job2teach.com for more details on any of the above

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