To be a university lecturer? I think not!

As you might have guessed, I work at an international school. So, I practice what I preach, I teach overseas. I'm currently based in Thailand and have been here for 18 months now.

On Monday evenings I go to a belly-dancing class. There must be something wrong with my accents because many of my colleagues and friends thought I did ballet dancing until they saw me perform with my class at one of the fairs last November.

But that's not the point of my post, nor is it the fact that it's truly odd to be learning Egyptian style belly dancing whilst teaching abroad in Thailand. I'd try Thai dancing but I can't bend my fingers backwards!

The point...

I was talking to my dance instructor, who works at one of the universities as a lecturer about holidays, and I was shocked at what I learned.

I'd always thought that university lecturers had it much better than international high school teachers, but I was wrong.

Teachers who teach overseas may be required to be in school for 180 to 195 days a year, and the rest of the year is divided into various holidays for which we are paid. My bellydance teachers only receives two weeks paid holiday a year. She can take the summer vacation off, but she will not be paid for any of it. She usually chooses to teach over the summer break so that she can earn some money.

Those conditions sound a lot like when I taught TEFL at private language schools. I got out of that kind of teaching because I HAD to work over the summer in order to have any savings. If I hadn't taught summer school I would have used up all the money I'd managed to put aside throughout the year.

So, do you want to be an Overseas university lecturer? I certainly don't! I think I'm onto a great thing here in Thailand. Teaching overseas at an international school is definitely the cream of the crop of opportunities out there!