Bulgaria with Noodles

Recently a young teacher called Lou Cocker contacted me through the TES. As Lou is interested in teaching in Algeria, this gives me an excuse for including some of my old photos of our two years in Egypt. Hi Hippo, Sorry to bother you with another working abroad question. There is a job available in Algeria at a new British school. The only mention of salary is that it will be discussed at interview stage. Housing is included. But what type of salary should I be looking at for 2 years experience? Also it says 30% will be paid into an Algerian bank and 70% into your bank in the UK. Is that normal? Does that mean I would be subject to UK tax laws back home   And here is my reply. Well, you need to do some research as soon as possible. Is Algeria going to be a super-cheap place to live, with some great holiday destinations just round the corner? Or is it going to be blooming expensive? A really good salary is not so good if you are paying a fortune for thi...

I have had a lot of teachers contacting me through the TES, asking me what it is like to teach in Qatar. This is the "standard reply" that I have sent to many, many teachers around the world. Thank you for your e-mail. Welcome to the exciting world of international education! The first thing that I would like to say is that I am not an employment agency – some people seem to think that I am – and therefore my advice, help and opinions are free of charge. They are, however, not always reliable and up-to-date. I was just a Year 5 Class Teacher! I try to give accurate and honest information to people, but of course I am not infallible. Now I want to tell you a bit about who I am and what I did. My wife and I were both teaching for two years at Newton International School (West Bay) in Doha, Qatar. Next I was at Newton British School for two years and then I was at Newton Lagoon. We do not have any children. I was the KS2 coordinator at West Bay and so I had a mont...

Here is another reply to a message on the TES . It gives me an excuse for including a few of the excellent photos that were taken by my friend Peter when he came to stay with us in Shenzhen.  In a nutshell, DON'T take the kitchen sink with you. Try to find out as much as you can about what will (and what will not) be provided by the school. Think very carefully about what you really need to take with you and what you could actually do without.  Are you going to get an apartment provided by the school? Or will the school's HR people put you in contact with some letting agencies, so that you might get some choice about your accommodation? Or will there be some other arrangement? It really would be silly to bring with you all kinds of bits and pieces, only to find that those things have already been provided!  Of course you could ask the school's HR people, but an even better strategy is to ask for the e-mail addresses of a couple of the present staff. Most pr...

Yes, I have had another e-mail from a teacher in the UK, this time asking me about teaching in SHENZHEN! Hooray! This gives me an opportunity to include lots of my old photos of SZ and it certainly makes a pleasant change from yet another post about Dubai. Dear Janet, No, I am sorry. I do not know anything about BASIS. I was at Green Oasis School in Futian. As I say, I cannot tell you anything specific, but maybe you could find what you are looking for on the ICS website. It is pretty good.  A Room with A View  Secondly, with regard to benefits and your overall package, I was paid 23,000RMB a month after tax and the school also paid the rent for our two-bedroomed apartment in the centre of Shenzhen, right next to Lianuacun Park. (Every day, I would have a twenty-minute walk through the park to get to school. It was a nice way to start my day.) I hope that BASIS will offer you something similar.  My cheeky Year 5 students at Green Oasis Gener...

My post about The World's Fastest City seems to have attracted a lot of views. Recently I had yet another e-mail from a teacher, via TES, asking me about what it is like to teach (and live) in the UAE, so here is one of my replies. This time I have included a few photos from our time in RAK. Lunch at the excellent "Green Valley" Indian restaurant Dear Danielle, Quite a lot of teachers have written to me recently, to ask me about teaching in the UAE. I have put several posts about this on my blog, bulgariawithnoodles.blogspot.com In a nutshell, I would say that salaries for teachers in the UAE have more or less stagnated in the last six or seven years. During this time, the cost of living in the Emirates has definitely gone up quite a bit. Yes, some schools do still pay quite well, but not that many. This means, of course, that there are relatively few teaching posts available at the better schools and there will be a lot of competition for the po...