Teaching English Abroad — the life of a nomad. World travelers and neo-nomads are always looking for a way to earn some travel cash without hanging up their backpack and heading home. While it is possible to pick up short-term jobs on the road, there’s only so many beers you can pour and only so many hostel bed sheets you can change. When you hit this roadblock, you’ll want to find a job that will put some real money in your pocket without quelling your adventurous spirit. Teaching English abroad is probably the answer to all of your problems. A job teaching English abroad will give you money and stability while still allowing you to explore new cultures and even travel locally and to neighboring nations. Most international English teaching positions last for a year, and in most cases you actually have to sign a contract. So, you’ll be sticking around for a while and you’ll have time to really learn about your temporary home.

You’ll discover the best cheap eats in town and the coolest local hangouts. You’ll make friends with other international English teachers and you’ll learn the local language and make local friends. The idea is to live in one place for a while instead of zipping from one backpacker haven to the next. You’ll actually meet the locals and they will actually meet you. This is probably one of the most important parts of travel. We travel for the adventure, for the experience, and for the interesting stories to tell while trying to pick up that cute barista in your local coffee shop. But more than anything, we travel for the cultural exchange that takes place while on the road.

We are, all of us, microcosms of our entire country – we are stereotypes of our national public. When we travel, we crash into other stereotypes and rub off on other microcosms, and somehow, the world gets a little bit smaller. There is really no better way to facilitate this give-and-take than to live and work in a foreign environment for an extended period of time. You will slowly integrate yourself into the culture, and into the local community, and you will learn something very valuable about travel and about life. And when your teach abroad contract is over, you will take what you have learned (and what you have earned) and move on to the next adventure, hopefully leaving a positive legacy of your microcosm behind. So teach English abroad, young nomads, and don’t forget to enjoy it!