Choosing a destination: Part I

When you start looking into teaching abroad, people always seem to ask the same question: “Where do you want to go?” This is important to determine early on, especially since different countries and regions have varying qualification requirements.

I still don’t know the answer, because I’ve never really been anywhere and have no personal experience to aid in my decision. But thanks to the Internet, just because I’m not traveled doesn’t mean I have to be uneducated.

Safety

First, it is important to find out whether or not your area of interest is safe. In a New York Times article, Joshua Kurlantzick offers ideas and resources for doing just that.

For example, you can visit the State Department’s International Travel page and find everything from Travel Warnings to information on Health Issues.

I’m personally most interested in teaching in Latin America, so I can look at the travel warnings and find out, for example, that “violence by narcoterrorist groups and other criminal elements continues to affect all parts of [Columbia].” The fact that these warnings are posted online makes it simple to find out about a country's internal issues that you might otherwise be clueless about. After all, the United States media don’t cover a lot of important international issues that a potential resident should be aware of.

Another invaluable site that Kurlantzick mentions is Smart Traveller, from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Simply search by destination and find a comprehensive and frequently updated overview of "Safety and Security" issues, "Local Laws," "Entry and Exit Requirements," "Health Issues" and "Where to Get Help" in your intended destination. Smart Traveller even allows you to subscribe (for free) to travel advisories and bulletins on your area of interest. This is my favorite of all the travel advice sites I've visited so far. It's easy to navigate and extremely detailed, offering not just broad warnings but very specific tidbits (e.g. In Chile "a ploy used by taxi drivers is to switch 10,000 peso notes given to them by passengers for 1,000 peso notes.")

While I feel safety should be among the top considerations when investigating a country or region, there are lots of other important things to consider, including:

• School year start and end dates
  
• Certification requirements
  
• Standard of living
  
• Currency stability
  

I plan to discuss these aspects and more in tomorrow’s blog. Until then, just know that you don’t have to close your eyes and point at a map. Rather, there is a ton of online resources and testimonies that can help you and me decide where we're going.

Print Sources

Kurlantzick, Joshua. “Safe or Not? It Depends on Whom You Ask.” The New York Times 28 January 2007: 6.