Vietnam - Ronald Saw and Ursula Inta

Great food, cheap travel and an abundance of culture – why teaching in Vietnam is unbeatable!

Ronald and Ursula are teachers from New Zealand. They recently moved to Vietnam (Summer 2015), where they are in their first year of teaching at ABC International School in Ho Chi Minh City. Here they talk about their experience of living and working in such a vibrant and different location:

“Ronald and I had always said we'd love to work in Vietnam, and especially in Ho Chi Minh City. When we visited whilst travelling, we both said it would be a great city to teach and live in. It was a natural first choice for us and we jumped at the chance when we saw teaching jobs being advertised in the city. The vibe, food, and culture of Vietnam and South East Asia is unbeatable!

The biggest skill we've gained (so far!) by working at an international school has been learning to teach with a new curriculum; the National Curriculum of England. In New Zealand we use a different curriculum so it's great to get experience of teaching another. It also means we will be much more desirable to other international schools, many of which want you to have experience of teaching the National Curriculum of England.

Another benefit of teaching at an international school is being able to teach and spend time with students and teachers from different cultures. This gives us a real insight into the ways in which people from different countries live, learn and celebrate! Experiencing other cultures is one of the most important aspects of teaching overseas. In New Zealand we have a lot of different ethnicities, but it's not the same as immersing yourself in another country's way of life. We've met so many people from all over the world, and made lots of friends.

We both like the pace of Vietnam, and especially of Ho Chi Minh City. There are so many people and things to do. You could never be bored living here! One of the highlights is definitely the Vietnamese food – I don't think we'll ever get sick of it! It's unlike any other food we've tried before. Our favourite is the local Vietnamese dish, Pho.

We've had the chance to travel within Vietnam and also Asia quite a bit already. Travel is so much cheaper here. We were very isolated in New Zealand and it was expensive to fly anywhere. Not here! We recently went on a holiday with teachers from school to Hoi An, which is an amazing place in Vietnam. We've also been to Cambodia and are about to go to a little island off Vietnam calle Phu Quoc, again with teachers from school. We plan to go to Hong Kong too at some point. There's so much opportunity for travel here. We've been to 19 countries since we started teaching overseas and have still managed to save money on top of that!

TIC is by far the best international teacher recruitment agency we have ever worked with. The TIC staff personally support you through the process of applying for jobs, and go the extra mile to help you secure your dream job. They are also very quick at updating people on what's happening, which is very important to me (Ursula) as I'm impatient! You really feel like they care that you get the job you want. So many agencies charge fees to be a part of it, and give you half the quality of care. Even now, people from TIC will email us and ask how everything is going. We wouldn't use any other agency and highly recommend it to any teachers thinking about teaching overseas!”

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