Leah was part of our Teach Feast group in Sheffield but made the decision to make a big move out to Thailand in 2023. We caught up with her to find out how things are going.
K: What are you actually doing in Thailand?
L: I’m a Year 1 teacher at an international school. I teach all subjects in English. I was a reception teacher before but it’s very similar as children in Thailand come to school slightly later. I only have 5 kids in my class though as nursery doesn’t end here until Year 2.
K: Is the job what you expected?
L: I didn’t think I’d have that few children, even though I knew the classes were very small. That’s a big change from the UK where I had a class of 30 all the time. It’s been really good in some ways, I’ve been able to bring them along quicker as I can get more 1-2-1 time with each student.
But it was hard at first as they didn’t talk very much and there was no, you know, chat in the class to move things along. I also quickly realised that a lot of the ideas I relied upon before in my teaching didn’t work with so few children. So, four years into teaching, I have been needing to find a whole new set of techniques!
K: Why Thailand?
L: I got to the point where I wanted to leave Sheffield and go somewhere else. I was at a point in my life where I thought, ‘While I can, I want to go and do something outside of my comfort zone’. I looked at Europe but I wanted to go really out of my comfort zone!
I settled on Asia and started looking for jobs there. My search began online, on TES like normal, for jobs with Early Years in a few different places. My sisters have both been travelling and they know me really well. They said, ‘If you go to Thailand, don’t go to Bangkok because you won’t like it there as it’s a massive city'. So they helped me to decide the area, one of my sisters had been to this area, Krabi, before.
Once I’d found a couple of jobs, I made a pros and cons list of Thailand over other places. I looked for places where the cost of living wasn’t too expensive and where there would be enough people around my age and I might be able to meet others.
I thought about the weather and the way of life too – I knew that the pace of life should be a little more relaxed here. But there were lot of things that scared me about living in Thailand too, like using a bike to get around. I’d never been on a motorbike before and I’d need to own one if I lived here! I was also a bit worried about the food because although a lot of people love Thai cooking, I can be quite fussy. I am also terrible with spicy food!
There were a lot of other things that I didn’t like the sound of but I just had this thing that I knew I needed to do something out of my comfort zone, so I did!
K: Has it actually scared you as you’ve arrived and begun living there?
L: Yes and no. Luckily a lot of us started at the same time in school as new teachers. I was able to contact a couple before we arrived. One girl I actually met at Dubai airport on the way. We arrived together, live next door to each other and so right from the beginning I had someone which made it less scary. Thinking back, it definitely wasn’t as scary as I expected. The first few weeks I was actually thinking ‘I’m on holiday!’ But then I wasn’t just on holiday and this was it!
K: What is it like compared to a teaching job in the UK?
L: Similar but also very different. The curricukum is based on a UK-style of teaching. I’d kind of hoped to come here for a much more relaxed approach to life, with less planning and more free time. However I spend most evenings planning just like I did in the UK. (I’m sure this is not the case for all schools).
K: I guess you still are teaching the British system so there’s still the same pressure?
L: Yes, although the system isn’t identical there are definitely still similar pressures - at the school I am at. I know this is not the case for all schools here. There are some teachers in the Thai schools in my church and their lifestyle is definitely different and appears more relaxed. In the UK I was used to having a Teaching Assistant and because my school was two form entry, I had other teachers to support with the planning - whereas now I’m doing all of it alone. Obviously having only 5 kids makes marking and reports writing a lot quicker.
One more thing: a big thing that’s different is that in Sheffield I didn’t have many, if any EAL, though I know that’s not always the case. Now, however, out of a class of 5, 2 came in speaking no English which was very difficult. That was another extra thing that I really wasn’t used to.
K: How was/is moving and living as a Christian there?
L: That was one really big thing for me. I had the job interview and then I looked up and contacted a church. I wasn’t going to move somewhere if I didn’t know if there was going to be a church for me for two years. I just Google Mapped churches. There aren’t loads of churches in Thailand as it’s not a Christian country, and especially the area I was planning to come to.
One main church popped up in my search and they live stream services so I watched a couple of services over the weekend while I also considered the job offer from the school. This also gave me the chance to email the church to say I was coming, and they replied and answered some questions I had. I felt happy enough that I could see myself going there.
When it came to moving out here, in the first week of being in Krabi, the church leaders took me out for a meal. They made sure I had a lift for church on Sunday too. It was really nice to get stuck in straightaway and it made a big difference to how I felt arriving.
In general, I don’t find it hard to be a Christian. I used to be a bit embarrassed when I was younger, which is not the case anymore. However, at our school we’re not allowed to share anything at all about our faith or beliefs.
But our church do; just recently we had the opportunity to go together and share the gospel in public. I expect it’s hard for people who have converted from other religions and who are Thai. But as a foreigner, I don’t experience that.
I guess the lifestyle as well. In Thailand especially, there’s a big thing about going out and drinking. But then again, university in the UK has already seen me go through a load of that so I don’t feel like I come under peer pressure here.
K: Do you get more people who are younger and who are teaching to travel and therefore there’s a bit of a gap year atmosphere?
Not so much actually, there’s people my age and people who are older too. But no one stops the 40 year-olds going out! Because of the job being a two year full-time teaching contract, it probably is less of a gap year job, like some of the English teaching jobs. Therefore there’s people around my age (27) and older too!
K: Do you have some top tips for anything thinking about making the move abroad?
1. If you’ve found a location and a school that you want to go to, find a church and get stuck into it - it’s really, really important.
2. I set up a prayer group which I update fairly regularly (this has just reminded me to update it again!). Even if it’s the same kind of prayer requests each time, I’ve found it so supportive to know that people are praying.
3. Pray about your decision. I did a lot of talking to other people about it as well. Not that it was their decision but it was helpful to hear what people who really know me thought about me travelling. I thought carefully about the reason that I was going too. But I’d also say just do it!
4. Practically, I did think about languages. But I also thought about the weather. For example, ‘Will I like the heat all the time and will I be ok with the rain?’ Things my mum wanted to check with me really. The temperature is hot, and if I was just on holiday it would be fine to go to the pool and the beach. But at work, while we do have air con, we still do a lot of activities outside, and it is hot!
5. Finally, I did also think about living costs. For me, I had originally looked at going and working in a Christian school. Some of these schools also wanted a church to be able to support your funding throughout your whole time living there. I loved my Sheffield church so much but this was not something I felt was the right option for me.
I decided I couldn’t do that and also I wanted to do ‘normal’ teaching as well, rather than teaching a Christian syllabus. Here my Thai salary is lower than what I would be paid in the UK, but so is the cost of living in Thailand, so it works out. It’s a much more practical tip but important for people to consider.
6. I guess also, when you go, to prepare for God to work in different ways that you didn’t think would happen – God can do surprising things! When I was going, I was also slightly worried that I was wasting a prime time in my 20s outside of the UK. But I decided, 'no, it’s fine, I’ll go anyway'. And God has surprised me.