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So I really want to go live in a different country. I'd prefer to do so now that I am still in my 20s as I am currently not chained down to anything. However, I really don't know how to go about it. To make things more descriptive here is my current situation: From the United States A little over $10,000 in savings Bachelor's in Psychology from a State University Experience in social services, currently working at a residential treatment facility for troubled youth Don't speak a second language but am very willing to learn Would ideally like to undergo the move around September - October I fear that due to my work experience being light and my degree not being the most sophisticated thing out there, that I may have a difficult time finding something. Personally, I'm not 100% dead set where I want to go, as I'm pretty much open to anywhere. If I had to pick a top 3 it would be Brazil, France, and Sweden, in that order. Though the African region interests me as well.
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Mar 6, 2016 15:43
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punk rebel ecks posted:So I really want to go live in a different country. I'd prefer to do so now that I am still in my 20s as I am currently not chained down to anything. Marry a local.
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Mar 6, 2016 16:20
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Your biggest challenge moving to a new country will be finding work. Many countries give their own citizens first dibs on work before offering the job to a non-resident. Most countries also want you to be gainfully employed so you aren't just a resource drain. Of course this is a Catch-22. There are a few shortcuts to get around this: 1) Have a job lined up in the new country, preferably one that is well suited to you (teaching English in Japan is the classic example here), or 2) Work a remote job so you can earn money without displacing a local worker.
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Mar 6, 2016 17:17
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Teaching English seems possible. There's a few threads for JET in the travel section in Japan.
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Mar 6, 2016 18:12
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Don't I need to know the foreign language to be able to teach English?
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Mar 6, 2016 18:42
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punk rebel ecks posted:Don't I need to know the foreign language to be able to teach English? It helps. IIrc you just need a degree and interest in teaching.
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Mar 6, 2016 18:56
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Alder posted:It helps. IIrc you just need a degree and interest in teaching. A teaching degree or any degree?
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Mar 6, 2016 21:35
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punk rebel ecks posted:A teaching degree or any degree? in Asia, a degree, and no they often don't give or a poo poo or actively don't want you to speak their language. The shadier the country/school, the less qualified you need to be. Simply being an english-speaking white guy can be enough to be a teaching assistant in, say, rural China. I moved to Canada and while I love it here and hope to become a permanent resident and eventually citizen, it was and his a goddam expensive hassle and you need to do a lot of work to live more than temporarily abroad. All those people talking about how they'll up and move to Canada or wherever if Trump gets elected don't know poo poo. Also, US government is almost unique in that they expect you to file and pay income taxes even if you live abroad and all your income comes from your host country. vintagepurple fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Mar 6, 2016 |
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Mar 6, 2016 22:53
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So is English teacher my only option?
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Mar 7, 2016 01:00
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punk rebel ecks posted:So is English teacher my only option? English is the most demanded subject and I think foreign schools might have a different curriculum so local teachers would be better for it.
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Mar 7, 2016 01:04
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Look into work holiday visas. They are temporary but a good way to get your foot in the door. Unfortunately the US govt are total assholes about allowing others to do working holidays in the US so your options are much more limited that most first world places (its reciprocal you see). Otherwise a psych degree is almost useless overseas and anywhere you actually want to live has more than enough unemployed psych/social work majors kicking around.
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Mar 7, 2016 01:21
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Get a student visa and continue your education in another country.
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Mar 7, 2016 01:33
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vintagepurple posted:in Asia, a degree, and no they often don't give or a poo poo or actively don't want you to speak their language. On the plus side, the US has double taxation treaties (tax payments to one country can be deducted from liability to the other) with a ton of countries, so you're not as completely screwed as it might sound.
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Mar 7, 2016 01:51
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punk rebel ecks posted:So is English teacher my only option? Not at all. When I was in my early 20's I lived in France for a bit working under the table doing construction and agricultural work. it's not really a great way to build a permanent home but if you are young and able bodied it can be fun and a good way to meet interesting people, and you can travel a bit and do different things in different seasons. though it's possible they've clamped down on that sort of thing these days
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Mar 7, 2016 01:56
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I moved to a different country to pursue graduate study. For most countries, a student visa carries with it (sometimes limited) work rights so you can work part time to support yourself, you get to travel <and> you get a graduate degree out of the process. I'd highly recommend it
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Mar 7, 2016 05:36
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punk rebel ecks posted:So is English teacher my only option? Well there's always the French Foreign Legion
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Mar 7, 2016 21:02
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I'm getting a lot of conflicting advise from the internet (so more internet advice is obviously the correct answer): What are my chances of landing an English teacher position in Japan as a non-native English speaker with an M.A in English Literature?
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Mar 7, 2016 23:03
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Xander77 posted:I'm getting a lot of conflicting advise from the internet (so more internet advice is obviously the correct answer): There's a whole thread about teaching English in Japan in the Science/academics/languages subforum of ask tell. Go there.
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Mar 8, 2016 01:25
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So the gist of it is that my options are: - Teach English - Graduate School Exchange Program - Do traditional grunt work immigrant labor (construction, field work)
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Mar 8, 2016 02:09
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In order of time it takes to get there, the following options represent I believe about 95% of the opportunities to do what you say you want to do. 1) Nursing, Engineering, Programming, IT, Mineral/Oil extraction You need the certifications and experience to at least run small groups from a kind of managerial aspect. You then need to work for a company that needs you overseas. Then you go over there and function as a manager. The pay is very very good and it doesn't hurt your career to do this. 2) Foreign Service Officer This is where you start on your path toward being a diplomat. You need to have a BA and pass a fairly difficult federally administered test, then beat out a pool of well qualified competition, then pass a very stringent background test. The pay is good. You don't get to choose your location for a very long time unless you're a senator's son or the like. 3) Aid Industry It's not what it was 20 years ago where someone would actually pay you to live in Cambodia and teach fishermen how to fish. There's a lot of overlap here with #1 in some regards. In any case to get your foot in the door you basically go to Africa (a majority of aid work is there anyway and it's not a very desirable location) on some kind of entry level barely minimum wage job and after a year start working your way up the ladder. You probably need a BA but networking is by far the most important thing here to move to a country you actually want to be in. It's difficult to do this from an urban location, especially in your first five or so years. 4) Legitimate teaching Get a primary or secondary teaching certificate for a US (or UK) school system and two years of experience. It's also a good idea if you have certificates for multiple age groups and/or multiple subject areas. It's even better if they are in in demand fields (math and science). Then go to an international school job fair. International schools are basically US schools that happen to be located in Sao Paulo or Saigon or wherever for a) the children of rich expats and b) the children of rich locals who want better access to US universities for their brats. These jobs pay a little more than US teaching jobs, require more of your time than they do, come with good tax advantages (as do any of the jobs overseas), BUT do not have a pension or retirement plan so the "extra" money in there will go to you funding your own retirement. BA Psych does not help you reach anything at all even in high school (gradeschool certs are a mountain of work to get compared to highschool certs in most states) so you would basically have to go back to school for a second BA to do this -- the only good news in this regard is that for your second degree a majority of schools waive the fluff bullshit "well rounded" side requirements, so you could likely be done in 2.5 years. 5) Entrepreneurship You can run an import/export business, some internet kind of business, etc. There are immense difficulties involved in living in one place and working in another and ever since Tim Ferris's book became a best seller most of the fat meat has been stripped off of the bone. Still, the senior posting goon of the SE Asia thread runs a medical tourism business out of Bangkok and there are a few goons who sell their code online while living overseas. The issue here is that it's generally your money on the line and if you don't succeed you probably don't have money to try again, and then need to get work, and then what work are you going to get to get another ball rolling? Also a lot of the "digital nomads" you run into abroad are actually making less money than the English teachers they love to look down on. 6) Teaching English as a Foreign Language I used to have a thread that I made that I would link to. If you ask in the China thread or the SE Asia thread you can get some good up to date opinions on this. My opinions remain basically as they are: you need a BA of any sort, probably to be white, to understand that this is not a career path but a two or so year diversion and will be treated as such by future potential employers (even other schools), and while a CELTA or other how-to-teach-English certification is not necessary it is very helpful to you when it comes time to stand in front of 30 twelve year olds and actually teach them English when they don't speak enough English to understand instructions in English. The plusses are you could do your CELTA cheaper in a place like Bangkok than you could in the US and be working in a few months in the country and city of your choice* *Unless it's in an EU country and you're from the US, because they're going to hire Brits and Irish ahead of you due to paperwork restrictions, so if you're from the US you can forget about Europe for all intents and purposes (at least for now) (oh and you can probably get some horrible under the table job that no one else wants in Paris that will cheat you out of your last paycheck but whatever, some people don't listen) (Oh and there are a precious few English "exchange" type programs run by the French or wherever government that will let you get around the paperwork woes that private companies don't want to deal with but they're really thin on the ground and you'd be in Rennes or something). 6) Ag work or bar work. Typically advertised on bulletin boards near colleges you can sometimes get a visa and have the privileged of picking grapes in the blaring sun eight hours a day for starvation wages to do it, maybe while living on some halfassed kibbutz and talking yourself into believing its an ideal rather than exploited life. You can also shoulder up to the Polaks and Aussies on the bad side of the bar eating day old bread and drinking two dollar bottles of wine all across Europe. You're the equivalent of a Mexican dishwasher in the US, except for your skin and the fact that you whine like mule with its dick caught on a fence. ---- No one in France or Sweden is going to even give a non EU passport holder a glance, unless they hold a PhD in a narrow field and have massive publications and are applying for blabh lbahb labhalhalhblahblhablhb. You ain't working there legally ever unless you marry a Fronchman a Swede. It's the same for them if they get interested in the US, so take heart in that. raton fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Mar 8, 2016 |
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Mar 8, 2016 02:22
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punk rebel ecks posted:So the gist of it is that my options are: Peace Corps, or some other NGO. If you had a masters, a license and 2 years of clinical work in psych or social work you could work for Doctors without Borders. Heck the summer olympics are in Brazil. Could you somehow work down there? I know 2 drummer guys that went to Barcelona when it had the summer Olympics. They busked in the streets and earned enough money to travel Guinea and learn from real drummers. I'm not saying that's you, but if you're young and don't need much, your choices are much more open.
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Mar 8, 2016 02:28
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SubjectVerbObject posted:Peace Corps, or some other NGO. If you had a masters, a license and 2 years of clinical work in psych or social work you could work for Doctors without Borders. Peace Corps is like EFL except you don't get to choose where to go and there's no chance you'll save any money. Terrible deal. No one is going to hear "Oh you served in the Peace Corps" after you're out and think anything more highly of you than if you'd said you'd gone on a two year long surf vacation. Same as EFL in that regard. Don't fool yourself. Doctor's Without Borders is only interested in hiring medical people (MEDICAL, not BA Psych theory bullshit) at the RN level or higher (so like you said a license and clinical experience), but in general they don't need nurses what they need are nurse managers -- someone that can guide and mentor the local staff, not someone to just do all the work (although there will be work for you to do, obvious exceptions are surgeons). raton fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Mar 8, 2016 |
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Mar 8, 2016 02:31
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It seems that teaching English is the only thing I can do that won't require too much leg work. How long will I be gone for? Is two years like a set date for these things?
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Mar 8, 2016 03:46
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Just remember, even though you're flunking out of the USA doesn't mean you shouldn't be smug and demeaning to foreigners when your drinking with the other expats.
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Mar 8, 2016 15:33
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punk rebel ecks posted:It seems that teaching English is the only thing I can do that won't require too much leg work. Depends. I taught in Korea for a bit and the standard was one year contracts. Note that teaching ESL in Asia isnt' really a glamorous lifestyle. It's something I'm glad I did for a year in my early 20s, if only because it's given me some good stories, but it was really just me trying to sort my life out for a year before going to grad school. Basically it was better than living in my parents house playing computer games. Everyone I've known who has made a good go of ESL in Asia had a specific interest in the country they were going to. ESL was a means to get a foothold in that society and they generally moved on to another job within 5 years. The pay is also not really all that exceptional.
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Mar 8, 2016 17:25
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Also keep in mind that in at least the Northern European countries having a bachelors doesn't really mean too much because mostly everyone there will have a masters since the new Bologna process or whatever standardized the universities to a 3+2 year system for bachelors and then a masters. So like unless your bachelors degree is from Harvard or something you're not gonna be competitive in that department when literally every one of their other applicants will have a masters degree.
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Mar 8, 2016 23:53
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Boris Galerkin posted:Also keep in mind that in at least the Northern European countries having a bachelors doesn't really mean too much because mostly everyone there will have a masters since the new Bologna process or whatever standardized the universities to a 3+2 year system for bachelors and then a masters. So like unless your bachelors degree is from Harvard or something you're not gonna be competitive in that department when literally every one of their other applicants will have a masters degree. I thought America had amongst the best tertiary education system in the world?
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Mar 8, 2016 23:56
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punk rebel ecks posted:I thought America had amongst the best tertiary education system in the world? Oh, child
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Mar 9, 2016 00:40
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punk rebel ecks posted:I thought America had amongst the best tertiary education system in the world? If you went to a small number of internationally renowned schools, yes but otherwise it's barely worth the paper it's written on.
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Mar 9, 2016 01:05
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Saros posted:If you went to a small number of internationally renowned schools, yes but otherwise it's barely worth the paper it's written on. lol
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Mar 9, 2016 01:05
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Saros posted:If you went to a small number of internationally renowned schools, yes but otherwise it's barely worth the paper it's written on. I remember stories from my sister in Germany where she had to take masters level classes in her German uni as an american junior year student just to take a class that had the corresponding course requirements for her home institution, a podunk school in Indiana. punk rebel ecks posted:I thought America had amongst the best tertiary education system in the world? The Dipshit fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 02:55
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Claverjoe posted:I remember stories from my sister in Germany where she had to take masters level classes in her German uni as an american junior year student just to take a class that had the corresponding course requirements for her home institution, a podunk school in Indiana. This can happen even between schools in the same country. I did my final year of courses at a different university than I started at, but since it was only a single year, it was counted as "study away" and I had to find course equivalencies for everything. Something that was counted as a masters-level course at my home university, and was offered only every other year (meaning I wouldn't have been able to take it as an undergrad anyway), was a third-year course at the study-away -- yet I got credit for the masters-level course on my transcript. The home university is largely considered more prestigious, too. So, basically, who knows how the gently caress those things are judged half the time. You can't make conclusions about the quality of a school based on how they choose to arrange their course catalog and prerequisites.
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Mar 9, 2016 05:56
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Claverjoe posted:They do, roughly 1/3 of all the top 200 or so universities are in the U.S. And unless you went to one of them, nobody cares that you went to a community college on the same continent as good university. This is without any regard to the integrity and actual value of ranking systems, but that's not really relevant here. punk rebel ecks posted:I thought America had amongst the best tertiary education system in the world? Amongst the best, yes. If you went to a prestigious university, the impressive name on your degree doesn't disappear when you cross the ocean, it will still be impressive. However, it doesn't magically become a postgraduate degree either, it remains a bachelor's degree. Depending on the field you want to work in, this may or may not matter. Many social services jobs in Northern Europe (disclaimer: personally familiar with Finland rather than Sweden) require a relevant postgraduate degree, and academic work within psychology obviously does. Have you considered going to grad school abroad? I saw that you listed exchange during grad school as an option earlier, but what about doing a complete degree abroad? From a paperwork perspective, this is by far the easiest option, but obviously limits what you would be doing. Waci fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 08:02
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Waci posted:Have you considered going to grad school abroad? I saw that you listed exchange during grad school as an option earlier, but what about doing a complete degree abroad? From a paperwork perspective, this is by far the easiest option, but obviously limits what you would be doing. I was planning on gonig to graduate school but seeing the requirements to get in them I don't think I can make the cut. I graduate with a 3.08 GPA and tried to study for the GRE but on the practice tests I didn't do as well as I should have.
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Mar 9, 2016 13:10
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PT6A posted:So, basically, who knows how the gently caress those things are judged half the time. You can't make conclusions about the quality of a school based on how they choose to arrange their course catalog and prerequisites. I feel safe taking a dim view it if the reasons are "yeah, we don't do laboratory sections with this type of course unless it's a masters level class here". Who has engineering classes without a practical lab section attached to it? punk rebel ecks posted:I was planning on gonig to graduate school but seeing the requirements to get in them I don't think I can make the cut. I don't think there is any negative ding on people taking the GRE a few times and reporting the highest score. The Dipshit fucked around with this message at 13:17 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 13:13
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Claverjoe posted:I don't think there is any negative ding on people taking the GRE a few times and reporting the highest score. I guess you may be correct. But that $200 is steep. I will take it at least once to see where things go from there.
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Mar 9, 2016 13:21
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punk rebel ecks posted:I guess you may be correct. But that $200 is steep. I will take it at least once to see where things go from there. Good on you, you miss every shot you don't take and all that. Good luck on your GRE.
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Mar 9, 2016 14:52
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Claverjoe posted:I feel safe taking a dim view it if the reasons are "yeah, we don't do laboratory sections with this type of course unless it's a masters level class here". Who has engineering classes without a practical lab section attached to it? I don't know, I've never had a lab class where I felt like was doing anything useful at all and I'm a junior year electrical engineering student.
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Mar 9, 2016 17:04
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If you go to grad school make 110% sure that you have a very clear career goal in mind. Find a job (or at least a general career field) that you want to get into and then take the master's course that best prepares you for it. Getting a masters with an eye to finding a job that fits it is a recipe for failure, especially if your end goal is to live outside the US. You might be best served by researching what jobs that require a masters are having trouble finding native hires. Being able to show you have a job lined up in an industry that can't meet demand is a really good way to get that all important work visa.
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Mar 9, 2016 17:25
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Cyrano4747 posted:If you go to grad school make 110% sure that you have a very clear career goal in mind. Find a job (or at least a general career field) that you want to get into and then take the master's course that best prepares you for it. Getting a masters with an eye to finding a job that fits it is a recipe for failure, especially if your end goal is to live outside the US. You might be best served by researching what jobs that require a masters are having trouble finding native hires. Being able to show you have a job lined up in an industry that can't meet demand is a really good way to get that all important work visa. I learned this too late with my Bachelor's degree. I only ended up getting a job that lightly reflect on my degree and technically you don't even need a degree for it. I really wish it was more common not to go to college until your mid-20s or so.
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Mar 9, 2016 18:02
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