Teaching English overseas is a great way to live like a local in a different country. Marie Jenkins and Pip Holloway share their experiences..

Holloways' school holidays
"My husband Doug and I had our own food manufacturing business for 23 years and when we sold it last year, we decided we wanted to live in another country. We liked travelling but there's nothing like living in a country to really get to know a place. So we contacted Teach International and they accepted us to go to China to teach English.

"We spent a semester in Ninxia, a little province in the far north, near the border of Mongolia. It was unusual because it's Chinese-Muslim, and it was a fantastic experience for us.

"Our training was conducted in Melbourne over three nights and a weekend, plus about 100 hours of study downloaded from the website. I found it quite taxing as it had been a long time since I'd done grammar. Luckily the other sections – about teaching children and teaching adults – were not as hard.

"When we got to China we moved into an apartment block and that was a real eye-opener. It was a block of 16 units and there were always people sitting outside, playing mahjong, chatting. Other people would come along on bikes, picking up cans, bottles and scrap metal and selling things. It was great just to go down to the shop to buy our own bread and dumplings. We loved interacting with people.

"The school was a private school with eight campuses around the province. They had never had a native English speaker teach there so we were taken around the area to meet all the headmasters at the government schools. We were wined and dined all the time.

"It's a very poor province so the teachers weren't as good as you get in Beijing and they had fairly poor English. We regularly gave lessons to the English teachers in our school.

"I was surprised when we went to the orientation day, there were 30 teachers and eight of us were over 50. A few were teachers who had retired and wanted to keep teaching.

"Teaching the students was much easier than I thought it was going to be. We had books to work from and the kids were great. The seven and eight-year-olds were like sponges. I just loved my little class. We also taught all ages up to 16-year-olds.

"The workload was light – about 17 hours a week. We taught on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and some night classes. Sometimes it was three days a week, but there was preparation to do too. Even though we had books, we liked to add to it.

"In the classes we played games and sang songs and did conversation exercises where the students had to talk to each other. I didn't ever think I could sing in front of a class of kids, but I did it!

"We had to learn some Mandarin but it was good. We got by. If we didn't know the words, we mimed or drew pictures. People loved talking to us. Kids used to run up to us at the supermarket and when we came home, so that was nice.

"In total we were in China for more than six months. We spent four-and-a-half months teaching and then we travelled for another two months. For me it was probably long enough. Time certainly didn't drag while we were there.

"We visited Yungshau in the south, Beijing and Shanghai. During the week off for the May holidays we went to Shi An, and we went to Kluming by public bus. I just loved it.

"I have no regrets, none at all. It's good to get out and do something different – it's too easy to get stuck down. The whole experience gave us a new lease of life. It made us step outside our comfort zone and learn something new. We're having this year at home but we could do it again.

"To anyone who's interested in teaching English overseas, I say do it while you can! It really is wonderful.”

For more details, visit Pip and Doug's website: www.dougandpip.com.

Marie Jenkins Adventure
"Towards the end of 2002 I was reading the newspaper, feeling quite despondent and lethargic, when out of the blue, my eye caught the words: FREE TRAVEL TO CHINA. I had been retired for two years and although I was enjoying my time with family and friends, I felt that something was missing in my life – it was lacking excitement!

"Further reading of the newspaper article established that this offer was to teach conversational English in China for one year in return for free travel, accommodation and a monthly salary. No teaching experience or knowledge of the Chinese language was required.

"I posted my resume, not feeling at all confident and even wondering if I really wanted to do this. Within a week I was notified that I had been accepted and that I needed to be in China in eight weeks for the start of the new semester.

"My family and friends had mixed reactions to my travelling to China. Some thought I was crazy to travel to a communist country alone; others were worried about the Chinese style of toilets, but most thought it would be a wonderful adventure. I decided to go ahead and accept the offer.

"I was contacted by phone to let me know I would be teaching at Xiantao Vocational College in Hubei Province in central China. I was issued with a working visa and letters of introduction and before I knew it I was on a plane and off to the greatest adventure of my life.

"Two teachers from the College met me at the airport in Wuhan. Their names were Tongfei and Mingshai and they were assigned to look after me for the duration of my stay. During that year we became very good friends.

"The teaching experience at the college was wonderful. The students were delightful and eager to learn. I made many friends among the teachers and students and everyone was keen to help and support me in every way.

"There were two foreign teachers at our college and another young New Zealander, Dion. We worked well together and were able to meet with foreign teachers from other schools in Xiantao to travel and explore together on weekends.

"During the holiday period (July to August) the opportunities to travel were immense. Using a student as a guide we travelled through approximately two-thirds of China. The culture, history and scenery of this incredible country is mind-boggling. I was able to spend my 60th birthday sitting on the Great Wall.

"If you were to ask me what I enjoyed most about China, I would have to say the people. They are without doubt the friendliest people I have met in the world. I can’t wait to go back.”

Marie Jenkins has since returned to Inner Mongolia to teach at an English summer camp.

Betty and Greg Lupton found teaching to be the ideal way to see the world. Over the past two decades they have taught at schools in outback Australia, Thailand and the Pacific Islands.

"Upon retiring in 1982, my husband Greg took me out to Kiribat, a Pacific island, and we taught English for two years. While there we visited Guam, Truk, Marshall Islands, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Hawaii. We then spent a further 18 months at Nauru teaching English and science," said Betty.

"After settling down in Perth, Greg found it difficult to cease teaching. He joined School Children of the Air (REVSE) and we visited cattle and sheep stations over a five-year period, staying four to five weeks at a time.

"Then we took off for China and spent six months teaching English in a teaching hospital at Baise. A second trip ensued a year later to Xushui, near Beijing. In 2003 Greg went to Bangkok to teach in a multicultural school in the outer suburbs for six months. I think he would be a worthy winner of the most adventurous senior in Australia!"