You can see the future now: your plane touches down in your home country, you’re surrounded by signs and mumblings in a language you fully understand, you breezily grab a bus or subway ticket or Uber, and slowly make the well-known trek back to your home. This is it: your life after TEFL.
A feeling of melancholy sets in and perhaps a bit of worry about where you’re going next. You reminisce, you marvel at what you’ve just accomplished, and you wonder if you’ll ever get to experience this again. But this isn’t yet the future, and you still have time to make the most out of finishing your teaching contract abroad.
Moving home after teaching abroad is bittersweet, but play your cards right and you can make the situation pay you back in productive and beneficial ways!
Are you wrapping up your teaching job abroad? Here’s how to do it right.
Focus! Are you ready for life after TEFL?
First and foremost, get all of your ducks in a row and make sure that you’re ready to return. It isn’t a great mystery about what to do before you quit teaching abroad, it’s just that it might be hard to do when you’re sad and not quite ready for it to end.
Minus being sad, the weeks right before departure are the best times to be active and plan ahead for your eventual return home. Shore up that contact information from friends, colleagues, and mentors you met, visit your favorite restaurant or pub one final time, wrap up your diary or blog with reflective thoughts and ideas, gather those gifts for all of your friends and family, and set your sights on making the most out of the whole endeavor!
Rather than getting caught up on what you didn’t see or what you’re going to miss, focus on what you can do to get back there and on the positive experiences you did have. After that, get practical!
Our best advice for the end of your ESL teacher job abroad
1. Know how to market your new skills
It’s no longer rare to be an ESL teacher abroad, but it’s still not very common. You are part of a growing-yet-small group of risk-takers and natural teachers who have ventured into the great unknown and come out with an envious set of skills.
Finishing your teaching contract abroad means putting those skills to use! And finding the best way to market those skills means moving home after teaching abroad is just one door closing while another one (or more!) opens.
Add your teaching experiences to your resume and make it POP.
Whether you volunteered, interned, or were employed as an ESL teacher abroad, one thing is certain: you put in the work! Planning, administration, classroom management, and instruction are only some of the skills you developed—there’s also personal language development, cross-cultural competence, public speaking, communication, time management—*deep breath*—motivation and engagement, organization techniques, creativity, and on and on and on!
Pick those skills that are most salient to your next adventure and brainstorm specific instances where you used them and can talk about your aptitude. Bonus: if you have any projects that demonstrate any of the above skills, make sure to post them on your preferred, work-related social media site (like LinkedIn). It’s great to talk about it, but it’s better to show it!
2. Gather testimonials from friends and colleagues
We’ve all been in a position where the value we brought to our jobs was obvious to us but maybe less relevant to others. But here’s the thing: others may value you for skills that you didn’t even know you were exemplifying! So what to do before you quit teaching abroad?
Conduct a “brand assessment” with a few people you trust (a close friend, a peer and colleague, a supervisor, or a mentor) and get them to recount the value that you brought into their lives and how you helped them. Then, request a formal letter from at least one of them that solidifies their views and gives you something tangible to take home.
It’s a small ask but a big favor, since moving home after teaching abroad might bring new challenges that require outside verification of your worth. Besides, knowing what others think of you, whether formally or informally, can help you narrow down what you’re good at and what you’re known for. And be prepared to potentially be known for something that you weren’t even aware of!
3. Tie up any and all loose ends — creative, personal, or otherwise
Many travelers, students, interns, and volunteers engage in projects and activities throughout their time abroad. After finishing your teaching contract abroad, you’ll find that you also have similar pursuits, and it’s important to wrap those up before moving on or, heaven forbid, putting them on the back burner and trying to return to them later.
Whatever extra side hustle you had going for you, it symbolizes your desires in life and demonstrates your drive to bring that passion to others.
Make sure your students know how much of an impact they’ve had on your life.
So before moving home after teaching abroad, put a cap on that final blog post, give a proper and respectful goodbye to whichever groups you joined, leave your teaching post better than how you found it, get contact information from the many people you met, write a review of your program while it’s still fresh, and go on that final trip you were planning but hadn’t yet gotten around to.
A sense of completion can go a long way in preparing you for life after TEFL and for providing closure to an intense and productive year.
4. Self-reflect on your goals and accomplishments
Do you remember what you were like when you first stepped off the plane in your new country? Probably yes; and if you’re like most, there may even be some embarrassing reminiscences that you’d rather forget. But those experiences are perfect starting points for self-reflection!
[What to Do After Teaching English Abroad]
Just like the list of things you had to complete before you started your ESL teach abroad position, the list of what to do before you quit teaching abroad should include an exhaustive introspection on what you’ve learned about yourself throughout the experience.
Different from the skill set assessment, this self-guided examination is important for finishing your teaching contract abroad on a positive and thoughtful note.
You’ll gain an appreciation for yourself and for your future self, thereby making the next journey a little bit easier and a lot less scary. And you’ll learn how to talk about yourself in ways that others can relate to and appreciate.
5. Think of others and be kind!
While finishing your teaching contract abroad, think of the effort and work that went into your preparation for the adventure. Then, think of everything that you didn’t do but that others were responsible for.
Make a list of everyone who helped you achieve your goals and exactly how they helped, then flex your wrists and freshen your ink as you prepare to write thank you notes.
Bonus points if you can find cute, local cards on which to write your sentiments—but the most important part remains the expression of gratitude and the personalization that comes from acknowledging people who supported and helped you in your adventure.
Remember to consider others’ feelings—it’s hard to say good bye!
Those on the receiving end will recognize your thoughtfulness and appreciate your gesture of kindness, and may even remember you (and favorably) if something comes across their desk that is up your alley.
Plus, if anyone is heeding this advice and asks you for a recommendation or a skills assessment, you’ll already have something in mind for them!
6. Join an alumni network and get involved
So many ESL teacher abroad positions have grown over the decades, and that means past participants are out there with similar experiences. What better way to get and give advice, consult with others, and create a community than by joining an alumni network!
It IS what to do before you quit teaching abroad, and it ISN’T even that hard. Gather your fellow teachers and make sure to exchange e-mail addresses, or create a Facebook group with everyone’s profiles. (Many programs already have pre-departure groups, so use that information to your advantage.)
Then, reach out! The first step is always the hardest, but once you jump in, the rest are easier. Announce that you’re moving home after teaching abroad to the network and see how many others are doing the same, where they’ll be, and what they’ll get up to. It’ll spark ideas in you, too!
[Now check out 11 Tip to Update Your Resume After Teaching English Abroad!]
Turning the page is easy, but picking up where you left off…not so much
Feel 100% confident in your decision to move to the next chapter.
Finishing your teaching contract abroad and preparing for life after TEFL usually means a return to whatever you were doing before you flew away on the adventure. And let’s face it: It isn’t easy moving home after teaching abroad.
You’ll miss the smells and sounds of the street you lived on, the tastes of the local cuisine, and the daily challenges of being an ESL teacher. The above advice is meant to alleviate those complications and ease the transition, but adaptation (or re-adaptation) is necessarily part of the game.
[Not yet ready to return home but needing a new ESL job abroad? Read what countries need English teachers!]
That’s why it’s important to have a reorientation plan in place to reconnect you to your network. Your friends may have moved away or their free time has shifted, or you’ve since graduated and you’re headed back to your parents’ home.
Either way, you’ll have some adjustments to make and you’ll benefit from keeping that old network connected while also building and developing newer ones.
Here’s a fun game: imagine someone from your ESL teacher job abroad country is about to move to your hometown to teach a foreign language. What advice would you give, where would you tell them to go, or eat, how would you explain the culture and the climate, what would you want them to know? Or think about it this way: you’re a changed person, so why wouldn’t your perspective change as well?
Wherever you’re moving back to, there are bound to be plenty of opportunities for exploration, self-discovery, and side projects that rekindle the feeling you had abroad and reinvigorate your passion. The next discovery or adventure might be right in your own backyard!
Read More Articles About After Your Life Abroad →
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