My husband and I are both American and we spent twelve years teaching abroad in American schools. We are both certified, professional teachers. We spent two years in Egypt, then seven years in Ethiopia (our twins were born our third year there). We moved to Taiwan for two years, then spent one more year in Malaysia before moving back to the USA. We got our jobs at job fairs in the US in Feb/Mar.

Switzerland - an agency arranged to place me for 3 months working as a waitress in a small Pension. Saved enough money to not have to work for the next 6 months.

an irishman living and working in oz right now. having a ball!

Korea - currently working on 3 years as an ESL teacher, love it, great savings, little vacation time to travel though but you can make time in between 1 year contracts.

Scotland - worked for 6 months as a nanny, good for soaking up the culture.

My (now) wife and I worked for a couple of years in Gwangju, Korea as teachers — and during that time travelled China, Southeast Asia and India. We're now planning a RTW to start in the summer of 2010.

I credit our experience overseas with opening up our minds to the possibility of long-tem travel.

Worked as a civilian for the American army in Berlin, Germany in 92-94 -- bartended and substitute taught and lifeguarded and swim-instructed and served in a Army Reserve unit in Berlin and Nuremberg.

Taught english in Krakow, Poland for Prolog Skola, a private school and was paid in hourly wages in 1995. Found the job by visiting every school in town and was hired on the strength of volunteer-tutoring ESL for a community college back here in Oregon and my work record as a sub in Berlin.

Taught (mostly business) english in Leipzig, Germany for a the American Language Institute, a private firm, in 1995-97, and was paid hourly wages. Found the job on a tip from my girlfriend who had friends who had formerly taught there and because the school had just recently gotten a large contract and needed teachers FAST. Otherwise, my inability to explain grammar in German would have been a dealbreaker.

It started with a US job I had and I got to travel abroad on business for the first time...wow, it opened my eyes to the world. I tried to work with my company in Switzerland--my company couldn't get the visa for me. I tried the B school way to get into Switzerland--the school didn't accept me. So in 1987 I packed a suitcase and took $5000 and went to Czechoslovakia, which was A LOT cheaper gateway into Europe than Switzerland. I ended up staying 3 years--at first freelance writing for the English-language paper, acting as a go-between/facilitator for business people in the country ($100 per day under the table) and finally for a Czech ad agency with a visa.

I also worked in Japan teaching English for two years in the late 90s with my now-husband. Wow, that was 10 years ago! It doesn't seem so long ago. I got hired in the US with AEON. We also did a little voice-over work for ESL audio tapes at $50/hour. It was great while it lasted but I was ready to leave Japan.

Now we are getting ready to ditch our careers, at least temporarily but maybe forever, and starting a new adventure January 2010...we are ready for a big change! Don't know where it will happen or what we'll be doing but this threat has given me a bunch of ideas!

my dad is an expat and i have to say living abroad definitely opened up my mind to travelling. we've lived in china for several years now and there's still so much more i haven't seen yet.

Another English teacher here, checking in from Sunny South Korea.

Another one who has worked as an English teacher. In my case it was a year in Japan, specifically Shimizu in Shizuoka Prefecture.

Thoroughly recommended.

where? Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Mexico
what you did? worked under the table, studied and worked under the table, worked legally (ESL), worked legally (ESL), worked legally (telecommuting, attorney consultant)
how you were paid/visa issues? (legally, in kind/in exchange for room and board, on a student exchange visa like bunac) cash n/a, student visa (enrolled directly), E-2 visa, tourist visa, tourist visa
how you came upon this job? feet on ground, ditto, Internet, Internet, networking