Program Reviews

Travelbub helped to organise a lot of those important details that stress anyone out when they are moving to a new and unfamiliar country. They were always helpful with communication between the school where I was offered a position and myself. The post-move is where Travelbud helps the most as their partner in-country team takes over once you have landed in the country. The post-move included lots of official documentation which can get pretty intense if there is not someone to help out. Overall a great experience.

When I first started thinking about traveling to teach English abroad I was very intimidated. Luckily I found Travelbud and the amazing people there made my experience and preparation so much easier and less stressful than I could have imagined. This is an amazing and life changing experience! It changed my life for the better and all of the reps were super helpful whenever I had questions! Kim especially was always helpful and kind when I needed help! Korea has been an unforgettable experience! Good food, great people, safe area, good accommodation, fair pay. There are also so many amazing places to go and sites to see. I highly recommend trying this if you’re looking for a new experience or life change.

The programme has been very useful in providing everything I needed for my teaching career abroad. They provide excellent customer service, and their employees are some of the kindest people I've ever known. They will actively go out of their way to help with any difficulties, and are very knowledgable about the entire process. Saskia has been incredibly helpful, and has made the whole experience a lot less stressful and straightforward. I would definitely recommend this programme to anyone considering teaching abroad.

I think I had the right idea coming here with little to no expectations. I did not realize how much pressure we had in the States to be or not to be many things on a daily basis. I was fueled by appreciation from the start based on overcoming so many odds as a woman of color doing something this crazy, like moving to another country. I chose Costa Rica based on the support from Travel Bud from the very beginning. I want to take this moment to recognize Kim as a huge part of why I continue to let the Pura Vida lifestyle guide me as I learn myself in the most accepting country of inner peace. Another shout out to Adam for his vulnerability in his journey allowing me to know at that time of my life when I needed clarity, the high mountains on this island would give me the perfect view to do so. I can not tell you all of these perfect things that are amongst the forests' green trees and clear waters, the peculiar creatures that you MUST learn share a space with and the amount of rice and beans you will eat, because sometimes it has not been perfect at all. However every day that I wake up in this small town I feel the spirit of the simple life I was told about and no it is not always ideal to not have one-day Amazon shipping for hair products or CHIPOTLEEE, God do I miss those things, BUT I have never been able to understand myself more than I have all my life. From the small precious moments tucked away in Pura Vida in the classrooms to the solitude with the waves, to the bright smiles of women in the local sodas, or the gentlemen that let you cross the road in these crazy streets or the giggles from your little students when you pronounce some Spanish wrong. It really has brought out the best versions of myself and for that, I get the chance to say I know how to live in gratitude every day because of this experience. If you don't believe me, you'll just honestly have to take a chance and come see for yourself. I promise the country won't disappoint you.

From the first inquiry to now, this program has been incredible. I have felt heard, seen, understood, supported and cared for this entire process. It is not an easy thing to move across the world, but my coordinators, Kim, SJ and Emma have made an unforgettable impact on my life. Their transparency, patience, relatability, reliability and dedication, to me, is worth more than I can even write into words.

When I first came to Korea, on my first day I experienced a medical emergency. They were so attentive and helped me with everything from the taxi to ensuring I submitted medical claims properly.
My best memory so far is wearing a Hanbok. I really enjoyed connecting with other expats living here.

Second, the school they partnered me with has been a wonderful experience. I love my kids dearly and I have been able to see them grow not only in their academics but socially as well.

I can't thank you enough for helping my dream come true ❤️.
감사합니다~
🇨🇦🇰🇷

My experiences teaching and living abroad in Thailand through the TravelBud agency are continuing to shape who I am with each day! I have been working and living here since July 2023, am still here until at least March 2024, and would want to be no where else in this world. Want a sure way to test your grit, expand your mind, and build your mental capacity to understand and appreciate cultural differences? Go teach and live abroad!

I embarked on my journey with the TravelBud agency. They seem to only hire people who have had experiences living and working abroad, which is very helpful. My support manager, Kim (South Africa), has been nothing but a true gem for me in my experience. As black women, our experiences through life abroad are VERY different from those of other races. It continues to be comforting that I have Kim to relate to as I tackle the day-to-day challenges that arise. We have developed a life-long connection thanks to Travel Bud!

Through this agency, I was connected to an “on-site” company. I’m guaranteed a job placement, although job security in Thailand is very loose. Schools have the liberty to hire and fire at will! The in country partner has done a beautiful job of leading the hiring process, handling logistics, and keeping up with visa needs. The partner also assists with housing arrangements—- paid through your monthly salary. Most schools pay you a salary in which you can afford to live generously off of. It’s a pretty solid program that’s being run, although I do question the legality of hiring teachers and allowing them to work before they receive official work permits (perhaps some under the table actions happening—- *wink* *wink*).

Please understand that living and working abroad is not all of what it may be cracked up to be. Agencies will show you ALL of the good in what could come with this type of lifestyle, for there is in fact much good in these experiences. However, you must be willing to do a lot of introspective work in order to truly thrive in this type of environment. There will be ups and downs. If you develop the skills needed to turn the “downs” into “ups”, however, you’re sure to have a life-changing experience. You won’t know what it’s like until you’re in your new city, in your new school, and living out the truth of what it is to be abroad. I can honestly say, however, that I’ve received ample support through everything.

If teaching and living abroad sounds like something you’d be into (even if there’s just a small ounce of curiosity), I say go for it!

As for the Polish program for which the local people have been very friendly and takes the time to communicate with me, but you have to also understand that people need to know you, before they open up to you more. Do feel safe and comfortable with my surroundings. Have a great manager to work for and with lots of help and support. Would only recommend people who enjoy to live and work in small towns for a more quiet life and doesn't get easily bored, not recommended for people who only love living in big cities or get bored easily.

I started my journey with TravelBud around March 2022, this was the preliminary stages where I was feeling quite unsure about the idea of moving across the world to start a new career. However, I am so glad I made the leap! It has been the most rewarding experience so far, so much so that I decided to extend my posting for an additional 6 months. That's not to say that it has always been perfect, though. To be fair, the job placement I was given was a lot more advanced than what the TESOL course covered - this was delivered outside of TravelBud so not their fault - but I have enjoyed the challenge. Also, the Thai education system is wonderful but sometimes a little bit disorganised in my experience, so if you're like me and like to be prepared for everything, you do have to learn to live by the Thai phrase 'sabai sabai' (chill out/take it easy). Living in Thailand is a really amazing experience, though, and I recommend it to everyone!

The team at TravelBud was amazing. In particular, Aubrey, who answered every single one of my questions so quickly and with so much detail, that I was continually reassured every step of the way. Choosing to do this experience through TravelBud makes it almost seamless. The process was transparent and I fully trusted Aubrey and her team, which meant that by the time I arrived in Thailand most (if not all) of my documents were in order and I was guaranteed a placement in a school before I had even entered the country, which was amazing. To add, I was traveling with my boyfriend, who also has high praise for TravelBud and Aubrey's customer service, and we were both placed in the same area and in the same school which made the transition much smoother when starting in a new country, city, language, culture, job, etc!

To summarise, if you want to make the move to become a teacher abroad, I would recommend going via TravelBud, especially if it's your first time. It really is like having someone to hold your hand through all of the hard bits - but in the best way!

Thank you, Aubrey, and thank you TravelBud team :)

I truly enjoy teaching here in South Korea. There have been many ups and many downs in this process, but Travel but really helped me by always being there to answer my questions and listen to me when I had any concerns. With Travlebud, they not only helped me with planning my trip steps, but also putting me in contact with some amazing people from around the world. The staff workers are so kind and they told me the truth of what I would face, both pretty and ugly truth. I felt a lot more safe and secure using this program.

I can be a bit of a scaredy cat when it comes to rollercoasters, but I went on despite the highs and lows and got off without any regrets. Going abroad to work in South Korea was definitely a memorable experience with a balance of positive and negative moments.

*I will start with the negative moments first because they never outweighed the good times and I will be completely honest about it because I feel people paint a very fantasized version of going abroad*

Prior to leaving, although the application process took a bit longer than expected, it was pretty straightforward! It was a stressful time, but from what I can recall it was the easy part of this whole program. The travelbud/gooverseas peeps were so supportive and helpful! The only thing that hurt was the cost of all the paperwork )':

I can only recall two rough times I had throughout the whole year, the rest of the bad were very minuscule to me. I originally had been placed in Daejeon, but a few days before my departure, I was relocated to Cheonju, which made things trickier for me because I had already done so much research about Daejeon. I wish that was handled better with enough time as well. The first night in SK was the most difficult. Many things could have been prevented if it wasn't for unpreparedness because 1) I was alone, 2) My Korean was still rough 3) I had no sim-card which meant no service and 4) I had no proper directions to get to my apartment. Although that was the case, the employees were very patient with me and some would direct me to my next location. There was also wi-fi practically everywhere and was able to contact my director and recruiters. I do want to say that on my way to my apt during one of my train transfers, there was staff helping people board while lifting their luggage; I don't know what happened for my case, but one of the helpers yanked me down the train steps and started angrily yelling at me. I still don't know why that happened, but it left me really shaken. At that moment I questioned whether I should have come to Korea because it was only the first night and it was already BAD. Glad I stuck it out in the end! (:

Regarding what work was like, it honestly still feels so surreal! A fever dream. My school was completely new, and by new, I mean everyone working for the school showed up on the first day only to see it was still sort of under construction. I find it funny because I didn't know what to expect and it sure would have never been that. The first month just consisted of cleaning, setting up equipment, and preparing for opening day. Since the school was new, all the higher-ups only focused on attracting parents so they can enroll their kids and as of result, none of us teachers had proper training. Me, my coworkers, and our co-teachers (Korean teachers) were teaching blindly, but the best that we could for our students. It was a very "here's the teaching materials, here's your schedule, figure it out on your own." We had no idea what any of the subjects we were teaching, let alone how they wanted us to approach it or what the goal was. For some reason, I thought that by being an English Teacher, it meant that I would be teaching English as an elective, but it was actually teaching all subjects in English. I wasn't aware that I had to be teaching 1st graders 5th grade level science. Luckily my 5-6 year olds new a bit of English, so teaching and communicating with them was never an issue. If there were times I didn't understand, my co-teacher would help out, so the assistance was great! The second most difficult time I had was when my director placed me with the youngest class for the new school term. They were 4 turning 5 year olds (international age) and they came in not knowing any English. I couldn't even teach and was frustrated because it felt more like daycare. The most important thing during that time wasn't for them to learn English, it was really about building connections with each one of them. Once they finally got used to the class routine and opened up, it made teaching a lot easier. Although teaching was the main point of this program, I realized the most significant thing about teaching was forming bonds with your students. Once you and your class form that bond, you can understand the strengths and weaknesses in yourself and your students better. This helped my actual teaching because I was able to focus on areas that needed more improvement while reinforcing the strengths. I got so attached that I still miss them now because I grew together with my students and witnessed their improvements.

To be completely honest, my school was very disorganized and mismanaged because of my director(s). The horrors you hear about hagwons felt like my school hit all the marks and ranked them all. Contracts were broken, pay was at risk, rumors spread, etc...There were so many lies and trouble caused by management + higher-ups which led many people to quit. My school didn't make a one-year mark and had about four different directors, three supervisors, and many co-teachers coming in and out. I kid you not, there was always a new problem each month, but Korea's work style is very fast-paced we just had to continue on like nothing. At one point, I became unphased that work didn't seem that bad anymore because I was alongside my then co-workers now friends. I think because it was a collective struggle, no one was going through all the mess alone, and that made things easier for all of us. Which now leads me to the good parts:

KOREA WAS SO MUCH FUN! Despite what I went through at my school, I am so thankful that I was placed there, especially at a school with more than one foreign teacher, and fortunate that I clicked with not only them but the Korean teachers as well. We took advantage of every weekend to explore and travel. I think if I was the only foreign teacher, Korea would feel a lot lonelier. Making friends can be tricky because some people already have their friend groups formed while others are struggling to find people they can vibe with. I used facebook, bumble bff, and travel bud's interactive teachers map to reach out to people. It's either a hit or miss, sometimes you hang out with a person once, and with others they instantly become family. There are many opportunities on facebook group pages offering meet-ups that can lead to potential friendships. At least for my experience, I'm grateful that my coworkers became my friends.

Getting the jist of traveling around was super easy! All it took was one try to understand it all (thanks to naver maps, kakaotaxi, ktx app, bus shuttle app, and papago) and the tickets were also cheap! Also if you get shy speaking or practicing your Korean, almost every shop and station had a kiosk machine which made it simple to buy tickets or food. Convenience stores were the best ever! Hungry at 3am? Trip to GS! and the best part was that they were everywhere. When it came to shopping, I had to resist wanting everything. It was all so appealing to the eye. I will warn anyone who's on the bigger side that it's a lot more difficult to shop because every clothing store seemed to only carry small sizes.... even the so-called "free size" would fit too small on me. There were some stores dedicated to bigger sizes, the only thing was that most of these were in Seoul (or any bigger city that wasn't Cheongju).

Everyone was so friendly and kind too, the locals would make sure to help you despite the language barrier. There was a day me and a friend were starving, but it seemed like all the restaurants were closed, until an ajusshi insisted on helping us find somewhere to eat to the point where he walked us to a food court (all communication done was through gestures and broken Korean). Or another time when I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled out. Since I grew close with the Korean teachers, they were always more than willing to set up important appointments for me. It was figuring out the location and building that I had to do. The orthodontist did his best to get his message across to me so I could understand my dental procedure. I did feel alone during this moment, but one of the dental assistants stayed with me throughout the whole process while reassuring me everything was going to be okay. Sometimes I would walk with friends and the locals will wave at us. Korea is very welcoming and open to anyone. I never once encountered any discrimination of any sort. Every person I met was super kind and accommodating.

One of the things I liked about Korea was the safety. Being a woman, there are moments I feel inferior, such as traveling alone, walking by men...I can't help but feel scared. In Korea, I never felt that way. I was placed in the outskirts of Cheongju which meant at night, it would get really dark, quiet, and empty.... my fear should have heightened but nope! I would go on 10pm walks and never once felt afraid. I could travel to a different city and feel confident on my own. I think because I had already traveled miles away from home on my own, there was nothing to be afraid of and everything I had to overcome was possible (does not mean I let my guard down). I always went out with friends, but one of my favorite memories was exploring Gyeongju on my own. I had one goal: See Bulguksa Temple. I didn't plan for anything else such as where I was going to eat, or what other sites to explore, nor did I arrange a timeline for that day. I really enjoyed that about Korea, it felt as if everything was accessible and convenient to do despite the spontaneity. It was relieving to know I didn't need to stress about any of that and could easily figure it out on the spot when the time came. I will also never forget bike riding in Ulsan OR running to the top of a mountain to get to the cable cars before they closed in Mokpo OR going to a free concert on a workday, but having to walk miles back home on a rainy day because there were no taxis available OR being exhausted in hot Jeju OR going to Gwanju just to see a penguin village OR laughing so much at work because of my friends and students OR getting covid from one of your students because your director didn't have anyone take safety protocols to prevent it OR photobooth hopping OR going ziplining with the school's team leader that quit because they're your friend now OR watching Doctor Strange at 1am in Daegu...and the list goes on!....but it only means that anything can happen!

I was only there for a year and I got to see almost all of Korea. All the good and the bad of it, but mostly good of course! I could still go on and on because this isn't even half of everything I experienced, it was a "short" summary of my time there. Overall living-wise, Korea was a great place to go to for this program. It was the first time I felt like I lived my life and it was such a great feeling. I grew more confident, independent, and adaptable. I would recommend this program to anyone willing to get out of their comfort zone and take a risk! It is life-changing for the better and would do it again in a heartbeat!