Teaching Abroad in Myanmar

I moved to Yangon, Myanmar in January 2017 to take my Teaching English to Speakers of a Other Languages (TESOL) course, and then to work for three months for George English Training Centres (GETC - Yes, there were a lot of acronyms...). I was 21, just graduated from university, and had absolutely no prior teaching experience, so I was quite nervous!

From the moment I arrived at the airport, everyone made me feel at home in a very foreign country and provided me with all the help that I asked for. The TESOL course was excellent and even though I had never taught before, by the time I graduated I felt prepared and confident to begin teaching for real!

Before I left the UK, Greenheart and their partner companies in Myanmar had organised my work contract and provided me with all the documents I needed to get started in my new life. The process in Myanmar was a seamless experience and I never felt let down by the companies that Greenheart partnered with in Myanmar.

Life itself in Myanmar was exciting, challenging, rewarding and never boring. The teaching experience was incredibly rewarding and the salary provided me with everything I needed to live in the country. I taught and lived in Yangon, the commercial capital, and quickly made a whole group of great friends, both Myanmar and foreign.

Living and working in Myanmar threw up its own range of challenges, to live in a country undergoing so much change so quickly would never have been any different! However the Myanmar people were so friendly and welcoming that the challenges never became overwhelming.

My time in Myanmar was a truly wonderful experience that I would recommend to anyone with an adventuring spirit. While not perhaps for the fainthearted, the program has helped me grow as a person and I think I grew more as a person in those four months than I had in the previous four years. I had so much fun, so many great moments, and made such great friends that I don't spend a day without thinking how good it would be to be back!