5 Lessons from 40+ Years Overseas

We are grateful for the gift of over four decades of teaching overseas! Remembering what we’ve learned in our past is essential to our future. So, here are five of our biggest takeaways from our work over the past forty-plus years: 

1. It’s Not About Us

This is number one because everything else rests on the foundation of humility. As soon as our work becomes about us, we are doing it for the wrong reasons. It’s not about making ourselves look like the ones with all the answers (we’re not); it’s not about success or renown. It is about understanding and honoring the people and cultures we serve, and it’s about the human-to-human connections between teachers and students and neighbors as they build beautiful cross-cultural communities. As English teachers, we are honored with the opportunity to teach a skill that can open doors for our friends in these communities.

2. Short Term Makes a Big Difference

There are so many ways that short-term trips make a difference! 

• Many long-term teachers went short-term first.
  People who go long term often test the waters of life overseas by going on short-term trips. There is something inspiring about being in a place and meeting real people, and that experience can’t be replicated from this side of the ocean. 
• Short-term trips make their own impact.
  It’s not just about how it leads into the long term. Short-term trips are infusions of energy that spark excitement in students and can expand their view of what their futures can become. Teachers even have stories of hearing from their short-term students years later!
• Short-term trips are life-changing experiences.
  A trip like this is bound to expand your perspective on the world. Experiencing other cultures, meeting people with vastly different life experiences, investing in the lives of others—all of this grows empathy and ignites passion for service. Whether that leads to a life overseas or a new heart for investing in your community at home, it can be a transformative outcome for short-term teachers and their communities.

3. Partnerships Keep Us There

One of our key strategies to stay sustainable in the countries where we work is to partner directly with governments and universities, providing tools to help achieve their goals. Keeping positive relationships with officials and continuing to provide high-quality education helps ensure that we are invited back year after year. It also opens doors for new opportunities. Because we are a known entity with decision makers, we can be among the first on the list for new education programs and university connections.

4. Waiting Isn’t Leaving

ELIC has been around for four decades of world events. We have had teachers overseas for everything from the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 and the SARS outbreak in 2003 to COVID-19. Several times, teachers have had to temporarily leave their countries of service due to world events or safety concerns. Temporarily is the operative word—we have learned from experience how to keep our foot in the door so that when it is possible to return, we are able to continue our work.

5. Education Makes an Impact

ELIC was created because we believed in the power of education to help people improve their lives. And now, with over 40 years behind us, we can see how that idea proved true. One measure is the response of government and university partners who ask for more teachers year after year. Another is the calls, texts, and emails that teachers often receive from students who are excited about what they have been able to do because of their English education. 

The sweetest measure of impact, though, is the long-lasting cross-cultural friendships that our teachers have built in their communities overseas and all of the love and hope that they represent.

After everything we’ve learned teaching overseas so far, we can’t wait to see what the next forty years will teach us!