Since I’ve embarked on my adventures here, I have had several curious friends and acquaintances ask me about how I decided to come to Argentina, how I found my program, and basically, where to start if they were to begin a similar journey. I, too, was very confused at the start of this whole process, so I’ll try to share some knowledge and tips here to get you started if you are interested in teaching abroad or pursuing other abroad opportunities for an extended period of time.

1. Know your Objective

Are you looking to travel? Teach? Escape from reality? Challenge yourself? Work in your current industry, but in a foreign city? Break into a new career field? Learn something knew? Generally frolic and go wherever the wind takes you? You could and probably do have more than one answer to that question, but knowing what you are hoping to get out of your experience will help guide you a lot. If you are a free-spirited wanderluster hoping to travel as much as possible and not be tied down in any one place, you might want to think twice before getting an actual job abroad, unless its at a hostel or some other more transient situation. If you are hoping to gain career experience, try to identify specifically what you’d like to learn and weigh that in your choice of job/program and location. If you don’t like kids, don’t choose to teach!

While browsing your options, it can be easy to fall into the mindset that the program or activity you will be doing while in your country of choice is just a means to an end in order to get yourself there. It’s important to realize that while you will surely be experiencing your new country like a big adventure, you will also have to actually work and deal with realities of daily life while you’re there, so it’s important to choose a path to living abroad that you will genuinely enjoy.

2. Consider your Budget/Income Possibilities

Obviously, you will need some savings to travel/live abroad, no matter what you are actually going to be doing. However, different approaches require different budgeting plans, ideas of income, and how you will support yourself.

General Travel/Backpacking

If you have a whole bunch of savings set aside for this purpose, you are good to go, and can explore options such as general backpacking/hostel jumping from place to place, with the expectation of maybe picking up an odd-job here and there. This may sound dubious, but trust me, especially in Latin America, people don’t care so much about “breaking the rules” and you will probably be able to find some sort of part-time work, whether its in a hostel or restaurant or teaching private English lessons.

Teaching

If you are interested in teaching abroad, there are tons of options, and you need to narrow down what works best for you in terms of your goals and your budget. Many programs pay you a small “salary” (often in the range of approximately $700-800 USD per month), but then you are responsible for finding your own housing and living off that stipend plus whatever other savings you want to support yourself on. In many Latin American countries, that amount is enough to pay a modest rent and live frugally, but if you want to travel or go out it’s very likely you will need either a side hustle or savings.

Some programs, like mine, offer you room and board in exchange for your work, but pay you next to nothing, in which case savings or side hustle are also necessary for any expenses beyond the basics.

There are also lots of people who avoid going through a program all together and complete a TEFL course (either online or in their destination) which then helps them search for jobs. This could end up being more lucrative in the long-run if you score an actual job at a local school or language institute, but you also have to consider the stress/your backup plan if you end up being able to land a job because often times, TEFL courses will “assist” you with a job search, but don’t guarantee you’ll get one.

The “flying solo” approach is similar to the TEFL course option, although I’d only recommend this to people who either have already taught abroad in the past, or are very familiar with their destination and have contacts there/a very strong backup plan.

Other Options

There are many alternatives to teaching abroad, such as volunteering, interning, or some other form of work experience, and may allow you to customize the length of time you want to stay in a certain place. The budget you’ll need for these different options varies, but many of them offer housing/food in exchange for volunteer work (such as WWOOFING or various NGO’s).

Some organizations that accept volunteers cover your food and housing, some pay you a small stipend but require you to find your own housing and buy your own food, and others may be purely volunteer based, and offer no payment or benefits. This brings us back again to objective: do you REALLY want to work in a specific area for a specific cause, and have savings with which you could support yourself? Or is reimbursement a pre-requisite to you being able to go? If you look long and far enough, you may be able to find something in between.

Finally, of course, if you are able to get an actual job-job abroad, you will be making a real salary and then your hurdles will have more to do with getting a work visa in your country of employment rather than figuring out how you will feed yourself.

3. Choosing your Destination (General and Specific)

If you are seriously considering moving or traveling abroad for an extended period of time, chances are you have a destination (or few) in mind. Just like in steps 1) and 2), it is important to consider the realities of daily living in a different country and your objective there rather than just focusing on daydreams inspired by Pinterest and postcards.

All places, even beautiful, seemingly other-worldly ones, have risks, annoyances, and cultural differences that will greatly shape your experience when you actually get there. I’m sure you don’t want to move abroad to a miserable place, but it’s important to realize that the way you envision a place may not be 100% accurate.

Is your objective to learn and gain experience or to forget your worries and have a blast? I personally struggled a lot when deciding between teaching in Spain or in Latin America. Having studied abroad in Spain in college, I fell in love with the place and have been daydreaming about returning ever since I left. However, I knew that I would likely learn a lot more and have perhaps a more enriching experience if I went to Latin America. Ultimately, I chose the latter. While I have certainly had moments of being like, “Wow, Spain probably would be a whole lot nicer and more relaxing than what I’m experiencing right now…”, I still think I 100% made the right choice. While living in Argentina has been a lot more gritty and challenging than my time in Spain, I have learned a whole lot more from the experience. My satisfaction with my decision goes back to my original goal, which was to get out of my comfort zone, learn, and grow as a person, and I’m happy to say that I have done just that.