Todd: So Sarah, you a teacher for the State Department?
Sarah: Yes, right. I was with the English language fellows .
Todd: Oh wow. Where did you ?
Sarah: taught in Mexico.
Todd: Oh, that's great. Wow. So when you teach for the State Department, do they let you anything you want? Do you have to wear a or anything?
Sarah: let you wear anything that is professional. You don't to wear a suit, but you can't wear jeans.
Todd: Okay. Do they let you teach anything you ?
Sarah: No, they don't let you anything you want. You do have a lot of freedom, but they have some requirements. So you have to teach university students beginning English or you might have to teach university students engineering English. You have freedom how you're going to teach those , but they don't let you the subjects.
Todd: Okay. When when you for the US government, do they make you do a lot of paperwork?
Sarah: They do. They do make you do a lot of paperwork. When I for the job, it was the job application I'd ever . They make you out a lot of forms and they make you your references to fill out a lot of forms too. And then when you do to the country, they make you fill out even more forms for the work visa and the residency visa.
Todd: Oh Wow. That sounds harsh.
Sarah: It is. It's really difficult. They do try to you with the forms, but the official rule is that they will only help the employee. I traveled with my husband and three kids. They let me my family, but they didn't help me with the paperwork for my family.
Todd: Oh Wow. So does the government help you get ? For example, do they help you learn the language? Do they help you with moving costs? Do they help you get with the local culture?
Sarah: Some of those are yes and some are no. They don't help you learn the language that is up to you individually. They do help you become acclimated to your town. They with you to your town, they your host institution find you housing. So that's really nice. They help you with the housing, they make your institution you housing. And they let you have some time to get to it before you're required to be working 40 hours a week.
Todd: So worked for a university, you've worked for the US government. you worked for language schools?
Sarah: I have. When I worked in Korea, I worked for an , privately-owned language school and we taught after-school lessons.
Todd: So which, which did you ? Like which ones did you ?
Sarah: Well, my favorite the university job because they let you your own hours. You have to teach the classes, but if you don't have class they let you your lessons from home or whatever time of day that you want to do it. I like that. But when I was for the State Department, they made you work regular 9:00 to 5:00, Monday to Friday hours. They you work those hours.
Sarah: I liked the language school. It was a good job for me at the time, but they also make you work the hours that they need you, which is 2:00 to 7:00 PM, Tuesday Saturday. And those are not the best hours to be , so I didn't like that. But the language school helped me the most. They taught me language, they took me on trips. They really me like a part of the family in a way that the university and the State Department didn't. So that was really a good memory, a good job.
Todd: So if you can the jobs between university working for the US government and a language school, what would you rank one, two, three?
Sarah: Just how you said at university would be the top. The State Department would be very close, very close second, and then the language school would be a little farther, farther down. The was a lot lower. The hours were not very good. I didn't freedom.
Todd: make you work more.
Sarah: Make you work more, yeah.
Todd: Right. Okay. awesome. Thanks.
Sarah: Thanks.