Ready to start teaching English online?
Teach with VIPKidThis week, we spoke to teacher Caroline. She teaches in Cairo, Egypt.
Tell us a bit about where you teach
I am currently teaching from Cairo, Egypt! I have been living in Cairo for over two years with my Egyptian partner. I have been spending my summers in Egypt since 2013, so I was familiar with the area before I made the big move! I love being able to travel around the different amazing places in Egypt while teaching for VIPKID! I am a huge fan of warm weather and no humidity, so Egypt is the perfect place. One of my favorite things about Cairo is how friendly the people are, but my absolute favorite thing is that they deliver anything at any time!
How did you get started as a VIPKid teacher?
I started teaching for VIPKID in May of 2018, after deciding to leave my Kindergarten Montessori teaching position to pursue my Masters in International Education Development! I have been teaching full time, seven days a week with VIPKID for the past three months, and I am loving every second!
What do you love most about your classroom?
I am currently renting an apartment with a built-in office space, which is amazing! It makes creating my classroom that much easier and organized! Whenever I teach from other locations in Egypt I always make sure to bring my monkey puppet, the children love him!
What’s one thing the world should know about Cairo?
Living in Egypt is a new experience every day! Coming to Egypt I was aware that the language barrier would be hard, but the people here are so kind and helpful, it has never been a huge problem. I have been able to learn so much Arabic in my time here, and I am so thankful for the opportunity. Egypt has some of the most beautiful places in the world between the seas and the ancient wonders. Egypt has the ability to take my breath away every day, I always feel like there’s something new to do! Moving to the Middle East was daunting at first, but the longer I’ve been here the more I fall in love with it.
Do you have any advice for others who want to teach from abroad?
Teaching from abroad is amazing! I am able to go outside my house and experience new things everyday while working for VIPKid. I often travel for the weekends to new locations within Egypt, or go to the beach for a week and bring VIPKid along with me.
I found that diving right into a new culture was much easier than I was expecting it to be, and made me a much stronger and independent person!
My MAJOR advice is to find out if there are any other VIPKid teachers in the area you are looking to travel to, they always are so helpful to newbies and provide a lot of assistance! Definitely find out about your accommodations and internet prior to traveling, especially with the more “remote” places like Egypt. It will save you a lot of stress and hassle once you arrive, and allow you to start teaching that much faster.
