Teaching in the Middle East: Your first week survival guide
- SA-Recruitment
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
If you've already Googled "Can I survive 45°C?" or wondered why your apartment seems to collect sand despite all the windows being closed... you're in exactly the same position as hundreds of teachers before you.
Welcome to teaching in the Middle East...you've made it!
After months of interviews, paperwork, document attestations, visa applications, frantic packing and emotional goodbyes at the airport, you've finally arrived in the Middle East.
Congratulations.
Your apartment might not feel quite like home. It's probably hotter than you imagined, even though everyone warned you it would be. You're trying to remember the names of twenty new colleagues, your supermarket has brands you've never seen before and your phone has suddenly become best friends with Google Translate.
If you've spent the first day or two wondering whether everyone else seems to be coping better than you are, we have some reassuring news.
They're not.
Every August we watch hundreds of teachers begin exactly the same journey, and almost without exception they all experience the same mixture of excitement, exhaustion, uncertainty and the occasional moment of wondering, "What on earth have I done?"
The good news?
Almost all of those feelings disappear far sooner than you think.
Your first few days are supposed to feel unfamiliar
One of the biggest mistakes new international teachers make is expecting themselves to feel settled within a couple of days.
Think about it for a moment.
You've probably moved to a country you've never lived in before. You're learning a new school, a new city, a different culture and, in many cases, a different pace of life. If you've come from a small South African town, you may suddenly find yourself living in a city of several million people where traffic never really seems to stop and life carries on well into the evening.
That takes time to adjust to.
Please don't put pressure on yourself to have everything worked out immediately.
You don't need to know where the best coffee shop is yet.
You don't need to know every shortcut to school.
You don't even need to know which supermarket you'll eventually decide is your favourite.
Those things come naturally over the next few weeks.
Right now, your job is simply to settle in.
Your apartment doesn't need to be perfect
Let's talk about accommodation because, without fail, this is one of the subjects we hear about every August.
"My apartment is dusty."
"The kitchen isn't quite what I expected."
"There's sand on the balcony."
Well...
You're living in the desert.
There really is going to be sand.
Our advice is simple.
Buy a few cleaning products, unpack your suitcases, put on some music and spend an hour making the apartment your own. Wipe down the surfaces, organise your cupboards, buy a few groceries and perhaps even a plant if that's your thing.
It's amazing how quickly an unfamiliar apartment starts feeling like home once you've added your own touches.
Remember, this isn't a hotel room.
It's your home.
Treat it like one.
Everything seems louder than you're used to
If you've moved from a smaller town or quieter suburb, one of the first things you'll probably notice is just how much is happening around you.
There's traffic at almost every hour of the day, construction taking place somewhere nearby, air conditioning units humming away, the call to prayer echoing across the city and, yes, sometimes even the birds seem to have more to say than the ones back home.
One year we genuinely had a teacher message us because the birds outside her apartment were so noisy that she thought something must be wrong.
Nothing was wrong.
The birds were simply doing what birds do.
The point is that, during your first few days, your senses are on high alert. Every sound, every smell and every new experience feels unfamiliar because your brain is trying to process an enormous amount of new information all at once.
The reassuring news is that this doesn't last.
Within a couple of weeks you'll barely notice most of it. The traffic becomes background noise, you'll stop hearing the air conditioning, and you'll probably smile when you remember that the birds once kept you awake at night.
It's simply part of settling into a completely different environment.
Yes... it really is that hot
If you've arrived in August, there's one thing we can almost guarantee you've said already:
"I knew it was going to be hot... but I wasn't expecting this."
The Middle East in August isn't shy about introducing itself. Walking outside can genuinely feel like opening the oven door, and for the first few days you'll probably find yourself moving from one air-conditioned building to another wondering how anyone survives outdoors.
The reassuring news is that you do adapt.
Schools, shopping malls, restaurants, taxis and apartments are all heavily air-conditioned, and before long you'll instinctively carry a bottle of water everywhere you go. A few weeks from now you'll probably find yourself saying, "Today isn't too bad," while it's still well over 35 degrees.
Until then, drink plenty of water, don't underestimate the heat and remember that your body is adjusting to a completely different climate.
Google Translate is about to become your new best friend
Although English is widely spoken across much of the Middle East, there will still be plenty of moments when technology comes to the rescue.
Perhaps you're trying to work out which washing powder to buy, reading food labels in the supermarket or attempting to explain to maintenance that your washing machine has decided not to cooperate.
Google Translate suddenly becomes one of the most useful apps on your phone.
Don't be embarrassed to use it. Thousands of expatriates rely on it every day, and it's all part of learning to navigate a new country. Before long you'll also start recognising familiar products, discovering your favourite supermarket and learning a few Arabic words along the way.
Teaching in the Middle East: your first week at school
No matter how experienced you are, your first few days at school can feel like information overload.
New colleagues.
New students.
New systems.
New expectations.
New acronyms that everyone else seems to understand except you.
It's easy to look around the staffroom and assume everyone else knows exactly what they're doing.
The reality is that every single teacher in that school once had their own first day, and they almost certainly felt exactly the same.
Give yourself permission to ask questions, write everything down and accept that you won't remember every name or every procedure immediately. Nobody expects you to know everything during your first week, and most schools understand that settling in takes time.
From our experience, the teachers who settle most successfully aren't necessarily the ones who know the most on day one. They're the ones who stay curious, ask for help when they need it and give themselves permission to learn.
From our experience... Every August we receive messages from teachers saying things like: "I don't know where anything is." "Everything feels so different." "I think I've made a mistake." Those same teachers are often the ones sending us photos a few weeks later of beach trips, brunches with new colleagues and weekends exploring their new city. The first week is almost never an accurate reflection of what life will look like a month later.
Give yourself permission to miss home
One of the biggest myths about moving overseas is that if you've made the right decision, you shouldn't miss home.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Missing your family, your friends or even your favourite coffee shop back in South Africa doesn't mean you've made a mistake. It simply means you've left behind people, places and routines that were important to you.
Allow yourself time to adjust.
Call home when you need to, but also make an effort to say yes when colleagues invite you out for coffee or dinner. Those early conversations often become the friendships that define your time overseas.
Every teacher settles at a different pace, so try not to compare your journey with anyone else's.
Before you know it...
It's funny how quickly things change.
The supermarket that felt overwhelming suddenly becomes familiar.
You'll stop needing Google Translate quite so often.
Your apartment will start feeling like home, you'll know the quickest route to school and you'll have favourite places to eat, shop and relax.
Most importantly, you'll begin to realise that the feelings of uncertainty you experienced during those first few days have quietly disappeared.
Every year we watch new teachers arrive feeling excited, nervous and occasionally overwhelmed. A few months later they're the very people welcoming the next group of arrivals and reassuring them that everything they're experiencing is completely normal.
So if you're reading this during your first week in the Middle East, take a deep breath.
Be patient with yourself.
Laugh at the little surprises.
Celebrate the small victories.
And remember that every experienced international teacher once stood exactly where you are now.
Welcome to the Middle East. We have a feeling you're going to love the adventure.
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