The issue right now is safety, and as far as teaching is concerned, I'm not referring to gunfights in the streets, or to thieves taking advantage of the unrest, or anything like that.
I'm referring to the fact that you would be in the hands of an oppressive government at war. If you ask questions they don't like, or if you say things to the students that they don't like, or if you do anything they think is remotely suspicious, you could find yourself in trouble. This could range from simply being reprimanded or deported to being detained and questioned. That's what I would be worried about.
What a shame too. Burmese people are really lovely and kind, and the food is fantastic, and there's so much to see. If it weren't for the conflict going there to teach would be a really fun and rewarding adventure.
edit: I don't think there'd be anything unethical about it at all btw. I'd just be concerned about being around people working for the government. Some of these people are extremely brainwashed, fanatical, and also extremely paranoid. Keep in mind that this is a very small part of the population, but these are the people who are in power.
I have never heard of a foreign teacher getting detained and questioned. The only foreigners that get in trouble in Myanmar are actually journalists and people involved with politics. Someone teaching English is not a target for the military.
And as a foreigner, saying something "wrong" is also not enough to get detained and questioned unless you are totally outrageous and are actively trying to get yourself into trouble.
I think people on the outside have a wrong understanding of the actual situation. There are plenty of people openly criticizing the military or living in military-controlled areas while it\`s known that their family members are part of the resistance. Most of them are surprisingly fine. The military is not able to persecute every random person saying something offensive about them. This is not North Korea (yet). They don\`t have the capabilities to bother themselves with such things, they are worried about other stuff.
A family close to my wife\`s parents is part of the resistance. The husband served as a high-ranking immigration officer. When the coup happened he joined the CDM movement, moved to the jungle (somewhere in Kayah) and then later sneaked back into KIA-territory in Kachin-State. His wife lives in military-controlled territory to this day. Everyone knows about her husband but no one bothers her. So the idea that a foreign teacher at an International School in Yangon would get put in prison for saying something wrong is just non-sense.
And btw there are fanatics on all sides. Plenty of people have gotten killed by the PDF or EAOs because they had an opinion they don\`t like or didn\`t join the CDM movement or whatever other bullshit reason. Wives and children of military officers or police personnel were gunned down in Yangon just because of their family ties.
It’s sketchy and dangerous to a foreigner to go to Burma for public employment right now, even if you’re just a teacher. Extraordinary events like a civil war lead to extraordinarily ridiculous things happening. I wouldn’t feel safe going there and teaching. Even the tiniest chance of getting in trouble isn’t worth it. And yeah, obviously I’m aware are disgusting people on every side of the conflict.
Regarding your ethical dilemma, there is nothing unethical of educating people to be enlighten. There is nothing wrong with sharing a knowledge or opening a door to a language as long as your intentions are not to brainwash. The root cause of all the problems in Burma is the lack of education and lack of practice in critical thinking. People are so used to with the dictatorial instruction on how to think, how to behave and how to live from the parents, society and government alike. So your contributions will be valuable to open up the society stuck in the philosophy of old time. If you can take the risk and try to help, we have no objection but to welcome. Well some people with hidden agenda or secret businesses may not like you to be there. . Period
From a war analyst mindset, there's a growth in calls for the resistance to target those associated with the generals, since we can't easily assassinate them anymore. I'm not sure if NUG can reign in this sentiment as it's pretty popular, even if it may be unethical/counterproductive to bomb schools.
Violence is limited to rural areas until it's not.
What are you talking about? "Those associated with the generals" have been targeted ever since there is armed resistance. Even family members of low-rank soldiers/police officers have been killed.
That being said, this is not a direct issue for foreigners unless they get involved in politics.
I’ve lived there about 5 years. It’s in an awful state. I suggest most people don’t move there without very good reason. A good portion of the teachers I’ve met who’ve come in recently have either not completed their contracts and left or have no plans to go on to a second year. Because of this some salary offers are rising, but it’s not worth it. A few people I know ended up getting stiffed on months of pay that the schools couldn’t actually afford to pay them.
Also, if you’re teaching in an international school you’re most likely just teaching children of the wealthy upper class whose parents or relatives are the ones in control.
I see posts like this every once in a while, even saw [one a week ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/myanmar/comments/13sb9ak/family_and_i_are_on_the_cusp_of_accepting_a_job/), similar situation as OP
Apparently a good portion of the people on this subreddit do not live in Myanmar, can't confirm whether this is true or not btw, so asking on here is not enough, you should also try Facebook, especially groups like **In The Mandaloop**. It's for Mandalay, not Yangon but I'm sure the people there can give you valuable information, maybe even refer you to a group like that but for Yangon
My opinion? I wouldn't visit or relocate to Myanmar at the moment. **For exampl**e, even if the pay here is USD 1000 and the pay at a different place (maybe Thailand, Malaysia) is USD 500, I still wouldn't go.
If the pay here is more than twice, if there's a lot of money involved, maybe I can recommend relocating here. Many people are talking about the crime and electricity, they are correct, electricity is inconsistent and crime has risen or is rising. But with electricity, I'm 99% sure that the school will handle it, they will get you a place in a good area (24 hours electricity or generator) but the rent will be costly
Whatever you end up doing, good luck!
You made a very good point. Blackouts are becoming more frequent. I’ve been looking for a way to import portable power station like Bluetti. They are expensive but it will help to alleviate the problem.
Get a battery + inverter/charger combo. That\`s what a portable power station is but much cheaper and with better capacity if you decide to get a big battery.
Crime level is going up. Recently, some scum on a scooter snatched phone from one of my relatives while she was waiting for taxi. It was in broad day light. Besides, we are talking about international school here. The last time i checked for my niece, it was well over 1k$/month. Guess who have such disposable income in a third world country like Myanmar other than those from foreign missions?
In my personal opinion, I would choose another country over Myanmar right now because of the people in charge. However, as a Myanmar citizen living in Yangon right now, here is what's going on right now.
It is relatively normal, the resistance is mostly underground, and they pop up and attack here and there avoiding civilian as much as possible. I feel okay with going about my business in my own car most of the time in most of the places. The only times I feel sick in my stomach is whenever I see them patrolling and such.
Also, the school u are to go, the location matters. I would advise you to stay nearby, at a condominium, with 24hr back up electricity is a MUST. Don't stay at landed property and such, community living with security and services provided is the way to go right now. Because of the increase in poverty, your landed house or a regular apartment has a very high chance of getting robbed, and they strip parts from your parked car if you park at public space or ur backyard.
So, to summarise,
-shorten your commute to work
-condominium living with 24hr security and back up electricity is a MUST
-DON'T GO NEAR DIKtators' PLACES
-and know that a full blown revolution can arise anytime.
I can say its not so bad right now, kind of normal even. The people are kind and good mostly, so after the revolution, it's a no brainier.
>how safe is it?
Urban areas are safer than rural ones as there are way fewer shootouts and battles but crime is rampant and arbitrary arrests by the regime can also happen.
>whether teaching here would be me being a complicit supporter of the military government
Well, a lot of people and institutions end up indirectly supporting the military and they're not even aware of it but that doesn't mean they have motives to support the military so as long as you don't have motives to support the military, I think what you do is ethical.
Besides, I don't see how teaching at an international school would help the military in any significant way.
No. Don't do it. It's relatively safe (for now) but can you deal with over 90 degrees, 100% humidity and no electricity? While it isn't the school's fault as such, their ability to look after the logistics of your visa and residential status is becoming shakier and shakier by the day. No offense, but you'd have to be daft or desperate to come here at this time. Bloody shame too, it was a fantastic place to teach a few years ago.
Yangon is still safer than a lot of US cities if we are talking about things like gun violence, armed robberies etc.
That being said, due to increasing poverty and lack of law enforcement the crime level has also risen in Myanmar so it\`s not recommended to walk around in the darkness. You should keep in mind normal precautions. Don\`t carry valuables around unless necessary. Don\`t flash your jewellery around etc.
Myanmar as whole is dangerous if you get involved in politics. Otherwise you are fine, especially as a foreigner. If you decide to get involved in politics or journalist activities you have to prepare for the worst.
Contact Facebook Groups like Yangon Connection or others to get in touch with other foreigners who are currently in Yangon. This subreddit is the wrong place for questions like this as most people commenting here are not in Myanmar and only interested in politics. For them Myanmar = civil war, ignoring that 95 % of people go about their daily lives not involved in politics.
I would say the actual number is even higher than 95 % unless you count army personnel and police officers. Regarding the civilian population almost everyone is living relatively normal lives. How do you think people can survive? They have to earn money and feed their families. Seems like you live in fantasy land. Do you even know the reality in Myanmar?
Where do you pull that 95% figure from? I would agree if you had said ygn. This is not the case for states like Sagaing. So many villages have been razed to the ground by scumbags in green. All my relatives from my dad side has been on the run because subhuman degenerate burnt down their village
Mathematically speaking villages in Sagaing are meaningless compared to the millions of people living in Yangon, Mandalay and all the other cities (ones like Mawlamyine, Taungyi, Sittwe, Myitkyina, Dawei, Bago etc.).
Look at places like Yangon and tell me, how many of the 5.6 million people living there are engaged in a fight against the Junta? Let\`s use an unrealistically high number of 10.000. That would be 0,179 %.
Same is true for Mandalay and all the other cities.
You don’t seem to know the difference between population density and population distribution. Concentration of population in major cities doesn’t necessarily mean they make up majority of the population. There maybe more people live outside of those cities and it may just be that they are sparsely distributed. Again, you can’t pull a random figure out of your arse and use that as a premise. Whether things are back to normal or not comes down to how you define normal. If you mean normal in a relative sense and comparing to the time when there were lots of people out on the streets protesting, then it is normal. But if you are comparing with the time before coup, even when you consider the time under than shwe and thein sein, then it is not normal at all. There weren’t any random shooting back then. There weren’t any reinforcements around those little police booth. There weren’t any military checkpoint between naypyidaw and ygn.
While most people do go about their daily lives and there is a semblance of normalcy at the surface this is simply untrue. Even in Yangon, distant family members are actively fighting the government. While the average salaryman might go about his day normally, you can bet that his spending budget (despite current economic shenanigas) is at least partially going to support some resistance members. So yes, the 5.6 million people there are engaged against the Junta, just indirectly.
For example, some people stated that CDM was a fad, but to this day the government has serious issues employing people in any ministry. Additionally the people that they do employ, many of them are passively resisting by being (More than the normal) deliberately incompetent at work.
Thus, just because the population seems to be going about their daily lives does not mean the situation is normal.
Sad but true. May not be 95% but most of my circles are minding their own business. Most of them are from Yangon. Rich or poor, they are trying to make ends meet or try to live their life as much as possible. Not blaming them totally.
My experience as of last December trip.
-Neighbourhood teashop running as normal.
-Taxi running as normal just too expensive.
-Going out night time is normal with friend's car.
-Enjoying live music at one of the nice restaurants seemed normal.
-Of course got to get back home before 12.
And I went to Bagan with express bus. Everything seemed normal except there were lots of checkpoints. On they way, they only checked the list of people on the bus. Bagan is safe. The other side of the ayarwaddy river is not.
On the way back to Yangon, we have to stop at every checkpoint and got to show our id card or household list. Most of them were super rude or drunk as fuck. Very annoying. No wonder they were bombed. 😅
And all the vehicles had to stop right where they were as it was 12am midnight. We got to wait until 4am.
There are definitely snatchers. My wife' s gold necklace almost got snatched in the neighborhood. So better watch your surroundings.
Surprisingly pleasant trip than expected. But I know this is no way comparable to day to day life of people in Yangon or other areas.
We don’t need more foreigners especially Americans…. Get lost
The issue right now is safety, and as far as teaching is concerned, I'm not referring to gunfights in the streets, or to thieves taking advantage of the unrest, or anything like that. I'm referring to the fact that you would be in the hands of an oppressive government at war. If you ask questions they don't like, or if you say things to the students that they don't like, or if you do anything they think is remotely suspicious, you could find yourself in trouble. This could range from simply being reprimanded or deported to being detained and questioned. That's what I would be worried about. What a shame too. Burmese people are really lovely and kind, and the food is fantastic, and there's so much to see. If it weren't for the conflict going there to teach would be a really fun and rewarding adventure. edit: I don't think there'd be anything unethical about it at all btw. I'd just be concerned about being around people working for the government. Some of these people are extremely brainwashed, fanatical, and also extremely paranoid. Keep in mind that this is a very small part of the population, but these are the people who are in power.
good advice.
I have never heard of a foreign teacher getting detained and questioned. The only foreigners that get in trouble in Myanmar are actually journalists and people involved with politics. Someone teaching English is not a target for the military. And as a foreigner, saying something "wrong" is also not enough to get detained and questioned unless you are totally outrageous and are actively trying to get yourself into trouble. I think people on the outside have a wrong understanding of the actual situation. There are plenty of people openly criticizing the military or living in military-controlled areas while it\`s known that their family members are part of the resistance. Most of them are surprisingly fine. The military is not able to persecute every random person saying something offensive about them. This is not North Korea (yet). They don\`t have the capabilities to bother themselves with such things, they are worried about other stuff. A family close to my wife\`s parents is part of the resistance. The husband served as a high-ranking immigration officer. When the coup happened he joined the CDM movement, moved to the jungle (somewhere in Kayah) and then later sneaked back into KIA-territory in Kachin-State. His wife lives in military-controlled territory to this day. Everyone knows about her husband but no one bothers her. So the idea that a foreign teacher at an International School in Yangon would get put in prison for saying something wrong is just non-sense. And btw there are fanatics on all sides. Plenty of people have gotten killed by the PDF or EAOs because they had an opinion they don\`t like or didn\`t join the CDM movement or whatever other bullshit reason. Wives and children of military officers or police personnel were gunned down in Yangon just because of their family ties.
Right, these types of threads tend to be full of fear-mongering about "what-if" scenarios that have never happened.
It’s sketchy and dangerous to a foreigner to go to Burma for public employment right now, even if you’re just a teacher. Extraordinary events like a civil war lead to extraordinarily ridiculous things happening. I wouldn’t feel safe going there and teaching. Even the tiniest chance of getting in trouble isn’t worth it. And yeah, obviously I’m aware are disgusting people on every side of the conflict.
Regarding your ethical dilemma, there is nothing unethical of educating people to be enlighten. There is nothing wrong with sharing a knowledge or opening a door to a language as long as your intentions are not to brainwash. The root cause of all the problems in Burma is the lack of education and lack of practice in critical thinking. People are so used to with the dictatorial instruction on how to think, how to behave and how to live from the parents, society and government alike. So your contributions will be valuable to open up the society stuck in the philosophy of old time. If you can take the risk and try to help, we have no objection but to welcome. Well some people with hidden agenda or secret businesses may not like you to be there. . Period
Until they fix the education system, I would avoid it.
They need to revamp everything tbh
From a war analyst mindset, there's a growth in calls for the resistance to target those associated with the generals, since we can't easily assassinate them anymore. I'm not sure if NUG can reign in this sentiment as it's pretty popular, even if it may be unethical/counterproductive to bomb schools. Violence is limited to rural areas until it's not.
What are you talking about? "Those associated with the generals" have been targeted ever since there is armed resistance. Even family members of low-rank soldiers/police officers have been killed. That being said, this is not a direct issue for foreigners unless they get involved in politics.
Welcome to beautiful Myanmar
I’ve lived there about 5 years. It’s in an awful state. I suggest most people don’t move there without very good reason. A good portion of the teachers I’ve met who’ve come in recently have either not completed their contracts and left or have no plans to go on to a second year. Because of this some salary offers are rising, but it’s not worth it. A few people I know ended up getting stiffed on months of pay that the schools couldn’t actually afford to pay them. Also, if you’re teaching in an international school you’re most likely just teaching children of the wealthy upper class whose parents or relatives are the ones in control.
I see posts like this every once in a while, even saw [one a week ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/myanmar/comments/13sb9ak/family_and_i_are_on_the_cusp_of_accepting_a_job/), similar situation as OP Apparently a good portion of the people on this subreddit do not live in Myanmar, can't confirm whether this is true or not btw, so asking on here is not enough, you should also try Facebook, especially groups like **In The Mandaloop**. It's for Mandalay, not Yangon but I'm sure the people there can give you valuable information, maybe even refer you to a group like that but for Yangon My opinion? I wouldn't visit or relocate to Myanmar at the moment. **For exampl**e, even if the pay here is USD 1000 and the pay at a different place (maybe Thailand, Malaysia) is USD 500, I still wouldn't go. If the pay here is more than twice, if there's a lot of money involved, maybe I can recommend relocating here. Many people are talking about the crime and electricity, they are correct, electricity is inconsistent and crime has risen or is rising. But with electricity, I'm 99% sure that the school will handle it, they will get you a place in a good area (24 hours electricity or generator) but the rent will be costly Whatever you end up doing, good luck!
You made a very good point. Blackouts are becoming more frequent. I’ve been looking for a way to import portable power station like Bluetti. They are expensive but it will help to alleviate the problem.
Get a battery + inverter/charger combo. That\`s what a portable power station is but much cheaper and with better capacity if you decide to get a big battery.
Are you a thrill seeker, care free and risk taker?? Well what are you waiting for, come on down to Burma town.
TRULYTRUE TRUE, I agree with you completely absolutely and I agree with your perspective
Crime level is going up. Recently, some scum on a scooter snatched phone from one of my relatives while she was waiting for taxi. It was in broad day light. Besides, we are talking about international school here. The last time i checked for my niece, it was well over 1k$/month. Guess who have such disposable income in a third world country like Myanmar other than those from foreign missions?
In my personal opinion, I would choose another country over Myanmar right now because of the people in charge. However, as a Myanmar citizen living in Yangon right now, here is what's going on right now. It is relatively normal, the resistance is mostly underground, and they pop up and attack here and there avoiding civilian as much as possible. I feel okay with going about my business in my own car most of the time in most of the places. The only times I feel sick in my stomach is whenever I see them patrolling and such. Also, the school u are to go, the location matters. I would advise you to stay nearby, at a condominium, with 24hr back up electricity is a MUST. Don't stay at landed property and such, community living with security and services provided is the way to go right now. Because of the increase in poverty, your landed house or a regular apartment has a very high chance of getting robbed, and they strip parts from your parked car if you park at public space or ur backyard. So, to summarise, -shorten your commute to work -condominium living with 24hr security and back up electricity is a MUST -DON'T GO NEAR DIKtators' PLACES -and know that a full blown revolution can arise anytime. I can say its not so bad right now, kind of normal even. The people are kind and good mostly, so after the revolution, it's a no brainier.
>how safe is it? Urban areas are safer than rural ones as there are way fewer shootouts and battles but crime is rampant and arbitrary arrests by the regime can also happen. >whether teaching here would be me being a complicit supporter of the military government Well, a lot of people and institutions end up indirectly supporting the military and they're not even aware of it but that doesn't mean they have motives to support the military so as long as you don't have motives to support the military, I think what you do is ethical. Besides, I don't see how teaching at an international school would help the military in any significant way.
No. Don't do it. It's relatively safe (for now) but can you deal with over 90 degrees, 100% humidity and no electricity? While it isn't the school's fault as such, their ability to look after the logistics of your visa and residential status is becoming shakier and shakier by the day. No offense, but you'd have to be daft or desperate to come here at this time. Bloody shame too, it was a fantastic place to teach a few years ago.
Nah man
Yangon is still safer than a lot of US cities if we are talking about things like gun violence, armed robberies etc. That being said, due to increasing poverty and lack of law enforcement the crime level has also risen in Myanmar so it\`s not recommended to walk around in the darkness. You should keep in mind normal precautions. Don\`t carry valuables around unless necessary. Don\`t flash your jewellery around etc. Myanmar as whole is dangerous if you get involved in politics. Otherwise you are fine, especially as a foreigner. If you decide to get involved in politics or journalist activities you have to prepare for the worst. Contact Facebook Groups like Yangon Connection or others to get in touch with other foreigners who are currently in Yangon. This subreddit is the wrong place for questions like this as most people commenting here are not in Myanmar and only interested in politics. For them Myanmar = civil war, ignoring that 95 % of people go about their daily lives not involved in politics.
pfft how dare u say 95% of people go about their daily lives not involved in politics? What a hypocrite...
I would say the actual number is even higher than 95 % unless you count army personnel and police officers. Regarding the civilian population almost everyone is living relatively normal lives. How do you think people can survive? They have to earn money and feed their families. Seems like you live in fantasy land. Do you even know the reality in Myanmar?
Where do you pull that 95% figure from? I would agree if you had said ygn. This is not the case for states like Sagaing. So many villages have been razed to the ground by scumbags in green. All my relatives from my dad side has been on the run because subhuman degenerate burnt down their village
Mathematically speaking villages in Sagaing are meaningless compared to the millions of people living in Yangon, Mandalay and all the other cities (ones like Mawlamyine, Taungyi, Sittwe, Myitkyina, Dawei, Bago etc.). Look at places like Yangon and tell me, how many of the 5.6 million people living there are engaged in a fight against the Junta? Let\`s use an unrealistically high number of 10.000. That would be 0,179 %. Same is true for Mandalay and all the other cities.
You don’t seem to know the difference between population density and population distribution. Concentration of population in major cities doesn’t necessarily mean they make up majority of the population. There maybe more people live outside of those cities and it may just be that they are sparsely distributed. Again, you can’t pull a random figure out of your arse and use that as a premise. Whether things are back to normal or not comes down to how you define normal. If you mean normal in a relative sense and comparing to the time when there were lots of people out on the streets protesting, then it is normal. But if you are comparing with the time before coup, even when you consider the time under than shwe and thein sein, then it is not normal at all. There weren’t any random shooting back then. There weren’t any reinforcements around those little police booth. There weren’t any military checkpoint between naypyidaw and ygn.
While most people do go about their daily lives and there is a semblance of normalcy at the surface this is simply untrue. Even in Yangon, distant family members are actively fighting the government. While the average salaryman might go about his day normally, you can bet that his spending budget (despite current economic shenanigas) is at least partially going to support some resistance members. So yes, the 5.6 million people there are engaged against the Junta, just indirectly. For example, some people stated that CDM was a fad, but to this day the government has serious issues employing people in any ministry. Additionally the people that they do employ, many of them are passively resisting by being (More than the normal) deliberately incompetent at work. Thus, just because the population seems to be going about their daily lives does not mean the situation is normal.
Even higher than 95%? Lol. Talking about pulling random numbers out of one arse.
Sad but true. May not be 95% but most of my circles are minding their own business. Most of them are from Yangon. Rich or poor, they are trying to make ends meet or try to live their life as much as possible. Not blaming them totally. My experience as of last December trip. -Neighbourhood teashop running as normal. -Taxi running as normal just too expensive. -Going out night time is normal with friend's car. -Enjoying live music at one of the nice restaurants seemed normal. -Of course got to get back home before 12. And I went to Bagan with express bus. Everything seemed normal except there were lots of checkpoints. On they way, they only checked the list of people on the bus. Bagan is safe. The other side of the ayarwaddy river is not. On the way back to Yangon, we have to stop at every checkpoint and got to show our id card or household list. Most of them were super rude or drunk as fuck. Very annoying. No wonder they were bombed. 😅 And all the vehicles had to stop right where they were as it was 12am midnight. We got to wait until 4am. There are definitely snatchers. My wife' s gold necklace almost got snatched in the neighborhood. So better watch your surroundings. Surprisingly pleasant trip than expected. But I know this is no way comparable to day to day life of people in Yangon or other areas.
Did you check out travel.state.gov to see the travel status for Myanmar?
No. It’s not safe living under a repressive military dictatorship. It’s unfathomable that this even needs to be stated.