Full Breakdown: Reading a Country Before You Go

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Application Skills

Reading a Country Before You Go

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Watch: How to Actually Research a Country Before You Go

A short breakdown of how to build a real picture of a country before arriving, beyond just reading a Wikipedia page. Watch this before you start your own research — it'll save you from spending hours reading the wrong kind of information.

What to Actually Research

• Culture and daily life — greetings, personal space, punctuality norms, how directly people communicate
• Cost of living — housing, food, transport, and how far your income will genuinely go
• Safety and stability — current, up-to-date information, not assumptions based on outdated news
• Local laws and customs — including anything that differs meaningfully from what you're used to
• Food and dietary norms — what's available, what's affordable, and any customs around eating
• Transport and getting around — public transport reliability, whether you'll need to drive, general infrastructure
• Climate and seasons — what you'll actually need to pack, and what time of year you're arriving in
• Healthcare access — what's available, what it costs, and what your insurance or visa covers
• If you're working there specifically — classroom norms, workplace culture, and professional expectations, where relevant

Where to Actually Look

• Our Country Guides — built specifically to give a real feel for a country's culture, daily life, and (where relevant) classroom norms, not just tourist highlights
• Official government travel advisories — for genuinely current safety and entry-requirement information
• Expat and community forums — for honest, lived-experience perspectives, though always cross-check anything important
• Recent, dated sources — culture and cost of living can shift meaningfully over just a few years, so check how current your information actually is