Growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, Sonia Holland and Erin O’Brien were inseparable.
They met at six and did everything together. At 11, they came up with a grand plan: One day, they’d travel the world. They even sold brownies to their neighbors and pooled their earnings in a bank account.
“Although the money really didn’t get us anywhere and we lost the bank account, the dream still stayed,” Holland, 26, told Business Insider.
After graduating from college, Holland with a business degree and O’Brien in science, they decided to set off on an adventure abroad.
“We were single at the time, and we had just finished our studies. It was like, let’s go,” O’Brien, also 26, told Business Insider.
Neither had a formal teaching background, but both had spent years tutoring in college.
The idea of teaching abroad came from a guy Holland once dated, who mentioned his ex had taught in China.
“I said, ‘Erin, let’s go teach in Asia,” Holland said. “And that is exactly what happened.”
Once they began exploring teaching programs across Asia, South Korea emerged as the most practical choice. China wasn’t an option at the time because its borders were still closed in 2022.
“But it was always in the back of our minds,” Holland said.
Teaching in Asia
During the year they spent teaching in a private English academy in Suwon, a city just outside Seoul, they worked long hours with little downtime.
They taught about 10 lessons a day and often had only five-minute breaks between classes, O’Brien said.
“One of our coworkers had taught English in China previously, and he loved it. He was telling us how the working conditions were so great, you get so much vacation, the people are friendly, and it’s affordable,” Holland said.
The two were eager to go after their year in South Korea. But with the borders still closed, they spent a few months backpacking through Europe before returning to South Africa to take up desk jobs in their original fields.
“We used that time to see whether that’s a path we want to follow or whether the teaching was still something we wanted to do,” O’Brien said.
In the end, teaching won out — and with China’s borders open again, they could finally go teach English there.
They applied to schools across several cities and ultimately landed jobs in Guangzhou, a major economic hub in southern China.
“The city has a perfect balance of everything,” Holland said. Compared to Shanghai, the lower cost of living allows them to save money. The city is well-connected, making travel easy, she added.
Moving to China
As soon as they arrived in August 2024, they were introduced to a real estate agent through the school, who helped them settle into their new lives.
“She helped us get a SIM card for our phones, set up a bank account, and register at the gym,” O’Brien said.
They found a spacious apartment with two bedrooms near the primary school where they teach.
Rent is 4,000 Chinese yuan, or about $570, each month, and the school subsidizes a portion of it, Holland said.
They work Monday to Friday, from 8:40 a.m. to 4:40 p.m., with a two-hour lunch break from noon to 2 p.m.
The school provides three meals a day, and they’re allowed to go home during lunch, a time they usually use to go to the gym, rest, or watch a show, O’Brien said.
They teach about three to four classes each day, handling different grade levels.
On weekends, they enjoy going for walks and picnics at the park, meeting friends for karaoke or to visit a 24-hour spa, and trying new restaurants — especially barbecue and hot pot.
They’ve also started vlogging their lives in China on YouTube and will occasionally take trips to other provinces to explore.
So far, it’s been easy for them to meet new people.
“People will come up to you and talk. They’re not actually that shy,” Holland said, adding that they’ve also made friends with the local teachers at their school.
Adjusting to a new culture
The two friends aren’t alone in making the move. According to China’s latest national census, there were 845,697 foreigners living in the country in 2020, up from 593,832 a decade earlier.
Even so, being part of a growing foreign community doesn’t mean the transition is seamless, and moving to China meant getting used to a few new things beyond the language barrier.
“Everything’s so technologically advanced,” Holland said. China runs largely on mobile, cashless payments through apps like WeChat and Alipay.
“We couldn’t buy our first meal,” Holland said. “We didn’t have any of these apps. Our translation app wouldn’t work. We didn’t have a VPN yet.”
Although it was scary at first, daily life became “so convenient” once they got used to it, she added.
Another thing that surprised them was the nap culture in China, not just for students but also the adults.
“We go to the bank, they’re taking a nap. Everywhere you go, even the grocery store. But there’ll always be someone there to help,” Holland said. “They work hard in the day, they deserve their nap.”
The biggest thing they had to adjust to was the sensory overload.
“Everything’s a lot noisier than what we would be used to from back home. Everything’s very bright, loud, and busy,” Holland said.
Even though they miss their families, they say the experience has been incredibly rewarding. Living abroad has taught them to be independent, resilient, and more open-minded.
“Moving abroad has really taught us to have a bigger perspective and be more understanding of how things work and why people are the way they are,” Holland said.
And through all of it, they’re grateful to have each other.
When one of them has a tough day, the other lifts her up. That’s why they both say they probably wouldn’t have taken this leap on their own.
“We have each other,” Holland said.
“That’s the point,” O’Brien added.
Do you have a story to share about relocating to a new city? Contact this reporter at agoh@businessinsider.com.
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