likimikuku,

<<if you ask me, how do i actually know i would like to be a teacher/lecturer....erm......well, i don't know.>>

You KNOW.  It is JUST a question of HONESTLY asking yourself.

A) Is it the pay??

B) Is it the idea of doing research??

C) Is it the pace of life??

D) <<the pride of educating other.>> ??

My POINT is this.  Normally, if a person likes to educate someone, they will have plenty of formal and informal opportunity to do this by YOUR AGE.  Now, if the person DO NOT actively seek out and perform at the opportunity, the LIKELIHOOD that the person like teaching is VERY LOW.

I am NOT discouraging you from pursuing YOUR DREAM.  The PROBLEM is most people have a VERY BLURRY view of their dream.  They THINK that they want something like X.  Then, they find out what they want is what X represent.  They could have do Y instead.

So, question back to YOU.  What do you LIKE about being a teacher?  What is YOUR REASON?? Other people's reason is USELESS to you.

Dreamer

For lecturer at overseas, pace of life is FAST! Here's an idea what one has to do and its average MINIMUM time incurred:

1. As a core or secondary supervisor to about 5 Masters or PhDs (10 hours per week)
2. As a core or secondary supervisor to about 2 Honours year students (3 hours per week)
3. Teaching (8 hours per week)
4. Preparing tutoring materials for tutor to teach (2 hours per week)
5. Preparing teaching materials for class (5 hours per week)
5. Marking (2 hours per week)
6. MISC (Preparing exams, tests, quizzes, laboratory sessions, invigilating, working as examiner for PhD and Master's thesis from other universities) (2 hours per week)
7. Professional activities (International journal and conference paper review, organising conference, volunteering as journal editors) (2 hours per week)
8. Research (5 hours per week)
9. Giving talks, seminars, attending conference, keynote speaking, panelist and their preparation (1 hour per week)
10. Liaise with industry, government bodies, ministries, other universities for research collaboration an funding opportunities (1 hour per week) 
11. Consultation (2 hours per week)
12. Management tasks (1 hour per week)

Total = MINIMUM 44 hours per week. My computation is very tight as I consider everything goes smoothly, it could be 30% more than that, so a more sensible value is 57.2 hours per week.

If you consider 5 working days, that's 57.2/5 = 11.44 hours per day
If you consider 6 working days, that's 57.2/6 ≈ 9.5333333
If you consider 7 working days, that's 57.2/7 ≈ 8.1714286

During semester break, lecturers have to take up visiting position at other universities or countries. Some begin their sabbatical visit. There are more management tasks. 

My research supervisors in Australia and Japan have been complaining high amount of work load. They could hardly have time to relax! most of the time, they have to print my research papers, thesis, and other materials so taht they could work at home during weekend!

Now, this is not relax or flexible anymore

futuristicwiz

1. If you don't have impressive academic results:

Working experience counts in your scholarships application. Looking for PhD funding is much like looking for a job.

1. You browse the University departments. (i.e. Department of Economics)
2. You understand their research. (i.e. click Research tab)
3. If you like their research, look at their researchers and lecturers. (i.e. click People or Staff tab)
4. See if the lecturer is looking for PhD student.
5. If yes, BINGO! Send your resume and cover letter to the lecturer.
6. The lecturer will come back to you in due course. Normally, HK and Singapore lecturers reply mails in a couple of days; Australia, UK and NZ takes longer; and Japan may take FOREVER or never reply you at all. That's my experience.
7. If the lecturer likes you to be a PhD student, there you go! You apply the scholarships, student visa, etc...

That's all.

2. If you have impressive academic results:

Applies for government based scholarships:
1. ORS in UK
2. NUS and NTU PhD scholarships
3. HKU, HKUST, CUHK... univeristy PhD scholarship
4. IPRS + University stipend scholarships in Aus
5. NZISRS or NZAID in NZ.

After graduation with your PhD, I bet you'll NEVER ever feel like going back to MY anymore. Mark my words, please. You'll start to rant like me, how inferior are most Malaysian lecturers and researchers.

futuristicwiz