Suddenly I feel like teaching in other countries outside Israel, even including Japan, (but only for a short period of time, as I do not want to live outside Israel for more than a few months at a time). The main reason is to break my routine. I have got so used to teaching Israeli students that I have been deriving less inspirations than before from interacting with them, as I can already foresee many of their possible reactions.
This may sound a crazy idea, but I feel like reexperiencing teaching in Japan. I only remember that it was not easy, to say the least, to teach there because I could not implement what I considered (and still consider) the most important activity in class - verbal interaction between the teacher and the students and between the students themselves - except when I taught Japanese as a foreign language and Hebrew. Luckily, however, I do not remember so clearly various concrete headaches and agonies I had while teaching there. By teaching in Japan every once in a while (but again only for a very short period of time each time), I will surely be able to appreciate what I have as a teacher in Israel. I do not want to make any value judgment, but I just want to express my personal taste: I definitely prefer the Israeli teaching methods to the Japanese ones.
I would also like to relativize my teaching experiences in Israel and Japan by teaching in other countries that have sociocultural backgrounds that are unknown to me and different from those in these two countries. The most "economic" way of experiencing teaching in other countries at the same time would be to teach, in whatever country, even here in Israel, a mixed group of students from various countries with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. I still remember experiencing pleasant surprises all the time with such a group when I taught Japanese as a foreign language in Japan. This is the most enjoyable and enriching teaching experience I have ever had so far.
There is at least one big advantage in teaching in a country whose culture you know well, as you can count on the same cultural assumptions with your students, but this can be less challenging and less inspiring, as everything becomes a routine. By putting myself in foreign sociocultural settings I will hopefully be able to see what is nature and what is nurture in us human beings.