TEFL International Alumni Blog | TEFL Course

My name is Susan Bai, from Inner Mongolia, China. I taught English to all ages and levels for the past ten years. I was offered to take the TEFL course in Thailand by the founder and CEO of the organization Bruce on November 2008. I completed my course in Zhuhai later that year and became the course administrator and trainer of the Shanghai centre till the office was closed in November 2009. Right now I’m on my way home after spending three months travelling in India. I’ll continue to teach English in a small city in Northern China. I hope to establish an English club for locals to improve their language skills and try to help enrich people’s social lives there.  

Here’s my story:
     My name is Erin Tallman, I am 24 years old and I took the TEFL course in Brittany, France the month of September 2009.
     Having been living in France for about a year and giving private English lessons to have an income I realized that teaching was something that really interested me. Once looking into TEFL I saw that there was a one month course offered in Brittany. I had already applied to an assistant English teaching position in a high school in Marseilles and decided that taking the course in Brittany could help improve my skills and prepare me for this position. It wasn’t sure that I would be accepted into this assistance program. If this particular position didn’t work out for me I planned on finding another teaching job by having the TEFL certificate. The course was incredible and opened my mind to all kinds of ideas to teaching. The whole experience was really enjoyable for me and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Indeed I was accepted at Michelet High School in Marseilles and have been using ESL activities throughout my classes. In addition, I continue giving private lessons and have incorporated what I learned while taking the course. Aside from this I take my job very seriously and am even organizing a group of French high school students to study in the United States this summer for one month. They will study at ELI (English Language Institute) at the University of Delaware. This program also uses an ESL learning style. This is only the beginning of a very exciting journey, I’m sure!

My name is Dave Russomano. I’m from the American costal suburb of Stratford, Connecticut which floats in the relatively uninteresting stretch between NYC and Boston. After I finish my current contract in Bangkok, Thailand, I plan to travel through Laos and Vietnam for a month before starting another year contract in either Taiwan or Japan.

I suppose I could simply say I decided to take a TEFL International course because I wanted to travel and teach, but this boring stereotypical answer, though basically true, leaves far too much out. My real reasons are quite difficult to summarize without a little back-story. In college, I studied abroad twice: first for three months in Athens, Greece and then for three weeks around Darjeeling, India. These experiences thoroughly infected me with the travel bug. As graduation approached in the spring of 2006, I applied to U.S. government-sponsored intensive language programs in Bangladesh and Jordan. Unfortunately, they were thinly veiled attempts to seed a new crop of government translators and my application essays may have hinted at my leftist leanings. Undeterred, I applied for the Peace Corps. In order to teach English for the Corps, I needed to log three months of experience in an ESL setting, so I tutored a free English class at a community centre. Several months later, in the last stage of the application, I was rejected for (overly cautious) medical reasons. Stunned and lacking a backup plan, I continued working (moving furniture) until our moving van was t-boned and I wound up with a few thousand dollars in workers compensation. As I recovered from the accident, I planned my overdue career change.

A friend told me he planned to teach English in South Korea where qualifications weren’t required and the compensation included flight reimbursement and housing. I jumped on the bandwagon and was about to sign the next year away when an experienced couple told me that the position I was about to take was far from ideal. It was then, when the possibilities of other options first genuinely dawned on me, that I began investigating a TEFL certification that would lengthen my list of choices. In a matter of weeks, I was on a plane to Costa Rica for a month long course.

Since My TEFL International course in Sept/Oct of 2007, I’ve spent one year teaching in Indonesia, two months teaching Taiwanese students online, and around eight months teaching in Bangkok. In my down time, I’ve visited Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, and Singapore.

As I write this lengthy rehash and ramble of the last two and a half years with the gilded Bangkok evening skyline glittering through my apartment window, I’m thinking about getting to sleep early so I’ll have a clear head for the my classes tomorrow.

‘Let Me Tell You A Story’

The streets of Pune, India were my work place. I started my initiative ‘Let Me Tell You A Story’ in 2006 to encourage reading and oral storytelling among children. Reaching out to children from all parts of the city and from all stratas of society was my vision and the streets of Pune offered me that opportunity. I began storytelling on weekends and slowly formed a small reading group that came to me week after week. They began enjoying every story told and participated actively in all the activities I organised for them; ranging from story writing to addressing social causes.

Soon I moved to work with schools and NGOs on reading and storytelling based projects focusing on numerous reading based activities and introducing a variety of authors to every age group.

Mid 2008 I had to move to Hong Kong with my husband and I decided to take up the TEFL course to be able to work with children there. Having no basic training in Mandarin or Cantonese, the best way I could pursue my passion was by getting qualified and trained as a Native English Teacher. The course opened doors to more opportunities, YES, but above all, it taught me excellent approaches to taking my initiative forward. I worked in Hong Kong for a brief period of 8 months and moved back to India.

Now, here in Mumbai, I have re-established ‘Let Me Tell You A Story’ and am presently associated with activity centers where I work on building the habit of reading at formative years with mother & child and with book stores conducting storytelling sessions.

Soon I look at taking ‘Let Me Tell You A Story’ to Pediatric Cancer wards as a regular session & to introduce novel teaching techniques through story telling for dyslexic children.

One day, most people in India will know ‘Let Me Tell You A Story’

I am Vaishali Kulkami.

My name is Edward  Cheung and I’m a Canadian. I decided to take the TEFL course in Phuket, Thailand in 2007 because of my thirst to travel. I felt teaching abroad would be a wonderful way to experience new cultures. Ever since I graduated from the TEFL course in Phuket, I have been traveling and teaching. After the wonderful experience in Phuket, I flew to South Korea to teach English for a year. My time in Korea was a great experience, so much so that I decided to stay on teaching for over a year. While teaching English, I had taken on the opportunity to travel much of  East Asia and to immerse myself into the culture. It was a rewarding experience.  

Three years have come and gone since I started my journey in Phuket. Those three years have taught me that teaching can be a powerful tool in changing lives. As a result I have decided to make teaching my career. Now I’m in Wollongong, Australia, taking a Graduate Diploma in Education course in order to become an elementary teacher.

My travels and teaching career have not been an easy path, but it was definitely a rewarding one. To those who want to travel and teach abroad TEFL international is a great starting point for a great adventure!

My name is Gio Zane and I’m currently living in Florence, Italy, and intend on staying a full year or more.  I’m a USA-passport only, and grew up mainly in the USA, most recently NJ/NYC.   I have always enjoyed studying languages.  I studied Spanish and German in school but picked up Italian very fast from living a few months of every year in the Italian Canton of Switzerland and other parts of Italy.  It was a combination of visiting friends and family and just making the effort to stay connected with Europe and Italy in General.  Now I’ve made the plunge to attempt to live and work in a city I’ve always wanted to get to know.

The first step of transition was decidedly to take the 4-week on-site intensive TEFL course at the school here in Florence (The Learning Center Tuscany).  I flirted with the idea of doing online courses or weekend intensives in the US, but decided in the end that doing the course in a place I intended to teach and live would be the best experience.  And it did prove very valuable.  I would say most importantly because it gave me direction when I first arrived, I had a schedule, some new friends to meet, and instructors that knew the ins-and-outs of Florence.  Most of the students in the course got jobs immediately following the course being finished, though they traveled to less well-known parts of Italy.  A few now are in Asia.  I’m excited to know that those experiences are there if I seek them, but I wanted to stay in Florence, specifically, yet knew the job possibilities weren’t as extensive given the high amount of other english speakers.  But I made the rounds, visiting different schools, and speaking with the directors, and handing out my resume.

I also put some posts on various free classified sites (I used Kijiji.it) for private lessons.  Actually it was my landlord for my little apartment that introduced me to two of my first private students.  But then I got a call from a school!  They wanted me to teach an intermediate class twice a week.  After that, I started to get more students through the school.  Then we got a contract to teach at a business 4 classes per week.  Now I work about 15 hours a week through the school (which can be a lot) plus private tutoring when I can.  It’s enough to pay my rent and support my experience here.  While I like inviting students over to my house for a private lesson, I find my best experience is working with a school.  I’m better prepared for my lessons and the atmosphere is more professional, and of course I get paid a bit more

I would say the TEFL course helped me to solidify the basic knowledge of the current trend in teaching, but I find that my lessons are a bit different than the method I was taught.  I feel I have just found a certain style that I enjoy, that keeps it interesting and real for me.  I know the students really enjoy maintaining an interesting conversation, and I can’t stress enough the importance of “discussion driving” as I like to call it, even if it means some extended “teacher talk time” but I think the students learn from listening to how I say things as well.  Knowing that I am certified, though, and can draw from the method I learned in my course, gives the lessons structure.

My plan is to finish out my year stay and reevaluate.  I probably will go back to the US for a while just to work and check in on my life there.  But I am happy to know that I can and certainly may soon travel to ASIA or somewhere I’ve always wanted to go and learn a new culture while offering students a valuable ability to communicate with the world through English.  This is where I am now,

My name is Bethany Iblings and I’m originally from Washington State in the USA. I’ve traveled around quite a bit, but after graduating from university I decided to settle in one spot for awhile. Since I graduated with a degree in International Studies, I wanted to find work that involved living abroad and decided to attempt teaching English since that seemed like a great opportunity to get involved with other cultures while gaining experience and capitalizing on a skill I already possessed: English. I knew that I wanted to live in Egypt for awhile, and after weighing the scant options for TEFL courses in Egypt, I decided that TEFL International in Alexandria, Egypt was the right fit for me. Duration, location, recognition, and price all seemed just right.

After completing the TEFL International course in November 2008, I stayed on with TEFL International for the 6-week internship, which gave me additional teaching practice, and the ground work for further Arabic studies. After the internship, I was offered a job with a private language center in Cairo called Amideast. That was a little more than a year ago, and I am still happily teaching with Amideast in Cairo. I teach adult students (18+) in the evenings and enjoy getting to know them while helping them to improve their English capabilities. I’m also pursuing Arabic studies and enjoying the continued adventure of becoming part of Egyptian culture. I’m not sure how long I will stay in Cairo, but I’m very thankful for the experience, knowledge, and certification that TEFL International gave me and am sure that I will continue to use it in the classroom for years to come.

My name is Laura JAMES.
 I am 19 years old and was born and brought up in France despite the fact that I have English parents and an English passport.

I can therefore qualify myself as being bilingual.
 
I think this must have influenced my love of languages because I very much enjoyed studying them at school , especially Spanish which I actually considered as a very welcome challenge .  My English classes were to me very basic and because it came naturally to me (having grown up speaking english with my family) I always ended up being the teachers helper.
 
 This is probably why teaching attracted me and the TEFL International Course seemed like the perfect opportunity to take advantage of my language skills.
 
 I choose to do my TEFL International course in Costa Rica where I could put my Spanish to the test and I must admit I have never been more satisfied with this decision.
 
TEFL was an incredible experience. You meet extraordinary people , learn alongside other students who are just as keen as you are and acquire skills that you never thought you had in you .
 
I have always considered myself as a shy person , but you are made to feel so at ease that you forget all about these kind of things and just blossom.
 
 Once I got my TEFL International certificate , I moved on to Thailand where I found a job as an English teacher the very first day I started looking . Thanks to TEFL , the teaching just felt natural.
 
 I found myself enjoying what I did and getting exited about seeing my students everyday. It is a fantastic feeling actually wanting to go to your job .
 
At the moment , I am an international law student at Essex University. I am advised to work during the summer holidays to help pay for my studies and I already know that I shall be working for one of the many English schools in London that require temporary teachers during July and August.
 
To anyone who is contemplating TEFL International , don’t be worried . Even if teaching doesn’t appeal to you at the moment , it will once you have been through this course .
 

Let’s start with a think piece from a recent edition of The New York Times, from their blog site Idea of the Day, for January 27, 2010:

January 27, 2010, 6:35 am

Third World as Retirement Home

Today’s idea: Because of uneven global population trends, old people in the future might be encouraged to move from aging rich countries to high-fertility developing nations with the medical and other workers to support their needs.

Leif Parsons

Demographics | In a pessimistic global forecast called “The New Population Bomb” in Foreign Affairs, Jack A. Goldstone writes that in the coming years, the total world population will matter less than its distribution and composition. He sees four “megatrends”: a drop in the rich world’s population relative to the developing world’s; aging populations in developed countries; an increase in undereducated, unemployed youth in developing countries; and the rise of overcrowded megacities in the developing world.

If those sound familiar, perhaps some of the possible responses will not — including what sounds like an accelerated convergence of medical tourism and overseas retirement. Mr. Goldstone writes:

One somewhat daring approach … would be to encourage a reverse flow of older immigrants from developed to developing countries. If older residents of developed countries took their retirements in Latin America, Africa, or Asia, it would greatly reduce the strain on their home countries’ public entitlement systems. The developing countries involved, meanwhile, would benefit because caring for the elderly and providing retirement and leisure services is highly labor intensive. Relocating a portion of these activities to developing countries would provide employment and valuable training to the young, growing populations of the Second and Third Worlds.

This would require developing residential and medical facilities of First World quality in Second and Third World countries. … Many residents of developed countries who desire cheaper medical procedures already practice medical tourism today, with India, Singapore, and Thailand being the most common destinations.

Now let’s add a little something more Thailand specific, from the Kare Partners/Srinivas Group of Colleges blog site:

“In Thailand, as many as 1.4 million visitors arrived seeking medical care in 2008, the most recent year numbers are available - up from half a million in 2001. Medical tourism brought in $1 billion in 2008 and that is expected to triple by 2012, when the Health Ministry expects more than two million medical tourists.

The largest numbers come from the European Union, followed by the Middle East and the United States.

Kenneth Mays, international marketing director for Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, says the high standard of care has been a drawing card.

“Thailand offers a very ideal combination of medical quality and service quality. There are both private and public hospitals and it’s very consumer driven because most people pay for their own medical care. Americans will come here because its 60 to 80 percent less expensive for equivalent treatment,” said Mays.”

    AARP now offers chartered tours to Bangkok, not for the purpose of enjoying the Buddhist temples and sampling the green papaya salad, but for elective surgery.  Of course, while you’re recuperating in the hospital, your significant other will be out seeing the sights.  It’s a win-win situation, and more and more mature English-speaking couples and individuals are making places like Bangkok in Thailand not only their center for medical treatment, but their retirement home as well.  With the Internet ready to crunch numbers and find a cheap round-trip fare from Bangkok to Des Moines, and vice versa, it’s no longer a big problem for grandparents to go visit their grandchildren back home, or have them come out to visit them in their condo on the Gulf of Thailand.

Okay.  You get the picture.  After a certain age you’re tired of fighting blizzards in the Midwest or a hard frost in the Midlands; you might be burnt-out with your current career & lifestyle, or find yourself on a plateau that isn’t leading you up to the stars anymore; perhaps there are some health issues you need attended to, at a price that won’t leave you pauperized.  Or maybe you just want to travel and see what the rest of the world has to offer, and maybe offer the world a little something back in return. Teaching English as a Second Language, often called TEFL, is a great way to spend some of your time in Thailand and make some money.  Many older ESL teachers, who have pensions and other sources of income from back home, will teach ESL part-time at a school or private academy – leaving them both energized and with plenty of time to absorb the scenery and culture. That’s where TEFL International comes in.  We have course centers strategically placed throughout the world, but let’s concentrate on one of the most popular TEFL International destinations for mature students – Ban Phe, Thailand, on the Gulf of Thailand.  Right now when you enroll in our TEFL course in Ban Phe, we throw in, absolutely free, a complete and thorough medical examination, done at one of the premier hospitals in the area.  As they used to say back in the days of the Edsel and the rotary phone – you can’t beat that with a stick!

We’re talking fine weather, interesting culture, incredible food, a cost of living that’ll remind you of the 1950’s back in the States, and beautiful, friendly people – and to top it off, once you graduate with a TEFL International certificate, you will be fully qualified to teach not only in Thailand, but in any other country in the world.

Faye Girsh, a 77-year-old retired psychologist and self-proclaimed “travel nut” has this to say about taking the course:  “Though I love to travel I thought it would be more worthwhile if I could do something when I am in a country, like teach English.  I did teach in China and in Japan but didn’t know what I was doing.  Now I know . . . “

When you take a TEFL International course you invariably bond with your fellow students, be they backpacking Brits from Bath or casual Canadians from Quebec or a quiet couple from Kalamazoo.  Our courses are designed to take advantage of the experience you have gained over the years of your life, whether you have ever taught in a classroom before or not.  And you’ll enjoy the passion that the young people who take our course bring into the classroom.  The mix is always interesting.

Whether you want a change of pace, want to gain a new perspective on life, need a new career or gall bladder, or just want to thumb your way around the world, TEFL International welcomes you to take our 4-week class, get TEFL certified, and give it the old college try.  What’s the worst thing that could happen – you’ll enjoy yourself?