TEFL

w3sk · Post by **w3sk** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:27 pm

Personally, just living abroad was a vacation. But yes, they were a little weak with the alloted days off.

A few of my friends are still teaching there, and a few got married to some Japanese chicks. It is a good gig, most companies set you up with everything and you just have to show up to work and collect checks.

Also, I found it kind of empowering. You will have lots of students, some are doctors, lawyers, etc..but your english is far superior to your students, so everyone looks up to you for assistance and doesn't really judge you. What I mean is, I would feel uncomfortable teaching college students / adults in the states, but because I was the expert it wasn't uncomfortable being infront of a room full of people.

roo · Post by **roo** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:33 pm

cheers man
i thought this might be the case. i can't decide whether to spend another
year or so of my life in england getting a PGCE and then doing TEFL
or whether to just go straight for TEFL and get the fuck out of here.
either way having been to visit my brother a few times in japan
i think teaching abroad is an ABSOLUTE MUST.

Big up you elbe for starting this thread, youve persuaded me to get off
my arse and follow this up....now i just need to think how to break the news to my girlfriend.....

spooKs · Post by **spooKs** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:31 pm

Gonna do this sometime - at the moment I've got a part time job as a teaching assistant in a school, hoping that comes in handy on my CV cos there's fuck all else on there

w3sk · Post by **w3sk** » Thu Feb 12, 2009 7:34 pm

Trust, don't go to Japan and try to keep a girlfriend. I failed. damn those japanese girls

bagelator · Post by **bagelator** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 1:07 pm

pgce means you're far more qualified to teach.

whereas a celta/equivalent means you've had a month/weekend course.

different games completely.

there is some tension between my 'boss' who has a celta and has been here for 150 years and my mate who has a PGCE, cos the boss knows he's got nothing on the PGCE. interesting staffroom vibes

elbe · Post by **elbe** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 2:06 pm

I don't know, if you ask me experiance is the most important part.

alfie · Post by **alfie** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 4:05 pm

i've been thinking about doing a pgce in the next couple of years, but would like to do tefl/a bit of travelling in the near future as well, which way round would be best?

doing pgce first would more than likely give you more chance of a good tefl job, is competition fierce??

think it's generally accepted as best to go straight to school teaching from pgce instead of arsing around having sex with australians in thai hostels

jolly wailer · Post by **jolly wailer** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:27 pm

i did a year in korea w/o tefl.

shit was fantastic.

sonar · Post by **sonar** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 11:32 pm

but how can you teach someone another language if you cant communicate with them?

they cant speak english and you cant speak their language?

w3sk · Post by **w3sk** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:04 am

Both the student and myself had the same book. It would have pictures showing what was going on... for example meeting someone for the first time.

If you are teaching a beginner class, then you start basic. You may spend an hour teaching them 'hi, my name is... how are you?

it's small building blocks with beginners.

bagelator · Post by **bagelator** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 4:08 am

alfie wrote:arsing around having sex with australians in thai hostels

why else would you do tefl?

alfie · Post by **alfie** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:23 pm

i'm booked onto a celta course starting in june, was planning to go to south america to teach but now looking at vietnam- anyone got any experience of either?

BaronVon · Post by **BaronVon** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 4:50 pm

bagelator wrote:
alfie wrote:arsing around having sex with australians in thai hostels
why else would you do tefl?

Having sex with Australians in Thailand? You either don't like asians or your spending far too much time on Kao San Road.

Or am i just missing the point?

a of dkr · Post by **a of dkr** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 11:45 am

I'm doing this in Madrid right now, and it's pretty cool. It's pretty reassuring to be able to do this during this effin crisis. People still need English, actually even more so because they need to have as many skills as possible to keep their jobs :/

I strongly recommend against teaching kids though, they're a real pain in the ass. In-company business English is the best imo. I only work Mon-Thu because almost everyone here has a short day on Friday so they don't have time for English classes. Decent money, 3 days off/week, fairly easy job(i'm not a native speaker so it requires some effort..)
You might want to consider Spain because: 1. beautiful country, 2. endless job opportunities because the general English level is shit (they double all their movies in Spanish, so they have no contact with the language) 3. it's close to home and you can buy dirt cheap plane tickets in case you decide not to miss a weekend party

On the other hand: 1. except Barcelona maybe, there's not much Dubstep around here 2. if you choose to teach Business E. for companies, you'll have to commute quite a lot around the city

Oh, and one last thing, I have seen native teachers with TEFL/CELTA lose their classes because their accent was too strong and it was really difficult for the students to understand them. Dunno if this happens in other countries though, maybe it's just the Spanish ppl that can't be arsed

Can you believe there are ppl on this forum considering joining the army as a solution for money problems when they have this excellent opportunity and the unbelievable luck of being native speakers of a language that everyone needs to learn???? smh..

repr0bate · Post by **repr0bate** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:53 pm

i'm halfway through part time CELTA.

doing it in the evenings from work.

it's a fucking mission & dunno if it will be worth it.

your location, is that OXFORD??

bagelator · Post by **bagelator** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:42 pm

Baron_von_Carlton wrote:
bagelator wrote:
alfie wrote:arsing around having sex with australians in thai hostels
why else would you do tefl?
Having sex with Australians in Thailand? You either don't like asians or your spending far too much time on Kao San Road.

Or am i just missing the point?

i was being a sarcastic twat

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