Teaching English Abroad? Initial questions and advice?

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yaakovdov

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Hi. I'm literally at the very start of researching the idea of teaching English abroad, which I'm potentially getting very excited about! I don't yet know where, but I would like to live in a foreign culture such as Asia or Africa. I've done a lot of backpacking in Asia already, but never settled somewhere for a while, which I think would be a totally different experience. Japan certainly jumps out as an initial suggestion, but I'm open to anything. Here's my initial questions ...
1) Am I right in saying that I would need to get a TEFL qualification for many places, but not all (such as Japan)? How does teaching somewhere that requires a TEFL differ to somewhere that doesn't?
2) If needed, how do I get a TEFL qualification and how long does it take?
3) Assuming that most places start the school year in September, am I'm too late in the year now, or maybe can I start later in the year?
4) Finally, is it always a 1 year thing, or potentially could I do a shorter period of time?

Plua any other advice on what steps I should take next would be greatly appreciated!

Thankyou so much!
Andy :)
 

emsr2d2

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There are certainly lots of variables depending on where you want to teach. When I started teaching in Spain, it was enough to have a TEFL. I understand from my friends who are still there that many places now demand a full CELTA and a degree.
 

konungursvia

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It's a wonderful adventure, I've done it for years. Choose a place whose food, culture and language interest you, and off you go. Oh, and make sure it's a politically stable place, preferably more developed rather than undeveloped, unless you have lots of patience (4 hour doctors visits, 3 hour bank visits, 2 hour cell phone booth visits, 1 hour lunch date waits, 0 chance of receiving your change if you hand someone a large bill).
 

emsr2d2

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It's a wonderful adventure, I've done it for years. Choose a place whose food, culture and language interest you, and off you go. Oh, and make sure it's a politically stable place, preferably more developed rather than undeveloped, unless you have lots of patience (4 hour doctors visits, 3 hour bank visits, 2 hour cell phone booth visits, 1 hour lunch date waits, 0 chance of receiving your change if you hand someone a large bill).

Funny, your description of the underdeveloped place sounds exactly like my experience in Spain (apart from the part about the change). I have never been anywhere in the Western world with more unrelenting bureaucracy!
 

Tdol

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Not all school years begin in September- it's April in Japan, for instance. Also, jobs crop up all the time, and contract times may vary.

Getting a qualification like CELTA takes around a month. Not having a decent qualification will reduce your choice and will exclude you from the better jobs in many countries. Such courses come with a hefty price tag, but they will help you. I looked at a couple of hundred job adverts a while ago and the qualifications asked, and you can see how they help: Which ELT Qualification? - Tdol's English Language Blog

I agree completely with Konungursvia, but I would add that it's a good idea to always have the price of a flight out- without it, you are dependent on your boss, but with it, you can get out if things go wrong. And do research places that offer you jobs before you accept.
 

yaakovdov

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Thankyou to everyone for your responses, it's a massive help in guiding my ideas forward!
Not all school years begin in September- it's April in Japan, for instance. Also, jobs crop up all the time, and contract times may vary.
Thats really good to know! I feel less rushed now! All your responses have led me to a few more questions:

1. I haven't yet heard of a CELTA, I've only heard of a TEFL. Whats the difference? Can you do it online, and if so, is that less appealing to employees? If its not online, where can I do it?
2. How time consuming and strenuous is teaching abroad? Obviously I would give my all to the job, but of course this is an experience for me too. I want to embrace myself in living in another country for a while, and that means I need spare time in the evenings and weekends.
3. I guess my main question is "what is my next step"? My guess is I need to read about different countries and what I would need to do to teach in them, but whats the best way to do this?

Thankyou so much everyone!!

Andy
 

konungursvia

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Yes, I was thinking of Portugal while writing the description, and saying to myself "I'll bet they don't realize which underdeveloped place I am thinking of now!"
 

yaakovdov

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Thanks so much to everyone for your excellent advice! I guess my next step is to research what i want to do more thoroughly, including maybe finding a course (a 4 week course doesn't sound too bad!).


To summarise more who I am and what I would like, I am a graduate of History and I have a Masters in Software Development. I would like to work in Asia or maybe even Africa if thats an option. Your excellent answers have arisen the following questions and thoughts ...


1) Time is unfortunetely against me, for I would like to be home again in approximately a year from now! Do you think it is feasible to have a fun, rewarding teaching experience within a year of now? (baring in mind people appear to reccomend I do a course first, that lots of places are for a year, and that lots of places start in September)? Do you know of anywhere that appears to fit my current thinking?


2) Another question that has arisen is 'Who' will I be teaching? I had in mind it would be young children, maybe who already have a start in English (as I won't be able to speak their own language!). However, some people imply adults are often the students? Which is more common?

3) How time consuming and strenuous is teaching abroad? Obviously I would give my all to the job, but of course this is an experience for me too. I want to embrace myself in living in another country for a while, and that means I need spare time in the evenings and weekends.


4) Finally, I'd like to know if you guys think I am a typical and worthy candidate for teaching abroad? Do I sound like I am doing this for the right reasons? I am not looking to have a career in teaching Ebglish abroad, but rather, would like to shake up my life for the next year and experience living in another culture (I've already done backpacking abroad, but not living abroad)? And my initial reaction was to research teaching abroad (which I honestly think would be fun if I had kids who wanted to be interactive, and if I could use my creativity to make fun lessons!). Plus I'd like to meet other like-minded Westerners to spend my spare time with.


Again, thanks so much for your responses, it is greatly appreciated! :)

Andy
 

konungursvia

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Strange Andy that you wanted to spend your time with other "like-minded Westerners," to me, as that was the point of my travels, to spend time with different-minded non-Westerners. Do you have a university degree? It would be a big help.
 

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1. I haven't yet heard of a CELTA, I've only heard of a TEFL. Whats the difference? Can you do it online, and if so, is that less appealing to employees? If its not online, where can I do it?
2. How time consuming and strenuous is teaching abroad? Obviously I would give my all to the job, but of course this is an experience for me too. I want to embrace myself in living in another country for a while, and that means I need spare time in the evenings and weekends.
3. I guess my main question is "what is my next step"? My guess is I need to read about different countries and what I would need to do to teach in them, but whats the best way to do this?

1 You can do a blended CELTA course, which mixes online study with lesson practice: CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) | Cambridge English
2 You should be able to have time to get to know the country and do other things.
3 Which countries appeal?
 

Tdol

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I'm not sure what a worthy candidate requires, and things vary- which countries in Asia? I have lived in a few countries here, but know nothing about Africa.

It's hard to say what ages you would be teaching- some schools deal with both, while other specialise. I have very little experience of teaching children.
 

yaakovdov

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Strange Andy that you wanted to spend your time with other "like-minded Westerners," to me, as that was the point of my travels, to spend time with different-minded non-Westerners. Do you have a university degree? It would be a big help.

Yes, I have a BA in History and an MSc in Software Development. In regards to the people I meet, I probably was a little unclear. I would like to know some Westerners in and amongst the many local people I expect to meet.
 

yaakovdov

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konungursvia

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If you have a bachelor's and a master's, I wouldn't bother with any other qualifications, most intelligent business managers in Asia will hire you on the basis of those degrees. The qualification courses teach things like "prefer complete sentences" and "write clearly", things a very intelligent person will usually work out in any case.
 

5jj

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If you have a bachelor's and a master's, I wouldn't bother with any other qualifications, most intelligent business managers in Asia will hire you on the basis of those degrees. The qualification courses teach things like "prefer complete sentences" and "write clearly", things a very intelligent person will usually work out in any case.
I agree with your first sentence. TEFL qualification may not be necessary for yaakovdov.

I disagree strongly with your second. The four/five-week course is very intensive and extremely relevant to modern teaching. Your remarks about what they teach are nowhere near the truth. Have you ever seen a syllabus?

My daughter (MA) did a Trinity CertTESOL and my wife (MA, PhD) a CELTA. Both felt that their courses were among the most intensive learning they had ever undertaken and both have said that their first year of teaching would have been an absolute disaster without them.
 

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Maybe it took me a few years to work them out.... But, to explain my thinking while writing this: I taught English in Hong Kong, and was evaluated by a Deputy Principal from Australia. No need to name her, but she was third in rank in one of the Australian States (NSW) in the Ministry of Education, after the Minister and Deputy Minister of Education. She was all about getting our English teachers to go off and do a TESOL course, and had loads of experience in them, including teaching them. After seeing me teach English, she said I didn't need to take one, I was doing exactly the right sorts of things on my own. So, I thought they taught things which were already accessible to good teachers with empathy toward the learner, or some such rationale.

[Edit: I've looked at the link to the Cambridge CELTA, and I agree it has a lot of information; still, I think much of that material would not be 'new' to a B.Ed. graduate with no specific ESL teacher training.]
 

5jj

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After seeing me teach English, she said I didn't need to take one, I was doing exactly the right sorts of things on my own. So, I thought they taught things which were already accessible to good teachers with empathy toward the learner, or some such rationale.
There are indeed some people who appear to be born teachers. However, I would say that 95% of the people who came on to the training courses in which I was involved would have had no idea of how to deliver a lesson of any real value without the course. Of the remaining 5%, most felt that they had gained a lot from their attendance, learning many new things that would be of value to them in their chosen career.

When I started TEFLing in 1968, very few of us had a certificate of any sort (IH, RSA and Trinity were the names then) and most of us learnt as we went along. I was one of the rare birds who was actually a qualified teacher in the UK, though this did not mean that I knew much about TEFL. Those of us who took the work seriously managed, and our learners didn't do too badly in the circumstances (there was little better available), but I shudder now to think of some of the things that went on in my classroom then. My learners would have fared far better had I had the knowledge of setting up pair and group work, acquired basic elicitation skills, recognised the importance of the four basic language skills, known that teaching was not 90% lecturing to the class, and the many other things that trainees learn on a TEFL course,

The reason that so many schools are insisting on some form of TEFL certificate these days is that bitter experience has taught them that that teachers without an initial certificate (unless they have managed to gain several years' experience) are usually a liability. Most of us know, and Cambridge and Trinity make it clear, that the certificates are only initial teaching qualifications, but they do ensure that people who have gained them have acquired some knowledge of English grammar and phonology and some understanding of how learners can be enabled to learn reasonably effectively. They have demonstrated some level of competence in the classroom.
 

konungursvia

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This is a very valuable and interesting exchange, 5.... thanks to your input. Another thought along my initial lines though: monoglots would probably benefit from TESOL-type training a great deal more than bilingual or trilingual people, who must have lived through years of a successful classroom experience. After having learnt French and Portuguese, teaching English became that much easier to me. But I agree the truth is somewhere in the middle. (Confession: I've always felt, perhaps in an unjustified way, that since "Shakespeare had no Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama," people who start with a formal course are way behind those who get into something because it has always been a passion, and who thus have already built up an encyclopaedic knowledge about a subject on their own.) Along with a high quality education -- which I strongly support -- but which ought to have trained the mind to be supple and flexible enough to think clearly and make intelligent steps in any area. Oh well, I feel I'm just digging me own grave, and losing the 'debate.'
 
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