Travel jobs: Teaching English

Posted by Craig Leyenaar on 26 August 2011

I’d always thought of myself as a traveller; childhood memories chattering away in my head telling me: go, explore the world. Unfortunately, I have never been someone who watches his pennies, and never felt close to launching myself off around the world on my own. Instead, I was stuck doing what most people do – working at a job I hated and feeling guilty about spending every cent.

Late one evening, at a bar drowning my sorrows thanks to the job I hated, a chance discussion gave me the opportunity to actually do something about all my moaning. It made me ask myself  – would I rather work at home and possibly never leave or go to my idyllic destination and work there? It seems obvious, and it is, work where you want to travel and get the best of both worlds, sometimes. So I made a decision, resigned, and jumped on a plane. What was the topic of this slightly inebriated conversation? It is called TEFL and it is responsible for getting me off my bar stool (and early onset alcoholism) and out doing what I wanted to be doing.

TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, an internationally recognised certificate allowing you to teach foreign language speakers. Westerners from all around the world have taken this course and headed off to parts unknown to attempt teaching people to speak the lingua franca of the world, inadvertently hacking away at the Tower of Babel. Often you have to teach more than just English and just getting that right is harder than you think. The TEFL prepares you specifically for teaching conversational English so is not that useful for teaching at schools who want grammar and language. Despite this, the TEFL or its equivalent is required by law in most countries if you want to teach. Practically the course does help a little, even if it is just giving you that little confidence boost right before you walk into your first class.

Travellers’ options are more limited as they are not necessarily committed to the idea of teaching as a life long career. University graduates have the greatest chance to find work as TEFL teachers, but jobs can be found anywhere, especially in Asia and South America. Qualification requirements are slightly more flexible in these areas making more jobs available to non-university graduates. Degrees are still a great help however, both for impressing employers and getting the cash; as the best paying jobs are with large international schools who have the most stringent prerequisites. If you do not feel like committing to a place for at least a year, then head to a language school, where you also avoid the large classes prevalent in most developing countries. Small groups ranging from children to adults as well as flexible hours make this more attractive and you can leave without feeling guilty. Teaching can easily fund further travels, as the pay is often quite good and living costs are low.

Where to go to arm yourself with the TEFL is purely up to you. You can either do it at home at a tertiary institute or overseas at a dedicated language school. With the former, placement is frequently offered with the course but this is not highly recommended. It can land you in a small village in the middle of nowhere as the only person speaking English. The culture shock can be too much, ending your journey after only a few weeks. This happened to the person in the bar who originally turned me on to the idea of teaching. It unnerved me quite a bit when she came home in tears just before I was about to head off. Better to go on your own steam to the country in which you want to teach and doing the TEFL course there. You arrive with a place to go, something to do and somewhere to stay for at least a month. It gives you time to decide if you like the country, and the schools will also help find you work and provide invaluable advice. They will know which schools treat teachers well and which ones (some government schools) use foreign teachers like the proverbial finger in the dyke; sent from school to school to fill in as needed. Wherever you go it will require some preparation though so don’t leave home broke. Always have a little cushion – it makes landing easier.

Teaching is surprisingly rewarding, walking into class every day takes a lot of guts but when you have that ‘aha’ moment and realise that this person is reading or talking because of you it does as the cliche says ‘make it all worth it’. That you get to live in a place that people travel thousands of kilometres to stay in for a few weeks just makes it that much better. It can be tough though, one of the classes I used to help teach was extremely challenging, the children weren’t interested and the level of their English was far below my own home room class which I had every day. Then again, they had had five different teachers in the previous year. In the end, I spent a year teaching, gave up round the world flights to do so, and extended my journey by another two years because of who I became while living there. Wandering the ruins of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, sailing the Mekong Delta and diving in Borneo, all just part of the life you can live when you aren’t there just on holiday.

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