Teaching English as a foreign language

[Benny Bunter]

Does anyone here do this, either abroad or on home turf?

I'm currently halfway through the CELTA course (which I can recommend as an excellent course btw) and am currently weighing up my options for what to do next. Here's what I've come up with so far.

1) Do the DTE(E)LLS course next, which is a requirement for teaching in FE in this country. Teaching in the FE sector in England is probably my preferred long-term option but I've been told that the current job situation is fucked basically for the time being. There's certainly no jobs going in my area as the local college has just laid off loads of EFL teachers. Still considering doing the course though in case things pick up. Anyone here done it?

2) Private sector. Don't really know a great deal about this tbh. i live in a very multicultural area in Newcastle and was planning to advertise myself as a private tutor and see how that goes. Has anyone got any advice about how to set this up effectively? I understand that most private language schools here would be looking for someone with more experience than I have, right?

3) The obvious one: go abroad and get experience. This is also something I'd really like to do but I'm finding it difficult to make any firm decisions on the best place to go (and I'm wary of ending up in some dump of a school somewhere). I've been considering Spain, Germany, even South America, though perhaps somewhere in Europe might be best for a newbie. Does anyone have any recommendations or stories to tell?

Basically, any input and advice from experienced EFL teachers would be MASSIVELY appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Sectionfive]

Not much to add other then a friend of mine has been in Seoul for the last few years and hasn't looked back since. Doing the course totally sorted his life out. Best of luck

 

[Benny Bunter]

Yeah? I'm open to pretty much any suggestion at the minute and I have thought about Korea too, along with just about every other flippin place in the world! Cheers...

 

[crofton]

A long time ago I taught EFL in Morocco. Very good experience, I'd recommend it wholeheartedly. Can give more info if you like although I don't have many personal contacts left cos it was about 12 years ago and most of them have left now.

 

[Benny Bunter]

A long time ago I taught EFL in Morocco. Very good experience, I'd recommend it wholeheartedly. Can give more info if you like although I don't have many personal contacts left cos it was about 12 years ago and most of them have left now.

Morocco! Hadn't considered it but it definitely sounds interesting and its somewhere I'd love to visit anyway. Would really appreciate it if you pm'd me sometime with more details. I want to pool as much info as I possibly can before coming to any decisions.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Crofton, I notice your profile says 'Berlin'. I've been to Berlin before and really enjoyed it, its one of the places on my list. A good place to go and teach English do you think?

 

[michael]

I taught English in a private conversation school in Tokyo for about 18 months (3 years ago now). It might look like good experience on a CV, but as a linguistics grad and someone genuinely eager to teach this stuff I found it pretty bloody demoralising. But I don't know exactly how general my experience is...

I was teaching adults who would almost entirely come in for their 1-1.5 hours a week and do zero conversation practice outside that / have zero opportunity to use what they'd learnt. Most were very focused on accuracy, learning more grammar / vocab, being able to say they had completed a level / grade / whatever in our books.

Result was lots of students who were completely out of their depth, in terms of conversational competency - I spoke like a ... well, I'm sure you can imagine the stereotypes of dumbed down Japlish... reducing my vocab down and down to those things I knew were loan words from English to Japanese, stuff like that. Consequently felt like a bit of a fraud - but to talk normal to them wasn't like giving them n+1, it was jumping way beyond where they were at.

I found private students incredibly rewarding, at least partly by contrast. I deliberately set "lessons" up to be at least half free conversation (with plenty of making sure to use points we'd been going over) while at the school I worked in "free con" was seen as an easy option and a chance to skive off.

Bla bla. Can provide more focused comments if you want to ask any questions...

 

[luka]

if i wasn't already too old to get a work permit i'd be in japan right now doing this. id do anything to live in japan for a bit. wouldn't do korea but you can get good money there. most of my cousins have done this in japan, china, korea....

 

[michael]

Got a uni degree? If so a company can sponsor you, but you'll be pissing money against a wall waiting for the visa in Japan.

The other comment I'd make is that the conversation school lark seemed like quite a dead-end job. You're a teacher. You teach the same lessons every day. You do weird hours - like in hospitality work, it's difficult to catch up with people who are doing a 9-5.

The first-generation immigrants I met in Japan who had been there a while and were happy had almost all got out of that kind of thing or had big big interests outside of teaching (e.g. one was writing a book).

 

[luka]

no, i didn't go to university. im not very academic. again, if i had a degree id be there now.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Thanks Michael, I will have a proper think about this and may get back to you with more questions. I have sort of considered Japan as an option but there's probably a few other places I'd rather go. The aspects of teaching I've enjoyed the most on my course have been fluency, conversation, communication. I've been teaching very mixed classes of some Europeans and asylum seekers or refugees from all over. The teaching style encouraged on the CELTA course is very much student-centred, which obviously doesn't go down well in certain cultures where the teacher is expected to be centre of attention all the time. Not sure I want to teach in a country where I'm swimming against the tide all the time.

Your experience of teaching in Japan sounds quite similar to an old work-colleague of mine actually. He ended up hating living in Tokyo, though he did come back with a Japanese wife!

 

[baboon2004]

The other comment I'd make is that the conversation school lark seemed like quite a dead-end job. You're a teacher. You teach the same lessons every day. You do weird hours - like in hospitality work, it's difficult to catch up with people who are doing a 9-5.

The first-generation immigrants I met in Japan who had been there a while and were happy had almost all got out of that kind of thing or had big big interests outside of teaching (e.g. one was writing a book).

I think there's some very sound advice here. One thing I'd say is that you can get EFL jobs that don't involve working weird hours, by going into companies etc to do both group classes and 1-2-1s. The latest I ever worked was something like 7pm, so I never had issues with weird hours (that was at schools in Europe - I get the impression that it's a different set-up in lots of east Asian schools?).

But it can be a dead-end job for sure. Do it by all means for a while (it's defintiely good fun), but I'd advise to use the time to think about what else you'd like to do, and not to get stuck in it. Someone gave me that advice years back, and I foudn that they were right.

If I was in your position, I'd go somewhere where the language is fairly easy to pick up, cos that can be an invaluable skill later down the line (depending on what you want to do, of course). But maybe you already speak a couple of languages, in which case ignore this!

 

[Benny Bunter]

I think there's some very sound advice here. One thing I'd say is that you can get EFL jobs that don't involve working weird hours, by going into companies etc to do both group classes and 1-2-1s. The latest I ever worked was something like 7pm, so I never had issues with weird hours (that was at schools in Europe - I get the impression that it's a different set-up in lots of east Asian schools?).

But it can be a dead-end job for sure. Do it by all means for a while (it's defintiely good fun), but I'd advise to use the time to think about what else you'd like to do, and not to get stuck in it. Someone gave me that advice years back, and I foudn that they were right.

If I was in your position, I'd go somewhere where the language is fairly easy to pick up, cos that can be an invaluable skill later down the line (depending on what you want to do, of course). But maybe you already speak a couple of languages, in which case ignore this!

I don't speak any other languages but I would definitely love to pick up Spanish (why oh why did we have to do French at school and not Spanish 0

Did you work in Spain at all Baboon? (or anyone else).

 

[baboon2004]

I didn't, but I know Barcelona is a hotbed of EFL teaching (or used to be, at least)

 

[Benny Bunter]

Yeah, Barcelona sounds promising. I've been there before on holiday and I loved it, always said I'd like to go back. From what I've gathered so far, most people who teach EFL there juggle 2 or three different jobs in the city as its harder to get a full time position. Would be an amazing place to live though.

 

[baboon2004]

Yeah, Barcelona sounds promising. I've been there before on holiday and I loved it, always said I'd like to go back. From what I've gathered so far, most people who teach EFL there juggle 2 or three different jobs in the city as its harder to get a full time position. Would be an amazing place to live though.

oh ok, didn't know that. i know that some people work there during the winter, and do summer schools in the UK. You asked about Berlin - I found it impossible to get a position there, despite really wanting to. Paris is an easier place, for example. By God, the place I used to work there is still going, i find by Googling...they had some weird clients....

 

[Benny Bunter]

Looking at a couple of websites now. it seems there's plenty of private work in Barcelona, but the wages are generally quite low and its very difficult to find work during the summer months. Its definitely do-able but I wouldn't be making much money, which isn't a prime concern but I haven't really got a pot of savings to dip into should times get hard. I would imagine Berlin is much the same. I have heard it can be much more manageable to work in smaller towns and cities rather than big capitals.

Paris just doesn't appeal to me for some reason.

 

[minikomi]

Live in Japan now (almost at 5 years!) and it can be either:

Wonderful

Terrible.

Depending on the students. There really are people who are there on the company dime, only study during the class... also, plenty of pensioners with nothing else to do or people who have no hobby and hence make learning english their hobby.. not to mention young girls who have really no interest outside of shopping (i've dug and dug in 1-2-1 lessons.. believe me!)

BUT BUT BUT

I now do it privately can choose my students and it is VERY rewarding, supporting them by email / twitter and encouraging them to study outside of class.

Also, I really really like teaching kids but YMMV.

Having a hobby outside of it gives you something to talk about... and keeps you sane.

I have also done design/import export related work / factory & production translating / oversease & japan accounting ... and I look fondly on my English teaching days now!

 

[faustus]

I didn't, but I know Barcelona is a hotbed of EFL teaching (or used to be, at least)

I teach in a couple of schools in Barcelona at the moment. Most schools recruit in September. Also, many will want a face-to-face interview before you get a job.

Yeah, Barcelona sounds promising. I've been there before on holiday and I loved it, always said I'd like to go back. From what I've gathered so far, most people who teach EFL there juggle 2 or three different jobs in the city as its harder to get a full time position. Would be an amazing place to live though.

If you're newly qualified you will end up in a slightly shitty school or basically a home tutoring service that skims off your wages. And you won't get health insurance (seguridad social). At least transport in Barcelona is very cheap, rent's less than England as well.

Looking at a couple of websites now. it seems there's plenty of private work in Barcelona, but the wages are generally quite low and its very difficult to find work during the summer months. Its definitely do-able but I wouldn't be making much money, which isn't a prime concern but I haven't really got a pot of savings to dip into should times get hard. I would imagine Berlin is much the same. I have heard it can be much more manageable to work in smaller towns and cities rather than big capitals.

In Germany and Scandinavia the teaching of English in schools is so good far fewer kids need extra classes.

In Spain, speaking English is mark of education and class, and is a prerequisite for lots of jobs, lots. And lessons aren't cheap, so you will essentially be helping private school kids and kids from rich background get a leg up. Teachers who actually teach English as a high-school subject must have a nightmare with half the class getting private tuition (and doing homework with assistance) and the other half not.

Paris just doesn't appeal to me for some reason.

Why not? A lot of people approach TEFL, in my view, with half a mind for the reaction people will give when they say where they're going. Living in a city for a year is nothing like going there as a tourist.

What's wrong with France or somewhere else Francophone? Teaching abroad, to an entire class who all speak the same language, is completely different to teaching a class in England of mixed nationalities, who have to use English to communicate amongst themselves. Kids and adults will look down on your teaching ability if you can't speak Spanish. Schools may not want to employ you if you can't speak Spanish, because then you can't teach or even substitute in low level classes (which are many). Also, you won't be able to talk at parents' evenings. Also, how are you going to sort out housing, utilities, bank account, N.I.E., and so on without spanish? I'm not saying it's impossible but it'll take a good few weeks when you should be looking for work.

Anyway, apologies if this all sounds very negative. If you can get started it's a good industry to work in (in a selfish way) - you don't work many hours, get lots of mornings off, etc. The reason I sound pessimistic is because I've become very suspicious of TEFL as a phenomenon, like I said, it's just teaching rich kids, often spoiled and obnoxious, often lovely, and businessmen. People who would never dream of using a PGCE to work in a private school are happy to buy themselves a qualification and go and do the equivalent abroad, because since it's abroad it doesn't count.

It's nice to have the time to reflect once you've been doing it a while. The job market is so fierce, when it comes to school's that are any way decent, that new teachers have to take what they can get. and that's how the cycle keeps on.

 

[Benny Bunter]

Thanks for your comments I really appreciate them, especially coming from someone with experience like yourself. A lot to chew on there but I'll be certainly taking what you've said into account, I'm really wary of making a wrong decision and ending up somewhere in a crap job.

Not really sure why I don't fancy Paris, its just that there are at least 10 other places I'd like to go first. But like you said, its totally different living somewhere than being on holiday there. I would imagine its quite easy to romanticise a certain place you'd like to visit, only to have your expectations dashed once you start working there.

I would want to be teaching adults, not kids in a school. I've worked as an LSA in a school in Gateshead for the past three years and I've definitely worked out that teaching kids is not really for me!

Germany's sounding good though. Anyone know what other cities apart from Berlin are good places to live?