tefl (1 Viewer)

[clarence worley]

i was thinkin about taking off for 6 months or a year and doin a bit of teaching english as a foreign language. i have had good look around but cant seem to settle on any one way to go about doin it.if anybody who has done this and got any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RSJ]

Don't do the i-to-i courses. They're shite. If you have a degree go get a CELTA cert. They do them as month long intensive things or night courses. They're the job for getting the jobs.

 

[ernesto]

Don't do the i-to-i courses. They're shite. If you have a degree go get a CELTA cert. They do them as month long intensive things or night courses. They're the job for getting the jobs.

seconded. went round to me local school of english and yer man told me that (think he may be a relation of (Mumblin Deaf) Ro's).

 

[treesurgeon]

I'm doing this in Korea at the moment, teaching at a Tourism College.

I don't know about other countries, but all that is required in Korea to teach at basic language institutes (businesses that offer native speaker instruction) is a BA degree. Usually, these jobs are shit. To have a chance at a better job, it's recommended to have a TEFL certificate (which can be picked up in Ireland in about a month) or an MA/Phd. If you don't have any of these, don't even try, immigration will laugh you out of the country. Some people have come over from Ireland teaching on tourist visas...it's a nice life for a while, but the three/four days of jailtime probably isn't worth it...

i-to-i or whoever they're called...the poster above is correct. They pretty much just dump you at a random school and you are primed by be screwed (often literally) by the boss. The best way, I reckon, is to shell out for a ticket, go to the country you're interested in on a tourist visa...have your resumes, college diplomas and transcripts ready and just visit school and recruitment agencies yourself. Saves you a lot of money in the long run, and ensures a great deal more job satisfaction than you would otherwise have.

Korea is probably the best bet for money/quality of life/ease of getting over cultural shock...though most Irish people here tend to cope with it by developing nationalistic tendencies they never thought they had and trading off on the "We behave like cunts but least we not English!" type of aggressive charm. It's a genuinely interesting country and, if it wasn't for the typhoon we're currently experiencing, I'd recommend it 100%.

But I will say this...if you have no desire at all to teach, to put in some work, don't waste your time and the time and money of potential customers. Go sit on a beach in Thailand for half the money it would cost to set up shop here. So many people are here "for the craic", which apparently translates as not turning up for work on time and being a pisshead. Which is why foreigners don't have a great reputation here.

I think someone on here was teaching tefl in Japan recently...

Any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[clarence worley]

mmmmm. so basically there is a lot of dodgy ways of doin this. im planning on taking off by myself so a recognised course is what id be after. also, i only have qualifications in engineering, does this count me out?. do i defo need a ba?

 

[cpr]

pm'd you about this.

The CELTA course is really difficult, I did mine 2 years ago and it was easily the worst month of my life. I would prefer to do the leaving and 3 years of college again than repeat those four weeks...


whimper..

 

[cpr]

but you need it if you wanna find a job so....