Five brutally honest and unashamedly selfish reasons to teach English as a foreign language
Monday, 31st May 2010
There are many reasons for teaching English, from the highest motivations of helping our fellow man, to the lowest common denominator of cheap beer abroad.
I will not pretend to be nobler than I am. In truth, I’m the least selfless person I know: even as a child, I had an irresistible urge to jump on other children’s sand castles. I’m therefore not going to present any humanitarian reasons to teach English abroad, because no doubt you’re already familiar with them. There are indeed many ‘warm fuzzies’ involved in this career, but out of sheer stubbornness I won’t address any of them. Instead, I’m going to concentrate on what’s in it for No.1.
I should point out that, in the same way motivations to teach English can differ greatly, so, too, can the reasons for learning it. Teaching children in Africa as part of a humanitarian organisation, for example, will clearly bring different benefits to the community than giving free lessons in a holiday destination, where speaking English often means better job prospects - particularly in touristic areas like Playa del Carmen, where bars, hotels and restaurants are sprouting from the concrete in a shower of rubble and hardhats quicker than the iguanas can run away. Conversational English can mean a better professional career, or simply better tips, or better sales. On the subject of which, I recall suffering many a stilted exchange with street sellers in Goa, who were unable to communicate with more than the stock phrases of ‘Lovely jubbly,’ ‘ASDA price,’ and – to my horror – a defiant, if somewhat confused declaration of ‘I’ll rip you off!’ (Someone must have played a nasty joke on him, but I hadn’t the courage to advise a change of advertising technique.)
If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably already decided to risk your savings and sanity for a CELTA. Or perhaps you’re tempted, but think it’s too expensive, or impractical, or suspect, deep down, you’re not so much running towards something, but away from something, i.e. your life/wife/career/impending old age. If so, here, as promised, are Five Brutally Honest and Unashamedly Selfish Reasons to reconsider.
1.Unlike ‘normal’ teaching, I can almost 100% guarantee your adult students will be interested in every word you say. Having worked with children, I can almost 100% guarantee they will not be listening at all, or will change the clocks behind your back to end the lesson sooner, or will have an i-Pod headphone secreted in their left ear. This eagerness to learn will not only give you a position of power and respect you may sometimes doubt you’ve earned – particularly if, like me, you’re hungover, feel stupid because you can’t speak a second language yourself, or only recently found out what an infinitive is - but also means you will be offered things like free drinks, discounted meals, and entry into night-clubs. One fellow teacher was offered complimentary accommodation by one of her students, and only left because of a misunderstanding with the resident cat. Cats don’t need to speak English, or indeed to communicate with anything more than a disdainful look, so of course it wasn’t going to cut her some slack for knowing the sentence structure of a supposition.
2.If you’re horribly competitive, this is as good a way as any to get your kicks. Now, the average CELTA course is largely populated with good-hearted, genuine individuals who want only to do their best and teach as well as they possibly can, whilst providing each other with support and motivation. (Their backgrounds also suggest an innate benevolence: my fellow trainees included social workers, primary school teachers, charity workers and the like.) But then you might also meet someone like me, who is about as benevolent as a loaf of bread, and will try to out-do you in every sense of the word - from creating a better lesson plan, to stealing chairs from your classroom, to pointing out I have more mosquito bites so my blood must naturally be of a higher calibre than everyone else’s. Don’t be ashamed of your Machiavellian instincts, especially when it comes to garnering the students’ affections. You will be told repeatedly ‘you’re here to teach; this isn’t a popularity contest’, but feel free to ignore this, because it’s fun to be ‘the popular teacher’, and you know it.
3.Lessons can be as fun and exciting as you wish. Or, if you are peculiar like me, as strange as you want them to be. Yes, the students are there to learn, and learn they must, but it doesn’t all have to be about scratching a pen up and down a whiteboard and listening to CDs of bad actors pretending to book a room at a hotel. Following the CELTA guidelines, the first five minutes of a lesson are yours to introduce the day’s topic as you feel fit. This can include music, stories, mime…look at my photograph of the drawing I used to introduce the subject of ‘urban myth,’ and you’ll see you can get away with more than you imagine.
4. It’s cheap to live out there…wherever ‘there’ might be, as long as it’s not Tokyo or North London. Plus, your friends and ex-colleagues will be horribly jealous of you, which secretly we all enjoy, don’t we? And let’s face it, the weather is better in Honduras/Spain/Brazil. Unless you’re the type of person who plans on teaching in Russia or Poland, which is surprisingly common, I’ve found - and for no apparent reason – amongst former civil servants. This makes me suspect there’s something either tax- or espionage-related to their decision, but that’s anyone’s guess.
And finally…
5.Was it your childhood dream to work in an office? I thought not. Most likely it wasn’t your childhood dream to teach, either, but for many it has become an adulthood dream, and one easy enough to realize. There are no age limits, no previous experience required, all that is needed is a little courage, a sense of adventure, and a passport. And of these three attributes, I can only honestly say I possess the latter, which demonstrates just how highly qualified you are for the job. So what are you waiting for?
Tags: tesol, celta, language, tefl, english
Posted by Georgina Newcombe 2010-05 under Experience Cultures,
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Posted by donna on 05/03 at 05:00 PM
i absolutely loved this article. this is so much more what i would hope for...and, indeed was what i was going to do...in the way i experience teaching english abroad. i want to enjoy it and i am not the kind of person to be bored or to bore others during a lesson. you have just encouraged that part of me and i thank you for that.
Posted by mark rudd on 08/02 at 09:09 PM
The title of your article alone made me want to read on. And it's probably the only fun (and funny) thing I've read about teaching English abroad. So thanks for that. Been considering a midlife career change into EFL but reading forums had made me wonder whether I'd be leaving one poe-faced career for another. Life's too short an' all that...
And because you sound honest (and unbiased, I assume), I wondered if I could ask you a couple of questions that maybe you could answer to the best of ability/honesty?
Are some CELTA courses better than other? I'm thinking of doing the Budapest IH course. I've got a family connection to Hungary, and it would be a good opportunity to dig up some family dirt when I'm there- at least when I've finished the allegedly gruelling course . On its own website, Budapest IH blows its own trumpet as being one of the best. Have you heard that? (or heard about other centres being 'one of the best places'? eg Barcelona?)And why would it be so good? Grades? Its network?
Which leads onto the second main question? Do you think I'm better off doing the course in the country I'd like to teach? Or even the city? (I'm thinking Shanghai or Rio at the moment?) Or perhaps not doing a CELTA, but a TEFL course because its in the place where I want to work? Do you have an opinion on that?
Thirdly, if you do the CELTA course, but then delay actually applying for jobs for a while (say 6 months to a year), is that a problem? Could the qualification go stale/out-of-date?
And finally, I'm 39. Is that too old to be starting off on a EFL career? Of course, you're as old as you feel, (you sound young, but you could be in your sixties, I dunno) but do you think (have you come across or heard of) there is any age discrimination/age caps at educational systems?
I hope this all makes sense. And sorry if the questions sound like a round of machine-gun bullets. But any advice on any of the above would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Cheers, mark
Posted by Laura Harrison on 08/10 at 11:29 AM
Hi Mark,
Thanks very much for the comment.
CELTA courses are carefully regulated by Cambridge ESOL so the standard of teaching should be the same at every training centre, and in fact there are certain requirements that centres must fulfill in order to run the courses in the first place. Inevitably though, there will always be some schools that offer better facilities and have more experienced staff than others. In my experience, the team at Budapest were always very professional, and in fact it remains one of our most popular schools.
As you mentioned, the school there is a part of the International House network, which can have two benefits, Firstly, these schools do still have quite a prestigious reputation internationally, and secondly, it can be handy when it comes to looking for work. Anyone who trains at an IH school will get regular updates about vacancies worldwide with IH.
In terms of whether you should do the course in the country you’d like to teach in, it isn’t essential by any means but can be beneficial in that you have increased access to local job vacancies that might come up. Training in that country will also have given you an insight in to any specific linguistic or cultural difficulties that people of that country might have when it comes to learning English, which in one sense gives you a head-start when you start teaching there.
I would say that if you want the most flexibility in terms of where you can work and in what capacity, the CELTA or Trinity Cert TESOL are still the best courses to go for as they remain the most internationally recognised qualifications. If you are considering a long-term career in TEFL, it is also advisable that you get one of these two specifically - to go on to do diplomas etc you are often required to have done the CELTA or Trinity Cert TESOL.
In response to your question about waiting 6 months to apply for a job, I think that this should be fine, in fact that’s exactly what I did, and I didn’t have any trouble getting work!
Lastly, 39 is no age! TEFL attracts a massive variety of backgrounds and age-groups, including an increasing number of people in their 50s and 60s. I don’t think that you would experience any problem whatsoever with regard to this.
I hope that this answers all your questions, if not please feel free to drop me another email.
Laura
Posted by mike on 08/25 at 03:57 AM
I am in my late 60's retired for 3yrs and would like to teach conversational english preferably in the far east. I am an ex Managing Director, an ex CEO and at one time a General Manager. I have I feel a lot to offer. I am married to a British/Filipina (I am English) and we really would like to move on and be useful. What do you think?
Posted by Laura Harrison on 08/31 at 09:36 AM
Hi Mike,
Thanks very much for commenting.
I'm sure that what you hope to do is feasible, there continues to be a huge demand for English teachers in that part of the world, and with your experience you'd be able to teach both General and Business English.
There are lots of courses that you could do to prepare you, ranging from introductory weekend courses up to four week courses that give you a universally recognised qualification.
Below is a link to the Cactus TEFL website, where you can find listings of courses worldwide.
http://www.cactustefl.com/
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any further questions that you have.