For many people wanting to experience a new culture in depth, TEFL teaching provides an ideal option. I am currently on my 4th TEFL assignment in two years and I don’t regret for a moment leaving my established career and taking the plunge.
Luckily I had a good basis for becoming a teacher. My previous consulting work meant most of my time was spent showing people how to improve their communication skills. TEFL teaching is not very different. In fact, I find concentrating on the ability of my students to communicate with me rather than their ability to speak English helps them to improve rapidly.
It must be said though that it is not for everyone. If you are thinking about venturing into the world of TEFL but you are not quite sure if it is for you or not, you will want to consider the following.
Would you teach in your home country? Would you teach if you weren’t getting paid?
Many people are motivated solely by the travel but teaching is a real profession – and the impact you can have on your students should not be underestimated. I have been a student in a few language classrooms now and it is one of the most difficult things you can try to learn. It takes nothing for the teacher to wipe out all confidence you ahve in yourself. Likewise, learning a little language increases your self-confidence incredibly. If you are not actually interested in teaching, don’t consider TEFL. There are other ways to work and travel.
Likewise, if you are doing it for the money. Wanting to earn money is definitely not wrong but again, consider your students. Even in countries that pay their TEFL teachers little or nothing, often the financial commitment for the student is quite high – as is the importance of learning English.
I volunteer taught in Thailand in various schools affected by the tsunami. In that area, anyone not able to speak English was going to have a lot of difficulty getting a job. The better their English the greater their chance of promotion to customer facing roles – this meant better pay, better conditions and better tips. We weren’t getting paid to teach but we couldn’t take our work lightly at all either.
The second consideration is how you will cope living and working a foreign environment. I have often heard people advice against living overseas if you are “set in your ways”. My experience however, is that many people who are “set in their ways” are very good at keeping a routine in a foreign country and manage just fine. In fact, they are more likely to find their groove – seeking out like minded ex-pats, finding their favourite restaurant chain or joining an international church or social group. Providing you are in or near a large city, finding ex-pat communities is possible anywhere now.
There are things that will be different though and you do need to think about how well you can accept things done differently to the way you are used to. Can you be open-minded about different traditions and cultural view-points? Personally, I still cringe when my female Korean workmate openly compares our looks and favours her own as being prettier, more beautiful – but I bite my tongue and laugh it off. If you can’t laugh it off you are going to spend a lot of time crying!
You have to be willing to let a lot of things just slide by but you also have to know the importance of your own values and hold them up as untouchable, regardless of where you are living. I call it compromising without compromising myself! For example, I happily remove my nose piercing to go to work but I won’t accept lewd comments just because I am a Western woman.
The bottom line is that you will never know for certain if TEFL teaching is for you unless you try it. Choose your country and your location carefully to give yourself the best chance of enjoying it. If you are into the night life and parties, don’t choose a rural village. If you want to be able to shorts and tank tops, don’t go to a conservative country. But most importantly, if you don’t want to teach – or if you think just turning up each day is enough – don’t do it. You will be a teacher first, a traveller second.