Thursday 26 January 2012

Teach English Abroad and See the World for Free

Are you adventurous? Do you want to travel the world, see far off places and experience different cultures and customs? If the answer to these questions is yes, and you'd also like to get paid for doing it, then becoming a teacher of English as a foreign language in another country or countries, could be just the job for you.

ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers are currently in great demand, and the more the English language gets used and accepted as being the world’s preferred language for commerce, the greater that demand will become. A TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate is all that you need to become a fully qualified ESL teacher anywhere in the world, and you don’t even have to speak the local language yourself. Of course it's always a common courtesy to be able to speak a few words, and if you do, you'll find that people will respect you even more. But when in class, nothing but English gets spoken.
TEFL teaching is not particularly difficult. As a native Brit you will have already acquired all the language skill that you need. Your job as an ESL teacher is to help your students with the vocabulary, their pronunciation, and their English conversational skills.

Debbie John and Richard Mann in Phatthalung
TEFL courses are available across the UK. You can also study remotely online. There are several qualifications available, from a 1 day course to 1 month course made up of 120 hours worth of study. Your course will also include first-hand experience of being in front of a class of foreign students, so that you do not feel too much like a fish out of water the first time you assume your professional role.

The great thing about being able to teach English abroad is that you get to live in the country of your choice, and there's no better way of learning about a country, how its people live, what the local customs are, and how day to day life unfolds, than through total immersion. But the fact that you can get paid for it too is so cool as to be almost obscene.


You'll find the pay good, in fact in many cases, by local standards, the pay will be excellent. But on top of that there will be many other benefits too.  These benefits will vary from country to country, but many of them are common. For example in some countries (South Korea is one) you'll be given free accommodation; in others you'll be given a generous living allowance. You will always get a certain amount of paid holiday time (again this will vary from place to place), and your weekends will be yours to travel and explore as you see fit. You will usually be given medical cover, and will often be given free local language lessons.

Once you are qualified to teach English language abroad, the world is your oyster, and if you're a wannabe globetrotter, there's no better occupation for you.  You only live once, (well, so most of us think), so you owe it to yourself to grab the opportunity.


 So why not go online now and find out more about getting your TEFL qualification and becoming an ESL teacher in a foreign country?