Is TEFL for me and can I make it work my way?
Posted: Tue May 19, 2015 12:50 am
I've just sold my company in New Zealand and I now want to travel and teach English in a few different places in the world. I'm a total novice with regard to TEFL but it's something I've been wanting to do since I was a teenager (I'm 34 now). My preferred destinations are Mexico and Guatemala as I speak Spanish and I have been to those places before and loved them. I am a British citizen so eventually would like to teach in the EU if TEFL is something I feel I'd like to pursue further.
I don't have a degree and have very little teaching experience. I used to be a bank manager and have some experience of delivering training sessions to staff, plus I owned a company in New Zealand which operated 3 backpacker's hostels so I feel I may have something to offer in terms of business English, given my management experience in tourism, negotiating contracts, financial services, etc.
I'm not sure if I should do a CELTA course as it is not only expensive, but I have some doubts I would be suited to the course as although I consider myself to be an intelligent person, some social and domestic issues in my childhood prevented me from furthering my own education and I've relied heavily on learning through my work environment to further my career instead of learning academically. I've heard the CELTA can be very demanding even for university graduates and that scares me a bit.
What I'd ideally like to do is to take an online TEFL course with some practical classroom aspects to it. I have read that it may be possible to teach in Mexico and Guatemala without a CELTA or Trinity certificate and I could do that to start to gain enough experience to teach in Europe where they are (I'm told) a fair bit more demanding with qualifications and experience.
Does this sound possible or am I simply designing an unlikely plan in my head to circumnavigate the issues I'm worries about?
PS: I'm looking at an i-to-i course for my TEFL certificate...
http://store.onlinetefl.com/tefl-course ... hours.html
Does anyone know if they're any good, or can you recommend an online course that can also give me classroom experience in NZ?
I don't have a degree and have very little teaching experience. I used to be a bank manager and have some experience of delivering training sessions to staff, plus I owned a company in New Zealand which operated 3 backpacker's hostels so I feel I may have something to offer in terms of business English, given my management experience in tourism, negotiating contracts, financial services, etc.
I'm not sure if I should do a CELTA course as it is not only expensive, but I have some doubts I would be suited to the course as although I consider myself to be an intelligent person, some social and domestic issues in my childhood prevented me from furthering my own education and I've relied heavily on learning through my work environment to further my career instead of learning academically. I've heard the CELTA can be very demanding even for university graduates and that scares me a bit.
What I'd ideally like to do is to take an online TEFL course with some practical classroom aspects to it. I have read that it may be possible to teach in Mexico and Guatemala without a CELTA or Trinity certificate and I could do that to start to gain enough experience to teach in Europe where they are (I'm told) a fair bit more demanding with qualifications and experience.
Does this sound possible or am I simply designing an unlikely plan in my head to circumnavigate the issues I'm worries about?
PS: I'm looking at an i-to-i course for my TEFL certificate...
http://store.onlinetefl.com/tefl-course ... hours.html
Does anyone know if they're any good, or can you recommend an online course that can also give me classroom experience in NZ?