Any total idiot chancers done TEFL & how did it go?

[yesitsme]

A girl who used to work in here follows her husband's career around the world TEFLing. 

I have a horrific image of kids in Borneo learning how to say 'Wot are U loike!' and going 'Nnnha-hahaha-hahah' at everything.

The closest I could describe it to you as is 'Imagine being taught English by Adele between songs'.

She's a royal pain in the arse (the girl and Adele) but she says she's making great money on Facebook.

Personally I can't stand her - the girl and Adele.

Hope this helps.

[MojoJojo]

Haha... that's mad. So....why does anyone bother getting the certificate?

A friends mum spent most of her life teaching English in Thailand and at some point decided to get a fake TEFL - claiming she got it at Brunel. She was well liked by the school and no one really cared, which was lucky as it was a while before someone pointed out to her that Brunel university is in London, not Bristol as she had been telling everyone.

[Straight Faced Customer]

The real danger is when you stop having positive reasons to stay and just have an absence of negatives ("better than working in a call centre back home").

Amen. I know one or two chaps like this and they are trapped in countries they absolutely despise.

Reading this thread has brought back memories of my own time in the TEFL service. I'd say it's a job to either do when you're young, or when you're middle-aged with enough achievement and money in the bank. If you're in-between, it may get tricky for the reasons Kishi's given. That is, unless you genuinely love the job and have the passion to research and climb the career ladder like the teacher trainer chap in this thread mentioned doing. Hats off to those people, I really do wish I was them, and they are easy to spot - they are the ones who work hard and don't actually preach about how much they love their jobs in person. It's the ones who try to crowbar their supposed passion in for TEFL teaching during conversation that you have to watch out for. They are usually dark, defensive souls...

Ironically, back then I always had the feeling I was too old for the entire lark, but year by passing year I realise just how young and naive I was through it all. I fell into TEFL like a bumbling Etonian fool, and got out just in time. I didn't even do it for that long, and nor did I put in that many classroom hours now that i think about it; my longest TEFL job was teaching in the morning, with an education office-based thing in the afternoon. So perhaps I'm not qualified to comment on matters.

I will say one thing, though - my life was heaven because of the students, and hell because of colleagues. As I wasn't working in academia or an international school, I was surrounded by more experienced teachers in their mid-30s who literally were those dark, defensive souls I mentioned above. And I met the majority of them while teaching in the UK, funnily enough. No South East Asia horror stories from this veteran! Watching them as a young 20-something did set off alarm bells about my future. I should thank them in a way.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I've finished the course bit now and just have the exams to sit, and am taking today off to revise and watch various videos when I caught this one where the teacher sings a song with her student:



I'm just disappointed it wasn't the Worzel Gummidge version.

[bgmnts]

I'd love to do tefl.

[Twit 2]

Well you can't, alright?

[Bazooka]

I've finished the course bit now and just have the exams to sit, and am taking today off to revise and watch various videos when I caught this one where the teacher sings a song with her student:



I'm just disappointed it wasn't the Worzel Gummidge version.

*Clicks contact fireman*

[Democracy manifest]

How in-depth a knowledge of grammar do you need to TEFL? I've always wondered how the lessons work, are you explaining things in depth when correcting a student's mistakes for example, or do you just tell them what they got wrong and what's right? Do you need to be very familiar with technical grammatical terms like "modal verbs", "dangling participle", "irregular adjective" etc?

[Bhazor]

So how much does it cost? I don't really care how much it pays because where I want to live you can rent an apartment for like $2000 a year. But I have a serious problem of being a horrible tight get and any kind of up front outlay puts me right off.

[Small Man Big Horse]

How in-depth a knowledge of grammar do you need to TEFL? I've always wondered how the lessons work, are you explaining things in depth when correcting a student's mistakes for example, or do you just tell them what they got wrong and what's right? Do you need to be very familiar with technical grammatical terms like "modal verbs", "dangling participle", "irregular adjective" etc?

From what I can gather it depends on the level of student you teach, it goes (very roughly) from beginners to intermediate to advanced, but the really complex grammar stuff (which I'm coping with but not enjoying in any way) is for advanced students only. I'm certainly planning to start with adult beginners, and move on once I've got a bit more experience.

[Democracy manifest]

Does anybody have any recommendations for books to read before doing a TEFL course (considering a TESOL or CELTA in particular)?

[Paul Calf]

A friends mum spent most of her life teaching English in Thailand and at some point decided to get a fake TEFL - claiming she got it at Brunel. She was well liked by the school and no one really cared, which was lucky as it was a while before someone pointed out to her that Brunel university is in London, not Bristol as she had been telling everyone.

She should be careful. Thailand is cracking down on fake qualifications.

http://www.advancedsecure.co.uk/news/fake-degree-leads-thai-jail/

[MojoJojo]

My friend would laugh at that, because he had experience of how most Thai crackdowns are for show.

Also, his mum died in 2009. I remember because he went out for her last few days about a week after his first child was born and had weird funny stories about Thai death customs. There were also some riots.

He hadn't been there since Christmas in 2004. Despite all his stories about how great Thailand is, he's quite clear that he has now "done" it and has no interest in going there again. I don't feel any need to question it.

(a bit off topic, sorry)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Apparently it costs nothing as you can claim to have done the course and then just carry on as if you have.

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

How in-depth a knowledge of grammar do you need to TEFL? I've always wondered how the lessons work, are you explaining things in depth when correcting a student's mistakes for example, or do you just tell them what they got wrong and what's right? Do you need to be very familiar with technical grammatical terms like "modal verbs", "dangling participle", "irregular adjective" etc?

Most people on my course didn't have much grammar knowledge. You'll pick it up as you go, and will be preparing your lessons in advance so most of the time you'll know if a particular thing is going to come up and can Google it if you're not sure. Also, depending on where you teach, a lot of the time they value the fact that you're a native speaker (i.e. have native pronunciation, a natural manner of speaking etc.) over technical knowledge - your students can get grammar knowledge from a book (and may have already learned it by rote in school) and are looking to you for help on making their English sound more authentic. If you're uncomfortable with grammar stuff, try and seek out jobs where it won't crop up as much, such as conversation classes, lower levels, or young kids.

Does anybody have any recommendations for books to read before doing a TEFL course (considering a TESOL or CELTA in particular)?

There might be some good ones, but honestly I wouldn't bother. I bought a couple and never read them, you learn best on the job.

TESOL/CELTA used to be free for the unemployed until 2013, it's £800 or so now, but generic TEFL qualifications are cheaper. Research the country you want to go to and what their required standard is - if they don't need CELTA/TESOL and it would really be a strain on your budge to do it, I would just go for something cheaper. There might be a difference in quality but as I said, you learn best on the job. If you care about the job a lot, do a cheap TEFL first, go somewhere that will accept it, save up the money and then get the CELTA/TESOL later.

[Democracy manifest]

That's slightly depressing but very reassuring. Thanks.

[saltysnacks]

Currently studying for one at the moment, want to get some teaching experience before I go to University.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Just found out I've passed my course, so the next step now is to find students. Right now I'm only planning to teach beginners or intermediate students online (kids or adults), I know there's loads of websites out there but does anyone have any recommendations? Someone was kind enough to pm me about Landi and I'm also aware of VIP Kids, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Bazooka]

Good stuff, pretty good summary of different companies around the world here: http://www.goodairlanguage.com/teaching-english-online-2/

[Small Man Big Horse]

Good stuff, pretty good summary of different companies around the world here: http://www.goodairlanguage.com/teaching-english-online-2/

Thanks so much for that, it's a great resource.

[stunted]

Has anyone here learned the language of their host country to a passible level while doing tefl? Then used that to get a non-tefl job?

Like if you were a qualified [any job] could you tefl until you learned [any language] so you could do that job in that country?