Educational

Travel and teach English worldwide. This is a growing market. There are so many opportunities out there in the big wide world.

Imagine living abroad for 3 months, 6 months or even years. Getting paid to travel. Experiencing travel like you have never experienced before. Making a new life skipping from country to country. The experiences are enriching in every way possible and totally invaluable.

The people you meet are amazing, sometimes a little weird. Some of the countryside you see is breathtaking. The food can be exotic. It is what you make of it. However be prepared it is addictive!

I would encourage anyone who is interested to look into it further. You do not need to be a teacher and you do not need to have a degree. If you have a good command for English grammar, writing and speaking seriously consider this as an option.

Don't be the person saying I wish I had of seen the world. This is a great way to do it. Deciding whether you should have a career change before you retire well this could be your country change! Or would you rather age before your used by date and sit at home and tell the stories of the hip replacements, the grandchildren, the great grandchildren. The option is yours to choose.

There are many courses in Australia that you can do. They vary in terms of time, cost and quality. You just need to work out what will suit you. I did my training via Australasian Training Academy. They offer:
1. Advanced TESOL Course
This course is 120 hours which includes 5 day in class Foundation Course + 1 elective.
This will give you your international teaching license
2. Professional TESOL Course
This course is 240 hours which includes 5 days in class Foundation Course + 3 electives.
Both of these course are really for the person who desires to travel and teach conversation English internationally.
3. Professional TESOL Diploma Course
This course is 600 hours which includes 5 day in class Foundation Course + 9 electives.
This course is for people who love language teaching, and wish to make a longer-term career from teaching English and TESOL administration.

Finding employment is easy especially in China. I had my license in my hot little hands and went on the internet to start applying for positions. I applied for 15 positions and within 4 days I had the hard choice of deciding which of the 14 contracts I had received would I accept!

There are so many organizations with courses in major cities. The electives are done online. They are 60 hours each. However if you are committed it will not take you 60 hours/ elective. Do your research.

It is easy to get a position in Asia. Not all countries require a degree. Some do. But where ever you do your TESOL training they will tell you this. So if you don't have a degree don't apply for those countries. It really will not limit your choices.

You don't need to go via an agency, you can negotiate directly with the college. When you get a contract send it to where you did your training. They will be able to tell you if it is legitimate or not. When you have some experience up your sleeve you can negotiate for more $$$.

My contract is for 10 months. I have 20 teaching hours from Monday to Friday every week. I get paid a monthly salary. So even if I don't do the 20 hours I still get paid, however if I do extra I get paid overtime. At the completion of my contract I receive a completion bonus. The school provides me with a furnished, air conditioned apartment with kitchen and private bathroom. They also pay for the utilities. I paid for my airfare up front however after 3 months they reimburse 50% and the other 50% at the completion of my contract. I also receive 4 weeks paid vacation. I paid for my entry visa and the school paid for my working visa. It's a good deal really!

I have been here now for 3 months but I wish I had of done it earlier. There was no point being stuck in a rut. Life is short!

China accounts for 20% of the world population. So why don't the rest of the world speak Chinese? That task would be too big in the developed world as we know it today.

So why do the Chinese learn to speak English? Chinese businesses need to do business in the West and the language difference is too great. Hence they learn to speak English. It is very confusing if you try to translate word for word.

In one of my classes I showed a picture and asked the students to tell me what they thought was happening. One of the students said that there was 2 girls and a guy at a party and the guy was having a drink. I then said that it was a girl to which my student said that if it was a girl than she was ugly. I said that it can't be a guy because he doesn't have an Adams Apple. They were quite amused by this. What is an Adam's apple? In Chinese they call it a throat knob!

Can you understand where I'm coming from?

There is very little English information in Tai'an. It used to frustrate me. Now I accept it. I'm going to Jinan for the weekend next weekend. As this is the capital city of the province I'm hoping there is more English information.

Chinese names are difficult at the best of times to write and pronounce. Some people are kind to the foreigners and have an English name.

When a baby is born the parents pick the child's name based on something beautiful. When the students choose their English names they choose them for all sorts of reasons, some you would never be able to guess why.

They then decide for some reason or another that they don't like their English name so they change it. Some of my students have called themselves unusual names like October, Iceman, Genius etc. Others have chosen names such as Beckham, Giggs, Rinaldo. Those I recognize. Then you have the names we recognize like Jackson, Al, Jack, David, Peter, Bruce, Fiona, Sophia, Victoria etc.

Those that don't chose an English name I call by their number. I have 250 - 275 Students, I don't not have a chance of ever remembering their name or number. So I have a seating plan that I refer to. Very impersonal I know.

I was fortunate when I first arrived I only had 10 Students and one classroom to attend on the campus that I live on. The classroom is very basic with a blackboard, chalk and a wet cloth to clean it with.

The desks are timber and appear to be very uncomfortable. There are no curtains so viewing anything would be difficult. Not that it mattered because I don't have any equipment to use anyway.

This lasted for 2 weeks because these students then went to Singapore on a scholarship.

I was still fortunate though as my next class I had 12 students and one classroom to attend on the campus that I live on. This classroom was in a different building and on the fourth floor. I was excited to learn it was called the interactive learning centre (ILC).

My students were Chinese Teachers who were going to Brazil. The Electric Power Company is opening a power plant in Brazil and these teachers need to go there to teach the Brazilians how to use the plant. I was teaching them how to read English.

The ILC was very impressive. It was set up by Chisholm Institute. It had computers down both sides of the room, a ceiling drop screen, data projector and a host of technology. I was very excited believing I could use the computers in the classroom for activities. I soon found out that they weren't linked to the internet. The only resource I was able to use was the laptop and projector for watching English movies.

In May all my good fortune came to an abrupt end. Two of the teachers had decided to break their contract and go back home. I inherited one of the teachers classes. This meant that instead of my luxurious life of 1 class, 1 classroom on the campus in which I lived and a max of 12 students I now had 5 classes, 5 different classrooms on the new campus and an average of 55 students per class.

The new campus is a 25 minute bus ride. The school provides the bus and also pays for you to take the bus. The facilities at the new campus are much superior. The classroom has a blackboard, chalk and duster, TV, DVD and CD player. Still no curtains. However we have watched movies and it doesn't pose that much of an impact.

My classrooms are all in the same building and all on the fourth floor. I sometimes wish that they had installed lifts. But hey the exercise is good for you!

It was Christmas 2007, a friend I had met whilst travelling in Asia in December 2006 had sent me an email talking about his upcoming backpacking adventure. I would really have loved to join him but the timing was all wrong. I had only just come back from Brazil and needed to save some money before I went travelling again.

This got me searching the net on places to go. Whilst searching one of those annoying pop-ups caught my eye "Travel the world and get paid". This sounded like a fantastic solution. No need to save! I looked into it further. Before I knew it I had signed up to do a TESOL (Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages) course. By the 11 January the information had arrived.

I was focused. I saw this as an opportunity to travel and also get out of an employment situation I was most unhappy in. I had signed up to do the Foundation Course, Tutoring, Business English, Hospitality and Catering and Elementary.

I spent every night doing 3 hours of study. My weekends were consumed with completing this study. I had given myself to Easter to complete the course. By the 14 February I received a valentines present, - My Teaching License. It arrived in the mail on the 19 February. That night I got on the internet and started applying for jobs. I applied for 15 positions across the world. By the 23 February I had 14 contracts.

Now I had the task of deciding which job to take. I completed a spreadsheet and got down to 6. I then made my final decision. That contract fell over. Within 1 hour of that falling over I was in contact with my second choice and the green light was on. I was off to China. OMG what have I done!!!