Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Puwang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Linyi Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
I believe that teaching English to non-English speakers is a logical “next step” for me. I have emerging interests both in the U.S. and in Europe and am preparing to spend time more productively in both places. In the U.S., there are many Hispanic workers who surely are eager to learn English; in Europe, opportunities abound. As a form of preparedness for this new venture, I have a background that reflects a high degree of diversity. I am an immigrant’s child, so my ancestry is multiethnic; as a diplomat’s son, I have traveled the world. The countries I lived in provided a base from which I was able to visit many cultural landmarks and places of interest, so my exposure to widely varying cultures and languages is nothing short of remarkable. I have basic speaking and reading knowledge of both Greek and French and have taken German and Spanish classes. My wife, also well-traveled, has been teaching Spanish and French for many years. I have over ten years’ experience teaching U.S. history online at the college level for university, community college and dual enrollment students. I provide students support material (guides, tips, etc.), written coursework, and constructive feedback. I also have taught remedial English to a classroom of schoolchildren and have had to manage face-to-face classes as both a substitute public school teacher and a university instructor filling in for someone else. I am a certified rater in English language arts for the Educational Testing Service. On top of that, I have several years' experience in tutoring, both in person and online. One challenge for me as a teacher will be to provide activities that hold attention and engage the students. At the same time, I think that the most fun—and counteractive to a monotonous--aspect of teaching language is topic selection for discussion because there is no limit and students can easily provide topics of interest to them. Overall, I aim to show equal respect for every student, displaying forbearance and compassion, yet remaining unbiased in order to counter favoritism. Students have different linguistic challenges that I will help them overcome as needed, while fostering trust among them. English is still the “lingua franca” around the world, but cultural sensitivity continues to need stoking in English-speaking countries, particularly the United States, a desired destination for many immigrants. I have heard fellow Americans, while overseas, call our country “the world”—and in many ways it is a self-contained world—but we can’t continue to subscribe to this notion with globalization so entrenched. The United States and other “First World” countries have been targets of anger and jealousy by people who consider themselves disenfranchised. Americans, especially, claim to be inheritors of the loftiest ideals in history, but sometimes do not exemplify them. English-speaking countries need to maintain the standards day to day that reflect their ideals so that we can inspire others away from their antipathy toward our privileged status on the world stage. One way to do this is to continue to teach the English language in a professional, yet compassionate, way and ITTT provides a means to do so.
