Am I Too Old To Teach English Abroad

  In this TESOL review video Ray talks about how the 120-hour online TESOL course he took with ITTT helped him to learn the necessary skills to teach English as a foreign language. Ray recommends the course to anyone considering a career teaching English abroad or online. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Grammar, vocabulary and functions go hand in hand in this unit. Therefore as teachers we have to ensure that students are introduced to a new...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Until now, I have been an English teacher for 6 months. Before that, in 2016 I was a teaching assistant. That is my part-time job. And this is a journey even though I have not yet taken a TESOL class but I am still confident that I can become a teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tieu T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For the first half of the year, I was an assistant tutor for the preschool. I had very little contact with kids before so I was very confused at the time. I told the teacher that I couldn't make them obey. She is a master of special needs education. She told me to play with them and not to care about...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences TEFL Reviews & TESOL Reviews For ITTT, our community of students and alumni is the most important to us. That’s why we’d love to share what our course grads have to say! This will not only have others make a better decision in whether TEFL/TESOL is for them, but it will also help the ITTT community grow bigger and stronger! The below answers were given from real ITTT alumni who have agreed to share their thoughts for our blog section. Zeynep Sulaimankulova I am from and currently residing in Bishkek City, Kyrgyzstan. There was a contest organized by the US department and Peace Corps Volunteers. I have participated and won the competition. This is one of the reasons I found out about...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I started my journey as a TEFL tutor by having classes online. I just tried my luck and applied for some random ad postings on social media. A few days later, I received a call and it turned out to be a phone interview. I got the job soon after that phone call ended and later that day I was introduced to my trainer. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate John K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Next, I was trained for just one day about the tools, the materials and how to handle classes online. Soon, I just need to pass the demo and I’m good to go. Without any background in teaching, I managed my way to become a top tutor with just...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching is a very enjoyable job and can also be highly rewarding. I had the opportunity to learn that by having an eighteen-month religious experience in which I shared all my beliefs with the people in Ecuador. Even though it wasn’t a job I gave it my full commitment and that might be why I gained so much knowledge and life lessons from it. After returning home, I realized that I wanted to keep having that feeling in my life. I wanted to teach people. Now, the question was what to teach. After talking to some of my close family members and friends, I remembered an old dream that I had when I was younger: Being an English teacher. I started having a passion for this language since elementary school or maybe...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences My experience in teaching English to young learners is based in Japan. At the start of my time teaching, my student group consisted of two children of the same family. The siblings are a boy, age five, and a girl, age three, who participate equally in the English conversation sessions. Three main factors of this situation present difficult walls, preventing forward progress. Those three factors are distracting objects, counter-productive classroom philosophies, and personality conflicts. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, the English conversation takes place in the children's...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Teaching English abroad is one of the most interesting career paths one might take up. You get to move to a new country and even get paid for it! However, too many people are unsure whether teaching EFL is right for them. This article highlights 6 things you will miss out on if you don’t teach English abroad. When routine becomes a ball and chain, you know it’s time for something new. Moving to a new country to teach English is the perfect opportunity to discover a whole new world. Whether it’s cherry blossom season in Japan, Chinese New Year festivities in Taiwan, Christmas markets in Germany or the Carnival in Brazil - there are new experiences ahead of you on every corner! It’s not only large cultural...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I started my teaching career in 2016. I was an international student in London, doing a part-time job as a private Mandarin tutor for covering my living cost. In London, I was teaching Mandarin for young learners, age between 3-15-year-old from 2016-2018. After I came back to my country in 2019, I have started to teach English for Kindergarten students age between 3-8-year-old in a private English School. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nina S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I started to be a private Mandarin tutor, I did not have any teaching experience. The reason that made me decide to teach young learners was...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Have young English learners in other countries faced the same problems as those who are in Vietnam? Some may appear alike but the others may occur differently. Personally, each individual may engage in varied private troubles. On a small scale of this little essay, it is advised to discuss three main objective factors that the majority of young learners may encounter. They are passive learning style, less communication practice yet heavy-grammar structure, and attitude towards education. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nguyen V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the most controversial reasons that take the blame for...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences This is an interesting article written by one of our TEFL alumni who shares her thoughts on the importance of observed teaching practice for ESL teachers. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Roxanne L. When I think of having my teaching observed either by an inspector or by a teacher-in-training, I think of the Christmas song, which impels its listeners, “He knows when you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!” The reason is simple, when we know we are being scrutinized, we do a better job! In reality, students observe their teachers every day, and even without expertise in the field of education, students know implicitly a good teacher from a bad teacher. Still, having your teaching (or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The year was 1992, I was going to my first English class. I was so excited to begin. I’d always wanted to learn that language. The movies, music and everything I loved the most was in English. I was ten years old, my whole class was the same age, but the only thing I didn’t know was they were much ahead of me. The course placed me in a classroom with kids that were already speaking English since they were six years old. They spoke all the time and I couldn’t understand anything. I felt so disappointed and ashamed, I couldn’t even comprehend the difference between him and her. Even my teacher made fun of me. As a result, I got out of the course after lots of swollen eyes and arguments with my parents....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In between the lesson structures of teaching a five-year-old how to ride a horse and a 20-year-old did I first witness the relationship between age and abilities, attention spans, and structural needs of the different students. As German riding schools would follow a structured pyramid system to train a horse and rider from the ground up, so can teachers of a first or secondary language. Questions to discuss in this essay are, “What is early childhood development? What comes next?” and “How can a teacher encourage students through the different stages of development?”. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kate S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas October is here and Halloween isn’t far away! Whether you teach in your country or abroad, this festival is exciting as it has specific cultural features. In this blog post, we share five fun Halloween decor ideas for your ESL classroom. Get inspired, and feel free to encourage your students to help you decorate the classroom! If you prefer to celebrate in style, you can pick a particular topic to decorate all parts of your classroom. Also Read: "6 Great Ideas for Developing Vocabulary in English Learners" Use all time favorites - pumpkins, lanterns, web, and wreaths - as the basis of your decor. You can either DIY them or buy them at a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Music is an important element in our lives. When you’re on your way to work, you turn on the radio. When you’re too tired to do anything, you choose a song from your playlist and play it to make you feel relaxed. Human beings are emotional by nature. Music offers encouragement and the strength that one needs. Its importance cannot be taken for granted. It is a tool that connects people of all ages, nationality, and culture. It’s not odd to see a child listening to an old rock musician’s song. Also, it’s not surprising to see an Indian woman listening to Taylor Swift despite the differences in their cultures. I believe using music as a tool to teach English to foreign students have many advantages. This...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I am an English teacher. I am teaching beginner students who are aged from 3 years and a half to 8 years old. My students are very young learners who normally have shorter attention spans, and have not even completely mastered their mother tongue. They are generally amenable to fun games, singing, and drawing. For my students, they start from zero knowledge of English to a very basic knowledge that cannot be quickly or easily activated, but with these levels, success is easy to see and usually good fun. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yuan P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. From what I have learned at TESOL training and day...  [Read more]

Latrice Coates TEFL Information Alumni Experiences I am sure you’ve seen the sponsored posts floating around your social media feed of travelers in these candid, well-desired places with the caption “I quit my 9-5 to travel the world & so can you”. You immediately get excited, then you look at the stack of bills on your dining room table then your bank account, and then instantly become discouraged and continue scrolling through your feed. Ha...yeah… that was me two years ago too. But now, here I am.. I DID quit my federal 9-5 job to travel the world full time and I’m here to give you the scoop that most influencers don’t tell you about moving abroad... Most of us did not just walk into work one day, went to our...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences .As I learned from the 50-hour CTBE course, teaching business English always involves one-to-one mode. Imagine there is a student who is a high profile business person in China. He needs to learn English for his own Business work and he prefers one-to-one lessons. Then, what traits should an EFL teacher have in order to get this teaching job? In this essay, I would like to use this case to discuss some attributes that a businessman would seek in an EFL teacher and why he would demand those traits. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lisha L. First, the EFL teacher should have a broad knowledge of English language and some basic knowledge of the businessman’s first language. If the teacher...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What if students don’t like me? What if I forget my planning and ruin the whole lesson? What if I trip and fall flat on my face? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lizelle K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. What if this and what if that, these are the type of questions that go through a new teacher’s mind before they enter their first classroom. Stepping into a classroom for the first time can be overwhelming and a new teacher can easily feel lost when all the attention in the class falls on them. When studying to become an educator, be it for 3-year olds or 30-year olds, practical exposure to an active teaching environment...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Having spent more than 20 years as a marketing consultant, I decided to change career, to become an English language teacher. Hence, I took up the 120-hour TEFL course with ITTT, along with a specialised course in teaching young learners and another one in teaching business English. Even before I finished my TEFL course, I was offered a teaching job with a private school in Bangkok, Thailand. I have since been teaching kindergarten kids for about 8 months. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Albert P. Teaching kindergarten kids is definitely a lot more fun and less stressful than working for corporate clients in my previous job. I start work at 8:00 a.m. and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I would like to divide groups of learners into 4 categories: children (from 5 to 12 years old), teenagers (from 12 to 18 years old), adults (from 18 to 60 years old) and seniors (from 60+). I had the chance to teach all of those groups in some points of my life. The conclusion of this experience made me see the major difference in the abilities and motivation among those 4 different groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lara M. Children are a very nice audience when it comes to preparing fun exercises. They also don’t require detailed knowledge, because they are just at the beginning of their English experience. It is also very likely that they will not question teachers knowledge....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my opinion, a parent should learn English too. Learning English is a long trip for every kid. Taking China, for example, Chinese parents let their kids accept English language education when they are two or three years old even earlier. Chinese parents want their kids to get more vocabulary, fluently speaking, and get familiar with the English-communication environment. But this situation only happened in language training school which has foreign teachers(English native speakers) and use English during the class. It means that parents pay a lot of money to let their kids have the environment. But most kids only have one-hour of the environment per week. How does the environment work? How can the kids get...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Destinations The Chinese education market has been growing for the recent ten years. As the country is getting more and more open towards the rest of the world, the demand for proper English training becomes ubiquitous. Compared to the Russian system, where English starts to be taught in primary school, in China, they try to include English as early as the nursery. The difference in culture, language structure, and the lack of proper training of the school staff open the doors to expats. If you find a position for an ESL teacher in China, chances are you get into a kindergarten. Two years ago, I found a teaching job in a private bilingual kindergarten chain in China. There were two main branches: a multiple intelligences...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Kindergartners can range from as young as 1 and a half years old to 7 years old. These children have barely developed in themselves and their native language and are required to learn English as a foreign language. To achieve this, creativity is essential to make language learning as fun and enjoyable as physically possible. My new role as “Teacher Ellie” in a kindergarten school in Bangkok, Thailand has provided me with on the job experience of language teaching. This essay will explore what I have learned so far, including any problems I faced and how I overcame them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ellie H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas At a very early age, I was amazed by the sounds of English. I used to listen to songs in English while one of my parent’s friends was cleaning his car. He used to play them out loud and I wanted to know what the lyrics said. Several years later I had the chance to go to China to be part of a cultural exchange program to learn Chinese. My accepting interview was completely in English rather than Chinese or even my native language Spanish. All paperwork was done in either Spanish or Chinese depending on where I was. Either here in Latin-American or on the other side of the world, the medium of communication was English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andres G. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching has been my dream since a very young age! This should be the normal and most common answer when you ask a teacher about his childhood dream job. For me, It was absolutely the opposite. I have never seen myself teaching anybody even my closest friends and relatives! I have always considered myself an introvert. My best friend used to be a book I’m reading! I have never liked crowded places or getting to know new people! Going to a wedding or a party was more like a nightmare to me. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MANEL R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Anyways, all of this has changed when I helped a friend in...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The majority of children turning 5 years old attend kindergarten for two years in preparation for primary school. Some kids enter kindergarten earlier at the age of only four. This actually varies according from state to state and also from country to country. In China, most kindergartens combine childcare with teaching so that the children will develop physically, morally, and intellectually in a harmonious way to get ready for their formal school education. A good environment is assured for the kids to have a conducive place to learn actively. Teaching English in China can be overwhelming considering that English teachers are also assigned to teach kids as young as one year old or even younger. Chinese parents...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There are millions of English teachers out there and how do we know if they are teacher material or not. We don’t. Because every single person in this world has its own unique qualities that are lovable by someone. However, there are certain qualities that are needed if you are an English teacher, but they are just my own opinion. Besides you should be able to teach English in English, I think patience is the most important quality a teacher should have. You will experience from the most annoying kid to the most unreasonable adult. How can you handle them without causing a scene? Patience is all you need. Sometimes all you need to do is to talk to them patiently and not lose your temper. You will find it...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If you're a native language speaker, you've likely heard the phrase, “You can't teach an old dog new tricks”. There has been little evidence found to support this claim, but the belief persists. Many adult learners believe that it is too late for them to learn a new language. If you are teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language you may find yourself teaching a class of adult learners. Adult learners differ in many ways from young learners, and one such issue you may encounter is a doubt from the learners that they are capable of picking up a new language now that they are no longer children. Though the style of learning and the issues encountered will inevitably differ from those of young learners,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Deciding to be a teacher in a kindergarten can be intimidating for some inexperienced teachers in the beginning. In my case, I was quite unsure of teaching very young kids and would rather teach adults. However, I ended up in China and started to teach English in a kindergarten and it resulted to be easier than expected. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Samy H. I would say that the key point in order to be a good kindergarten teacher is establishing a good rapport with the kids since the beginning. Kids at this age are very young and some of them won’t like the teacher in the beginning. Some warmers, songs, and games with them will quickly solve the problem. In a few days, all the kids...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English, like any language, is first and foremost the mother tongue of a person. Languages often are influenced by or entirely derive from migratory groups of people. The original native tongue of France, for example, was Gallic. The Latinized French we know today was only born after centuries of Roman occupation and assimilation. More confusing still, the nation takes its name from the Franks, who were themselves a Germanic tribe which conquered the territory from Rome. Despite this, their native German tongue had an only minor influence on French, as Roman Gaul had a quite large population. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Cole T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]