Ask A Korean

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Hi and welcome to another live session from ITTT. My name is Linda and I'm here today to talk about teaching English in South Korea. Let me just show you today's topic so that everybody who's joining knows what's happening today. Today we're talking about teaching English in South Korea and I'm so excited about this topic and it's actually been a super requested topic every time I do a live session. I've been living in Korea for almost six years and I have been teaching a few different classes. I have done summer camps and winter camps and teaching kids and teaching adults, teaching business English, teaching conversation, teaching full-time at a kindergarten and elementary school...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have had the opportunity to study several foreign languages, some in a formal setting, some self-taught. Through my personal experiences learning other languages, I have developed some insights into language learning. I would like to describe some of my experienc| ITTT | TEFL Bloges, and some of my thoughts on what I have learned from them, and from this course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kim T. My first experience in language learning began at age fourteen with French; by the time I graduated high school I had studied French, German and Spanish as part of my curriculum. The method in use then was ALM, so as a result, I learned language patterns very quickly. However, the only...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas What better way to teach English than with music! Here are some great tips on how to use songs in an ESL classroom for younger beginners! Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences If you are interested in teaching English in Italy, you should be aware of the issues highlighted in this post. This article covers the most common problems students in Italy face when learning English. Linda Dunsmore Budget and Salary Destinations Spain is a popular destination for EFL teachers wanting to teach English in Europe. If you are interested in joining other...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Cultural capital according to French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is the gathering of knowledge, skills, and cultural traits that a person obtains from their personal, social and educational environment (Bourdieu, 1991, p. 14). The educational system in a Korean society differs from the learning practices in Western society. Asian societies such as South Korea, prioritize a teacher-centered learning style where students are expected to respect teachers and not solicit too much information since communication is often indirect and implicit. This group-focused thinking is a main cultural learning difference from Western teachings where individualism is more emphasized and students can freely interact with the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most of the teachers like to arrange the seating arrangement. The aim is the only one which is to make sure all the students focus and understand what is going on in class. Even no arrangement is perfect but yet it helps. As a teacher in a lower primary in one of the international schools in Indonesia, I do like to arrange my students’ seats. With English as a daily basis language and students are from different Asia countries with mixed language ability, the seating arrangement is one of the keys. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Johanna S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For daily, I prefer my students to seat in a group...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Hello everyone, how are you doing? Linda from ITTT, back again with another live session. I’m super excited to be here today to talk about this exciting topic, teaching English abroad and how it enhances your career prospects. I'm just going to wait for a couple more people to join, you know how it usually works. Once we are a good sized group of people we can start diving into this topic. If you can hear me and if you can see me please leave a comment. We are live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time, so wherever you're watching from just leave a quick hi or hello in the comment section and also let me know where you are watching from. I am in South Korea about an hour...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. In high school, I was inspired by my English teachers and the way they were able to make material interesting and motivating. I remember telling myself that I would not be the person who changes the world, but perhaps as a teacher, I would be able to inspire the person who would. From the beginning, my motivation was to help others in a meaningful way. My goal was to improve the lives of others. When I entered university, I found myself studying philosophy to become a professor in the future. However, the reality of being a university professor was a lot of presenting and publishing, with very little teaching. Because teaching was my goal, I decided to leave my Ph.D....  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Hi and welcome to another live session. My name is Linda from ITTT and I'm back again this week, who would have thought? No, we're actually pretty consistent with our live events. So we are going live twice a week. Me once and then my colleague Liza once. I’m so happy to be here today guys, let me know if you can see me and if you can hear me, and also where you're watching from. Just drop hi I’m watching from so and so into the comment section, that would be really great. I'm super excited to be here again today. Normally I go live on Fridays, well Friday mornings in South Korea. But today I'm going live on Thursday because we are actually going into the Lunar New Year...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Budget and Salary TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hi guys, Linda here from ITTT with another live session. Super excited to be here again, thanks so much for tuning in today and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks so much for the download, we really appreciated it. We turn all of our live sessions into podcast episodes and you can find them on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Just search for the TEFL and TESOL Podcast by ITTT and you will find all our episodes there. Hi Tiana, thanks so much for tuning in today. How are you? I'm so excited to be here again and I think today's topic is going to be really interesting for people who want to...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences My teaching experience began in a whirlwind. I graduated from college a semester ahead of my class, married, lived with my husband in my sister’s basement for two months, and moved to South Korea. We had no idea what to expect. Sure, we’d read the blogs, talked to the director of our school, and even talked with people we know who had lived and taught in Korea. It still didn’t fully prepare us for what to expect, how amazing it would be, and how hard. We lived in South Korea for 19 months teaching three through seven year olds daily and first through third graders several times each week. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Sarah S. When we first moved to Korea, our head teacher had to teach us how...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Hi, I am back for another live session this week. My name is Linda from ITTT. I took a break last week, I was traveling a little bit in Korea, not too far but I got to enjoy the cherry blossoms. That's why there was no live session from me last week. But I'm back this week and I'm super excited. Today we're going to have a Q&A session, so you guys can ask me questions about TEFL and TESOL, teaching abroad, teaching online, whatever you want to know about. So something a bit more casual, let's have a chat. I would like to get to know you guys better and you can get to know me, ITTT and TEFL. If you can see me and hear me please drop a hi or something into the comment box so that I know that everything is working...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Women from all backgrounds are intrigued by the thought of living and working in a different country abroad. ✅ However, many of them feel reluctant and ask “Is it safe for single women to teach English abroad?” The answer is: Absolutely - and this live event we explore some of the best countries for solo women to teach English abroad. Christian Davey Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences As with any country, there are certain pros and cons about teaching English in Taiwan. ✅ If you consider the following points and do your own...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information oday’s exciting topic is the top hiring seasons for teaching English abroad. We're going to go over different countries on different continents and what their hiring seasons are, so when's the best time to go job hunting. Also there will be some tips for job hunting in those places as sometimes you need to get hired in advance when you're still in your home country and you can do online interviews, but in some countries you need to apply in person. So we're going to talk about that as well. Thanks so much for tuning in and as always please don't forget to like and subscribe so that you never miss a live session. We go live twice a week, one time with me on Fridays, or Thursday...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Flashcards are considered to be an effective means to introduce new vocabulary in the ESL classroom. They are vivid, easy-to-use and they are considered to stimulate active recall method which helps us to retain the vocabulary for long periods. Some teachers consider that flashcards can to be used for young learners only. In my opinion, even adults will benefit from using flashcards. They can help to reduce TTT while introducing new vocabulary, can be used as a revision activity, and when adapted, can even be applied to practice vocabulary in complex grammar structures. Flashcards are easy to find. You can buy ready-made flashcards, use cutouts from old magazines or draw your flashcards. You can even ask your...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Teaching English in 2021. A few people have told me about their teaching journey already, so keep letting me know what your plans are in terms of teaching English abroad or teaching English online. Somebody said they're interested in teaching online, so that's really cool. Someone new has just joined us from Laos, hi there. We have Margaret who is also teaching online, very cool. I’m going to talk a little bit about teaching English online in this presentation. Juliana says hi, I think you've watched before as I recognize your picture, thanks for tuning in again. It's really good to see new faces and old faces in our TEFL family today. I have prepared some visuals that I'm going to...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas English to me and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. We have a first time watcher Sebastian watching from Cameroon and it is 2:00 a.m. there, wow thanks so much for staying up and watching our live stream, that's awesome. We are actually streaming live on Facebook and also on YouTube at the same time, so wherever you're watching from you can throw your questions at me at any time and if you don't want to miss out on any of our live streams don't forget to like and subscribe so that you always get notifications. I go live every Friday morning my time, depending on where you're watching it might still be Thursday, and then my colleague...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Hello everybody and welcome. We're actually also going live on Instagram today, so I'm going to check that out as well as the usual Facebook and YouTube. Hopefully everything will work fine. I hope everybody can hear me well and can see me. This is the first time that we're actually live on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube at the same time, so I have a lot of screens here in front of me. Hello there, I see somebody tuned in on Instagram and we have a few people here on Facebook and YouTube already. I hope everything is going well today. Unfortunately, if you're watching on Instagram you won't be able to see the screen and maybe some of the...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations Alumni Experiences Welcome to another live session this week and we're on at a different time this week. Usually we're a little bit earlier, but we have a special guest today, and that's because she's based in Germany. So we had to change the time a little bit. I’m Linda from ITT, you've probably seen me before, if you've watched us live and I’m here with Brit today. Hi Brit! Hi, thanks for having me, and painting your time to meet my schedule, and thank you so much for getting up early.I know it's early in Germany right now. just have my coffee and I’m good to go.That's awesome,where in Germany are you exactly? so I’m based near Trier, which is along the border with Luxembourg. So very close...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas It is undeniable that rapport between the teacher and students and between students themselves makes the class successful and enjoyable. However, some teachers face problems trying to establish rapport with the students. Being an experienced EFL teacher, I keep facing the same problem: it is hard for me to create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom and keep a balance between being students’ reliable friend and their authority. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elena K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To begin with, it is important to create a warm relationship from the very beginning. Therefore, the first lesson should be more...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Many people around the world dream of moving abroad to teach English. It’s exciting, it’s life-changing and it can seem like a never-ending vacation. I have taught English abroad since 2015 in China and South Korea and together with fellow teachers with years of experience, I’ve compiled this list of 10 pieces of advice that every new EFL teacher needs to know. So many people want to live abroad and a large percentage of these choose the path of teaching English. The demand for teachers is huge around the globe and you can find positions in virtually all corners of the world. While that’s great news, there’s one thing to keep in mind, being a native or fluent English speaker does not make you a great...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker TEFL Information Although many thousands of people head overseas to teach English abroad each year, the planning process can be a stressful time that puts some people off making the final leap. This article on the 6 Tips You Need to Know About Jobs Teaching English Abroad is aimed at reducing the stress of planning by breaking down the most important things to consider. Linda Dunsmore Destinations TEFL Information Teaching English as a foreign language is an exciting career path that takes thousands of women to exotic destinations around the globe each year. In this article we look at some of the best countries for single women to teach English abroad....  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Hi everybody, thanks so much for tuning in. It’s Linda here from ITTT with my morning coffee, because if you've watched me before in one of our live sessions you will know that I am in South Korea and it's currently 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning. So I'm having my morning coffee and I'm going to have a chat with you guys. If you can see me and hear me, please drop a hi or something into the comment box, I would really appreciate it. As you may or may not know, at ITTT we go live twice every week, me on Fridays or maybe Thursdays depending on where you're watching from, and my colleague Liza she goes live every Tuesday. Actually Liza went live on Tuesday and also on Saturday last week because she had a really...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers of ESL will often find themselves in charge of a class with students at different levels of proficiency. When this happens, the teacher needs to know ways to adapt and manage the class and activities in a way that benefits all the students. The stronger students could become bored if the teacher caters to the weaker ones, and, reversely, the weaker students could become demotivated and feel forgotten and left behind when they cannot keep up with the advanced students. So how can a teacher make sure all the students get what they need from the class? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Leigh K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I am a South African who has worked in South Korea for more than eight years and one of the most important tools as an ESL teacher from a whole different nationality and culture has been the knowledge and awareness of cultural sensitivity in the classroom. When I meet a new ESL teacher and they ask me for advice this is usually the first thing I recommend: become an expert in the culture. It helps you meet the needs of your students and it creates a comfortable environment in which your students want to learn. In this essay we will look at what is culture, strategies for culture learning and how to assess your level of cultural competence. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Amy B. Please note...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Language acquisition is a process that engages different skills and is therefore influenced by them. Reading, which is among the four main language skills, is considered to be influential in this process in many ways. In my opinion, it is one of the best contributors to the journey of learning a new language and although its advantages seem to be exclusive to reading comprehension, it involves other skills to a high degree as well. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Faezeh C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To begin, it is crucial to note that the type of reading material plays an important role in the efficiency of the activity...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When you teach English as a foreign language it’s important to pay attention to details that we sometimes ignore when communicating with other native level speakers, either in spoken or written English. Some people have got into the habit of writing in uppercase/capital letters, use abbreviations, and don’t think much about punctuation. We also tend not to be too critical of people’s spoken English as long as we get the point across. ‘There’s a lot of cars on the road today’ is grammatically incorrect for example. We also tend to enjoy speaking when we should be letting others speak. This is a particular issue in the classroom when you should be maximizing student talk time and minimizing yours. Here are...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Sometimes non-native English speakers are discouraged in their pursuit of teaching English as a foreign language. With the right TEFL certification course and training, anyone who is a fluent English speaker can also be a great teacher. There is really no reason for non-native English speakers to worry as the following alumni report will clearly show. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Lola H. I chose this topic because I am not a native English speaker, and being a non-native English speaking teacher, in my case in South Korea, has its advantages, but also some disadvantages. I will develop the disadvantages first, then introduce the advantages. First of all, if you...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Hi everyone, here's Linda again from ITTT. Today we're talking about something really interesting and exciting, teaching English in Asia. Also, all you need to know about how to get to Asia, the countries in Asia with the highest demand, and also the best sort of recruiters and teaching job platforms where you can find the best jobs for teaching English in Asia. I'm super excited about this topic today as I have been pretty much based in Asia since 2012. I spent some time in China and I am now in South Korea where I've been for the last six years. I'm so excited to share my experience with you guys and hopefully maybe some of you can also share your experience, if you have experience...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Destinations One question many people considering becoming a TEFL teacher ask is whether it is possible to teach English abroad without a university degree. The answer to this question is simply, yes. While there certainly are some countries and individual schools that do require TEFL teachers to have a degree, in the vast majority of countries it is not a requirement by governments or employers. Below I look at the different regions of the world where you can work as an English teacher without having a university degree. Bear in mind that labour and immigration requirements for any country are always subject to change and that you should always contact your local consulate for the most up-to-date information before making your plans....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations TEFL Information Many women around the world are eager to start a new career in teaching English as a foreign language. Whether it’s straight after graduating from college, in their mid-20s or 30s or later on in life, women from all backgrounds are intrigued by the thought of living and working in a different country abroad. However, many of them feel reluctant and ask “Is it safe for single women to teach English abroad?” The answer is: Absolutely - and here is why. You might be surprised to hear that around 60% of all English teachers abroad are women. In fact, there are usually between 500 and 5,000 foreign teachers, men and women, living in many major cities across Asia, Europe and Latin...  [Read more]