Right Now I Am Teaching English In Spanish

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is my first language, however, I studied Spanish throughout high school growing up in the Midwest and eventually received a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature. I learned to speak Spanish very well after becoming a high school Spanish teacher for eight years and then a principal for elementary and secondary schools for 26 more years speaking Spanish to new immigrant students and parents the whole time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rex P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In reflecting on the title question I first asked myself how Spanish had influenced me over the years. The first obvious answer was that I...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences As a native English speaker, my first major foreign language experience began in 8th grade, where I had the option of studying either Spanish or French. I chose Spanish, as I’d always been drawn to the language and Latin American culture, and hoped to one day live in a Spanish speaking country. I studied the language throughout high school, but in the years afterward, it wasn’t much of a priority and wasn’t something I used on a regular basis. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lauren M. In high school, our language classes were mainly structured around learning grammar and following the textbook. From time to time, we would listen to and translate songs in Spanish, or watch a movie in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I am from the United States and my native language is English. I am currently living in the Philippines, so I have been encountering language issues a lot lately. I have desperately been trying to learn Tagalog, and it is a major challenge. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriel T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Along the way, I have had a lot of help from the native Filipinos that I live with and whom I now call my family. I have asked myself, "How did they learn English so well and what difficulties do they still have with English?" Because English has so many contradictions and strange nuances I have decided to do my...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences For the past several years I have been working for a non-profit company that provides high-quality daycare and preschool education for financially disadvantaged children. The population we serve is diverse, but the majority of families in our particular centers are Latino. Although I am not employed in a classroom teaching position, I have a great deal of contact with the children and with their parents. Part of my responsibility is to conduct an intake interview with the parents to explain the policies of the school, and to do a health history of the child before he enters. These meetings take about forty minutes when the parent speaks English, and an hour or more if I need the help of a translator. This post...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences What does it mean to volunteer? According to the Oxford Dictionary: "A volunteer is a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task", according to me, volunteering is a life-changing experience where you are able to help others. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zayra R. I volunteered for the first time 7 years ago and I remember to be very excited and a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. The moment I arrived at the shelter house for abandoned girls, I knew right away that I had to give my best every day. During that week, we fixed the garden, planted flowers and vegetables and I also helped building rooms and decorating them. I taught basic English to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I would say the hardest part about becoming a Teacher is having the confidence to face your students in the classroom. I speak from experience because this was a challenge for me in the beginning when I taught Spanish as a foreign language. My students were primary and high school students, essentially just kids, but this intimidated me the most about my job. In time you will indeed and should become more confident teaching in the classroom, as the saying goes…” practice makes perfect”, right? However, there are some things a new teacher can do or be aware of to help increase their confidence in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Genoveve C. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the past two years, as part of an international community, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting people from all over the world. We share the common experience of learning an L2. I’ve spoken to nearly 100 people now, and what I’ve learned about learning L2 is, well, it’s hard. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Janis U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Most people I’ve “interviewed” have either learned an L2 over many years or are still in the process of learning it. Of those that have learned an L2, they tend to be more fluent than accurate and most have learned L2 out of necessity within 1-3 years. I consider...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker TEFL Information Alumni Experiences The 20th century brought in its wake the concept of globalization, changing the dynamics of the world to what we have come to know it as today. As the world continues to move towards becoming a grand global village, many countries, people and things which once seemed so far out of reach are now more readily available and closer to home. Undoubtedly, with the advent of globalization, communication has become paramount to the ways in which we share knowledge and gather or receive information. Why? Because without this, humans will have a much more challenging time building relationships with others be it for economic, social or spiritual gains (just to name a few). This post was...  [Read more]

Julia Erbacher Alumni Experiences I am American. My hometown is Buffalo, New York. 26 I have an Associates of Science in Music and Bachelors of Arts in Spanish. I also have been TEFL certified and DELE certified with a C1 level of Spanish speaking from the Cervantes Institute. My first experience abroad I went to Peru, then Madrid, Spain, and finally back to Spain in another region of the country. I studied at the International Institute in Madrid through the University of Albany. In my hometown, I graduated from the University at Buffalo. I was looking for the next learning adventure in my life, as well as the desire to improve my Spanish speaking skills. That is why I made the decision to apply for the Conversation Auxiliar Program through the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Whether you like English or despise it, the English language is here to stay. There is no stronger contender right now as a global language, other than English. But how did this happen, why is English now the dominant language in Education, Business and the Media. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Iain Hamilton-G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Well in this essay I am not going to rewrite a history lesson about the global rise of the English language, many sources can provide a far more detailed explanation about it. However, what I intend to write here is from my own experiences and how I naturally became a crusader of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a young child, I was, for some reason, obsessed with the idea of learning French. I tried a couple of languages, including Finnish at some point, but kept going back to French. I have no idea why because I was never exposed to the culture or the language itself at that age. I doubt I even knew anything about the country itself. I think I assumed learning French would make me sound smarter but, the joke's on younger me, I have no skill in French and never have. I tend to struggle with romance languages in general. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicole H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I was in high school, my...  [Read more]

Ron Borland Alumni Experiences When I think back to my time teaching English in Chile, I can say that it has been an awesome experience for me because of how wonderful it can be to share one’s native language with someone else. Probably the best thing about it was to see the others in gaining their experience overall in adapting to the new way of thinking. I know I had my troubles as I had to teach sometimes in Spanish what the rule was in English. For that, I relied on the help of other teachers to help with some of the grammar. When I think back to how it all started, I remember being asked to help at a local fitness center to help with swim lessons. But since I had such a knowledge of English from my years of reading and writing over the...  [Read more]

  Barcelona is a city of a magnificent depth that offers a wide variety of things to do and sights to see. Take our tefl certification course in Barcelona and gain an internationally recognized teaching certification, as well as an experience of a lifetime. With the help of our certification, trainees routinely go on to gain employment in Barcelona, Spain, Europe or nearly anywhere else in the world! Jobs are plentiful in Spain, as well as many other worldwide locations, and we help graduates finds job where meaningful work meets fascinating cultures. Barcelona is a great location from which to start a tefl career. Our course is intensive and challenging but our incredibly able and dedicated training staff will provide endless help along every step of the way. While on the course,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have read everything that has fallen into my hands ever since I can remember, and that goes for both my native tongue, Spanish, and my second language, English. I remember waiting in line and reading and re-reading a thousand times a sign on a window directly in front of me! Sometimes it can be maddening being this way, but in the long run, I firmly believe that my passion for reading has finally paid off! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Marcela C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I began studying English, and I was about 11, I started what it seems now like a race! A race against who? Me! Every new word, meaning,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A resource I found invaluable for this essay was the website Cyborlink (2019a), a reference provided in the TEFL Young Learners course (ITTT, 2019). The TEFL course (Unit 6) discusses how cultural considerations are important when teaching abroad. This includes cultural sensitivity when interacting with the young learners themselves, as well as in interacting with parents and school staff (administration/teachers). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate David B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Cyborlink is aimed at a more general audience of people doing business in other cultures, though of course has implications for TEFL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation - It can be a bugbear for students & teachers alike. When someone is motivated, a future of endless opportunity is not only visible but achievable and a tiresome task no longer seems as such, but more of an alluring challenge with fruitful rewards along the way! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Robert D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Although when motivation’s lacking, taking on the challenge of learning a foreign language can be a daunting one. A colossal amount of unfamiliar vocabulary, intonations & irregularity could swamp even the best of learners. Having spent over a year in Spain studying Spanish...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, nice to see you again. Let me know that you can see me clearly and hear me clearly. I'm glad that you are joining us, thanks for coming today. We're just about to start our live session. My name is Liza and I am an ITTT TEFL expert and an online ESL teacher. Nice to see you guys joining me, thanks a lot and just before we start just quickly let me tell you about ITTT. so our company is a TEFL course provider and we are actually presenting on various social networks right now. If you guys want to get updates on different TEFL content make sure you follow our social networks and keep updated regularly. Thanks for joining today's...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Visa and Legal Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Traveling abroad is an exciting but challenging adventure, for anyone. Still, teaching abroad as an LGBTQ person often means traveling has some added difficulties. It is more than likely that your adjustment to a new country will include more than culture shock and a language barrier. LGBTQ teachers have to deal with a lot of questions before deciding to teach English abroad: However, there’s also a bright side. Equality rights have come a great way over the past decade in many parts of the world. The number of countries legalizing same-sex marriage is increasing - but there’s still a long way to go. It’s...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a Belgian born citizen, I was brought up with different languages. Belgium is officially a trilingual country: French, Dutch, and German are all official languages. Dutch is my mother tongue, I have been learning French since primary school. Later, in high school, German and English were added to my curriculum and in college, I extended my language skills by taking a Spanish course. This means I have been studying foreign languages since primary school until my university degree when I was 25 years old. This made me decide to write on the following topic: why non-native English speakers can be good TEFL teachers. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Roel S. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

  TEFL International's centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina is an unbeatable destination to take the TEFL Certification course in Latin America. There are lots of job opportunities for TEFL certified native or fluent English speakers, and you can also learn or improve your Spanish. As the capital city of Argentina, Buenos Aires has so much to offer visitors that it is difficult to narrow down your itinerary to just a few things to do. Buenos Aires is a thriving multicultural city and the best way to explore its diversity is to get out and about in the various neighborhoods that make up the city. By choosing to study with TEFL International in Buenos Aires, you are signing up for an exciting and rewarding time in Argentina. Known as the "Paris of South America", Buenos Aires is one of the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are about 6500 spoken languages in the world today. 11 of those are here from my home country of South Africa. The most spoken language of them all is Mandarin. Language is what defines us. It is what divides us. It what we are taught and brought up to understand and one day pass on to the next generation. It is like being a unicorn. When there are none left, you will only read about it in books and professors who learned and studied about it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jacq-Pierre B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. But as time went on, people started to migrate to other parts of the world and taking their language...  [Read more]

  Our tefl certification course in granada is magical. The city and surrounding area is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites and home to the majestic Alhambra Palace. Added to this, it’s the former capital of Moorish Spain and the Moors’ influences can be seen everywhere. From monuments and churches to homes and palaces, history and intrigue will surround you every day of your stay. Despite its growth, granada has retained its ancient charm. It is also a popular university town with a vibrant nightlife to compliment its variety of eateries, theaters and pubs. Located in the Andalucía region and nestled between the Costa del Sol and the Sierra nevada Mountains, granada is also geographically unique. Our trainees will never run out of things to do or see. Opportunities for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Cambridge English Dictionary defines the word “hindsight” as “the ability to understand an event or situation only after it has happened.” That is why people tell you that “hindsight is a perfect science.” So with the benefit of hindsight and looking back after completing some 220 hours of TEFL training, I see that there are, indeed, several things that I wish that I had known before starting the course, both on the positive and the negative sides. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Desmond V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Let me start with the positives. First and foremost, I wish that I had come across...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Peculiarities in the English language can be quite difficult and challenging to explain to students but are certainly very rewarding. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Monique E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If we look at the word “Peace” – in English this word could refer to “peace between family, neighbors, and friends” or it could mean “peace of mind” or “peace” etc. We also have the same word spoken in the same way, but spelled differently and has a completely different meaning – as in “Piece” – a piece of cake. In some languages, there is no way to use one word to convey all those different...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For this essay, I have learned that teaching a second language can be challenging especially when teaching a younger group of students. Before taking the TEFL course I have had numerous experiences in tutoring and mentoring, which is quite different from actually being an English Language teacher. In the past, I have taught small groups that focus on one subject as well as one summer teaching an art class at my local Boys and Girls Club. Most of my personal teaching experience has been limited to small groups of four to eight students, who all speak the same language and are around the same level and skill of reading, writing, and math skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bryan S....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching English pronunciation to students of other languages is always a big deal. English teachers from other countries may think that it is a topic to be skipped or only briefly introduced to students, but it is one of the most important subjects and it should be an integral part of an English course. As a matter of fact, the full understanding of a language and good communication actually depend, to a certain extent, on how correctly words are pronounced. Also, it is not only a matter of pronunciation but intonation. Every language has its own intonation and stress on words, so an English learner could find it difficult to get used to a new way of pronouncing words in another language. This is true for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A global language is a language spoken internationally, the most popular one being English. It is learned by many people as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Damian B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A big part of the lexical units in the English language was taken from German, Latin, French, and other European countries. People think that languages have a strong relation between dominance and cultural power. Also read: What to Watch Out for Before Signing Your TEFL Contract in China To have a common language is important because it's one of the main ways to communicate and interact with other people...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Education is a core part of our life through the socialization process from birth to death. It affects a person’s capacity and thinking about defining what is right and what is wrong and also provides us to criticize the information which is taught by the community, family, school and so on. Moreover, there are many alternative paths to get an education at every age. We will examine the child’s age and the effects of the parent’s role in developing themselves. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate ARCA B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Every child has various learning styles all around the world because they have kinds...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning a second language can feel like stepping into a whole new world compared to the way you learned your first language. When you learn your first language, you take in that language in a very natural and organic way compared to the way you might obtain your second language. The first language you learn is what you hear from infancy as you grow up, as it’s the language you hear at home, on tv, at school and etc. And your second language will mostly be something you are taught in classroom which is not the same type of experience that you get from learning in your actual living environment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mandrell C. When you grow up using your native tongue you...  [Read more]