Teach English Abroad As A Couple

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information The following eight couples have traveled the world together and either started out as ESL teachers or supported their travels teaching English in different parts of the world. Some of them are still teaching, others have started their own businesses. Either way, these 8 traveling power couples are an absolute inspiration for ESL teachers and you should follow them right now! Katie and Jake are two budget world wanderers and ESL teachers. They both share a passion for exploring new and exciting destinations across the world. Follow their blog "Untold Wanderlust" to see their very long, round the world adventure whilst teaching. Rosie and Dave are two ‘high-school sweethearts’ who have been teaching and...  [Read more]

Katie and Jake from Untold Wanderlust TEFL Information Teaching English abroad is a thrilling and self-fulfilling job, not to mention the benefits it has upon your students. However, leaving the comforts of your hometown can be quite a difficult thing to do but luckily teaching as a couple helps iron-out those small worries before leaving. Here I have put together an article of my experience of teaching abroad as part of a couple. It was never my aspiration to become an ESL teacher. Back in England, I was well on my way to becoming a police officer. My better half, Katie, who has experience working with children and troubled youth, longed for an adventure far from the mundane lifestyle she was used to back in the UK. Before being bitten by the...  [Read more]

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Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I learned English when I was 20 after my family and I decided to immigrate to Canada from Brazil. I hadn’t had much exposure to the English language prior to the move. 25 years have gone by, and now I have the opportunity to teach English back in my home country of Brazil! Take our 4-week in-class course in Natal, Brazil, and start your own TEFL adventure! This post was written by our ITTT graduate George K. After coming back to my small hometown in the Brazilian countryside a couple of years ago, I met one of my childhood friends, Rodrigo. He had just opened a small English school in town and after a quick chat, I told him that I have decided to come back to live in Brazil after having lived abroad for more...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT TEFL Information So you’ve completed your TEFL course and started applying for jobs in your dream destination country, the next step to becoming a successful English teacher is the TEFL interview. Interviews for teaching jobs can take a couple of different formats and these are face-to-face, over the phone, or via Skype. Each type of interview has its own particular points that need addressing. For face-to-face interviews it is important to be early but not too early make sure that you research the route to the school before the interview day. You must remember to dress smartly, many teaching jobs are in holiday destinations and some people seem to forget the difference between what is suitable for work and what is suitable for the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information So you want to move abroad to teach English and explore a new culture? That’s great - but how do you get started? At first, the process of finding a teaching position abroad can seem like a daunting task. Where are the highest teacher salaries? Is it better to teach at a private or public school? Which country hires teachers in advance? China is the largest EFL market worldwide - but is it also the right choice for me? Finding out which country or type of school is the ideal fit for you isn’t always easy - but these top 8 resources for researching teaching English abroad should make it a whole lot easier! We have created country-specific guides for all the most popular teaching destinations around the globe,...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information TEFL is considered a career with few opportunities for non-native English speaking teachers as a lot of employers only hire native English speaking teachers. However, with the expansion of TEFL worldwide and the increasing number of individuals ready to get TEFL certified and move abroad to teach, there are also many non-native English speakers who enter the career of TEFL teaching. A TEFL certificate allows teachers to explore the world, break out of their national boundaries while working a rewarding job and earning a competitive salary. So what about non-native English speaking teachers? While the competition on the global TEFL market is fierce, a non-native English speaking teacher can still find a suitable job...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The question posed to many of those that are obtaining their certificate to teach English as a foreign language is what are the advantages of having one. This question can have several different answers for many different people. One of the main advantages of obtaining a certificate to teach English as a foreign language is to obtain steady employment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate David S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching English to those that are not native to the language will be an employment opportunity for the foreseeable future, and the desire for those to learn English has never been so prominent as it...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Many people start teaching English as a means to fund their world travels. Once they have started teaching, they find it to be an immensely rewarding experience and would like to make a career out of it. They’d like to progress within the field but are unaware of the options available to them. In fact, there are many opportunities in TEFL/TESOL beyond the classroom and below we show some of the places a career as an English teacher can take you. Here’s how to advance in your EFL career! After teaching for a couple of years, many teachers move on to this position. A teacher trainer usually works for a TEFL or TESOL language center and teaches the modules part of a teacher training course such as grammar,...  [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. Ning Zhang It's the best and most widely recognised certificate on the planet. Learning things I never knew myself. I am currently working on teaching English online full time. I have developed a great learning package of my own, and I can see that I am...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Use these 7 activities for teaching the present perfect for the ESL classroom to teach the present perfect tense to your students and help them understand the correct structure and usage of the tense. Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Teaching Ideas These top 10 mistakes to avoid in the classroom while teaching English abroad will help you become a better EFL teacher and make sure your students learn English in the most effective way possible. Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas No matter how well you plan your lessons, it is inevitable that you will sometimes finish before the class is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I started teaching English as a foreign language teacher in my second year of university when I was a Bachelor’s Degree student in Xi’an, China. My reason for doing so was to earn extra cash every month. I was a China/ Guyana government scholarship student and I lived on a fairly low stipend which wasn’t sufficient for a foreign student to live on. For a couple of years, I had been hearing that students could earn extra cash by teaching English on the weekends or one on one classes for a pretty penny. I asked around and got in contact with an agent. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nico R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Are you ready to teach English abroad? Before you step into the classroom, don't forget to read up on these 5 common types of EFL students and how to deal with them. Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Teaching Ideas These top 10 mistakes to avoid in the classroom while teaching English abroad will help you become a better EFL teacher and make sure your students learn English in the most effective way possible. Katie and Jake from Untold Wanderlust TEFL Information Teaching English abroad is an exciting adventure and one that is often shared with a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The key things from this course for me can be summarized under the following topics: teachers and learners; theories, methods, and techniques; teaching a new language, and teaching special groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ewa T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. People are all about connection. For a teacher to be able to teach effectively and students to get the most out of a course learning English as a foreign language, is for students and teachers to connect. Therefore, a teacher needs to show her passion for teaching and build a good rapport with her students. From my teaching experience, I was able to build a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have taught English before in an English tutoring institute in Korea on two separate occasions. I am American but I grew up in South Korea. For extra money, I started teaching English for the first time at age 19. I taught very young children, from age 4 to age 7. It was extremely difficult because there were probably about 20 students and at those ages’ children have such different mental capacities. Therefore, teaching was almost impossible as the older children picked up everything very quickly and would become bored and loud, while the younger children would be too scared to talk and practice anything. It felt much more like a daycare than any English class. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Being a student learning a new, foreign language I can acknowledge that feelings of insecurity and fear of making mistakes are often present. This can lead to students being quiet or non- participating. As a teacher, it is important to understand this and to make the students feel comfortable in class. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Adela J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In my first month of learning Arabic, I was placed in the beginner’s class with 7 other students. My teacher at that time knew that she was dealing with students who have never read, spoken or written Arabic before in their life. As a result, she taught...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences For me specifically, finishing a TEFL course will give me the opportunity to travel and experience various cultures while likewise supporting myself abroad. I've always had a desire to speak unknown languages and visit various nations. Maybe this is because of the way that I was raised bilingual. Growing up with a few languages, including Hebrew and Korean, I built up an affection for unknown languages and traveling. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Emiliya A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Today I can say that I have been lucky to have used my language abilities (English, Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Turkish) in the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas If you think of Chinese ESL students it is safe to assume that most teachers would immediately worry about how they should teach phonics to Mandarin speakers. It is also true that the media has portrayed the Chinese accent as one of the most challenging to understand or even get rid of. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Graciela G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Usually, the first thing you will notice as an ESL teacher, speaking from experience, is the difficulty Chinese ESL students face when it comes to the pronunciation of certain English sounds. In this essay, I will address not only the most common but some of the most...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The topic of my summative task is ‘Lesson Materials’. In the world of English, there are different types of course materials that a teacher can use. They are usually divided into 2 groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mateo J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Also Read: The Difference Between Business English and General English For EFL Teachers As a teacher when you want to set some course materials there are a couple of considerations that you must do before you assign them. You have to evaluate your class. This can be things like age, level of English proficiency and also the purpose of the class. For example, some...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Language textbooks are a good source for language learners and teachers, especially new language learners or teachers who may not know exactly where to begin. However, while textbooks are a valuable resource, they do not teach students everything they need to know when it comes to interacting with native speakers of the target language. This is because all native speakers use some level of slang in their everyday speech, in the classroom, and even in their workplace. For this reason alone, ESL students need to begin learning common slang they may hear. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Justin W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT....  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Budget and Salary Many English language teachers working overseas need to send home a portion of their monthly salary to pay off outstanding obligations, such as a student loan or a property mortgage. However, with so many money transfer options available, how do you know which is the right method to suit your personal circumstances? Taking into consideration factors such as transfer fees, exchange rates, and transfer time, we have put together the following guide to help you make the right decision. The first option you might want to consider is using a standard bank. In many countries, international bank transfers are relatively inexpensive and the transaction will clear within a couple of days. This is typically the case in South...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Teaching English online is becoming a more and more lucrative career for many TEFL and TESOL certified teachers out there. You can work from home or go full digital nomad and travel the world while teaching a couple of classes of English a day. To help you create fun and interactive lessons, we have compiled a summary of 5 amazing props with investing in for teaching English online below. Who doesn’t love playing with plush toys? Having a good selection of the most common foods and animals can go a LONG way when teaching English online. Using plush props is a lot of fun and can be used in so many different ways: you can use them to teach numbers and counting, you can use them to talk about different colors and also...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences American and German Augsburg, Germany 26 Bachelor’s of Science in Management Yes. Growing up in Europe with a German mother and an American father I had the opportunity to travel around Europe and the US. After studying Mandarin, I also spent some time in China. San Diego, California Being able to explore the world and making use of my foreign language skills in Chinese. I was concerned about the language barrier, especially in China where English is not widely spoken. Even though I studied Mandarin, I was worried that my language skills wouldn’t be good enough to be able to live in China and get by alone. However, everything went very well and I was able to improve my Chinese language skills immensely during...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Many non-native English speaking countries only require teachers to have a bachelor's degree, and it can be in any field. It can be a degree in anything at all, thus not having prepared the future teacher for their new job and life. Some other countries don't require a bachelor's degree at all. With the rise in demand for learning English as a second language has come the increased relevance and need for courses such as TEFL. I'm an example of someone who had no background in teaching, and I also didn't take a course before I dove in. I had to "fake it till I made it" and looking back, that was unfair to the students. Even if I wasn't breaking any laws and I was doing everything I could to do a good job, I could...  [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]

Mark Crocker TEFL Information Alumni Experiences When I looked at the choices of where and how to take a TEFL course, there were two factors that played into my decision-making process. These factors were time and money. I needed to find the quickest, most convenient way to take a TEFL course, and at the same time stay within my budget. And for these reasons, taking the online option was clearly the best way to go for me. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate David K. I had to find the best way to finish a TEFL course, as fast as possible, so that I could start to use it to make some money while I was traveling. Having plenty of free time, and being able to work at my own pace, made the online offering the...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT TEFL Information A couple of acronyms that you are likely to come across as a TEFL teacher are IELTS and TOEFL. IELTS stands for International English Language Testing System and is a United Kingdom and Commonwealth based test of English language skills. Whereas TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language and is a United States based English language skills test. These two are the main international English-language tests and are used by universities, governments and employers to assess the English proficiency of international students, immigrants and potential employees from all over the world. If a person wishes to live, study or work in the United States or the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, they will...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over a hundred years ago, in the late 19th century, a Polish-Jewish eye doctor named Dr. Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof wanted to bridge the gaps and misunderstandings between different ethnic groups that he grew up around. Being from a Polish city that, at the time, was a polyglot, multi-ethnic mixture of Poles, Russians, Jews, Lithuanians, and Germans, he saw there was a great deal of distrust between each group, and he believed it was due to the language barriers that each imposed. To create a common ground between every group, he created an international, universal language called Esperanto (Yaffe, 2017). While it was a great idea to create a language that did not belong to any ethnic group and could be used...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Destinations So you’ve finished your TEFL course and are trying to decide what to next. Do you want to chill out on a tropical beach sipping exotic cocktails as the sun lazily drops below the horizon after the week’s teaching is done? Or are you looking to pay off the student loan while travelling the world and getting to know a whole new culture. This article looks at the differences between lifestyle and earning potential for popular TEFL destinations around the world. Tropical islands, beautiful beaches, jungle treks and delicious food; Thailand seems to have it all. You will find plenty of jobs available throughout the year up and down the country. Bangkok is a frenetic hub of energy, but the rest of the country is a much 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]