Sunday 7 October 2012

TESOL

 Why hello there,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I sure did (apart from the fact that I got sick on Saturday night and work starts again tomorrow). My wonderful weekend consisted of a bike ride by the beautiful gold coast shores, a swim, a 30th birthday party and going to some local markets. Delightful indeed. 

In light of our October Monthly Hero sharing how she is an English teacher in the country she lives in. It got me thinking a bit about teaching English. Through many of my overseas experiences if you speak english it automatically qualifies you to be an "english teacher". I have run english classes and even english camps in Thailand, Turkey, Palestine and India. It is a little daunting at first, however after a while I really enjoyed it. I know teaching english isn't for everyone, but I thought I'd share a few thoughts on it as opportunities to teach english are fast becoming available here in Australia just as much as internationally.

Here are pictures of students at a school we taught english at in Thailand

Here we are being thanked by the teachers for teaching english


In Australia we have over 13 000-14 000 refugees enter our country every year. I'm not going to touch on the complexities of the issues surrounding refugees. I just wanted to highlight that with the influx of refugees it presents us with some really great opportunities to love our community in really practical ways. One of those ways is helping them with their english speaking. 

Teaching English may sound a little too demanding but it's not as in depth as you may think. In some instances teaching english may involve assisting children with their homework, or helping adults with basic computer skills or filling out application forms etc. Or if you have a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) certificate then you could apply to actually teach english classes which range from beginner to advanced depending on which you prefer. 

There are so-many community organizations within your own home town (probably) that are crying out for volunteers to come and help refugees. Helping them to learn english is meeting one of their most fundamental needs as they migrate to a foreign country trying to make a brand new start form themselves and their family. 

If you are interested in getting a certificate there are courses available online or you can normally find some run in local TAFE's or places within your community run in a traditional classroom setting. My husband and I started an online one however only got half way through before moving back to India. Once we were in India our internet connection was not strong enough to connect properly to the course. So, you do need to make sure you have access to fast internet if you want to take the course online. 

Once you have a TESOL certificate you can also apply for jobs internationally to teach english. The opportunities and adventures are endless. 

Here are some links to online courses and further info. if you are interested in learning more about TESOL.

What is TESOL?

Hope you have a great week.

No comments:

Post a Comment

I'd love to hear your thoughts...