I have always loved writing: as a child I would fill every piece of scrap paper I found with maps to imaginary worlds and stories with no ending. However, as I grew up, I became more inconsistent with my writing, at least until 2016, when I decided to qualify as a TEFL teacher and took the CELTA with International House Milan.
Right after finishing the course, I started teaching English abroad and ended up living and working in five different countries (Germany, Macedonia, England, Slovakia and Spain), as well as my own (Italy). Teaching ESL has given me the unique opportunity not only to cultivate my passion, but also learn how to treat writing as a priority.
I believe a career in ESL allows a lot of room for developing creativity, imagination and becoming a better writer. Here are five reasons why:
1. Teaching attracts stories
Teaching is a creative and dynamic job which lets you interact with real people, rather than the fictional characters you spend too much time with as a writer. If writing can get lonely, teaching never is: apart from the colleagues, mentors, and school directors you can turn to for support, you are always in the company of your students who can fuel your imagination every day.
As a teacher, you get bombarded by stories. One of your responsibilities is to get to know your students better, in order to make them feel comfortable with you and each other in the classroom. You need to listen to them and understand who they are as people before anything else. Throughout my teaching career, I have met dozens of students who would have made for interesting, quirky characters: from a seven-year-old child fluent in four languages and wise beyond his years, to a teenage chess champion; from a 70-year-old man learning English for the first time to speak to his grand-daughter in the US, to an actor who knows more idioms than a native.
2. Working and living abroad gives you tons of inspiration
When you live in a foreign country, even going shopping for groceries becomes an expedition: the supermarket turns into the most exotic of places. You might find yourself wandering around the shelves wide-eyed, looking for baked beans or pasta sauce and leaving with a tin of something you have never seen before. It certainly happened to me when I was living in Veles, Macedonia!
Even outside of the supermarket, the filter you use to look at reality is different: your curiosity is triggered more easily, and you catch yourself asking more and more questions about the new world you live in. The interactions you have with the people you meet are most likely be in another language which might open you up to aspects of your personality you did not know you possessed. You might discover your Spanish, Czech, German, or another alter ego is more straightforward than your ‘normal’ self: your new language might work as a shelter and allow you to get to know people faster than you normally would.
When I compare it to my life back in Italy, life abroad seems richer with encounters, adventures and self-discoveries. I sometimes feel a month somewhere new takes up as much room in my memory as a year at home. Connections becomes deeper in a short amount of time, because the people you meet turn into the family you are missing. Small and bigger tasks are more challenging and help you learn your limits and grow as a person. Cities look massive, even intimidating at times and burning with lights. Natural wonders are unforgettable, because you are not familiar with them.
All these experiences stay with you and feed your writing even years after you leave a place. You might decide to start a travel blog because what is now becoming more familiar for you will not be for someone else.
3. Teaching gives you time to write in a variety of locations
When teaching ESL, you often have a more differentiated schedule than with traditional jobs: the hours you teach might vary depending on the day. You might also have breaks between classes which, depending on the school you work for, you might have the chance to spend outside of the staffroom. This gives you the flexibility to do your lesson planning at home, but also in parks and cafés. Once the lesson planning – which can always be creative by itself – is finished, you are left with time to write in a new inspirational setting. When I was teaching in Slovakia for IH Bratislava, I was often travelling from one company to the other for my Business English classes. Within a couple of months, I knew all the best coffee shops for Wi-Fi, cake and quiet time, and I had the idea for the novel I am still writing now.
Another perk of teaching ESL while cultivating a passion is that you often teach in the afternoon and evening, as that is when young learners finish school and adult students leave work. This means you often have some time in the morning for yourself and your hobbies. When I was teaching in the Basque Country for Lacunza International House - San Sebastián, I managed to develop a consistent writing routine for the first time in my life: I was writing for one or two hours before teaching. Over there I was not the only one to dedicate time to a personal interest: most of my colleagues had a passion on the side, such as surfing, swimming, painting, taking photos and/or playing in a band.
4. Storytelling is part of the job
When you teach children you can try out your skills as a narrator: you can read picture books with them to train their listening skills and help them revise vocabulary. However, even when teaching teenagers and adults, stories play an important role in the classroom. You can use them to present grammar points (e.g. tenses) and new words in an easier and more memorable way. You can also incorporate literature into your lessons by organising English book clubs, creative writing activities and theatre sessions for all ages.
As a teacher, you get to train your imagination: when you plan your lessons you always have the freedom to turn what needs to be covered into something fun and engaging. Personally, I love introducing creative writing in class particularly when teaching teenagers: their imagination has no limit and they sometimes surprise me with ideas I wish I had thought myself!
5. You are surrounded by like-minded and encouraging people
Even when you decide to teach ESL in your own country, you have the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. Your fellow colleagues, mentors and trainers are often travellers and, even when they have chosen to wander around mostly during their holidays, they are generally open minded, because they are used to dealing with different nationalities and cultures. In my experience, they are mostly friendly and approachable (it is one of the requirements for being a good teacher!) and ready to share their own stories they have collected throughout the years.
Being around people who work in the ESL industry can encourage you to write more: it is refreshing to be around people who can be quite different, be passionate about languages and arts and have a good imagination. What I find most interesting about other teachers is that they regularly push themselves outside of their comfort zone: waking up every morning knowing that you will be standing up and speaking in front of six or more pairs of eyes takes a lot of courage. And so does writing.
If it had not been for some of the friends I have made and people I have learnt from while teaching ESL, I might not have found the confidence to take the next step in my writing journey and enrol in the university creative writing programme I am attending at the moment. I feel my career in ESL has helped me grow in many more ways than just as a teacher, and for this reason I am glad to have taken the CELTA with International House, as it has been my passport for all of my travels.
