To anybody with a desire to travel and see the world away from the tourist circuit, to be a TEFL teacher can be a dream job, providing unique and exciting opportunities. You get to travel the world and live in the exotic places you always dreamed of – and get paid for it.
The opportunity to experience new places and cultures is true, but as with all professions it also has its challenges and some of these can be exaggerated by living in a foreign culture and away from home. In this article, we are going to take a look at some of the pros and cons of life as a TEFL teacher, remind ourselves of its wonderful opportunities, but also explore its challenges and how these can be mitigated.
Pros
Accessible
Getting into TEFL teaching is relatively straight forward – if you have a degree and a CELTA you are ready to go. Even if you don’t have a degree, if you get a CELTA and some solid work experience, with the right attitude you will land a job. You can travel, work and have a great experience.
The world is your oyster
Being an English teacher is unique. You have the opportunity to work anywhere in the world that your passport allows. What is unique compared to many other jobs is that you can get a job abroad without being able to speak the language of your destination. Over time, it will be extremely beneficial to yourself professionally and personally to learn that language to a certain extent, but if you have a CELTA and a bit of experience such as summer school under you belt, you can secure a job in many places.
Living and working in a place gives you the opportunity to learn the local language, and by being both a language student and teacher, you get a better insight into the learner’s experience. Sign up to classes, do some activities to meet local people, and build your social circle. By making friends and a study routine you have the best opportunity you will to learn another language.
Helping people achieve their goals
By being a teacher, you are helping students achieve their goals. This could be to pass a Cambridge Exam for a job or study abroad or because they want to learn a new skill. Students will want to learn and treat you with the respect a teacher deserves, thereby giving you the opportunity to help them learn and enrich their lives.
Being a good teacher will mean developing positive relationships with students and having them enjoy the classes. Teaching is special compared to other jobs because you will take satisfaction in helping others and spend your time working with people rather than a computer screen.
Cons
Learning to teach can be tough
Often when teaching you are given a curriculum, resources, and sent off into the classroom. Good schools will provide teacher training inputs, observations and a supportive environment for help with planning and so on; but by and large you will have to take initiative for your classes.
Early on this can be a challenge, you may have a range of class levels, blocked hours of six consecutive classes, and all the while you are still struggling to work out what an auxiliary verb is. When you are in the classroom you are exposed to the students, their questions, gaps in your knowledge or your lesson plan. Things will go wrong. All teachers have bad lessons, but you will also learn quickly, and by the time you get to your second year of teaching you will have lots of ideas, a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t, and you will cut your planning time considerably.
Planning can be very time consuming early in your TEFL career, but experience will help you solve this.
Standard of schools
The standards of TEFL schools vary greatly, and this can have significant impact on your experience of the industry and development as a teacher. Some academies will give you the textbook and teachers’ book and then let you get on with delivering the course. For an experienced teacher this can be the ideal set-up, but for newer teachers looking for more guidance early on this kind of set-up can be isolating and restrict your ability to develop professionally.
It can be important for a newer, less confident teacher to identify schools that can provide a supportive community and training, as this will make a significant difference to the teaching experience.
Living abroad can get lonely
Working abroad is a great opportunity, but at times it can be a lonely and isolating experience. Making friends is part luck, part hard work, and requires putting yourself out there to meet people through clubs and social activities. If you already have a friend in town before you arrive that can be a huge help.
But when you are in a new town, once the novelty has worn off, things can get lonely. Language and cultural barriers exist. You may not have the same cultural references, music, jokes, which can be a common source of humour so it may take time to find locals with common interests. In addition, most academic years start in autumn, so a few months in the gloomy winter months set in where it can be important to have a good social circle to brighten up the weekends.
Working abroad is a great way to expand your horizons and meet your new friends, and if you put yourself out there, you will. But be patient and know there will be some lonely times to get through.
Cost of living
With cheap flights, weekend breaks and Airbnb, the cost of living across the traditionally more affordable parts of the world has risen sharply. There are far fewer bargain locations across Europe as the cost of rent has sky-rocketed over recent years. The cost of living is rising and TEFL wages have stayed flat or even been going down.
This doesn’t mean that the TEFL opportunities are gone, you just have to be a bit savvier and accept what is. So maybe you have to live slightly further from the town centre, or in a more residential neighbourhood, or share a flat.
Summer holidays
With the exception of a few well-established schools that run summer intensive courses, across Europe you likely won’t get a paid summer holiday. This means you can come back to the UK and do a summer school and combine it with a trip back home, but you won’t be getting a paid holiday.
A great opportunity but find the best opportunity
In conclusion, TEFL teaching can provide great opportunities to those who want to travel and do meaningful engaging work. But now more than ever before, it helps to do your research before you leave and try to secure a job with a reliable, quality school to make your experience more comfortable.
