Teaching TEFL in Italy

Working as a TEFL tutor in Italy is certainly a unique experience, but don't take if from us - take it from someone who has done it themselves!

Alex Daily is a 24 year old TEFL tutor and he spent a whole year living and working in Italy. Here's what he had to say about the experience...

"As most football referees will vouch if you can control the Italians you can control pretty much control anyone. I experienced this first hand as a TEFL teacher in Turin, Italy last year"

It was such a bizarre experience for me, being so close in age to the pupils I was teaching. I was 23 and my pupils ranged from 14-19. It was quite an experience not being the kid giving "a bit of cheek" to the teacher to being on the receiving end of it.

Back to Italy - what a country! I worked 5 days a week from 8.00 - 13.00 which was great for me as I could take off on a Friday and go away for weekends sampling the nearby cities and countries - (France was only a stone's throw away). Teaching at the school was varied depending on age and/or level; however I found that once you'd worked out a good lesson plan you could easily adapt it to any level you wanted. You can get lesson plans from the web and I got a shed-load from i-to-i after the course (or during it I can't quite remember exactly when but I definitely got them).

The Italians are so passionate about learning English. I think the startling fact for them is that they simply have to. They need the grades either for university or they need it for their jobs. I taught some private lessons in my spare time - mainly to supplement my income as it was quite modest initially. I taught kids aged 7 and upwards to high school pupils to lawyers. Everyone needs English. I met so many cool and interesting people when I was out there. It's amazing how many doors it opens for you ... I'm off to teach English on the island of Sicily next summer, heard about it from some of my new friends!"