TEFL Guru Blog

View my Profile
View Blog home page

You’ll always find work abroad

I had always wanted to travel, but never had the money. Getting my first job in Greece changed all that and now I know I can live anywhere on the planet and I don’t have to worry about being a millionaire to do it.

One thing I’ll say is that when I first started teaching English, I didn’t think I would be any good at it, in fact, the idea really scared me. I guess I started teaching in Greece only because I wanted to live in another country and travel. Teaching English seemed the best way to do it since I only had debts and no cash to speak of.

When I did my first lesson, it was awful! I hadn’t prepared and wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be doing. I soon got guidance and with lesson preparation the lessons were a lot better. In fact, I stayed at the same school in Greece for something like 6 years, I loved it. And what’s more, I got paid and housed to do it!

I love France, so I lived there for 2 years. It was that easy. By this time I had 6 years experience of teaching and though I was now teaching Business English to adults and a very new teaching situation, the principles are the same. We lived in a nice house in a traditional French village and I drove around the countryside going into businesses to deliver lessons, one day teaching workers in a tyre factory, the next tour guides in a chateau. Life’s hard sometimes isn’t it?

Eight years of teaching abroad and a wife and two kids later, we decided to return to the UK. Having the experience I did, I was able to land really cool teaching work in the UK teaching multi-lingual classes at summer schools and universities. Eventually, I found probably the best job in the world, here at i-to-i.

So, what started out as a way to travel became a whole lifestyle and career, one that I am able to continue, by working at i-to-i and telling others all about TEFL. So, what I’m saying is, with TEFL you’ll find work abroad for as long as you want and if you do decide to return home (think long and hard about that one!) then you’ll get work there too.

Joe Hallwood