TEFL certs: a commentary

One of the little known parts about getting a job overseas, despite only usually needing a 4 year degree is that some places require a TEFL certificate.  TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and programs generally come in many different hour packages both in classroom and online.  Manda and I decided to do a 120 hour online version from the company i-to-i.

The courses are designed to do a few basic things, teach you the basics of teaching, give you some ideas for lessons you may teach, give you cultural context to your teaching so you don't look like a moron, and finally help you find a job.  Note that it does do a few of these things, it helps you prepare for teaching, and it does give you ideas for lessons, but it does not help you find a job and they are filthy sexy liars of they say otherwise.

When looking into online courses you should know that most programs that require a TEFL cert (such as teaching in public schools in South Korea) require at least 100 hours.  Anything less is largely useless, other than to get yourself into the practice of creating lesson plans for your students.  You should obviously research the programs to find which would be the best fit for you.  At least with the course that Amanda and I took we had 90 days to complete the certification(s) which was more than enough, but if you are busy with full time work, or other large commitments it may be harder for you.

So about the course itself, well other than letting me know that my grammar awareness is absolutely awful it was very useful and broke down the ideas of what it is like to be a teacher step by step with modules.  Broken up by "checkpoints" which are basically open ended essay tests that test your knowledge of the subject matter you were just taught.

There are some issues with the course that I'd like to talk about.  The checkpoints are by in large hard, and some of the questions are tricky for the purpose of screwing you over which kind of sucks.  That I do not have a problem with, when you get a question wrong you should fix, or re-adjust your answer to fit the situation better.  The problem is that you get three chances total to get everything correct on these checkpoints, which is a problem when the questions can be extremely vague.
The tutors aren't any help either, if you get something wrong they will be "This is not correct do it again."  That is not a helpful statement when it comes to open ended essay questions!  It doesn't address what is wrong or what needs to be changed, or well anything helpful.  Funnily enough while doing a certain checkpoint with Amanda (we answered the same since it wasn't an open ended question) the tutor graded my test wrong but hers correctly.

While I would recommend a course for those who need to learn how to teach English as a second language, be ready for some frustration unless you do your homework well.  I know I wish I had!

Some sort of update that totally was planned out

So I went over a short list of things you need for your own ESL adventure!  So I suppose before I go into specifics about the list I am going to write about why I want to teach overseas.  As I told in my generic first post I have not really traveled much in my life due to financial reasons.  Not willing to put myself into debt just to have a fantastic week or two, but I have always loved studying people.
When I found my major in college (cultural anthropology) I was bitten by a bug with the desire to travel and to do new things.  I always had the desire to be dropped into a new culture and be forced to assimilate, and perhaps write a kick ass enthnography along the way.  There isn't much anthropologying I can do with a bachelors degree, but teaching English abroad makes me feel like I would be doing something with it.  I finally get to experience getting immersed in a culture very different from my own middle class suburban lifestyle.

I am cautiously optimistic about what our experience overseas will be like.  One of the biggest issues I may end up coming across is adjusting to a new style of cooking.  I am pretty bland and routine when it comes to eating, I am a pretty meat and potatoes kind of guy.  I don't really go out of my way to try exotic cooking, and that could be a problem since eastern food is very very different than American style food.  The language barrier will also be an issue until Manda and I establish a basis of our host country's language.  I expect the culture shock to be pretty marvelous.

The last thing and probably biggest issue I (and I know my wife will as well) face is the fact that we will be forced to leave our cats behind for a year.  We will probably go through cat withdrawal and have the shakes while on the plane!

An Introduction

Who am I? Why do I want to try teaching overseas?

Well, I'm Manda. I lived in central Indiana for many years where I started college and changed my major plenty of times. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I made the decision to move out to Pennsylvania where I attended community college for a few years and finally finished my degree at a state college. Now, after more years of schooling than I like to admit, I do have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and minors in Anthropology and Sociology.

 I enjoy psychology, social psychology in particular, but don't find it to be my main area of interest. I am much more fascinated by the fields of anthropology and sociology. However, having said that, I am actually hoping to pursue a masters degree in library science or student affairs at some point in my lifetime. 

I have always been a reader and it's a hobby I continue to enjoy. I am also an amateur photographer and hope to learn more and develop my skills, especially for being overseas! Other, mostly nerdy hobbies of mine include anime and manga, video games, and more recently reading comics. I'm also a fan of BBC programming (Doctor Who, anyone?) and board games. Going along with that, I also have a very extensive list of bookmarks of webcomics of many different types by many very talented artists.

Now, why exactly do I want to teach overseas? Well, why not? Having just moved back to Indiana with a not-particularly-special job, no lease to worry about for an apartment, and pretty minimal strings attached, what else are two newlyweds to do? Teach English overseas of course. New cultures and new languages are always a major culture shock, but with two of us, it seems like a grand adventure, and nothing the two of us can't handle together. Plus, we'll come back with pictures, fantastic experiences, and stories to tell about. Plus, it's pretty nice on the checkbook which will be another perk for when we get back. ^.^