Published by Johnny on January 20, 2012
Missing flights…..
So I’m working on a one month English camp in South Korea the moment (through my new company www.teach.travel) and it’s been quite the ride. The camp itself is only 3 weeks long due to an early Chinese New Year so you wouldn’t expect to much to go amiss… you’d be wrong.
I flew to camp on Christmas day which is never ideal, but it’s only a 6 hour flight so I was looking forward to having a cheeky beer in Seoul before Christmas day ended. That plan sort of went out the window though. I flew from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – just over an hour flight, then I had to wait 4 hours for my connection from KL to Seoul (Incheon), South Korea . I thought I’d chill in the airport and make my connection with east.
I sat 6 meters from the airport gate, already checked in, sat with the gate to my back so I could access the powerpoint and watch the Sopranos on my macbook. Malaysian time is one hour ahead of Thai time but apparently neither me or my laptop recognized that fact so the 4 hours I had to spend was actually 3!
4 hours of Sopranos came and went, I turned around to meet my flight, walked the 6 metres and the flight had already gone!! Apparently they had been calling my name on the tanoy for 45 minutes – damn!! An exceptionally kind Malaysian Air Asia employee took pity on me, single handedly dealt with recovering my bag, immigration for entering Malaysia and he managed to book another flight for the next day for only an additional $70 – what a lifesaver. My Christmas wasn’t the best - my Christmas day was spent sponging the free wifi in Macdonalds in Kuala Lumpur airport, but I’ll always be thankful to that guy for helping me out. Cheers mate.
The kindness of strangers….
That was the first mistake. Next up, I arrived in Seoul and had to make my way to the city where my English camp was being held, it was a breeze. A 2 hour bus to one city, then another 30 minutes or so to the next. I got the first bus, no problems at all, jumped onto the next bus. 15 minutes into that I realised I didn’t have my backpack! I’d left it in the first bloody bus! Aaaagh! Sitting, stressing out thinking about the fact that my whole life was in my backpack I tried to come up with a plan. I decided to stay on the bus to the next destination, and when I got there I caused quite the scene. Trying to find people to speak English was a total failure, so it involved me dancing around like a madman pretending to carry an imaginary backpack and then acting surprised followed by distressed. I think the distressed charades worked though.
An old Korean woman hobbled up to me and handed me her cellphone, somewhat confused I tentatively asked ‘ehh, hello?’, a lady speaking English starting asking me what was wrong. It transpired that the old lady saw me struggling so decided she could help by calling her niece in Switzerland because she could speak English. We translated my missing bag issues through her and the staff at the bus station and when, after a very stressful 20 minutes of thinking I had lost my bag, they had located it and brought it back to the bus station in the last town! I immediately I asked for a ticket to the last town but after some more confusion and their refusal to buy me a ticket I was pretty perplexed, that was until the old lady grabs me by the hand and walks me outside. She took me to her car, jumped in, drove me all the way back to the other city, found me bag for me, jumped back in her car and she not only then drove me back to the correct town but also directly to the front door of my accommodation. What a superstar. The kindness of strangers never fails to impress me, now it’s my duty to pass it on.
Hospital in South Korea…
12 days after my lost bag escapade English camp in Korea was going great. The kids were awesome, the staff even more so but then it took a turn for the worse. Showcasing my Beckham-esque football talents (read: showing off in front of 10 year old Korean kids) I ran down a hill and face planted into the turf - classy move. On the way down I managed to twist my (previously broken knee) and go over on my foot. After a lot of attention and feeling rather stupid I got whisked to the ultra-efficient Korean hospital in town and within 2 hours I had seen the nurse, the xray technician, had 2 xrays evaluated and seen the doctor twice. I had only sprained the tendons in my foot and twisted my knee. English camp went against all their contracted insurance laws and just paid for all my treatment for me, they then drove me to class every day until I could walk enough again. Another bunch of superstars.
So the doctor strapped me into a foot splint-brace and I was told I was very lucky the bones didn’t crack and to rest for 2 weeks. The last part was impossible because I’m writing this from North Eastern China about to take a bus from Dalian to Dandong, on the North Korean border ahead of my train into North Korea tomorrow. Hopefully my injuries will hold up, I’m very excited!
Bad luck comes in three they say. But to be completely honest I don’t believe in that, this were 3 difficult situations but they all allowed me to appreciate the beauty of traveling/working in new countries, they reminded me about the goodness in people and they taught me to never get confused with time zones again! Happy travels!
Tags: English camp, south korea, teaching english, TEFL
Published by Johnny on August 21, 2011
If you’ve had some experience in the TEFL world you must have thought, at least once, about ditching the institutions and going solo. How do those teachers with 10-15 private students do it? The good news is that it isn’t rocket science.
Finding private students is a relatively simple process. Here’s a few of my top tips:
Confidence
First and foremost, attracting private students depends a lot on your own confidence. It’s an entrepreneurial endeavour after all and one that you must get accustomed to if you want to stick it out.
If you’re a well-qualified teacher you’ll likely have no problems, yet enthusiasm and the ability to remain independent from the text book, support centre and library that a school offers is critical.
Even if you’re not a qualified English language teacher you can offer (and get paid) for conversation classes. It all helps to improve a non-native’s speech and pronunciation.
Go Where the Students Are
Just like fishing, you’re not likely to catch anything if the pond isn’t full. Language teaching is the same. Go to the places where the demand for learning English is high.
Major countries, cities and towns with military bases are a good bet, as are places where people have the disposable income to pay for lessons in the first place.
This doesn’t mean you have to go abroad. A bountiful pool might be right under your nose.
Sell Yourself
Well, not literally, but your services at least! You want to get privates? You’ll have to advertise. Whether that’s traditional – word-of-mouth, notice-boards, flyers – or digital, the method is the same.
You don’t have to give yourself a hard-sell but letting some of your personality shine through in an advert is key to appealing to a prospective student. A nice photo doesn’t go amiss, nor does a testimonial from a student or two.
Beat the Competition
You might have realised by now that finding private students is a little like running a small business: you have to compete.
Take a look around at the advertisements and services of other teachers and work out what’s unique about you.
How about lowering your rates to attract more students in order to build your experience? You needn’t be shy about this in your ad either.
Final Things
Teaching privates is no free lunch. It takes hard work, preparation and a small amount of risk. Having said that the reward of working for yourself and not having to answer to a boss, is liberating.
Before you set out and take those first steps towards teaching privately, there are a few final things to consider.
If you’re teaching in a language institution – in any capacity – you must check with your Director of Studies to see if your contract permits you. Taking privates (and advertising publically) may seriously affect your steady paying job if it goes against the regulations.
Preparing all those hand-outs? Do yourself a favour and invest in a printer. Handwriting isn’t expected nowadays.
Finally, the trick to teaching privately is to be flexible. Without being able to chop and change classes, travel out of your suburb or prepare lessons on borrowed time you’ll likely to find the whole thing fairly stressful.
*Will Peach is a CELTA qualified teacher and the site editor for Gap Daemon, the social network with travel advice for backpackers and gap year travellers.
Tags: teaching english, TEFL
Published by Johnny on February 10, 2011
Moving to a new country to teach English is a daunting process on many accounts – culture shock, new industry to work in, the logistics involved in setting yourself up in a new country – all of these things are difficult to deal with, both practically and mentally. Furthermore, any school worth it’s salt will require to you to sign a 12 month contract when you begin your employment but often people don’t want to commit for such a long period of time. How will they deal with teaching English, will they like their new country enough to stay there for the full year? Lucky for you guys there is a great solution…
Teaching on ‘English camps’. These camps typically run twice a year for 3-8 weeks, normally around July and August along with January and February (summer and winter camps), Korea and Taiwan can’t get enough of these things but they can be a tough nut to crack. These camps can pay anywhere from $1k-$3k, they include free food and accommodation, are full of people just like you and me – young, fun, interested in travel, so all-in-all they are a great way to sample the English teaching lifestyle, experience a new country for more than a mere backpacking stint and to meet some awesome people to potentially travel with post-camp – kinda like a more grown up version of Camp America Summer camps.
 Enjoying an evening off work with new friends 
It all sounds too good to be true right? Yeah I know, the one drawback to the system is that the information out there is tough to come across and it’s another situation where if you know the right people then getting work on the camps is a breeze and without that way in you have to fight with endless fruitless information on another generic google search, or you end up paying THEM the school for the opportunity to work (we all know those sort of travel sites “for the small fee of $2999 you’ll get your food, board and the opportunity to work with Korean kids for 2 months!), unnecessary! I’m going to be doing another camp soon, either winter or summer and with the $3k, after camp I might take the boat from Korea to China and jump on the trans-siberian railway to Moscow and make my way through Europe by train. A couple of months on camp followed by a couple of months through China, Mongolia and Eastern Europe for a net spend of ZERO, now that sounds like fun! If you want more info about this guys, or are interested in working on a winter or summer camp in Taiwan or Korea I’m in the process of setting up a company offering positions on camps so feel free to email me on Johnny ‘at’ onestep4ward.com while I wait for my new site to go live. Happy travels!
Tags: earning money, korea, lifestyle, taiwan, teaching english, TEFL
Published by Johnny on November 04, 2010
So you want to teach English overseas, you want to travel the world while you work, you want to live in far flung and exotic countries, you want to enhance your CV and learn a language, you want to have a host of small Asian children running around with an Irish accent (ok that last bit was just me)… the whole ‘teaching English overseas’ thing can be far too confusing. A google search offers a horde of mind-boggling acronyms (TEFL, CELTA, IELTS, TOEFL, DELTA, ESL) arrrrrrrgh! What does it all mean?! Let me help you out once and for all…
Let’s start with the most obvious question…
What does TEFL mean? It means Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Basically, there is no one specific TEFL course. A TEFL course is any diploma/certificate/qualification that teaches you how to teach English overseas. There are literally hundreds of different TEFL course available (much in the same way that there are many different types of degrees available) so which TEFL should you choose and how do you distinguish the legitimate offerings from the cowboys?
To simplify things, I have crudely cut the TEFL world into 3 main sections – the big players, the onliners and the ‘i need a TEFL qualification quick’. They are as follows…
1) The big players: These are the most expensive, most diffcult, most internationally recognised and, all-in-all, the best TEFL courses you can do. There are two main TEFL courses which will have the schools fighting to hire you (thereby banishing all memories of being last pick every tuesday when the dodgeball teams were being chosen), they are the Trinity College Cert-TESOL or the Cambridge University CELTA.
They currently cost around $1600 USD for one month of intensive learning with 2 full-time tutors. They are audited by the universities during every course to ensure the school is delivering the course as directed, and ALL schools which offer the CELTA or Trinity MUST follow the exact guidelines or they will be dropped from the franchise. They offer a minimum of 120 hours of in-class instruction (which many reputable schools actually demand a minimum of in their job specifications).
2) Language School TEFL: When you sift through googles 10 billion results for TEFLs the majority you see will be independent language schools who offer certification in teaching English. They are often legitimate schools offering legitimate courses but make sure you do your research before you commit to one of these as many of them can be 2bit operations working out the back of a Korean BBQ diner! If they have an affiliation with an official school and can offer a job, the signs are good.
3) Online TEFL courses: These are TEFL qualifications in their loosest sense. They will permit you to work in countries where a TEFL qualification is a prerequisite of a work visa (Thailand, China etc). They are relatively easy to pass, inexpensive, fast to obtain and allow you to tick the right box in your teaching application. Ideal for someone who isn’t entirely sure if they will teach as they travel around the world but would like that extra string to their bow should they require a job at any point on their trip.
There we have it folks. The entire TEFL world sliced neatly into 3 perfect piles. If you’re still asking yourself “which TEFL course should I choose” have a read below and decide which category you fall into…
- If you are thinking about teaching English as a career, or in more than one country, or want to work in a university then CELTA or TRINITY is for you
- If you plan to take a year out teaching English in one country and want a guaranteed job on arrival, sign up for a specific local LANGUAGE SCHOOL TEFL and you’ll be all set to go
- If you want to have a TEFL certificate on your resume, are thinking that at some point you may teach for a few weeks or months to supplement your income on your gap year, get yourself an ONLINE TEFL
I hope this has helped clear-up the TEFL world for you guys (partially at least). Feel free to email me on johnny ‘at’ onestep4ward ‘dot’ com for any further questions, I’m always happy to help.
Don’t forget to check out the 16 FAQ ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH OVERSEAS for further info on this awesome industry. Good luck and happy travels =)
Tags: CELTA, Making money, teaching english, TEFL, what is a TEFL course
Published by Johnny on October 07, 2010
I have been teaching English around Asia for a while now and am currently studying part-time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to get my Masters in the field so I’ve had a bash at thinking about all the questions I had when I was about to set off teaching english in Thailand and South Korea – so here are the answers (most of which I learned the hard way :S ) If you have any more questions, just email me at johnny ‘AT’ onestep4ward.com and i’ll whack the question and answer on the page…
 Having fun at a winter English Camp
1) Is It Necessary to Speak a Foreign Language? Probably the most common question.. The answer is reassuringly simple – NO! In fact, even if you can speak their language, you are not supposed to speak in the classroom! The students have paid for full immersion in English so if, for example, you are in China and you speak fluent Chinese it doesn’t affect your job prospects at all and (officially) you are no more likely to get employed than your monolingual friend- your level of English is the only language criteria you your employer cares about.
2) How Much Can I Earn Teaching English? Hmmm, this is opening a can of worms! I’m going to address this issue in full later on in my blog because the answer is so varied, for recently qualified teachers salaries can vary from $500 per month in Laos to $3000 in Japan, I’ll write the review of salaries as soon as i get a chance
3) What Qualifications Do I Need to Teach English Overseas? Generally speaking, you need to have the qualifications which would allow you to access a degree course – i.e. A-levels/HSC or an equivalent. Often though some schools (and countries, such as Thailand) may require you to have a degree, whilst others will consider your application if you just have relevant life experience – so make sure you google if before you set off!
4) What Age Do I Have To Be? You have to be at least 18 years old to teach English abroad and, middle-eastern countries aside, there is no maximum age – hence me trying to convince my mother of the merits of teaching abroad
5) Can I teach if English Isn’t my First Language? This is tough guys :S I had a very good (German) friend who took the CELTA course with me – his English was impeccable but he really struggled to find a job after receiving his qualification as the vast majority of language schools require you to be a native speaker. Certainly, you will struggle to get a job in a reputable school but if you are willing to rough it in Government schools, private schools and the like then you will have a chance
6) Can I Bring My Friends/Partners etc With Me? If your friends/partner want to work within the TEFL field then more often than not the school will give you both jobs, they figure that a happy teacher is less likely to quit – so yes, this is a distinct possibility
7) Can I Arrange a Job Before Leaving Home? Yes you can but to be perfectly honest, it’s not always the best option. If there is a third party involved in placing you at an institution then invariably you can sort your own job out for a better salary. I know it’s scary to book a ticket to a place with no plans in place, but that’s also where the best opportunities lie (and certainly the most fun!) but if that’s not your cup of tea then it’s very easy to sort out a job online before you leave
8 ) When Do Jobs Start? People on all the forums will tell you the various academic term times of the countries that you are looking at so pay heed to those but in my experience if you want a job in any country and you turn up willing to work you will find a job, 99.9%.
10) How Long Will I Need To Commit To? The most frequent contracts are either 1 year or 2 years and you normally get a bonus (generally one months wage) on completion of the contract. Naturally, you are not obliged to stay beyond when you want to though and you can always move on if you forego your bonus
11) What Do I Do About Visas? If you work for a half decent school they will begin the visa process as soon as you start (sometime they pay, sometimes you pay but it’s never too much money), soon you will have a work permit and work visa, normally eligible for one year then it needs to be renewed. However, between you and me, many people work on tourist visas for cash in hand with various less reputable schools and although this isn’t strictly legal, it is rife
12) What Are Typical Working Conditions? Hugely dependent on the school or university. It can range from air-conditioned lecture halls with electronic white boards to wooden huts in 40 degree heat and 50 students! Just make sure you know what your getting yourself into before you commit
13) What About Travel Costs and Accommodation? Many of the more affluent countries (SK, Japan, U.A.E etc) cover your flights for you and put you up in decent accommodation. In less developed countries it’s up to you to pay for it but normally the school will assist you
14) What Will My Students Be Like? Depending on the calibre of school, your class size could range from 6-50 people. Often first time English teachers end up teaching primary school kids but if this isn’t what you want (like me!) then you can easily find schools with adult learners
15) What Happens If I Really Hate the Job or the Country? This one is easy – leave! This happens a fair bit, especially for people who have never lived away from home so the schools are very understanding and they will send you off with a friendly handshake, a decent reference and unforgettable memories
16) Can I Make A Career Out Of This? Absolutely! And you can earn some serious cash too, there are loads of further qualifications available out there, Masters, PHD’s, DELTAs etc. all of which nudge you up the TEFL food chain and allow you to earn serious western wages in every country in the world
 My class in Thailand
Tags: CELTA, FAQ about teaching english, teaching english, teaching english abroad, teaching english in Korea, teaching english in thailand, teaching english overseas, TEFL
Published by Johnny on March 27, 2010
So I ended up getting interviewed about my time teaching English in Thailand, I thought I would whack the questions, answers and link to the website. There are many more FAQ about teaching English on my blog
Check out the link the interview by clicking HERE
Johnny Ward, Thailand English Teacher
How long did you teach English in Thailand?
I first arrived in Thailand in February 2007 and left around May 2008 but my first month or so was taken up by studying my CELTA diploma, I was employed almost immediately after completing that so I taught for around 15 months in Thailand in total Continue reading “Teaching English in Thailand Interview: My Experiences” »
Tags: CELTA, Chiang Mai, Interview, Media, money, TEFL, Thailand
Published by Johnny on March 15, 2010
I was trying to think of the best way to run through my time in Thailand on my blog, I was in and around Chiang Mai for the best part of 18 months and it truly was one of the best times of my life; I think I’m going to talk about the lifestyle I led, the way the teaching worked, and generally discuss the ups and downs as my life as an English Teacher in Thailand, and then deal with all the extra trips, funny stories and crazy shenanigans later…
 Teaching English in Chiang Mai, Thailand Afterwards, I talk about Chiang Mai as a backpacking destination because that’s a blog in itself :S and what an amazing place it has proven to be to live, I miss it every single day!
Ok, so I finished my CELTA qualification and had became very good friends with the only other ‘young’ person on the course, Max. I actually had a provisional contract with English First (good organisation btw) for a job in China but I reneged on the contract to try to carve out a living in Chiang Mai after falling in love with the place so Max and I decided to try to get a job together in a decent school, find an apartment and live the dream.. Continue reading “My Time Teaching English In Chiang Mai, Thailand” »
Tags: Chiang Mai, teaching english, TEFL, Thailand
Published by Johnny on March 05, 2010
I left the UK once and for all early February 2007, although at this stage I still had intentions to return to the UK and begin my life in the corporate cage (that sentiment has long since gone). Landed in Chiang Mai airport, first time in Asia and no idea what was going on. I managed to get a cab to my ‘campus’ where I would be undertaking my CELTA qualification - it was beautiful, seriously serene and picturesque – called Nugent Waterside (check it out – i have discovered how to do links now!) This is where I would be spending the next month of my life:
 CELTA accommodation, Hang Dong, Chiang Mai province  
So as you can see, the set-up was sweet! As it turned out, this was hugely necessary as the bloody course was infinitely harder than I had envisaged so a solid base was a necessity lol. Also, when I arrived I was assuming there would be lots of people my age, we would party, study a little bit, get the qualification and crack on from there. Not so. I met an awesome guy, Max, who was 22 and I had just turned 23 – other than us everyone was around 40+, so much for the partying eh!
Let me explain how the whole thing worked:
We had two English tutors who I am still in contact with to this day, you wake up early – around 7am, have breakfast (delicious) then start studying with the tutors around 8.30am, all the way through to 5pm :S then you do coursework until around 9 or 10pm, go to bed (or have a couple of cheeky changs and then go to bed) and wake up at 7am and do it all again! This is the schedule from Monday to Friday – on the weekend, you catch up on your coursework because your due-date is fast approaching! I want to stress that doing your CELTA is by no means a formality, it is eminently passable but if you don’t do the work you will definitely fail (as people on my course did) and after spending $1800 on the course and maybe $1000 on the flight, studying hard-core for a month and all the rest you don’t want to be failing – so make sure you study!
Basically, on day 2 they throw you in at the deep end and get you teaching (on day 2 – wtf!!!!) Very scary for anyone with no experience (by anyone i mean me, and i was terrified). But it comes and goes and definitely helps in the long run, then you keep studying and working and teaching and stressing. You have 4 pieces of coursework to do over the 4 weeks in addition to everything else (there goes your 4 weekends!) and you have to teach 10 classes of 40 minutes i think, so you don’t have too much time to relax.
Ok, so a month goes past in a heartbeat, you have learned things about English grammar that, ashamedly, you didn’t know before even as a native speaker :S definitions of adverbs, adjectives, nouns, verbs! you learn all this during the course so if you don’t know when you register, it’s cool, neither did I! You learn a lot of advanced grammar too and to be honest that’s all really cool and will set you up for life when it comes to learning another language (which I discovered as I learned Thai). We finished up and leaving, as always, is a sad day 
  
Honestly, I can say this was probably the best $1800 AUD I have ever spent – I truly mean that. It opened up a whole new world to me, widened my horizons in a way that I could never have dreamed of and ultimately changed the whole course of my life, I couldn’t recommend this course highly enough and the second you are CELTA qualified you are automatically top of the English teaching food chain – employers love this stuff 
Check out my Teaching English Qualifications in the Travel Tips section for a thorough break down of the different types of English teaching qualification you can get, the basic hierarchy of those qualifications, value for money, difficulty etc and you will be fully prepared to choose that course and set off on an unbelievable journey and, crazily, a certificate that allows you to work ANYWHERE in the whole world for the rest of your life – amazing.
Also, check out my FAQ on teaching English overseas
Tags: CELTA, making money overseas, TEFL, Thailand
Published by Johnny on February 25, 2010
From my courageous stint in medical research I could finally afford to fly the coup once more. This is how my life as a serial backpacker actually began….
Came out of the hospital, but didn’t want to face the real world and I wanted to travel but I still wasn’t exactly rolling in it with $2000 in my current account and $5000 in savings from working through uni, an awesome mother etc. I went online and started googling – “how can i travel with very little money”, “travelling on a genuine shoestring”, “working and travelling” yadda yadda yadda. Aside from being inundated with pleas to pay 5 grand for the privilege of volunteering for 2 weeks in some far flung country I wasn’t making much progress. Then I stumbled across CELTA.
I’ll explain the mechanics, logistics, tips and tricks etc behind a CELTA diploma in my ‘Travel Tips’ subsection but I’ll give a brief run down here for the sake of my story. It’s basically a diploma from Cambridge Uni (the REAL Cambridge Uni believe it or not) that you study intense, i mean intensely intense, for one month and combined with your degree you can then teach pretty much anywhere in the world
CELTA’s can be taught anywhere so I signed up for my course which was being run in Chiang Mai, Thailand – i had never even heard of Chiang Mai by this point :S, and bought a one way ticket to Thailand. Wham, bam, thank you mam and I was outta there. From looking on the net aimlessly on how to travel and earn to applying for my course probably spanned across about 24 hours but i figured the more i think about how crazy it is the more likely i am to pull out, so i booked the course and my flight and all my money was gone again, but spent very wisely.
*IMPORTANT MESSAGE/DISCLAIMER: I feel as if i should add that at this point my plan was honestly to fly to Thailand to study my CELTA, take a one year contract teaching English in China, then fly back to the UK to pursue my career in finance aided by my new found ability in Chinese. So, 3 and a half years, 40 countries, 3 broken cameras, 2 lost ipods and and a host of amazing experiences later I’m still on the move with no plans to stop. What I mean to say is, if you are planning to do something similar a CELTA abroad be prepared to never be able to return to the same life, same mentality and same banality ever again :S
 Tags: CELTA, Chiang Mai, teaching english, TEFL, Thailand
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