Hello there. Did you take any languages in school or have an intermediate level of a language? If so, you may be able to teach English without taking a course. I am doing so with the French government where you go for 7 months and work as an English teaching assistant. I’ve seen the same program for Germany, Italy and Spain. For the French program, you can take a look at this website:

http://frenchculture…

Hope any of this helps.

rabbit, how much french do you think is necessary to know? when you say intermediate…what do you mean?

User_name, i think the min amount of french you should know is 300-level college french.

Hello there. They just want you to have taken Intermediate French (FRE 2200). A lot of people in the program (including myself) have a basic understanding of the language…enough to get by day to day. I think the French matters more with the primary school kids as they do not know as much English as the older kids.

It seems pretty easy to get into the program – they’re not too picky about Americans at least. At the same time, going over there without a decent command of the language is a recipe for headaches. The French bureaucracy is horrible, and the formal French that is used in all the contracts, paperwork etc. is not something you learn in class. I’m heading back for my second contract as an assistant in a few weeks here, and am still dreading the whole process.

Thanks for the responses gvlatin and rabbit.

Eggy, you say its your second contract….so you’ve done it before? If so, could you explain what its like….perhaps a day in the life sort of example..? Anything else you’d like to share perhaps… Thanks.

Well, you work a max. of 12 hours a week so most days you won’t have class. If you do have class, what you do largely depends on the professor. Sometimes they will give you specific topics to go over, but otherwise you just play games with the students to help them learn. The students’ ability varies wildly – there were juniors in high school who were fluent and BTS (high school grads working towards a 2 year degree) who couldn’t speak at all. You have to be flexible in that respect. The good news is that you are not expected to teach any grammar and you will only take half a class – no more than 15 students. You get health insurance, about 765 Euros/month, and sometimes a place to stay..

I’m actually doing something similar in Sevilla Spain. (Well I start the end of September)

It sounds like fun, I’m so excited! =)

Yep have done it for 2 years in Spain and am now off to Latvia for a bit of a change and a year 3 somewhere else. It’s an enjoyable way to see the world although be warned that you will never get rich with TEFL!

I recommend getting a quality TEFL certificate (CELTA or Trinity.) Even with this you won’t be considered for the majority of jobs unless you have an EU passport. The following site

www.daveseslcafe.com

has loads of useful information. There is also

www.expatriatecafe.c…

which is mainly aimed at Americans wanting to teach in Spain. Good luck!

Hey Eggywegs…what academie are you assigned to? I have been assigned to the Bordeaux academie and was lucky enough to be placed in the city of Bordeaux. If you would like to visit, let me know. My email is andreainfrance@gmail.com

Andrea

teaching in Asia is really easy, and in most cases you don`t need any language training. For Japan, the best organizations to go through are NOVA, AEON, and GEOS. Pay is pretty good, and Japan is a wonderfully central location for travelling around southeast asia. Think aboutit.

quote:
Yep have done it for 2 years in Spain and am now off to Latvia for a bit of a change and a year 3 somewhere else. It’s an enjoyable way to see the world although be warned that you will never get rich with TEFL!

I recommend getting a quality TEFL certificate (CELTA or Trinity.) Even with this you won’t be considered for the majority of jobs unless you have an EU passport. The following site

www.daveseslcafe.com

has loads of useful information. There is also

www.expatriatecafe.c…

which is mainly aimed at Americans wanting to teach in Spain. Good luck!

So are you American? Can you like tell us how it is…like a day in the life….and like whats affordable and what time you have outside of work….and anything else you’d like to add. Thank you.

Michahj123, if you’ve taught in Japan could you answer the questions I just posed to Johhniboy….thanks.

quote:

So are you American? Can you like tell us how it is…like a day in the life….and like whats affordable and what time you have outside of work….and anything else you’d like to add. Thank you.

No I’m from Northern Ireland. My ex-girlfriend was American working illegally and I really wouldn’t recommend taking that route if you can avoid it as she got messed around in relation to working hours and flats.

TEFL is a labour of love. It varied according to the age range. Generally the distinct age groups would be.

1) Very young children (to 4 years old)
2) young children 5-8
3) "tweens" i.e. 9-12
4) early teens 13-15
5) late teens 16-19
6) adults to 60
7) oldies 60+

never taught very young kids, the second were actually quite enjoyable to work with – you just did a few childish games "simon says" , activities, songs etc. Tweens were frequently bastards and early teens a bit of a mixed bunch. Tweens often have no motivation or respect and so many classes can end up as a slugfest depending on their mood for the day. They fall into an awkward age were they’re too old for some of the games but not old enough for more serious topics.

Late teens are the best of the lot, well motivated, eager to learn and often well clued up. Early teens fell somewhere between the previous two groups.

For the adults it depended on why they were there : if it was because of the company making them learn English then you could often face a struggle to teach people who simply didn’t want to be there and often would have to abandon lesson plans in favour of open ended discussion about whatever topic they raised. However otherwise it was great to teach some of them and often classes were just like a night out with my friends!

Oldies were usually keen to impart their knowledge of the world so often it was a case with them of trying to give them all equal time to reminisce about the good old days

Timetable can be the biggest hassle depending where you teach. Last year I taught 4 days a week 1-2 and 5-9pm with two 9-10am classes a week. The gap in the afternoon wasn’t bad as this gave me time to eat and to plan lessons.

The 0900-1000am were the biggest hassle as working evenings you tended to fall into a nocturnal schedule of staying up and then getting up late which meant that crawling out of bed at 0730 was difficult!

Living in Spain teaching I’d say you need about 24 hours a week to live okay provided you’re not in Madrid or Barcelona as rents there eat up your cash. I lived in Valencia and paid 95 euros a months which I earned in 10 hours teaching leaving plenty over for eating out, nightlife etc and having Friday, Sat and Sunday off was great!

However if you want your own flat or to travel a bit more then you better have savings or be prepared to work about 30 hours a week which can get a bit stressful. You’ll never get rich teaching English but it’s a great wee to see other places and immerse yourself a bit while getting a semi-livable wage.

Most programs I have found are directed at students, anyone have knowledge of a program for illiterates as me?

Im taking the TEFL course in Prague in March! Cant wait!

quote:
Yep have done it for 2 years in Spain and am now off to Latvia for a bit of a change and a year 3 somewhere else. It’s an enjoyable way to see the world although be warned that you will never get rich with TEFL!

I recommend getting a quality TEFL certificate (CELTA or Trinity.) Even with this you won’t be considered for the majority of jobs unless you have an EU passport. The following site

www.daveseslcafe.com

has loads of useful information. There is also

www.expatriatecafe.c…

which is mainly aimed at Americans wanting to teach in Spain. Good luck!

Wow, so you can actually do this without even knowing the language of the place you’re going to? How does that work?