What inspired you to teach through International TEFL and TESOL Training and then continue on to work for the company?
This was all an unforeseen progression. I actually took my onsite 120 hour certificate course with ITTT and a few years later, after teaching ESL in Mexico and Hong Kong, and then came back to Thailand where I was offered a job as a trainer. As the operations of ITTT expanded into the online market, I was able to contribute to the development of those courses and teach them.
On-line chat, on a bright Monday morning
Describe a typical day as an Online Tutor with ITTT.
Fortunately, the typical day is pretty varied. You wake up and do your first download on the Computer. While the overnight emails are coming in, there is a chance to get the first coffee going. I usually look through the emails and do a kind of mental ‘triage’ as some contacts are pretty urgent and require immediate responses.
You then go through a whole range of different questions and answers, from students all over the world, doing a whole range of our courses. By the end of the working day, you will have had a couple more download times and hopefully have been able to complete all your mail before retiring for the night.
You have lived in UK, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Malta between the ages of three and sixteen, and have taught English in Mexico, Hong Kong and Thailand. What were these experiences like, and how does your international life influence your work today?
This is a great question. The travel we did while young put the wanderer bug in me. Having been used to a few years here, a few years there, I found it quite difficult to stay for a long time in one place, during adulthood. I am now in a very lucky position as an online tutor, as I don’t have to be in any fixed location. The travel experience has enabled me to offer some (hopefully) useful advice when requested.
On the move…..another coffee?
What have been the biggest lessons you have learned while teaching abroad?
Most of us humans are pretty much the same. There are huge cultural differences worldwide, but the real basic emotions appear to be the same everywhere I have been. Teaching can be very rewarding but is not easy.
How have those lessons contributed to your course development and online tutoring at ITTT?
I think it has given me some appreciation of ‘Cultural difference’ in terms of teaching, learning, and expectations of those things by both teachers and learners. We hope that the knowledge we have gained is useful when conducting our daily tutoring with course participants from almost every country in the world.
What does meaningful travel mean to you?
Personally, all travel is meaningful, in the sense that you gain some experience from it.
Why is teaching abroad a good source of meaningful travel?
You are immersed in the culture in a way that no tourism can give. As a teacher you are very much part of a community on a whole range of levels.
At the office
What advice do you give to those who are planning to teach abroad?
Don’t wait too long to go ahead and do it. You can never say when you are ‘ready’ to do it, so study, plan as best you can, then jump.
Why is it important for individuals to travel and experience new cultures?
I think people focus too much on the ‘differences’ between people. Much of this is nonsense. I think travel helps us see we are all more alike than we know.
Where do you see yourself in the coming years within the TEFL/TESOL world?
I am now in middle age and there is still a whole ‘chunk’ of the world, I have yet to see. I have a list of about 20 ‘places to visit’ and I wish to see them while working and not as a tourist. So my life will hopefully continue to be ‘On the move’.
