Teaching English and TEFL Internship in Thailand

The teacher training was first rate and gave me the confidence to teach. I never thought I'd be able to teach but the quality training and support given by staff enabled me to do it! Now i'm hooked and can't imagine not teaching. The thing I enjoyed most was seeing the results of my teaching with my students keen to speak English and seeing their progress - very satisfying. I'm really impressed with GVI and in fact I'm already working as unpaid staff at the Thai Elephant Project. GVI programs give you the chance to really make a difference whilst developing your own skills and providing potential career opportunities in the future.

The willingness to learn of the Thai people taking part in the English programs and their openness to visitors to their communities. The possibility to tour a country which has a mix of touristy tourism and natural beauty tourism. Considering the program has been running for a while in the same locations, the volunteers could be given a greater heads up as to what to expect. As a number of locations continue one volunteer after another then the handover process could have more consideration. Return to the program? Yes and No. As an overall experience volunteering was excellent, I would want to be better prepared both in myself and with the information i was provided before taking part again.

This experience has been beyond anything I could have imagined when I signed up to do the 6 month TEFL internship. It was probably the quickest, most challenging, and fun 6 months of my life and I cannot believe that I have finished it already! Teaching was a wonderful experience and most of the kids that you teach are so enthusiastic to learn and eager to please you. Although teaching was fun, it was also one of the most challenging experiences of my life, and I have developed a deep respect for the amount of work and time that teachers around the world put in. It has also reinforced the overwhelming importance of a good education, whether that be in english or another language, and this is something that I want to work towards globally in the future. I will never forget the kids I taught, or what I learned from them. The other amazing thing about doing something like GVI is the number of incredible, like-minded, inspirational people that you meet from all over the world. I am lucky to have made friends for life, in both volunteers and staff, and I am unconditionally grateful to them for making my experience as amazing as it has been. My experience with GVI has also challenged me massively as a person -learning to live with others, putting myself out there to get to know other people and learn about their lives, organisation and planning, travelling and budgeting, perseverance in finding a way around a new place without just getting in a taxi! Two important things I have taken away from travelling around and my experience with GVI are -even if you don't know the language, ask the locals for help! You will be able to muddle along and figure it out and they are always friendly and willing to help. The other thing is that as long as you have a ready smile, you can get a long way :)