Traveling Teacher

Recently, (like, within the last two or three weeks) I have started watching a lady named Paige on YouTube under the username hopeonatenspeed (click to pay her a visit).  She is such an inspiring person.  Not only does she consistently find a reason to be happy, but she's also done many amazing things so far in her life.  One of the things that she did was move to Korea to teach English for a year.  Pretty soon, she's moving to Thailand to do the same thing.  She has been on road trips around the U.S., she went to Northern Ireland to complete her Masters degree.

While all of these things sound absolutely amazing, I'm only going to focus on one of those things.  That thing is something that I'm currently planning for myself.

I'm talking about teaching English in another country.

One of the big things that I want to do in my lifetime is travel.  I plan on living in another country for at least a year in college, but after that, I didn't know what I would do.  Before I found out about this, I assumed that my options would be to look into Grad Schools or to get a job.  While both of these things are really good to do (and I'll more than likely end up doing them), at this point in time, they don't seem like the most appealing things to do.  So when I started watching Paige, I became inspired to look into teaching in other countries.

I did some Googling, and I found this online school that would allow me to earn a certificate to teach in other countries and learn how to teach English to those who were born in a country where English isn't the primary language spoken.  It's called TEFL Institute.  While I'll have to do a little more research (maybe even dropping an email with questions that haven't already been answered), this option looks very good for me.

It's an online class.  They let me do 100 hours of online work and then 20 more hours of in-person training.  After that, they'll help me get a job in a country I'd like to go to and wouldn't mind living in.  If online doesn't seem to be a good option for me, they also offer in-person training to make up for those 100 hours.  That would take a month to complete.

After that, it looks like I'd never have to renew this certificate and they'd help me with pre-departure dates and to-do lists, so I wouldn't be on my own through this whole process, which is comforting.  They could help me find a job during the summer (though the countries are more limited) or they could help me obtain teaching contracts anywhere from 6 months to an entire year.

I could even start this training right out of high school (though I would like to attend a typical college first)!  They only require that you have your high school diploma and that you're a native or a fluent English-speaker (which I am!).

All of that is a super-long way of saying that this program sounds absolutely amazing and I really want to do it as soon as I finish at least four years of college.  I'd basically be getting paid to travel.  And to teach.  How awesome is that?

After looking at the list they gave, I think I'd like to teach in Greece, Italy, and Indonesia for sure.  But there are so many other countries to visit and look into... that decision is going to be the hardest part, but making the decision to actually do this will not be hard.

So, I thought I'd just throw this out there, because I think it's so freaking amazing that this is out there.

I promise I'll have reviews up later today.  I have about three or four of them just waiting to be typed up and published on this blog.

Thanks for reading!

--Jude

P.S. Sorry for repeating the picture :)