TRAVEL
Sarah’s Travel Tale I HAD always been interested in teaching but wasn’t willing to pay to study for a PGCE/PGDE qualification in teaching before I had tried it, so decided to try my hand at teaching abroad. I also have a keen interest in travelling so decided teaching abroad was a no-brainer! I didn’t want to continue working two jobs back to back, paying crazy rent and always wishing for the next holiday to come around. To teach English, I completed a course with TEFL.org.uk (TEFL means teaching Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and I completed the 140-hour teaching programme. I had to complete the course online, which meant watching videos and reading articles and providing written work. I also completed the classroom component which required a weekend of classes. I am currently working at Beijing Foreign Studies University teaching the K-12 programme. This is a branch of the university, thirty-eight
but I teach children, I have been here for two years. I teach many kinds of classes, mainly reading, but I also teach singing and dancing classes, arts and crafts and drama. The course I studied really helped me to understand and appreciate how difficult it is for the students to learn another language, and gave me the tools to teach them best. The course introduced me to the importance of building up students’ confidence, and how best to do that. It also helped me understand my own native language better, and understand how language works. I love my job, and everything about it. The best part is actually watching the students grow and investing all your time and energy in them. The feeling you get when you see them blossom and grow is the greatest thing. I try to travel as much as I can when living in China. I have managed
to visit some Chinese cities such as Chingdao, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou, and I’ve also managed to get across to South Korea twice and also visited home three times! This year, I hope to travel to Japan, the Philippines and Hong Kong. My plans are to continue teaching as a career. In a few years, I would like to return to the UK to complete my postgrad and become a teacher in a British school, but first I want to travel all around the world and teach more and more. I am hoping to volunteer in a few schools around the world as a teacher as I would really like to spend some time teaching children who do not have access to a good education, particularly young girls in poorer countries. I hope to do this in a few years’ time. I would absolutely recommend doing a TEFL qualification – it has opened so many doors for me and has actually changed the whole path of my life. Without my TEFL qualification I would not have realised my ambition to become a teacher as a career.