Gonna Teach English…Gotta Get TEFL Certified

Yes, it was in a drunken state that I decided that we were moving to China to teach English.  Maybe that’s why we are still in Kearney, Ne and didn’t ACTUALLY move to China in January, but nonetheless it was this thought process that stemmed A LOT of our moving plans.  I did put quite a bit of research and preparation into “our move” to China. In fact, I even purchased the schooling to get certified to teach English.  After much research, and e-mails back and forth from representatives from different TEFL (teach english as foreign language) organizations I decided to give about $450 to www.teflonline.com to get my teaching certificate.
(Here’s another company TEFL that I just found out about…it looks really good: i-to-i Travel)

I never realized that learning a language I already knew would be so difficult.  I’m currently averaging a grade of a 94 out of 100…not bad, but I have higher expectations for myself.

3 Easy TEFL test questions

1). He is an excellent actor.

a. Pronoun as direct object

b. Pronoun as subject

c. Verb

2). Give me the ball.

a. Noun as direct object

b. Noun as subject

c. Noun as indirect object

3). The President spoke for an hour.

a. Verb

b. Subject

c. Direct object

It’s been a challenging and rewarding process to learn how to teach English.  I was in honors English in high school, but this has been more different than a high school English class.  Reading a book on Shakespeare, then writing a 10 page essay is A LOT different then knowing that teaching a different culture of student will have different challenges. A student in Thailand never remembers their final ‘s’ on any word, or a Japanese student most likely will speak with what seems like a monotone rhythm putting the wrong intonations on words, not to mention that they have different characters for their alphabet.

Did you know, because it’s spelling is only loosely phonetic, the spelling system of English is one of the most difficult in the world.  Look at the following list of words:

Rough, dough, thoughtful, plough, through, borough, slough, cough, hiccough. The letters ‘ough’ in the words represent many different sounds.

Imagine, then trying to explain to a foreign student, that although they are spelled similarly, they sound different.  I’ll just cross my fingers and hope they don’t ask the question “WHY, do they sound different?” The more I learn the English language, the more terrified I am of teaching it. I’m more scared to set foot in a classroom than on foreign soil…this will be the fear that could paralyze me.  BUT I WONT LET IT!

If you have questions about TEFL, or would like to ask me a challenging question – to see if I can answer it- please don’t hesitate to respond below!

…I feel that I’m getting ahead of myself however, I still have so much to share before the moment I started getting my TEFL certification.  Let’s jump back to November…