Now it’s a week before Christmas and we’re back in Cabañas after a couple days in the capital. I had planned to submit my visa application yesterday, but realize that I was missing a single document. The document I needed was a Salvadoran background check, which I already have, but forgot to bring with to the Capital. That means there will be a return trip, but that’s okay. I need to get my visa within six months of arrival which means I have until February. This also means that I can’t work for money until that time.
I now have two English students, but I’m not able to charge them. My first student was someone that I told I plan to teach English in El Salvador, and they asked me if I would teach them. I agreed, and began tutoring them for free in October. My second student is someone that told me they were studying English, and I offered to tutor them. In both cases I have told them that when I get my visa, I will begin charging them for future lessons.
I have also finished obtaining my certification in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). I took the 11-week part-time online course from the International TEFL Academy. At first, I was nervous about the course being online and also about it being an asynchronous course. Maybe you’re familiar with online courses, but not asynchronous. Asynchronous courses do not include any requirement to actually attend any live online course, but they may be encouraged as extras. A typical asynchronous course can be completed entirely on your own online by completing required readings and online exercises and submitting appropriate assignments on time. The 11-week course I took was both challenging and rigorous. I learned a lot that I can apply to my teaching and tutoring. In addition, I also took a tutoring course, which was only two weeks and was also from the International TEFL Academy.
One question I struggled with was whether I would eventually want to get a job with one of the English teaching schools or academies or alternatively if I would simply tutor with my own students. There are pros and cons of each approach. Working in a school would give me a classroom environment, which is where most of my previous experience lies. Tutoring can be more demanding in some ways because in a classroom you can assign students to work together, but when tutoring there are no other students for your student to work with, it’s only you and your one student. In addition, in a school, you would have coworkers, who you could rely on for advice or spend time with. Finally, a school provides a regular schedule and institutional structure, which may include a textbook or lesson plans, which might be provided to you.
With tutoring, you truly have control of your own schedule and if you tutor online, you’re not restricted from travel any time and would not need to take time-off. As a tutor, you can potentially travel and work from wherever you are, even out of the country. I have been seeing the term, digital nomad more and more. Tutoring also gives you the flexibility to teach your own way. One school that I had looked at in the past noted that their teaching method was based on repetition, as opposed to Communicative Language Teaching and Task Based Learning, which are related to building fluency through teaching about real life applications of language learning. By tutoring I could follow my own approaches, but would be on my own for resources. I’m truly excited to have students now as I’m finally beginning to experience the reason I moved here: to share my love of English with the people here.
If you also want to travel the world and teach English, I recommend International TEFL Academy and you can use this link to register. If you do, I will make a small fee and you will get a digital copy of the textbook for the main course at no extra cost (usually it costs extra). Here is your link!
