TEFL Teachers
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) is the biggest export of the UK, but more importantly, it is an excellent way for unemployed graduates, hippies and other social misfits to travel and earn money abroad. What follows is a brief description of the three main types of TEFL teacher to be found circulating the globe.
The Career TEFL Teacher
This is the man or woman who has been involved in the TEFL industry for years, travelled the world, learned twenty-eight languages and undoubtedly at some point worked for the British Council. These people are very experienced teachers who began work in the industry long before it became an excuse for a real career. However, they often bore you to death with grammar explanations concerning such fascinating topics as nominal relative clauses, discourse markers and cleft sentences.
Warning: If you should become cornered by a Career TEFL Teacher do not under any circumstances discuss travel, as they will undoubtedly have been to more places than you, all of which were ‘so culturally stimulating.’
The Career Coward
These TEFL teachers have been involved in the industry for as long as the Career TEFL Teachers, but have never shown much enthusiasm and/or commitment to their positions. They are likely to have travelled to a handful of different countries, but have spent most of their time travelling back and forth between the UK and the country they work in. The Career Coward can never decide whether they should be doing something else instead of teaching. Thus they inevitably end up becoming a specialist generalist. However, at least these people can discuss more than nominal relative clauses.
Warning: remember that a Career Coward travels so much because s/he is single. If you talk to them bear in mind that they are trying to get you into bed.
The Beginner
The Beginner is a new TEFL teacher who has paid in the region of £700 to gain a relatively worthless certificate that claims they are qualified to teach English. They have decided (somewhat naively) that by doing so they have a passport to travel. They are the least experienced teachers, and swallow up the majority of teaching positions around the globe. The usual pastimes of a Beginner are travelling, drinking alcohol, and acquiring a thousand-yard stare; teaching English is a job for a year or two that allows them to put off making a career decision.
Warning: although these are the most fun TEFL teachers to be around remember that they cannot teach English.
The Career TEFL Teacher
This is the man or woman who has been involved in the TEFL industry for years, travelled the world, learned twenty-eight languages and undoubtedly at some point worked for the British Council. These people are very experienced teachers who began work in the industry long before it became an excuse for a real career. However, they often bore you to death with grammar explanations concerning such fascinating topics as nominal relative clauses, discourse markers and cleft sentences.
Warning: If you should become cornered by a Career TEFL Teacher do not under any circumstances discuss travel, as they will undoubtedly have been to more places than you, all of which were ‘so culturally stimulating.’
The Career Coward
These TEFL teachers have been involved in the industry for as long as the Career TEFL Teachers, but have never shown much enthusiasm and/or commitment to their positions. They are likely to have travelled to a handful of different countries, but have spent most of their time travelling back and forth between the UK and the country they work in. The Career Coward can never decide whether they should be doing something else instead of teaching. Thus they inevitably end up becoming a specialist generalist. However, at least these people can discuss more than nominal relative clauses.
Warning: remember that a Career Coward travels so much because s/he is single. If you talk to them bear in mind that they are trying to get you into bed.
The Beginner
The Beginner is a new TEFL teacher who has paid in the region of £700 to gain a relatively worthless certificate that claims they are qualified to teach English. They have decided (somewhat naively) that by doing so they have a passport to travel. They are the least experienced teachers, and swallow up the majority of teaching positions around the globe. The usual pastimes of a Beginner are travelling, drinking alcohol, and acquiring a thousand-yard stare; teaching English is a job for a year or two that allows them to put off making a career decision.
Warning: although these are the most fun TEFL teachers to be around remember that they cannot teach English.
