Finding a Great TEFL Destination
The Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Profession is known by many as a path to fun and adventure in exotic foreign lands, as a way to pay off student loans or as a way to dodge problems back home. Instead of focusing on the reason why they want to go teach abroad, many new teachers find their job first and worry about the destinations later. Unfortunately, many lose sight of their original reason for going abroad and become disillusioned. That doesn't have to be the case. With three easy steps, you can be focused on the reason why you are going abroad and find the destination that best meshes with your goals.
The first step in finding a destination is to take a good look at yourself. Why do you want to teach English in a foreign country? Is it for the adventure? Is it for the income? Are you running away from something? Do you want to help students in other countries? You need to take out a piece of paper and write down your reason. It doesn't really matter the reason, that's your personal choice. You just need to stay focused on that reason.
Once you've identified why you want to find a TEFL job, you should research destinations. The local public library has a lot of travel books. Pick up a Lonely Planet Travel Guidebook for the countries or regions that interest you and read them. Having trouble finding a country or region? Open an atlas and randomly choose a few countries. In your research, you want see if it is a place you might want to teach and live in. Don't make the mistake of focusing on just one country, keep an open mind and in the end try to have a list of five to ten countries that you might want to teach in.
The last step is to see how well your goals mesh with your preferred destinations. I suggest visiting sites like Dave's ESL Cafe or the TEFLWatch Forum [http://www.teflwatch.org/forum] and make pointed posts asking the user base if they can give insight as to how well your goals mesh with each of your preferred destinations. An example might the following posting:
"Hi I'd like to teach English in Indonesia. My goal is have an adventure and write a book about it. Is it possible?"
You may get conflicting answers, but even those conflicting answers can be helpful. It's providing you more information from diverse experiences. You may discover it's just not doable in some or all of the destinations you chose, but remember, you can always go back and find alternative destinations. On the other hand, you may find that several destinations mesh with your goals. Remember to always stay focused on your written reason for TEFL.
After settling on a destination, you can start to research what type of qualifications you need and what preparations you should make in order to work in country of choice. Never fear, you will be in a better position than other potential teachers because you will know why you are going abroad to teach and your primary destination.
Louis Maderas is a TEFL teacher with 8 years of experience in Latin America and Asia. He is an administrator on TEFLWatch, a leading provider of information on the TEFL profession and is the owner of Great TEFL Jobs. Great TEFL Jobs offers a unique job seeking experience whereby the general public can comment on all job postings.