Monday, September 1, 2008

Becoming an English teacher (or do I really want a CELTA?)

As I said in a previous post when I decided to leave the US and live overseas, teaching English seemed the natural thing to do; I'm a native speaker right? Reasonably intelligent right? Should be easy....
So: I sold most of my things, packed the stuff I couldn't part with, enrolled in a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) course at the British Council in Kuala Lumpur and bought a one way ticket to Malaysia.
I arrived in Kuala Lumpur, met by my friend who I would be staying with. I had a couple of weeks before my course started to acclimate to living in Malaysia. I enjoyed that mini vacation. The course started on July 16th and ran until August 12th, I won't bore you with all the details. However I will say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done, their description of an "intensive course", doesn't come close to describing how hard, stressful and agonizing this 5 weeks can be. I thought my previous tests for levels of black belt in Shaolin Chuan Fa were bad and physically they were, but this took the cake for mental torture.

There were 11 of us; 2 from England, 1 from from New Zealand, 3 Malaysian Indians, 1 Saudi Arabian, 3 Malaysian Chinese and me the lone American which was real special since I was the only one speaking and writing American English. There were a number of times I did not think I would pass the course, and a few times I didn't care if I did...
Two of my course mates didn't pass...a very expensive lesson.
Most of us got pretty close during the course as people do when sharing a trying experience. Now we have mostly gone our separate ways with vows of keeping in touch...speaking of which I need to send an email...Anyway 1 is off to South Korea to teach, 1 is looking to work here at the British council, and most of the Malaysians went to their respective homes to find work or continue at their previous jobs.
I sent out numerous CV's (Resumes) to places here in KL and and Singapore. I was contacted and interviewed by a school called ELS, they offered me a part time position to gain experience needed for the work permit. I observed some lessons, taught a demo. I worked there for a while when I received an email from the West Business school in Singapore, I went for and an interview and accepted a full time position which much better pay and benefits than ELS.
So now I will be moving to Singapore for at least a year maybe longer. I start on September 12th. I am searching for a room to rent and a way to get my things to S'pore without it costing more than it would to replace them...

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