Lily Pandeles

Teach Enrich Empower

Teaching in the Venice of the Orient

My name is Lily and I am twenty six years old. I'm currently teaching in China, Jiangsu province in a city called Suzhou which is sixty miles inland from Shanghai.

It’s a beautiful city and full of original beauty. They call it the “Venice of the Orient” and I can see why. I’m teaching at an after school academy for students from three to twelve years old. The classes are divided by age groups and I never teach more than fourteen students at once. There’s never a dull moment teaching kids. It’s refreshing to see how keen they are to learn and the best part is they find you hilarious! Winner.

After college like most young people I felt completely lost about what to do next. After some fun summers abroad I realised I wanted to travel and meet like-minded people. However, that inner adult told me I should get a career and sort out my finances, so I attempted to. Let’s just say after five years of working in Retail Management I was desperate for a change in direction.

I became obsessed with thinking of ways I could travel long-term without a hefty savings account and had heard teaching abroad was the way to do it. So it didn’t take me long to book my place with The TEFL Academy. I chose The TEFL Academy as I needed a course that fit around my full-time job, having a combined course of classroom study and working from home was perfect for me. I was able to fit the course around my other commitments and managed all this part-time without a laptop.

“My TEFL course gave me the confidence to teach.”

My TEFL course gave me the confidence to teach. I learnt about various teaching methods, classroom management, lesson planning and the importance of conducting a needs analysis. I also brushed up on my grammar skills as it had been ten years since I studied English myself.

I plan on travelling around South East Asia and continuing to teach wherever I go. It’s a perfect way to see the world, give something back and in return learn about a culture. My advice to anyone contemplating a TEFL course is DO IT!!! Don’t put it off, it will give you so much more than a 9-5 ever can. Trust me. Life’s too short, if you have options you should use them!

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