United States
US
Victoria Cunningham
Teach Enrich Empower
TEFL was a passport to a new life for me!
I worked in the media industry in London for seven years before I became tired of city life and went backpacking in 2015 around Central and South America.
Having always been a fan of Catalonia and needing a fresh start I decided to move to Spain in September 2015.
Teaching is always something I wanted to do and I’d even gone as far as getting a GTP placement with a primary school in London but UCAS didn’t approve the position as I didn’t have enough classroom experience. A real catch-22 as I was unable to gain experience whilst working!
When I moved to Spain I had originally thought I would try to get back into the media industry but the landscape is very different in Barcelona and to be honest I felt totally uninspired by more office work. It quickly became apparent that teaching English is a huge industry in Spain and I had the opportunity to get into the career that I’d always wanted to have.
“I enrolled on The TEFL Academy course because I wanted to become confident.”
It was a big shock at first, a lot of people think you know everything because you’re ‘native’ but it was clear I had a lot to learn! That’s why I enrolled on The TEFL Academy course because I wanted to become confident and learn from other people’s experiences. The course was fantastic, you can complete the online part at your own pace and it’s really comprehensive. The best part for me though was the face-to-face weekend part in Barcelona. The course content was great and the trainer had so much experience I was like a sponge soaking up all the information!
I teach in an academy in Manresa which is in the heart of Catalonia and around 65km from Barcelona. At the moment I teach adults classes at the school and in companies from B1-C1 level. I really enjoy what I do, every day is different and my workplace is very supportive and you have the freedom to be creative.
It can be daunting at first and there’s a lot of planning involved but there’s no better feeling that successfully teaching your own lesson plans and seeing students progress.
Living here is completely different to the UK; the culture, the landscape, not to mention the weather! Weekends are spent in the mountains or the beach and skiing during winter. I feel very lucky that I got into teaching eventually and I don’t miss those office days or the commute at all!
If you’ve ever considered teaching a TEFL course is a great pathway into a new world.
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