United States
US
Max Fisher
Teach Enrich Empower
Waking Up in Paradise Every Day
Hello my name is Max. I was born in Blackpool, England and lived there for the first 21 years of my life. I had a good job and good friends but I wasn’t very happy with my life.
There were several reasons behind this but the best solution for me was to get a change of scenery to meet some new people and have a fresh start in a new place. All my life I have wanted to travel the world. I casually looked into ways of doing it for years: I looked into scuba diving, blogging, sales, internships but none of these avenues made sense. Whenever I worked it out there was a high chance I’d be back home at square one within a month.
I first heard about teaching and TEFL when I was speaking to one of my friends who was currently travelling in Asia. He gave me all the info and loads of advice. I looked into it and it all looked good but me as a teacher, I couldn’t see it but I just went for it. Finally in early 2016 after years of saying ‘tomorrow’ I realised that it was down to me to make this happen so I booked onto a TEFL course in Manchester.
The 1 day were good fun and we learned a lot. The tutor was very experienced and the class was small enough that everyone got the help they needed. We covered a wide range of topics from lesson planning to presenting lessons. After the 2-day course, I started the online learning. I found this quite difficult but the 2-day course prepared me well and there are always tutors on hand to help with any questions. All in all I completed the online course in about 5 weeks as I was committing a couple of days a week to it. But you get 6 months to complete it if need be.
“I realised that it was down to me to make this happen so I booked onto a TEFL course”
I flew out to Thailand in October and I have been living here since. I teach an English programme at a school in Phuket and my quality of life has improved hugely. I wake up in paradise every day. I am located near loads of other destinations I want to visit. I get 2 months’ holiday a year and I could easily check out places like Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and China and get to help young children improve their English skills. For me I feel I am making a big difference in their lives and the students are so well-behaved here. I had my concerns as I know what it can be like back home, but these kids are so willing to learn and feel lucky to be learning English.
If I could give anybody advice who is thinking about doing this course is to go for it. Things are so different in other parts of the world and there is so much to see. Teaching may seem a scary responsibility; however, it’s generally quite easy and fun once you get the hang of it.
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