Yesterday (I think, I can’t remeber clearly anymore) I finally enrolled for a TEFL course.
Through a recently acquired South African friend of mine, I got some money transfered to my account there. Significant, because my credit card is linked to that previously-empty account. This was an exercise which, before, was extremely expensive, but with his help it cost no more than the exchange rate and a small banking fee.
Needless to say, I quickly spent, or shall I say ‘invested’, the money on this TEFL course. I came to China 5 months ago with only general knowledge and determination, and although I can continue to feel my way in the dark, I thought I should ease my own suffering, and that of my students, by learning what I don’t know (and should know), ie. how to teach properly.
I scratched around on the internet before, looking for respectable on-line courses. TEFL is not a standard accreditation as aparently there is no single governing body. This means that even a circus monkey dancing to the tune of some clown playing a windup piano can offer you TEFL. So caution is advised. The best one I’ve read about from several sources, is the Trinity Certification, but it’s no more official than the rest, and they do not offer it on-line.
Eventually I settled on www.i-to-i.com. Their price is competative, they have an extra module I was interested in (TEFL for Young Learners) and, I have to admit, the main reason I chose them was because their site worked in my Opera browser.
There’s another on-line course provider, Lingua Bridge or something, who’s course is actually cheaper. But I didn’t get a good impression about quality when their site bombed in Opera.
So, here I am, a student once more. It feels good, I’m improving myself and will hopefully soon be able to provide my students with better quality (and helpful) classes. The allowed time to complete the course is 6 months, although you could do it in two weeks, depending on how hard and often you work at it.
I had my CD, with the classroom tutorial, sent to South Africa though, because I’ve had some trouble with lost mail here, so that may delay the completion of this course for me.
Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. Let’s get cracking.