New Teacher Tales

New Teacher Tales

If you are considering teaching English abroad, it's good to hear stories of other people who have already set out and done it. In our New Teacher Tales series, we interview people we know who are working as English teachers, both native and non-native. They tell us how they started out in TEFL and give advice to those of you who are thinking about getting into it.

 

In this post, Erick from Peru tells us about his long career teaching in Mexico, before moving to the USA.

Valentina, from Romania, tells us how she started her own English teaching company in Romania before moving to the UK and setting up a freelance teaching and coaching business

New Teacher Tales Valentina Badass Edupreneur

In our first interview of a couple, Namibian teachers Rudine and Marshall tell us how they got started teaching English in Thailand and about teaching in Laos

Chiroshree from India tells us how she started out as an English teacher in Italy after having her first child, to moving to work in London and the various fascinating ‘journeys’ that working with her learners have taken her on.

 British teacher Aleks tells us about how he changed from being a lawyer to teaching English, working in Uzbekistan, Oman and Russia, about paying for a meal with coca cola and living in a haunted flat in Uzbezistan.

Svitlana, from Ukraine, tell us about why she became an English teacher and her international positions in Turkey and Myanmar.

New Teacher Tales Nadja Teaching at RMIT Vietnam

Nadja from the Philippines, tells us about doing the CELTA and teaching English in Vietnam, and how she became a Learning and Language Advisor to students at an international university there. 

Hari, from the UK, talks about how she ‘fell into’ English teaching while travelling in Vietnam. This lead to a career in TEFL, as she’s since done a CELTA and Delta and is finishing her MA TESOL. She also met her husband in Vietnam and they currently live in Malta together.

Blog post for new TEFL teacher tales blog
New Teacher Tales Angela TEFL Teach English

In this blog, Angela, who is originally from the Philippines and now teaches in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, talks to us about how she started teaching English and her current multi-role job.

Henry, from the UK, is our youngest teacher to interview so far. In his first year of teaching after his degree, he tells us about how and why he decided to teach English abroad, the job he does now and what he’s learned from it.

New Teacher Tales Henry TEFL Teach English
indian english teacher

Shreya, from India, talks about working in international schools and setting up her own English teaching company.

In this post, Pete, a British teacher who currently works as a teacher and materials writer in Bangkok Thailand, talks about working on the EPIK scheme in South Korea, living in a Spanish town with storks on the cathedral spire and feeding a summer school’s resident badger.

New Teacher Tales Pete TEFL Teach English
New Teacher Tales Anna TEFL Teach English

Anna from Ukraine, tells us about being a government school teacher, why she did a CELTA as well as a language teaching degree and how she ended up teaching business English in an I.T company in Lviv.

 Ciaran, from Ireland, tells us about starting out teaching in Japan, losing the roof of his house in Vietnam, his love for Taiwan and the joys of owning a dog.

New Teacher Tales Ciaran TEFL Teach English
New Teacher tales Sharon

Sharon, from Hong Kong, trained in the UK and now teaches and trains teachers back home in Hong Kong. She has some ‘interesting’ stories about dodgy teachers in the industry and students’ inappropriate behaviour in class

Evonne from Malaysia talks about how the economic downturn in Asia forced her to start teaching English, and why she is really happy that she did. 

New Teacher Tales Evonne TEFL Teach English

Fiona teaches in Spain and talks about leaving her job as a jeweller to teach in Spain, visiting a bullfight and what she would do differently if she was to start it all again. You can find out more about her life as well as advice and tips for teachers.

 Richard tells us about teaching English in Italy and Saudi Arabia and the problems with Google Translate as an English teacher.

Teaching English in Saudi Arabia New Teacher tales - Richard
New Teacher Tales Rheanna TEFL Teach English

Canadian Rheanne talks us through her extensive English teaching career, including jobs in Japan, Vietnam, UAE and Kazakhstan, and teaching English to fetuses (yes, you read that right)

Becky who is now teaching in Moscow, tells us about why she loves teaching little kids and how teaching in Japan allowed her to see the Japanese singer she loves multiple times.

Teaching English in Japan
NEw Teacher Tales Amy

Amy, a fellow teacher here in Kiev, tells us about starting out in New York, and why she loves teaching in Ukraine so much. Amy blogs at The Wayfarer’s Book, and you can read more about her thoughts on teaching, and her adventures traveling in Ukraine, there.

In this post, we interview Emma, a British teacher who trained with us in Thailand, and then has worked for International House for the rest of her career to date, in Argentina, Spain, and Portugal. She tells us about starting out teaching classes of 60 students in Thailand, running social media for a school in Argentina and getting the opportunity to visit Iraq for teacher training.

New Teacher Tales Emma TEFL Teach English
Graphic for our New Teacher Tales posts where TEFL teachers give advice about teaching English abroad to new English teachers, it shows a woman writing on a whiteboard