The Guardian

'Home or away?'
Sep 29th 2006

In my role as a Tefl training adviser at Cactus, one of the questions I am most frequently asked is: "Does it matter where you take the course?"

Arguably the most important thing to ascertain from the outset is that the type of course you are considering will lead to a recognised qualification. Once you have established this, the next step for most is to decide on a location.

As the most internationally recognised courses are externally moderated, participants can rest assured that they will obtain the same qualification no matter where they train. There are however, factors that need to be considered when deciding where to complete your course (aside from how cheap the beer is).

Although just four weeks in length, your Tefl course may well feel like four years. When people say that you have to put your life on hold for a month, they're not joking.

If you live alone, fresh, home-cooked food is likely to become a thing of the past. Your bed may seem like a figment of your imagination. Friends may think that you have fallen down a large hole.

Given the intensity of these courses it is important not to create any extra stress for yourself, and that you feel comfortable in your surroundings. Although this may put certain people off the idea of training in a foreign environment, there are plenty of advantages to skipping the UK for other climates.

Alastair Fairman was first introduced to the world of Tefl through a taster course at university. After several years of misadventures in bookselling and even more years treading water as a team trainer for a mobile phone company he decided to finally take the plunge.

Alastair's reason for taking the course was that he wanted to teach English abroad. It made sense to him to begin by travelling and he therefore opted to take his four-week Celta course in Calgary. In his opinion, if he couldn't handle living abroad for a month just for training, then there would be no way he would be cut out to take on a long-term contract anywhere else. In exploring these options further, he found that the course costs were generally no more than if he'd stayed in the UK. The only significant additional cost was the flight.

Peter Riley also chose to train in the more exotic destination of Chile. The idea of taking a Tefl course in the UK and then applying for jobs overseas did not appeal to him at all.

One of the main advantages of learning Tefl in the country of your choice is the opportunity to gain a gentle but direct experience of the cultural differences, as Peter found. It may also be easier to secure work if your potential employer can see you as a human being rather than two A4 sheets of paper.

Another point to remember is that if you are planning to stay in the country where you train, doing a course there will give you practical experience of teaching monolingual groups very similar to those that you will teach after qualifying. This can provide useful insights into any particular cultural or linguistic issues specific to that country or region that you may come up against. Tefl courses are available in every corner of the world, although most seem to choose the "hotspots", which include south-east Asia, South America and both eastern and western Europe (Spain in particular).

One of the most important points to consider when choosing a location is likely to be the cost. As is to be expected, course fees can vary enormously from country to country. For example, while a Celta course in Krakow would set you back £714, completing a Tesol course in Cadiz in Spain would cost £951. A four-week Tefl course in Buenos Aires would cost £1,000 and a Celta course in San Diego £1,323.

As well as the cost of the course, it is also important to consider the cost of living in the country of your choice. The bargain-price course that you find in the middle of Rome is unlikely to be as cheap as it initially seems given that a mid-morning Diet Coke can leave you euros out of pocket.

Again, training abroad will not suit everyone. As exciting as foreign destinations can be, they can also be pretty daunting. It is imperative that you research your destination thoroughly before committing to a course to avoid any unwelcome surprises when you arrive. If the price suits though, and you fancy a bit of the exotic, why not give it a go?

As the world becomes smaller, it's just as easy to book a course abroad as in the UK. Why wait? With a bit of research and a touch of daring your Tefl adventures can begin sooner rather than later.

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