Home Tips and Tricks Top 5 Reasons Why Teaching English Abroad is Becoming So Popular

Top 5 Reasons Why Teaching English Abroad is Becoming So Popular

Teaching English as a foreign language is often best done abroad, but you might be concerned about leaving your home country. While there are a lot of things to consider, here are the top five reasons to take the plunge and teach English abroad.

1 – Learn a foreign language

Wait a minute! You thought you were just teaching English? If that’s your job, you’ve got to think that maybe the locals don’t speak English all that well, and so you might need to pick up some of the lingo. You might not stay in any particular place for long enough to become fluent, but it will be quite easy to learn the basics.Learning a language can go both ways, so make sure you’re prepared to dip into another language if you need to.

2 – Get paid to live in your favourite country

Having visited a country for a short time, you might find that you really enjoy being there. Unfortunately, under normal circumstances, you’d have to pay for a holiday to go back there again.

By teaching English as a foreign language, you’ll actually get paid to live in a foreign land. Of course you’ll have bills to pay, but you don’t need to go back home after two weeks, taking a few souvenirs with you.
You’ll be living in the country of your dreams, working in a job you enjoy, and enjoying every single minute of it.

3 – Learn more about other cultures

You might have a country in mind that you would like to teach in. You might have been on holiday there, or read all the books about the country and its people.

But without actually visiting that country and living among its people for an extended period of time, you won’t be able to truly understand and appreciate everything that happens in that country. There may be traditions that make no sense, food that seems strange, and many other things to explore and ponder.

By placing yourself in the middle of everything that happens, you will learn to appreciate the country much more, and find out what it is really like to live there. You’ll make memories that will last a long time, and might even find a place you want to stay forever.

4 – Make new friends

You probably have a group of people around you now that you consider friends, and every now and then you add a person or two to this group. By travelling the world and utilising a TEFL course, you’ll have to leave your friends behind.

Of course, you can stay in touch by email and phone calls and so on, but that doesn’t quite have the same feeling as meeting with someone in person.

In every country you travel to, you will have the chance to meet up with and make friends with many different people. Not only will you have students, you will most likely be working alongside other teachers, and be living in a community full of people.
If you thought your social life was busy before, just wait until you begin teaching!

5 – Make a difference in people’s lives

Teaching of any kind can make a massive difference in people’s lives. They learn and develop new skills, as well as building confidence. Being taught English will give them the skills of the language, as well as the confidence to use it, and may also increase their confidence when speaking with their peers in their own native language.

The more that a skill is developed, the more it brings out confidence in other skills and talents. Teaching a group of people English will have a lasting effect on them for a long time to come.