½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

I don't fall into either category I'm afraid, but when we were down in Puglia buying our house recently we heard alot of talk about a UN base being developed around the Brindisi area as payback for the ½ûÂþÌìÌà "contribution" in Iraq. Most people in Puglia don't speak English but if this does come to fruition there could be a move to learn because of the opportunities for jobs - it may be that you could pick something up around this. Of course, this could all be just talk. Good luck. J.

Which TEFL course did you do? I'm interested in possibly persuing this qualification myself - although not necessarily to teach in Italy.

The place I am going to do the course through is a school called I-to-I. They have a website for their UK section at [url]http://www.onlinetefl.com/?AID=10307091&PID=1643834[/url]

The diploma option is the one I am going for. A colleague of mine completed this course through them and is leaving later this week for a teaching assignment in Brazil. They placed him in the job as well. I know they cover Italy as well so there is some hope there.

Did you find the course difficult? I've heard that they can be surprisingly tough work.

[QUOTE=Licciana]Did you find the course difficult? I've heard that they can be surprisingly tough work.[/QUOTE]

I have not yet done the course but given that the balance on this one is given to self study and theory I am confident of being able to do it. The practical phase is quite intense (I was told) but that is to be expected.

Most TEFL courses are hard going - they are trying to get so much knowledge into you in such a short space of time it could not be anything but.

What's your normal job? Couldn't you just do that instead?

[QUOTE=Flyingveepixie]What's your normal job? Couldn't you just do that instead?[/QUOTE]

I work in administration in a zoo. The market within any country for Zoo workers is oversaturated so there is not much chance of securing work in this area. My life pre zoo was travel - I worked in hotels, travel agencies and car rentals - again, a market that is pretty well saturated. Plus my ½ûÂþÌìÌà is far from being considered good enough to deal face to face with ½ûÂþÌìÌà clientele.

The TEFL Courses are a "lot" of work but not necessarily "hard" work if you have a graspe of language construction. The hardest thing I found was teaching verb structures as in the UK (certainly when I was at school in the 70s and 80s) there isnt a lot of emphasis on the "names" given to tenses etc. The thing to remember is to make your teaching fun and to personalise it. Good luck.

Hi Sano, a friend of mine came over a couple of years ago to a small town in Le Marche, after completing a short TEFL course, she has a small pension, so needed to seek private students, the first one was the hard one, after that, things snowballed to the extent that she is now re thinking the "Live to work / Work to live" balance. There are however a couple of difficulties, most of her customers are kids, generally turning up on time and paying at each lesson, however, the adults are an entirely different case, not turning up, cancelling, arriving late, insisting on learning a specific number of words a month etc., and, regularly "forgetting" to pay. Mind you, if you errrm borrowed a big cat or three from the zoo, they might be more amenable.
The kids seem to be a dream, they by and large wish to use their school books, refreshing and trying to steal a march on future work in class, ohhh, and, she made it plain early on that she had no intention of ever doing their homework for them...
As with most things, I think location will be pretty vital, it's no good being the finest teacher in the world if no one can get to you...
Bocca al lupo.

You could always get a crappy job as a dishwasher in a hotel to start you off and then as your network of contacts/friends grows move on to something better as opportunity arises............

From experience I can vouch for the fact that TEFL can also be a 'crappy' job. For a foreigner living in Italy it can actually be surprisingly well paid, but the hours can suck, and the working conditions are invariably poor.
When I taught English in Naples for example the first lesson was at 8am, the last lesson 9pm-10pm with lots of one hour gaps here and there throughout the day which could not be used for anything very constructive (except ice cream eating).

Worst of all, if you want to polish your ½ûÂþÌìÌà language skills this is not the job for you. Focussing 8 hours + a day on speaking English clearly, talking about grammar, and struggling to understand what is being said to you (in English) while hanging around before, during, and after school with English speakers is no help to the aspiring ½ûÂþÌìÌà speaker!
Worst of all, you will start talking in English v e r y s l o w l y so all of your friends and family will find you patronising.

Have you tried the Zoo Safari in Fasano for work.... it's a large very well stocked safari park.

[QUOTE=Trickydicky21]Have you tried the Zoo Safari in Fasano for work.... it's a large very well stocked safari park.[/QUOTE]

Good thinking! I need to improve my ½ûÂþÌìÌà first though. No use an English speaker even if he knows how to look after animals.

Actually, you wouldn't know if there are any butterfly farms or places with large insect collections about? This is more my area of expertise as the moment, with reptiles coming up a close second.