Jackie enjoys traveling, trying new cuisine, and is a huge anime/pop culture/video game nerd. Her White German Shepherd, Luna, deals with her shenanigans, but loves her all the same.
Why did you choose this program?
I had just finished completing 2 years of ESL teaching in Japan and I was ready to make the transition to teaching in public schools or private schools. However, interview after interview, I received the same response of loving my teaching experience and philosophy but couldn't hire me because my B.A. was not in Education. Many former co-workers had suggested an intensive TEFL program, but I had no idea which one to even consider.
Then a dear friend and fellow educator suggested Prague as the sight of achieving my TEFL certificate. After days of research and reading reviews, TEFL Worldwide was the only choice for me. The deciding factor came down to TEFL Worldwide offering actual classes with students of multiple English abilities as a form of practice and to be guided by a licensed teacher.
What did your program provider assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?
TEFL Worldwide helped organize accommodations, airport pick up, a city tour of Prague 1, recommendations on malls and stores with multilingual staff, and 24/7 support by phone should an emergency arise during the course of the students stay.
Purchasing of the airplane tickets, public transportation passes, and interactions with the students assigned to you during the course was up to the teacher. However, support was available should translations from English to Czech were needed. Even if the school could not directly do it for you, help was available should it be requested.
What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?
This course is NOT for the faint of heart. A normal TEFL certificate class is spread over three months in most cases. TEFL Worldwide is a four week, SUPER intensive course with daily homework, readings, and assignments on top of bigger projects due throughout the month.
If your learning style calls for slower paces, this is not the course for you.
What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?
Mondays are generally dedicated to all day long classes, split up in presentations by the programs instructors. Tuesday - Friday are often instructional classes in the morning followed by teaching practice/observation of other classmates lessons.
There are no classes on Saturday and Sunday. It is not uncommon for teachers in the program to spend a day working on assignments and exploring in or around Prague.
Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?
After having spent two years in Asia, I will still be dealing with reverse culture shock in the United States when I left for Eastern Europe. My mind was racing with thoughts of etiquette, expectations of foreigners, food, time zone differences, and etc. As my first time in Europe, I was not prepared for how much I would come to love the people, food, and culture.
I overcame the fear of my preconceptions by forcing myself to do things that were not easy such as going to a cafe in Prague where the entire menu was in Czech, traveling on the local trains outside of Prague, and trying to use the language whenever I could.
My Czech still may not be perfect or music to anyone's ears, but by forcing myself to do that, it helped ease my fears.
