I chose to come to Barcelona and do this TEFL course simply because I was unsure of what I wanted to do in life. I knew that I loved languages and was already pretty good at English, so I thought, why not? Doing the course was the best decision I could have made. From the very first day the class was relaxed, a great atmosphere and we all had a great time. We had quite a big group (about 18 I think) and we all got on so well. The teachers, Lisa, Jane and Jamie are great and I really couldn't have asked for more support. They make every lesson fun and interesting (yes, even the grammar lessons) and I can honestly say I enjoyed every minute. On the first day, they took the whole class out for tapas and sangria which was an unexpected but very welcome surprise! It was a great idea for us all to get to know each other. I learned so much during the month. One thing I will say is it isn't a walk in the park. It's hard work and is pretty intense at times. When I started, my grammar was awful. If I hadn't put in a lot of work and study I definitely would have failed the final exam. Instead, I passed with flying colours! :) you get a lot of teaching practise with proper students which was very daunting at first but by the end I absolutely loved teaching them! The Spanish students know that you're learning to teach and are very supportive of this. The career advisor, Mike, was great too. He gave us so much help towards finding a job after the course. I got my certificate on Thursday 5th December, and I just got my first job offer yesterday, Monday 16th December. Mike's help definitely paid off and he made sure we all had good CV's etc. before we started applying. Overall, I would 100% recommend this course to anyone. You will meet great people, learn a lot, experience life in another country, and finish with a top class qualification which you can use all over the world!
What would you improve about this program?
One thing I would change about the course is that we got no experience teaching children. We taught a lot of adult classes which is great, but now that I have finished my course I have been offered a job with 3/4 year olds and of course, this is a very different classroom environment! We spoke a lot about techniques for teaching children and we were taught about how the classes work, but we didn't get any experience of it. This is a very small factor and it is the only fault I can think of! Everything else is perfect.
