A Mandarin Teacher Becomes TEFL Certified

I already had a job as a mandarin teacher. I took a TEFL, which many see only as an English teaching qualification, as I wanted to be a better language teacher in both Mandarin and in English.

When I met the trainers at Vantage, they told me how their ESA teaching methodology can be applied to any language and that they had already trained Mandarin, French and Spanish language instructors who were now teaching to great success.

The course was very well structured with teaching theories, methodologies, and teaching approaches But to really learn to teach using the communicative approach, we actually had to teach in front of real non-English speaking students.

I wasn’t too confident at first to stand in front of a live class and teach in a language that was not my own. My first teaching lesson was (I think) OK, but not a good as I wanted. However, the professional feedback I got from Vantage really jump started me in my second session—and I got subsequently better with each of the observed classes I taught.

I’m now completely confident. I can design a professional, effective lesson plan and successfully deliver a class—not just in my native Mandarin, but also in English.

I highly recommend Vantage. These guys are professional-class trainers and they gave me the foundation to be a professional language teacher.