English Opens Doors Program: Teach in Chile for Free

After eight years of working as a software developer and project manager for a large company I decided I wanted to pursue other passions. After researching several different work/volunteer abroad programs I discovered the English Opens Doors Program in Chile. This program seemed to combine my passion for teaching, traveling and hispanic culture while being located in a safe country with a rich culture and interesting sites. Now that I have returned from my volunteer semester (~4 months) I can say without a doubt that volunteering with English Opens Doors was the right decision for me. Overall I would say the best thing about my journey were the connections I made with my students, fellow teachers, host family, and friends in Cunco. Of course I would also rank exploring Chile and learning Spanish at the top of that list too but nothing is better than the friendships I made, the impact I left of the community and the impact they left on me.

During my time in Chile, I ended up working in a brand new school facility in a pretty large city in southern Chile. It wasn't the rural experience that a lot of volunteers have (there was more technology in the classrooms that I knew how to use, for example), but I did request to be placed in a medium-sized city, so I got exactly what I thought I wanted.

Through living with a wonderful host family and working alongside experienced English teachers, in my five months in Chile, I learned and developed professionally and personally. My biggest struggles were in adapting to the conservative expectations of some of my older colleagues and host parents (mostly in terms of the very prevalent gender roles that i witnessed), and in learning to work with two head teachers who had very different teaching styles and some interpersonal disagreements that predated my time with the program. Working through those issues, however, gave me the flexibility and appreciation to work in almost any work environment.

The best parts of the program were becoming comfortable with my students, enjoying the energy that I could bring to the classroom, realizing that lesson planning wasn't as hard as I had thought, and forming close friendships with my head teachers, my host mom and my host sister. Plus, Chile is a beautiful country and I loved getting to travel some with my host family, and on my own after the program ended.

Through EODP, volunteers get a first hand look at what it means to be a teacher in Chile. No system is perfect, and education, no matter where you go in the world, is always going to be a struggle. That being said, I got to see a very different side of Chile than I would have seen in any other context -- a side that is, in many ways, more real than other travel and work experiences for foreigners. The things that I learned with EODP are skills that will help me for the rest of my life, and the school and family that I was a part of will stay with me forever.

I lived in a small rural town, which is exactly what I had wanted and requested. I almost didn't write this review because I am so nostalgic for that small town, for my amazing students, and for once every night with my host mom. I will be honest, I didn't expect the program to be this much work. I was up late planning lessons, trying to think of the best ways to engage them and have successful classes. However, that was the case because I fell in love with my students. They made me want to come to class prepared, they made me want to engage them and do the best possible job of teaching them as I could. They made me want to be there every day helping and pushing them, as they did for me. I would say that more than teaching them English, it was a cultual exchange. They taught me Spanish and all their slang; I taught them English and my slang. It was a hard and exhausting and amazing experience. Orientation stressed this, and this shouldn't be taken lightly. We were there to help students; it wasn't a vacation time to travel around Chile. However, in this process I learned so much more than I would have volunteering at a school for a few hours a week. It was a real job. It had ups and downs. The schools aren't perfect. There are school politics and hard situations. It was a real-life, Chilean experience. But I wouldn't change it. Chileans can be some of the most caring and welcoming and wonderful people. Their culture is welcoming and warm, and I think that the orientation staff has embraced this concept and truly made it part of the program. Will never forget my beloved region <3

My experience in Chile was hard. I got sent to a very difficult mining city in the North of Chile. I struggled with the the dry air, the intense pollution, the lack of young people, but mostly the grimy men and the lack of ability to feel comfortable at any point. I tried to learn to like the city I was in, I just found it impossible for so many reasons.

Having said that, I did stick it out and came out of the experience having learned a lot about the lives of others, especially about the lives of people less fortunate than I. I learned what it feels like to be a minority, what it feels like to be laughed at, what it feels like to be different. I learned about people live in a mining city, the wage disparities, and the ignorance or apathy of people happy to live in a place where it seems everyone is sick with some disease, and kids are raised in a mall instead of outdoors (as the whole town is filled with dust and cement).

Like I said, it was difficult, but I don't regret it. My kids, head teacher and school were awesome, and school was a sanctuary for me- as it was for the kids. I've never seen a group of kids so happy to be at school before in my life. They loved each other, loved their professors, loved me, and loved learning English. A lot of them came from hard family lives, but you never saw it on their face. Though teaching was sometimes a struggle for me (mostly just being exhausted at the end of the day), the level of dedication that my kids had to me and my class made me dedicate myself to them in return. I participated in absolutely everything and threw myself into the school portion of the program, as it was the most positive part of my experience (and luckily so, as I spent most of my time at the school anyways). I recommend that, by the way.

For a quick example of the awesome school experience I had, I'll share two things my school did for me (they treated me like a rock-star). On the Monday after my birthday ( I had mentioned to absolutely nobody that my birthday had been that Saturday) I got called into school early, and when I showed up the ENTIRE school was assembled with a banner that said "Happy Birthday Miss Lauren", and a gift from every course. I'm not kidding (imagine my suitcase for my flight back to Santiago....). A week before I left, they called another assembly to thank me for my service and gift me a beautiful glass plaque with my name engraved and a thank you note engraved on it. I almost cried.

Anyways, my family was highly unpleasant. Just bad people, not sure what their deal was. I didn't decide to move until the last 3 weeks of the program, but I wish I had done it sooner. The program was very supportive about my problems with the family and the town. They called often to check up on me, sent me emails, called again, and went out of their way to help me. They gave me suggestions when they could and they supported any decision I wanted to make. The support staff couldn't have improved their service to me in any way. I truly believe they did everything they could for me when they realized I was struggling. I was also very communicative with them about what was going on. If you are concerned about volunteering with a credible program who have excellent support staff and will never leave you hanging when you have a problem, English Opens Doors is a very good option for you.

So, while I may not have had the time of my life teaching in Chile, it is an experience I will never forget. Sometimes it requires a tough disposition and I'm sure it always requires perseverance. I can also tell you that out of almost all the other volunteers in my program that I've talked to, they loved just about everything and had the time of their life. I think I'm definitely in the minority with the problems I faced. It's just a matter of how everything plays out. In the end, if you have a hard time, it's just four months of your life and I guarantee you'll learn something!

Every moment of my English Summer Camp volunteer experience has taught me so much about commitment and determination. I had an amazing, eye-opening experience volunteering in Talca and Santiago and would greatly cherish the opportunity to return to Chile to work with the EODP in future.

The EODP has highlighted the importance of continuing to learn, explore, and grow. My time in Chile has given me the necessary confidence and skills to continue testing personal horizons by traveling and connecting with people all over the world. I hope my students learned as much from me as I did from them!

Working with children and teenagers is both humbling and empowering. It is an experience I will never forget. In education, opportunities are endless. The EODP has helped me take advantage of a privilege academic background to take initiative, leave behind any inhibitions, and stand up for what I believe is important: every child should benefit from an engaging, fun, and intellectually stimulating education.

I will always treasure my new relationships and friendships from my 2 weeks, whether with my summer camp monitor, fellow volunteers, or student. People mean everything and I can't thank my Chilean MINEDUC and National Volunteer Center friends for the good times and challenges during my volunteer experience.

EODP was definitely the right choice for me. As a recent college graduate who wanted to have an international volunteer experience in my ¨gap year¨ between going to graduate school, EODP offered me exactly what I was looking for. The program is well organized and my personal experience was very positive in nearly all aspects. The Chilean students, although much rowdier than students in my country, were also much more eager and vibrant.

The support staff aren't really there for the volunteers as they claim at the start of the program. Quite regularly they would respond to my emails late with very vague, broad, useless answers like some customer service reps trying to avoid responsibility. The worst of it was when I had to be hospitalized because of a very acute form of tonsilitis which required IV treatment. I had a really hard time dealing with the insurance company and because of that my condition got progressively worse and worse before I was finally admitted into the hospital. The support team did not help me. The disease repeated itself for me about a week later with same symptoms but on a Sunday when the clinic where the insurance company has an agreement is closed. I searched for urgent help from the program coordinators. Was told that they couldn't do anything about it until the next day. I was also advised to pay out of pocket at any medical facility and reassured I'd be reimbursed for my expenses later. Thankfully, I did not do it because the out-of-pocket transportation expenses I did make were not reimbursed. The reaction of the support staff was that they never told me that I could take a taxi and get reimbursed (which they did) and even went as far as making a scene and slamming money out of their own pocket on my table in the dining room of the hostel in Santiago.

The task at hand of teaching English is very challenging being at public schools where kids don't care about English at all. What is more, the English teachers often don't actually speak English.

Furthermore, Chile is cold and the food is bad. Perhaps the reason why I spent over a month sick and was even hospitalized. We did not have any heating neither at the school nor at my host family so the only place to find some body warmth is in bed. For 4 months. 90% of what we ate was bread. I practically did not see vegetables other than the occasional tomato for my entire stay. The idea of my host family of a good meal on a weekend was hot dogs.

The social scene was definitely lacking in the town of Los Angeles, but I managed to find some friends outside of the school and program's circles. Main activity of young people seems to be to go to the "campos" and drink, eat BBQ and talk.

To do anything fun outside the program, plenty of money is necessary. Chile is expensive and even mountains are private, so you can't just go on a hike, you have to pay for a company to take you.

The EODP program was everything I was looking for in a volunteer experience. They gave a stipend, provided a host family, and even provided travel health insurance and the visa. I hoped to get some practice in on my Spanish skills and do what I love -- teaching EFL -- at the same time.

My host family situation was ideal. They didn't live far from the school, the host mom was a retired teacher from the school I was working in and she also happened to be an excellent cook. She had children my age, which was helpful for making acquaintances.

My (2) fellow English Teachers were welcoming and helpful. I plan on being in contact with them far into the future. With my head teacher, were both teachaholics and spent a lot of time planning activities and lessons for our classes. Both of the English Teachers were a big help in the beginning when I wasn't so confident in Spanish and we helped eachother with our language learning endeavors.

I was in a public school in a fairly urban environment. Many of my students came from vulnerable backgrounds. They had single parent homes, problems with abuse or neglect, alcoholism or drug addiction in their family, and I had many students who were either parents or who were expecting, many of them also got their main meal everyday from the school cafeteria. They had various behaviour problems because their home lives weren't the easiest. On top of this the Chilean classroom can best be described as...chaotic. Cellphones, tablets, headphones and side conversations are normal fare.

Even so, my students were my favorite people. I spent all day with them in the classroom. I saw them in the halls and sometimes saw them in town. They played tricks on me, they made me laugh, the majority of them gave English a try in my classroom and we had a good time. I had very few problems with behavior, the majority of the problems were in the beginning when students test their new teacher.

If you are interested in Teaching EFL, working with teenagers (particularly teens with difficult home lives), becoming part of a community and discovering a different culture, this program could be for you!