Teaching internship & TEFL Certification (Thailand, Vietnam, Europe, China, India)

The experience I had in China through gotoco was everything that they promised and more. Although there are still costs such as flights, vaccines etc. the fact that they offer you food and accomodation for free makes it so much more affordable and allows you to spend a much longer period in China. I spent 6 weeks as an intern in an English speaking center in Shanghai. It was a great and unique experience as I was able to get to know many of the chinese students who showed me aspects of Shanghai I would never have seen if I was there just as a tourist. The work aspect of the trip also helped me to develop skills I know will benefit me in the future. While there, I also got lots of free time to get to know the other participants and to explore China. Apart from some slow communications I had no problems with gotco and they were very helpful in ensuring everything went smoothly. I would highly recommend taking part to anyone!

I worked with children aged 6 to 10 at a residential summer camp in Jiangsu procince in East China. The camp promoted environmental awareness and citizenship responsibilities. Although I didn't do any conventional English classroom teaching per se, I accompanied the kids through an important process of learning outside the classroom and becoming more independent and developing their personalities.

Together with a big team of both Chinese and foreign counselors, I led and assisted various activities such as sports or arts and crafts. What I loved most about the camp was how close you got to the kids and how much trust they built up to you within two weeks. You'd see them grow and learn very quickly and although it was very exhausting and tiring at times, it was a very rewarding experience I will not forget.

Gotoco made it so easy and accessible for me to participate in this program and always offered great support, both before and during the program.

I would describe it as a once in a lifetime opportunity, it was simply breath taking to wake up each day surrounded by mountains, to eat mangos and swim in the Yulonghe river, take mopeds to secret beaches and waterfalls, and make some amazing life long friends. I am starting a teacher training course in September so teaching the children in the camp has really boosted my confidence, leadership, communication and team working skills. it has also shown me I could easily move and work abroad as a teacher. Meeting and teaching lots of different children of all abilities, meeting the other teacher and teaching assistants, learning about Chinese culture, living in a small remote village and doing just as the locals do are some of my highlights. :)

Gotoco is a great point of contact between schools in China and people who want to teach. It can be difficult to find places in China where foreigners, especially students with no qualifications yet, can work. By also offering the TEFL qualification it makes Gotoco even better.

I was based in a small village called Chaoyang, in the Yangshuo area, at Zhuoyue English School. I adored the kids in my classes as well as my TAs. Living in Chaoyang for 7 weeks was incredible, the scenery never lost its wonder and the locals were all very friendly. Our course coordinator (our boss?) at the school was a sweetheart and brought us mangos and took us to fancy restaurants on the weekend, couldn't ask for more.

My favourite memories of the trip are scootering to and from Yangshuo, only 20mins away and roughly £5 for the scooter rental for the full day (7am-12am)! An absolute steal!! Tea picking and tai-chi were also a lot of fun.
We were fortunate enough to be given free Chinese lessons twice a week as well which helped us pick up basic phrases such as ‘how much is this?’ (多少钱) and ‘have you eaten yet?’ (how you say hi to close friends, 你吃饭了吗)

I have discovered I really love teaching and am now confident enough in my own abilities to know I could become a real teacher in the future. I have also gained the confidence to navigate a foreign country by myself and can't wait to travel more of Asia and the world!

The time I have spent in China is unforgettable and the friends I have made are irreplaceable :)) If I have enough time and money next summer I would love to teach in China again.

It was a really exciting and challenging experience, great opportunity to develop yourself and meet likeminded people. I spent my summer program in Dongguan, in the south of China, somewhere I had never heard of before being accepted there. The school I was teaching at was full of friendly, helpful staff, and the children were all very eager to learn! Outside of the classroom, there were plenty of opportunities to explore the local area, such as going on a mountain hike, visiting traditional Chinese gardens and going for meals. The location was also close enough to Hong Kong that I was able to visit during one of my weekends off from teaching, and it was certainly worth the travel. At the end of the program, almost everyone went to Yangshuo together, which was the perfect end to the experience.

My experience with Gotoco was amazing; it is an excellent opportunity for learning and development whilst having a lot of fun at the same time! The program I was on was centered around Beijing but also had a 2-week international development course in Wuhan. Wuhan was really interesting as it offered a variety of activities such as mandarin lessons, day excursions and cultural activities such as Tai Chi and Calligraphy. Teaching in Beijing was indeed eye-opening as it forced me to recognise my use of language and helped me further understand English. Fun overall experience that I see as an amazing opportunity. It depends what you want, you’ll get as much out of it as you put into it so I think it depends on the individual also. Regardless, it is definitely worth your time and consideration.

Teaching at the BoB Vocational Training School in Shantou was an unforgettable experience, full of opportunities to explore the city and its surrounding areas, and to learn about Chinese culture. The Chinese teachers were very supportive and provided some training days before the programme began, and both of the phases of teaching ended in Bilingual Festivals. This is when most of the classes perform a song/play in English (with or without their foreign teacher) in front of a large audience; truly an amazing ordeal.
I ended my trip to China by staying in Yangshuo for 5 days with the majority of people from my programme, as well as volunteers from other programmes across China. This was my favourite part of the trip as we were able to explore on our own; we even hired e-bikes to ride around the mountains!
During my 7 weeks in China, I have made many lifelong friendships and definitely will visit again.

I enjoyed this program very much! I particularly liked the style of my Yangshuo program which was Teach And Travel. We got to explore Guilin and Yangshuo. This program allows you to not only see some amazing nature views but also to try your hands in a teacher's role. I gained confidence in myself and got to practice how to create lesson plans and just overall activity plans. I also got to practice how to make kids be attentive in the classroom. The program was really fun and the kids were great! The coordinators of the program were very welcoming and friendly. And the application process was very easy. Even though I did not get accepted into the first offered program (I failed the interview part), they offered me a different program straight away which was an even better choice for me (because for the start/end dates)