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

Personally, the highlight of my experience was working alongside like-minded Gotoco-ers to try and navigate a drastically different culture together. I also gained a lot of confidence from teaching and I realised that working with children is something I'd love to do in the future, especially abroad. It is a great experience to explore China with the safety of staying with a school and being given fun activities to help run. Witnessing a different culture gives you a new perspective upon your own privileges and certainly encouraged me to work hard and explore as much of the world as I can. This programme has benefitted me as I have taken on a lot of responsibility to teach the children new skills. I have gained confidence by having to stand on a stage and take authority, but I have also gained independence and feel proud of myself for travelling to China alone to pursue a new opportunity.

This was a wonderful experience, learned a lot, and a great way to see China. They really support you, was very good overall. They do a good job of matching you up. I think in future they plan on doing more social events with participants which would be really awesome. They also helped with visa things although they recommend an agent which didn't work for me and I found the consulate much easier. They are always there to help with questions but there is no emergency phone number (but you do get their wechat). The program was wonderful, a great learning experience with great people. Can't wait to come back to China again, and I would definitely recommend this program to any student who want to see China and also get a very valuable and unique experience out of it.

I had an amazing time while participating in the programme. While teaching can definitely be challenging at times, the local TAs helped a lot, and seeing the progress of the kids and getting positive feedback from them and their parents undoubtedly makes it worth all the effort. I’m thankful that Gotoco worked hard to ensure that my friend and I get assigned to the same school so that we had the chance to experience all the difficulties and highlights together. After hearing some stories from other participants, I came to realise that we were exceptionally lucky with our particular placement, as it allowed us not only to visit some beautiful local sights (such as a tea plantation) on school outings but I also had a lot of free time to explore the wonderful area near Yangshuo on our own.

This program has benefitted me by providing me with extensive teaching experience, including lesson planning, communicating material to young children in the classroom, on-the-spot thinking and changes to lesson plans (to accommodate the children in classes), time management and organization, and communication skills with other teachers and program leaders. On a personal level, the program has helped me develop more confidence and better communication skills.

The application process was fairly simple in my opinion. I found it easy to access and the questions asked were additionally reasonable in terms of content and length. The waiting times for the results were reasonable as well.

I would recommend the program because it was an affordable way to gain both teaching experience and knowledge of the culture, education, and society of another country. Moreover, if it were not for the program, I would not have found an opportunity to venture out on my own to China and visit Asia.

I have really enjoyed having an opportunity to visit multiple places in Shanghai, not only the tourist spots but places where local people enjoy to spend their time. Meeting new people in Shanghai was very fun as well. It has benefitted my understanding of independence and overall confidence as a person. I have spent a lot of time by myself exploring the city as well as making new connections.
A chance to work in a school was very unique because through that experience I got to see the other side of the learning process, help student and to certain extent improve my understanding of the English learning process. It has been very valuable for both my personal growth as well as the understanding of future opportunities in China. Definitely give it a try if you have been curious what it is like to teach!

The overall experience was fantastic! I am so glad that I decided to visit China this Summer. The main highlight was definitely the Lavender Provence; it lived up to its expectation of providing a different, happy and exciting experience. Furthermore, teaching the students was so fulfilling especially when I was able to help them understand more complex language. I would definitely recommend the program to a friend because it is such a character-building experience that no one should miss out on. I have absolutely no regrets because the whole trip was fantastic. This program has made me more confident in my abilities to lead a lesson and also navigate my way around a foreign country. I have also come away from the program with some brilliant new friends.

I had the opportunity to spend my summer teaching English through the GoToCo program in Beijing. It was an amazing experience and I gained a lot through it and I can safely say that I grew as a person as a result of it. Application is really simple and fast, I was in contact with Daniel throughout my application and he was always very helpful when I needed help, especially when I had trouble getting the visa.
I was in a camp with nine other foreign teachers who also applied through GoToCo which made the entire experience even better.
During the teaching period, we taught three camps lasting 10 days each and the number of students, as their age and skill level, varied between each camp. However, teaching was not the only thing we were able to do. Between every camp we had free periods where we could explore China, the first period lasting four days while the second lasted nine days. The school helped us organize trips and even paid for some excursions.
I have met so many people throughout my seven weeks in Beijing and five days in Yangshuo. It was certainly the highlight of my experience.
After one has finished their teaching experience, it is possible to receive a TEFL certificate allowing the holder to practice teaching English around the globe.
I highly recommend participating in this program. It is well worth it and a one in a lifetime opportunity. I am definitely going to reapply for a position for the next summer.

Rather than just being another administrative form of summer employment, this program transformed my sense of confidence and world view. Before participating in this program, I lacked confidence and often refused to take on leadership roles with the perception that I should leave those roles to people with more experience than me. I was comfortable with being a sideliner, always eager to organize, help, or provide support to said leaders. After this program, however, I have attained an incredible sense of self-confidence and can say for a fact that I carry myself with much more purpose and ambition, ready to tackle any task thrown at me. With such an intense schedule, I spent more than 16 hours a day with the same people, my fellow gotoco colleagues, and developed beautiful friendships with each of them. I truly learned the hard work that goes into teaching and the feeling of satisfaction when your students learn. However, most importantly, I was finally able to see, experience, and develop opinions about China on my terms. China is truly unlike any place I've ever been to before and there is no doubt in my mind that I will be back in the near future.