I Should Have Jumped Sooner!

I hope to give some details on my personal experience, and on things that I was looking for in a review before I did TEFL.

I only wish that I would have jumped into this opportunity & experience sooner than I did. I found out about TEFL about 3 years ago, and dreamed and planned...and dreamed & planned. The desire came back around a year ago as well, and for all of life's reasons it wasn't my time to go yet. THEN, November 2018 became official--I was on a plane to Costa Rica, had a homestay set-up in San Jose for my first night, where I woke up to find 3 lovely other students that would be on my journey with me. I would then travel off to Manuel Antonio to take my TEFL course with Maximo Nivel/COSI. Our instructor Audra was hands-down INCREDIBLE. She was not only very knowledgeable and educated but also extremely easy to learn from and get along with. I said it then, and I'll say it again, this course could have been real dang dry and boring, but not with the lovely, energetic, & hilarious prof. Audra in the room! Grammar & literally everything else was 'Fun, Fresh, & Frisky!' My 8 other cohorts and I effortlessly bonded with one-another and sometimes laughed 'till tears in class. This made it easy to retain the information we learned and it kept us engaged in the sometimes grueling 8 hour class days. I'm not going to lie, the course isn't for the faint of heart. It is solidly 150 hours of learning, 40 hour weeks of in-class work, time studying outside of class and a whole week of practical teaching that you will be so grateful for. IT IS SO WORTH THE WORK AND THE TIME. I've never been a big lover of school, but this is the most motivated and best effort that I have given to formal learning--it's the best kind. You will come out the other end alive, and more knowledgeable and experienced than when you went in. Audra doesn't let you go down without a fight (or you know, AT ALL).

I came to this course being shy, hating public speaking, not even sure if I wanted to teach, and not a clue with what I wanted to do with my life. I made it through, I made incredible friends, enjoyed my local Tico Family, loved the heck out of beautiful Costa Rica and I am so grateful that I had Audra and the entire Maximo team on my side, for support & encouragement throughout my month with them. It's very organized, goes like a breeze and there's always a staff member on the ground ready to help you & answer all of your questions.

If you're debating on this, and mulling over whether or not you should dive in and do it, my advice to you is JUST DO IT! And do it with the lovely Maxmio! Do it for me, but most importantly do it for yourself--chances are you won't regret it once you get past any fears you may have. And as they say....'You can do ANYTHING for 30 days!'