I decided to become an ESL teacher the day I realized the daily grind of office life wasn’t for me. I graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and was working for a prestigious company overseas, but I didn’t feel happy or fulfilled in my career. Teaching English was something I wanted to do since high school, so I bit the bullet and changed my career to see where it would lead.
My First Teaching Job
My first ESL teaching job was in Tokyo, Japan. I was drawn to Japan for personal reasons and decided it would be the perfect place to start my teaching journey.
I worked at a language school, so the majority of students were highly motivated and had a strong desire to learn English. My students ranged from 2-year-olds to 80-year-olds. I was also teaching every level under the sun from low beginners, who were barely able to introduce themselves, to high level students capable of analysing newspaper articles and having debates. The class sizes were also a big range from one-on-one classes to up to 8 students.
Teaching and travelling in Japan:
One of the perks of teaching English in Japan is the fact that the country is relatively small and easy to travel around in. The transportation system is highly advanced and it’s easy to hop on a train to go on a mini-adventure within a city.
Especially as a female, I felt safe in the country even while walking alone at night. I was able to travel to major cities such as Osaka and Kyoto but was also lucky enough to travel to places such as Okayama, Nagano, and Kagoshima.
One of my favourite places was Sakurajima in Kyushu (the southern part of Japan). Sakurajima is an active volcano that regularly spurts out smoke and sometimes even a small eruption. I was even able to take a bus to halfway up the mountain to get a closer look at the mouth of the volcano. It was such a surreal experience that I will never forget.
Overcoming cultural and language interferences
This was my first time teaching English so I felt like I was thrown into the deep end in a lot of respects.
Learning the nuances of culture and language while teaching in a foreign country was also another hurdle. Initially, it was difficult to understand some speakers as certain sounds in English are not present. For example, the “v”, “th” and “l” sounds are not present in Japanese so it led to some awkward but funny situations in the classroom. As time progressed, I observed the cultural nuances in Japan such as the notion of not “sticking out” too much in a social situation. Sometimes students were hesitant to be the first to raise their hands and voice their opinions so it led to a lot of silence in some classes. I learned how to deal with these differences in culture and also embrace the silence as thinking time to provide smoother classes.
Becoming a Better Teacher with Professional TESOL / TEFL Training
Learning how to teach English was a huge obstacle in itself because I didn’t take a professional-level TESOL/TEFL certification when I started. I did the ESL teaching process backward with finding an entry-level teaching job that wasn’t strict about teaching credentials and didn’t require me knowing much about the proper methodology. The school had a textbook for each class. As an entry-level ESL teacher without professional TESOL/TEFL training, I largely followed the textbooks, CDs and handouts even though I was free to plan my own lessons.
I wish I had taken the OnTESOL course before going overseas to teach English. Completing the TESOL course helped me improve my confidence and teaching practice. It offered valuable insights into my teaching style and how I could improve my future lessons.
As a highly active and visual learner, I had the tendency to use teaching techniques that I personally found effective however, this wasn’t always the experience for my students. The lesson planning assignments in the OnTESOL course taught me how to use different communicative and task-based frameworks such as PPP, ESA, and others. Now my classes are better structured, so when I use fun materials to replace the boring textbook, I do it for a specific time and combined with activities that help achieve the class goals.
