Just got back from Timmins for Thanksgiving, which was amazing. We got to see all of my wife's family (well, almost all, some of them were in Toronto this weekend), and it was nice to keep reconnecting. This has become somewhat of a theme for me this month, as it's what we've been doing, getting back in touch with old friends, and colleagues.
I've been trying, for example, to set up a coffee date with two old friends from Waterloo, but we're all so damned busy it's like herding cats. I'm confident we'll bump into 'em sooner than later. It's just funny how socially active people have such trouble making time for anything.
Jen's been busy, with two jobs, and so am I--I just got another part-time gig working in the morning at another ESL college. This is great--it supplements my income, doesn't interfere with my afternoon tutoring, and has room to expand. And it's actual teaching experience in front of a class in Canada.
It's something that I've noticed some former expats like me go through--we hit our stride in Korea or Japan or wherever, and then come back... only to find out we're not fitting in. So we either go back abroad, or we try to find similar work here, which can be a challenge.
Finding a job based on ESL in Canada requires certifications which a lot of us don't have when we leave for our Korean or overseas adventures--I got mine while abroad, thank heaven. Furthermore, as much experience as we might or might not have after our time abroad, finding work in the field back home runs into one of two roadblocks: we have *foreign* experience, but no experience teaching ESL in a *Canadian* classroom. Fortunately, this is not a common problem, but it still comes up. More importantly, if you taught kids, you're going to have to get some adult/late teenage teaching experience first, since that's what most ESL colleges here in Canada do, and want. If you can find a way to teach Business or similar English classes, that'll help, too--there's lots of similar work here! In the end, most colleges in Canada teach adults, and want similar experience. If you are doing adult ESL abroad, you've got a great head-start.
It's a bit of a Catch-22. We go abroad to get experience, only to find out that we cannot use that experience back home. It's not impossible, of course--some schools don't mind if you teach children more than adults in Korea, as long as you have some experience in the ESL field in general, and/or TESL Canada Certification, since that requires a Practicum and provides actual adult teaching experience. That can be a big 'as long as,' however. It can be expensive to get the training, and the certification itself costs.
Perhaps TESL Canada should offer a discount to students with experience, or perhaps it could be provisional--come work for us, so long as you take some extra classes at home/on the side, and get your Certification by a set end-point. However, these are both options that we, as teachers, cannot control. What you can do is this:
If you want to do this as a career when you return from overseas, make sure you take some classes while abroad, get your TESL Canada Certification mostly done, and that way you can just do the Practicum (sample classes, to prove you can do it) immediately. If you want to do things like LINC (Language Instruction for New Canadians), which pays well, you need TESL Ontario Certification (in Ontario), and I'm sure similar programs elsewhere in Canada and the States requires similar training. All of which takes more time.
So: Use your time abroad to get started on it--many of the courses can be done online, or by distance, and there may even be some that will offer in class training in your country--you never know. If you save up lots of money abroad, you could even schedule your classes for when you get home, so that you get the training, get your Certification, and can move right into job hunt mode in the field.
It's not impossible, but it is a challenge. If you love this work, and I do, and I'm sure others do as well, it's worth it. The outcome, seeing students become amazing English speakers, and get successful jobs because of their fluency in another language, is amazing. Seeing kids become bi-, tri-, or multi-lingual is equally awesome, and it's one of the reasons I loved my job in Korea.
Make sure you know what you're getting into, and plan ahead. Get your training, and get the qualifications you need to do this work back home. It even helps abroad--some countries require a TESL Certificate before you even apply to ESL jobs in those countries to begin with!
All the best,
Chris
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