Who
does TEFL jobs & why?
Who might my TEFL coworkers
be?
A
very wide variety of people! You will be quite
surprised - maybe even shocked.
Who
are they?
To
a large extent they are people just like you. People
who saw an interesting opportunity and took it.
Recently I went out for dinner with an experienced
lawyer from Chicago - who had just finished his TEFL
certification course.
I've met other former lawyers, a hotel manager, tennis
instructor, construction worker, retired military
people, social workers, business managers, a factory
manager, journalist, psychotherapist, retail sales
staff, public school teachers, retired people, a
petroleum engineer, and many more. And those are only
the ones I asked! After a while - you won't even be
surprised any more!
Why
are they teaching EFL overseas?
Why
not! You will sometimes hear people talking about
"running away from it all" and "escaping America" (or
other countries). But more often people are running
to what they see as an interesting and exciting
lifestyle opportunity. Fulfillment of a dream of
actually experiencing the world - rather than just
seeing it through the window of a tour bus or a
television.
Why
do they stay overseas?
Now
that's the hard question. Mostly because they are
enjoying themselves, meeting their personal and
financial goals, and just don't feel the need to go
home. I recently retired on Phuket Island in Thailand.
Did I start out with that goal? No. But I
love it here.
Most people do go home permanently at some point, but
there is a small percentage of us who find the lifestyle
just too enjoyable to go back "home." For me - now -
"home" is Phuket and Thailand.
