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TEFL/Teaching English abroad
I've been suddenly struck by the idea that I'm desperate to do this.
I went to Japan earlier this year and absolutely loved it. Pretty much as soon as we landed I started planning how I could get back out there in two years time, and where I'd go, but it already seemed pretty sad that it would only be for a couple of weeks again. But, when I was there, a class of schoolkids who were doing an English assignment all came over to practice their English on me and my GF said that I looked really natural interacting with them. I've vaguely considered the idea of teaching in the past but with my lack of a recognisable field it seemed kind of unrealistic. It hadn't even occurred to me at all until about a week ago that I could actually go there and teach for a year or two.
I have a well(ish) paid, very stable job that I don't particularly like, I'm starting to really tire of London after 6 years, and my 'gap year' consisted of living at my Dad's house working days at Music Zone and nights in the local pub. I've just blown past 30 and I figure if I want to do something like this, the window of opportunity is closing. I know a lot of people have had weird TEFL experiences of taking jobs after a weekend course or something and kind of hating it, but if I'm going to do this I'll be taking the full 6 month course with classroom experience, and taking Japanese language lessons alongside, and holding out until a good job comes up. I'm not wedded to the idea that I'll move to Tokyo and have ker-ay-zy anime karaoke maid cafe nights and stuff, if anything I'd rather move to a smaller town or city and experience a totally different part of the culture. Just wondering if anyone had experience with this, or knew anyone who had, or had any pitfalls/horror stories that might come up if I go for this. Ta.