Your Questions about TEFL & TESOL Answered!
Welcome, I'm Linda from ITTT, and we are doing a live Q&A session today, so let me just check if this is working. Is anybody here if you're here, if you can see me if you can hear me. Please, leave a comment. That would be great so that I know that you are here. And, please, let me know where you guys are tuning in from? I would be super interested to see where you are tuning in from. I'm in South Korea. I'm about an hour and a half outside of Seoul, like in the middle of South Korea in a city called Cheongju. It's not that big. It is quite big, but it's not pretty well known, but um, I've been here for five and a half years already.
Watch the live session here
So, hello, some people are here great! Hi, welcome! Where are you guys? Please, let me know. So yeah, I've been in South Korea for five and a half years. I've taught English here full-time my first year, and then I started working full-time for ITTT as their marketing and affiliation manager. I've been doing that since, but I've still been teaching different English classes part-time: various English teaching projects, summer camps, winter camps, business English. All kinds of stuff.
Oh cool! We have people from Egypt, from Chicago, Washington state. Okay, awesome! New Zealand, South Dakota, Canada. Oh great! Welcome, Arizona! Excellent, thanks so much for joining.
Perfect. Could you also let me know where you guys are at in your TEFL journey? I'd be super curious to know. So, are you already TEFL certified or TESOL certified? Are you currently taking a course? Are you thinking about taking a course? Please, let me know. That would be super interesting!
We also have someone from Taiwan that's awesome. I went to Taiwan in January 2019. It's a beautiful country. I want to go back.
So, welcome! Thanks for joining. Oh, excellent, okay. Talia has a certificate from ITTT. That's awesome. Congratulations! Today's topic is just a super relaxed TEFL and TESOL Q&A. So you can just throw me your questions, and I'll do my best to answer them.
And also, please, don't forget to like and subscribe to us on Facebook. Subscribe to our YouTube, you know. Check us out on Instagram. All that good stuff. And I'm also going to be sharing different links for additional information in the comments section, so look out for that. Oh, cool, someone's taking a course right now from Argentina. That's awesome, Elda. Great, okay, Jana just started a TEFL course with ITTT a few weeks ago. Excellent! Good luck with your TEFL journey.
All right then, let's get right into it. We already have a question right here.
So, Marilyn is asking, do you need a bachelor's degree to obtain a TESOL certification?
No, you do not need a degree to take a TESOL or TEFL course. You don't have to have a bachelor's, so you can just take the time and get certified without a degree. There are many places where you can teach English abroad or online without a degree, although your choices might be a little limited, yeah, that is no problem.
Juliana is also currently taking the 120-hour ITTT course that's awesome. This is our most popular option, the 120-hour course, and I took it, too. I have the certificate right here, so let me show you what we are talking about so. This is the certificate right here, and I got this five years ago in 2015. Yeah, and it still looks nice. It's an excellent hard copy and the certification itself.
All right, let me look at more questions. So excited for you guys joining. Thank you. It's 10 AM currently in Korea, Friday. I think for most of you, it's still Thursday evening, so that's kind of fun.
Okay, we have another question for Leah: I want to know two of any organizations that hire TEFL certified teachers without a bachelor's degree? I'm currently working on a bachelor's in secondary education English at Arizona State University.
So organizations abroad. We have a lot of different TEFL recruitment partners that hire people, also right now, even though it's COVID-19, they're still hiring that's so ongoing, and I'm going to drop a link. Let me get our job section, let me drop that, and then you can check that out. Jobs right here, okay, so I'm going to drop that in the comments, and you can just check this out. I think it should appear right now, so that should help you out, but you know a bachelor's in secondary education will help you a lot, so that's a big bonus.
Marcus is asking, do you have a center in Taiwan?
Yes, we do. We have one in Taipei. Let me also post a link to those second locations. Taipei, here we go. Here's a Taipei TEFL center. You can take the four-week in-class course there. I just posted it. I hope you can see it.
All right, Kevin says ITTT TEFL is looked at as a good certificate everywhere I have applied. Yeah, in my own experience, so I taught English in China, and I taught English in South Korea. I always used my TESOL certificates from ITTT. Mine says TEFL, but TEFL and TESOL are pretty much the same things. And yeah, they've always been highly regarded, and employers value the brand for sure.
Let me look at Jade's question. I'm from the Philippines and currently a freshman in college. Can I still take the course?
Yes, you can. You need to be at least 18 years old to take our course. So if you're 18, then you can go ahead and take a course from us.
Jenna asks, does the certification ever expire? – No, they do not expire, they do say the date on here when you receive the certificate, and then there's also a number down here where you or your employer can verify that this is a legit certificate, but they never expire.
This number is significant because it shows that this is a real TEFL certificate. Some people just fake it and print one out, you know, from the internet, but um, this way, your employer can verify that this is a real certificate.
Luke says I want to teach English in Kyrgyzstan, but I don't know if I should get a TEFL/TESOL certificate.
Good, that's awesome. That's an exciting location. I would love to go there. We always recommend getting a TEFL/TESOL certificate because you know two things: many countries and individual schools nowadays just require a TEFL certificate. Some countries even need one, you know, to get a work visa. So it's essential, but also known for you. This course teaches you how to lead. So like just because maybe you're a native English speaker or you've learned English for ten years doesn't necessarily mean you know how to teach it. So that's why we always recommend it for your development and yourself to offer value to your students. I always recommend it.
Next question from Moonchild: Is the certificate of value? Is it known internationally?
Yes, so our certificates are known internationally, they are internationally accredited, and employers recognize the brand. ITTT has been around for a very long time since 1997, so we are one of the leading TEFL and TESOL providers out there, and employers around the world recognize the brand and its value. Like I said from my personal experience, I found jobs in China and South Korea with the certificate, and employers always liked it.
All right, then we have some questions about how much it cost?
So, let me pull up our screen right here. So this is our website. The cost depends on which course you're taking. You can click on courses, and let's take a look at the online courses quickly, and then you see the price range, so if we scroll down. Here are the courses, so it starts with 60 hours. We always have a non-tutor and a tutor option. The tutored option is excellent for anyone who maybe doesn't have a lot of experience studying online, studying alone, so they have a tutor they can always ask questions to and get feedback from, so that's great. Our most popular option is the 120-hour course, and again, there are two options, the non-tutored and the tutored option, and the non-tutor starts at 239 US dollars and the tutored one at 349.
This one is also a trendy option - the 220-hour master package because that's the 120-hour course plus 50-hour teaching business English and 50-hour teaching English to young learners, so two specialization courses. That is just going to give you a little bit of an edge when it comes to teaching adults business English or children. Many people take this course, which I have here, so that's what that looks like. You can either choose to receive three certificates or individual ones saying which one is this. This is the 120 hour; this is the teaching English for young learners, and this is the business English, so you can choose to receive three individual ones or get one that says 220-hours. That's up to you. So yeah, these are pretty popular options. Then we also have here the TESOL diploma that's a more advanced, higher-level qualification course. If you already have the standard course, this would be an excellent option for people who want to move on to a headteacher position and something like that.
There're many more packages that you can choose from, so this one, the 470 hours, is the 250 plus the 120 plus the two specializations. You are lucky if you're watching right now because I will share our 20 off Halloween coupon early in this life. We're going to share it tomorrow, but because you're watching now, you can get the coupon right now. Let me do that so everyone is interested in a 20 off Halloween coupon. I'm going to share it right now in the comments. Please check it out. You fill out the application, choose the course you like, and then see 20 off with this link. So if anyone's interested, I hope you can see it. I just shared it. Yeah, these are the options here. This is also a pretty great course newer than the 170-hour certificate in teaching online, so if anyone wants to teach online, this would be a great course to look at. Yeah, right, let's take a look at some more questions.
All right, I am from India. Can anyone do this course?
Yes, anyone can. Do this course if you are a fluent English speaker, native or fluent, 18 plus, and yeah, anyone can do this course. So we offer online courses and in-class and combined but the online courses can't be taken by anyone from anywhere.
Let's take a look at some more questions. Kevin says the 120-hour TEFL is suitable for most countries.
Yes, so in most countries they will require at least 100 hours of training, usually some 120, that's why the 120-hour course is the standard one, and most people go for that. And in my case, I also took the 120-hour time first, so I had the certificate, and then over the years, I went back, and I got specializations. I also recently taught English online specialization because they're always new courses coming out of unique specializations. You can always stay up to date so you can always come back and take a new course even if you took your initial course maybe five or ten years ago, it doesn't matter, okay here's a good one TEFL certificate means TEFL skills. Yes, I would say so because you take the TEFL course, and sure you also get your paper and certification in your hand. Still, you also learn how to teach, so a TEFL certificate and a TEFL certification course will build your TEFL skills for sure to be more confident in a classroom. You learn about classroom management, learn about lesson planning, learn about English grammar points, and teach those grammar points to your students, all this kind of stuff so definitely.
Joe says: I completed the ITTT 220-hour master package. Still, I want to get a certificate for teaching English online, so yeah, you can do that. It's what I just said kind of, so you can always go back and take another course that's no problem, no problem be sure to click on the 20 off link so you can save a little bit of money, but yeah, definitely do it it's a great course especially nowadays where a lot of people are teaching online I highly recommend it for sure.
Let's see. Oh yeah, this is the link. This is the 20 off-link. You can find it in the comments. I'm going to post it again later if you can't see some words, but let's look at this question, so:
I have a master's in education with an authorization ESL. I've taught both adults and children. With my authorization, I would only want to teach part-time in the US or online. What could I do with either TEFL or TESOL?
I'm not quite sure what authorization in ESL means um you would have to look into what that entails um but definitely a TEFL or TESOL certificate teaches you how to teach non-native speakers so if that is something that you would want to do I would definitely recommend it and also TEFL and TESOL are in actually the same training even though the name is different but regions like Europe or the UK usually prefer the term TEFL and places like Australia and the US they prefer the term TESOL so it depends just which one you want to get what location you're in and also for online because there's a lot of online teaching China is a vast market so there's a lot of online teaching jobs for children in China and people in China are usually very familiar with TEFL or TESOL the companies so they are definitely looking for people who have a TEFL certificate and we are working with a few online platforms like that like Magic Ears or VIPKID and they hire teachers from us from with our certificates so definitely recommend that.
Okay, and another question from the same person: how can I combine my education with your school requirements? So you can take the course online and what's great about our online courses is that you don't have to be online at like a specific time so you can work through your units whenever it suits you have up to six months to complete your course and you can really study at whatever time you want and complete as many units as you wish at in one go so it's very flexible we have a lot of people who work full-time who take our courses so you can definitely manage that that's why a lot of people choose our courses because they're so flexible let's see all right another question here if a student purchases the 120 hour package but then wants a package with different hours can it just be upgraded or must they purchase the package separately so we do offer a lot of upgrade options um we would have to look into which different course package you would want and then talk about the upgrade it always depends on the case but we do have upgrades you don't have to pay the full price you can definitely upgrade it and there's so many options so that's something we would have to talk with our course coordinator they will be able to help you with that but it's possible ah let me see.
All right, another one from Elda: I'm taking the 170 hours course online specialization. Do you provide any teaching online job contacts?
Yes, we do so whenever you complete your course at the end we send you a lot of information for courses sorry for jobs um online and abroad. Hence, all of our course graduates have access to lifetime job support. Until the end of their teaching career, they can get job support from us, including contacts to different schools, different recruiters, various online platforms, and access to jobs that are not advertised anywhere else other than its website. So absolutely, and you get that with every course, not just a 120 hour or 170-hour course, any course so definitely included.
Sharon says: Is there a trial lesson we can try?
This is a great idea, and we're going to continue doing these live sessions, and I think this is an excellent idea for another live event taking a look at the course itself. I think that's a great idea. I'm going to write that down right now, and then we can do this next time that's awesome. Thanks for bringing that up, so we're planning on doing more live events like this in the future. We're also planning on bringing on some guests. Some of our course graduates have moved on to the most incredible adventures abroad teaching English or some people who teach online, or some people we work with as partners like TEFL recruiters and other TEFL experts. We want to bring on an insider look into our in-class centers worldwide, so that's coming. I think this is also a great idea from Sharon, so thanks for letting me know. It's fantastic. We should do that.
Yes, Kevin right. We send out links for jobs upon demand after completion.
Also, much more than that. We also help with things like resume writing or interview prep. A lot of jobs require trial lessons during their interviews. Hence, we also provide material for that. There's a lot of lifetime job support packages that you can get at the end.
Sharon asks: are there any opportunities to teach small groups online, or is it always one-on-one?
So, that depends on the platform that you work for. There are so many platforms. All of them operate a little bit differently, but some platforms also do group teaching. I have seen that before, so it's not only one-on-one. There are also groups for sure.
Oh, excellent hello from Puerto Rico. I just finished my 220 hours. Awesome, Rudy, congratulations, that's fantastic!
Let me drop that coupon one more time into the comments in case somebody didn't catch that so everyone listening in or watching this right now can get a sort of early access to our 20 off Halloween coupon so take advantage of that if you're interested in taking a course saves 20. Everyone else will get this coupon tomorrow, so you are lucky today. I also wanted to drop a link to our FAQ section, so if there are some questions that I might have missed right now or that I think of later, head to our FAQ section here. There's a lot of information about TEFL and TESOL questions I also want to share with you on our blog. You can find a lot of info there also. Our TEFL course grads share their stories on our blog, which is relaxed so that you can check out their stories. It's always fun.
We have one more question here, okay: Do you have centers in Egypt?
Yes, we do. We have two. We have one in Cairo and one in Alexandria. Okay, let me drop the link to our Egypt centers right here, Egypt, Egypt castle centers here you go so you can check that out and oh, one more okay.
Luke says: are in-class courses better than online ones? I'm still a bit stressed in front of a class, and without experience in teaching experience, I'm scared that if I take the online course, I will not be prepared for being in front of a class.
That's a pretty common question we get sure that's a big concern many people have, from my own experience. So, I only took the online course, I didn't take the in-class time, and I didn't have any teaching experience before going to China to teach. And things like that, I think, are just that the online course teaches specific skills and techniques, and then you go into the classroom, and you can apply them, but with every class, you're going to get better. The first class is never perfect and also from somebody who maybe took an in-class course your first lesson is never going to be perfect, so I think teaching is something that improves over time you get to know your style.
It also depends on your students what their learning style is and you figure it out along the way. Still, the online course helps you. It helped me a lot. I'm sure some people prefer the in-class course, and we also recommend the in-class course to anyone who wants to get that teaching experience because it's a great experience. You get to go abroad for four weeks and spend your time in a team with other like-minded people, and you gain knowledge from the teacher trainers. It's great, but I wouldn't say that the in-class is better than the online it depends on you. And both are great both result in the same certificate, and you're able to teach after either one.
Lorado asks: do you guys have an online teaching platform? I'm teaching in China now but want to teach online when I go home.
Our company does not have an online teaching platform, but we are partnered with many online teaching platforms. You can check out our partners' section. I will drop a link to that later on, and you can hit them up for sure. There's so many options in terms of online teaching, so many platforms. If you already have experience teaching in China, you're going to find a job teaching English online, no problem, I'm pretty sure that.
Joe is asking about the coupons, so I want to clarify that I received an email to get a 20 discount for already completing the course. Yeah. We do what's right, and now there's a Halloween discount for 20. Will I get a 40% discount? Unfortunately, you cannot combine the values. I'm sorry, I wish but no you can't, you can only use one, unfortunately. Sorry about that.
All right, one more for Moody: how hard is it to get a job abroad?
Well, it always depends on you. You require your portfolio, the school's requirements, the destination where you want to go, there're so many factors, but I always say everyone who wants to go abroad can find a job. Some people might have to look at specific destinations where the requirements aren't that high or have to be a little bit more flexible than others. Still, in general, anyone can find a job abroad, and also despite coveting and pandemic and everything, people are even hiring abroad people are still going abroad to teach. I have a friend who just recently moved here to South Korea from the US. She did her two weeks in quarantine, it was quite fun, she got this care package from the South Korean government with food and medication and sanitizer and all this kind of stuff, and she spent two weeks in her new apartment in Korea, and after two weeks she was right. She started teaching, and she's now super happy and having the time of her life in Korea. So, the pandemic doesn't need to stop you from going abroad.
Hi! There's someone tuning in from Chile. Awesome.
All right, I think we're going to sign off very soon, but we are going to do this again, as I mentioned. This is going to be a regular thing. So yeah, stay tuned for that. Let me see the last question. Let's get one more question.
One more from Luke: how was it for you to travel to a new country and teach there? Were you surrounded by people who helped and gave you tips at the start?
Absolutely, yeah. When I started working in China, and when I began working in South Korea at schools, the fellow teachers and the management were always beneficial. They know what you're going through, they know you're new here, they know maybe you have a little bit of a culture shock, they know all that. So, everybody's usually very helpful and friendly. Sure, you're going to have a little bit of a hard time initially, that's quite normal, but you're also going to make a lot of new friends and new experiences and don't be scared. It's going to be great, it's a great experience.
I recommend this to anyone who goes abroad and teaches for a year or two or forever. I mean it's such a great experience, and it makes me who I am today, really such a great experience. It's fun to hear. Thank you, yeah. You're welcome! This video will be available as playback on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel. You can always refer back to it. As I mentioned, we're going to be back live again, and we recently started. Let me drop that link. We recently started a TEFL podcast. So, this life will be available in audio as a podcast, and you can also check that our previous episodes are on there, and our upcoming episodes will be on there as well. Look out for that, and thanks so much for tuning in. That's adorable, thank you. Like I said, take advantage of that 20% off Halloween discount. Where was it again here? Take advantage of that, and I'll see you next time thanks for tuning in, have a great evening day morning wherever you are. Thanks
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