Teaching English abroad - in search of contacts in the TEFL field
Greetings! Sorry for the long absence, but it appears everyone is on summer vacations, and there has been no time to write. Remember how I once told you about my childhood ambition to be a teacher? :) It seems life sometimes comes full circle, and I'm now in the final stages of completing my TEFL Certification course to enhance teaching opportunities abroad.
Do any readers teach a foreign language - Russian, English, or any other native tongue? Or, have contacts in this field? If so, I would be grateful for your comments to the post. As I mentioned a year ago in this post, I have been contemplating leaving lawyer life and moving abroad for at least six months to teach. Almost all options have been explored - from the Peace Corps to Teach Learn Georgia, the government-backed initiative to teach rural Georgians English. However, these do not seem like a good fit for me, for various reasons.
There are plenty of options for native English speakers to teach in Russia, some of them pay quite decent, but I can't envision myself living in Moscow, or even St. Petersburg, long term. The highest paying jobs are in Asia and the Middle East, but these regions are not of particular interest to me, and money is not the motivating force behind this experience. Or any others in life.
My primary focus at this point is Georgia, perhaps offering private lessons to children, or "business language" lessons for more advanced students, utilizing my lawyer experience. In this country, the wages are so small that survival will only be possible with the financial savings I've accumulated over the past year.
Any insight, advice, or recommendations about the pros/cons of teaching abroad are welcome! And I hope everyone enjoys the final months of summer, before we transition to my favorite seasons of the year - autumn and winter. :)