I am interested in applying for the ESL teaching post recently advertised on the tefl.org.uk website.
I have experience of living in diverse cultures and countries. I have lived and worked in Switzerland and in Ghana. In Ghana, I faced the challenge of working and living in a culture quite different from my own. I was able to adapt to local circumstances, make local friends and take advantage of opportunities to have new experiences. These included new foods, new cultural festivals and making local friends. These friends were invaluable in giving me an insight into understanding different social norms and expected behaviours and to see everyday things from a different perspective. In Switzerland I feel I faced a different challenge; working in a familiar culture but using a different language. I took regular lessons to improve my French and practised in shops, travelling and meeting new friends. The improvement in my French enabled me to have more in depth conversations and to attend French cinema and theatre.
I believe my experience of working outside the UK has proven to myself that I am resilient and can embrace new opportunities. In addition to making friends amongst Ghanaians I became good friends with many of the volunteers who were also from different countries, backgrounds and ages. I was able to do this as I am supportive of people, a good listener, maintain a good sense of humour and I am open to new ideas. I am a reflective individual who will think about why a course of action has not led to the desired outcome. I think this ability to reflect on how or why things were different contributed to my enjoyment of Ghana.
I completed my 140 hour TEFL certificate last year with a view to using it as a basis for a career change. In my career to date, I have held senior positions that have required me to negotiate to get the outcomes I need. The listening, understanding and compromise that is required to do this will be useful in a new working environment with new colleagues. I am organised and have excellent planning skills. I use these in work to ensure I meet objectives. In my career I have had many opportunities to present ideas and reports to managers and the community. As a result, I am a confident public speaker. This is a skill I believe will be invaluable in the classroom. In much of my more recent work I have been responsible for training people in new working models or in IT systems. I have found having training responsibilities to be an energising and enjoyable experience. Training people has also been a fantastic opportunity to motivate people I will be working with and begin to develop relationships.
I enjoyed the weekend module of my TEFL course where we practised teaching. I found I could build on my previous experience of training to set objectives and build a plan to achieve the desired objectives. It was enjoyable and rewarding to be able to put some of the theory from the TEFL course into practice. The weekend was challenging and enjoyable and confirmed to me that teaching English as a foreign language is something I want to pursue.
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