Teaching English Abroad

[Awaken]

Has any one of the native English speakers here done an English teaching trip abroad in a Spanish Speaking country? I had a friend who did it and seemed to enjoy it, but I'm interested in how it works really. She came back with a better understanding of Spanish for sure, but after 6 months definitely wasn't even close to fluent. Probably not even Intermediate.

Do you need to know Spanish at least a little to be teaching English? I just am curious about it because it seems like an interesting way to visit Europe where it is partially funded and able to learn the language.

[chileno]

I was watching a program from my country and you really don't need to know Spanish to teach English.

As far as learning Spanish while doing such a trip is up to each person....

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Awaken

Has any one of the native English speakers here done an English teaching trip abroad in a Spanish Speaking country? I had a friend who did it and seemed to enjoy it, but I'm interested in how it works really. She came back with a better understanding of Spanish for sure, but after 6 months definitely wasn't even close to fluent. Probably not even Intermediate.

Do you need to know Spanish at least a little to be teaching English? I just am curious about it because it seems like an interesting way to visit Europe where it is partially funded and able to learn the language.

Hola/Hello Awaken. I went to school in San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. I lived with a Mexican family while there. I already knew how to speak Spanish and took the highest level of classes they had. While there I helped the lower level students learn Spanish. I married a native Spanish speaker and had to learn Spanish from nothing but I had the advantage of knowing Italian since I had lived and went to school in Italy.

Any way I taught English as a second language for years to adults and it was an advantage to know Spanish since most of my students spoke Spanish. I also had students that spoke many other languages so obviously you can't know all languages. My sister for example only speaks English and she taught E.S.L for years to adults. Her students were from Cambodia and could not even read or write their own language. She would have over 40 students in her classes. I use to go and watch her teach. The students were very respectful to her and she loved them as they loved her.



There are some 1,000 U.S. military bases all over the world. They are in Spain, Italy, Germany, Japan, Korea, Guam and who knows where else. Any way some 700 countries around the world have U.S. military bases.
Most of these bases have K through high school programs and need teachers. I was in Vicenza, Italy and the U.S. Army base there had a full K-12 program. All the teachers were civilians. Many of the teachers have been there for years. Some over 20 years. One of my friends was a full time sub teacher for them(Vicenza, Italy) and worked almost every day. He also tutored students after school. He told me about DoD for getting a job in Italy or any country that has U.S. military people. Think about it. They need teachers of all subjects and coaches for most of the major sports. Vicenza, Italy American high school has all the major sports including American Football, basketball, track and soccer. Do you know how to coach a sport?

If you want a job teaching abroad go here:


DoD jobs DoD civilian employment job listings

[wrholt]

I haven't taught overseas. During my time as an exchange student in Nicaragua some 36 years ago the regular English teacher at the school I attended, who was a native speaker of Spanish, went on sabbatical for the 2nd half of the school year. The substitute was a nun from Delaware who had been living and working in Nicaragua for some time, and she had a very strong US accent and made many grammatical errors when speaking Spanish, but her imperfect Spanish did not stop her from teaching English effectively. And at the ESL program where I worked on the support staff between 1983 and 1987 most of the students shared a first language with only a few other students in their class, and most students did not have a teacher who spoke the student's first language; however, a typical student would learn English equally well regardless of whether or not the teacher also spoke the student's first language.

From what I've observed, spending a lot of time conversing in English can make the process of learning Spanish slower compared to having few or no opportunities to resort to English in order to be understood.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Awaken: As a language teacher, the only language you must speak in your classroom is the one you're teaching. No other.
Of course, speaking the language of the country where you are, will help you identify the difficulties students may have, but knowing their language is not necessary.

[caliber1]

Originally Posted by Villa

Hola/Hello Awaken. I went to school in San Miguel De Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico. I lived with a Mexican family while there.

I just want to add that I'm soooooooooooo jealous of those who have gotten to study abroad and/or have had an immersion time while living in a foreign country . A guy at my church lived with a family in Mexico for 4 months. If I could do it, I'd do it in a heartbeat. A little off topic, but I needed to get that off my chest

[Awaken]

Won't it depend on the speakers? I can't imagine if I walked into my Spanish 1 class and the teacher only spoke Spanish. Starting from zero, it would have been a nightmare. In high school, 2nd semester Spanish 2 is when the teacher switched over to full Spanish.

[chileno]

Believe me, when confronted with that situation and you have to perform, even your hair serves the purpose of an antenna, receiving at that...

and your mind? races at a million rps

[caliber1]

Originally Posted by chileno

Believe me, when confronted with that situation and you have to perform, even your hair serves the purpose of an antenna, receiving at that...

and your mind? races at a million rps

Lol! Bien dicho

[Awaken]

Fair enough. I can't say my motivation in high school matches my actual desire to learn it these days.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Awaken

Won't it depend on the speakers? I can't imagine if I walked into my Spanish 1 class and the teacher only spoke Spanish. Starting from zero, it would have been a nightmare. In high school, 2nd semester Spanish 2 is when the teacher switched over to full Spanish.

Awaken, I taught English to adult Spanish speakers for 15 years and to Spanish speaking children for 30+ years. Most of the times it was level one or level two with Spanish speakers that knew no English or very little. They always told me that they appreciated it so much that I could explain things to them in Spanish. It meant so much to them that I was a Spanish speaker like them. I felt like a part of them. We talked about that a lot. In addition I taught Italian to adult Spanish speakers for 7 years. They also liked how I would explain things to them in Spanish.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Awaken

Won't it depend on the speakers? I can't imagine if I walked into my Spanish 1 class and the teacher only spoke Spanish. Starting from zero, it would have been a nightmare. In high school, 2nd semester Spanish 2 is when the teacher switched over to full Spanish.

If you're seriously interested in teaching English as a foreign language, maybe you would like to take a training course first. There you would be taught how to make language more simple for beginners and more complicated for advanced levels. Also, the teacher is the person who speaks the least in a classroom, so long explanations are out of the question.

[Aprendo]

If Awaken or anyone has questions, feel free to ask. I've been teaching English as a foreign language in Central and East Asia for 12 years. I'll try out South America soon.

No, you don't need to know the local language, and usually you strongly advised to not use any L1 (first language) of the students.

As for learning the local language of the country you're teaching, that is almost entirely up to the foreign teacher. Motivation, time dedicated to it, strategies, making friends with locals and/or practicing the language. It also depends on your learning style.

I avoided classes because it was a tonal Asian language and had a one-on-one teacher that was great. I then could practice and improve my skills by speaking and listening with people after work and watching TV.

For Spanish study I think my 2 years of high school helped with basic grammar functions and vocab expansion, but I later studied one-on-one with a teacher in Guatemala and that one-on-one really allows for faster acquisition.