What kind of people teach EFL?

The reasons why and when people choose to teach EFL can be loosely categorised, but not really the people themselves. They come from far and wide, from a variety of age groups and from a huge assortment of professional and academic backgrounds.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that every native, or near native, English speaker possesses a proficiency in the main skill that needs to be imparted – English. Granted, this doesn’t mean that everyone will be a great teacher, but the basic skill that they will be required to teach is there, and the rest can be improved.

There are lots of reasons why people choose to teach EFL, but there tend to be four main groups of people: people taking a gap year, people taking a career break, people who want a retirement or second career option and people who want a full-blown career in TEFL.

A gap year activity

So-called ‘gappers’ tend to be in the 18-25 bracket, and are normally taking a year out just before or after they have finished their studies. Sometimes the main impetus for them to train in TEFL is so that they can spend a year abroad in a specific country in order to hone or learn foreign language skills.  For others, it is simply a way for them to see new parts of the world and learn more about different cultures. Other gap year TEFLers may be teaching as part of wider volunteering type-projects, normally in developing countries around the world. TEFL can certainly be a ‘worthwhile’ project to undertake in this type of year off from work or study, and skills that are learnt through teaching will be a welcome addition to the CV of anyone trying to get onto the career ladder.

A career break option

Teaching TEFL as part of a career break is similar to teaching on a gap year in terms of its length and appeal -many people who take gap years or careers breaks have the same reasons for wanting to do so and are only looking to be away for a year or two at the most. Career breakers tend normally to be a little older – between 25 and 35 in general. Although sometimes both career breakers and ‘gappers’ train in TEFL with a specific goal in mind – to find a job in a certain area of the world and stay there for a set amount of time – others train in TEFL more as a ‘back up’ option. There is usually casual work available on the travelling route, and having a TEFL certificate in your back pocket will certainly come in handy if you come across informal teaching work and want to top up your funds along the way.

A second career, or retirement project

It’s interesting to note that one of the first questions asked by the majority of potential TEFL course applicants over the age of 45 is ‘am i too old’? This must mean, I suppose, that TEFL is still largely associated with this kind of gap-year/career break travel. The answer to the question of course though, is no. Trends over the last 10 years or so (admittedly before the recession struck) have been that people retire from their main profession earlier, and consider relocating to the likes of France and Spain to enjoy their retirement in warmer climates. Both of this things have encouraged far more people within this stage of life to consider TEFL, either as a way to ‘give something back’ via voluntary work in the UK, to make a bit of extra money via private tutoring, or for those who relocate abroad, as a way to integrate into the local community.

A long-term career

Often people who start off teaching TEFL as a gap year or career break option enjoy it so much that they end up making a career out of it. Other people, although less abundant in number, know right from the start that TEFL is the career path they want to follow and train for this accordingly. They may also choose to study for an MA in TESOL. It could be that they have permanent plans to relocate to a country and set up a school, or simply that they want to remain in the UK and teach or train within language schools, or the lifelong learning sector.

In short, there really is no one type of person who teaches TEFL, and one reason for why people choose to do so. The industry comprises a mix of short-term teachers and long-term teachers, those who are doing it for money and those who teach on a voluntary basis, those who teach in the UK and those who teach abroad. The good thing about TEFL is that there are opportunities and suitable courses for everyone, irrespective of what capacity they hope to teach in.

More about TEFL courses worldwide

More about TEFL in different countries around the world

Cactustefl.com recognised as one of the ‘100 publications that most changed TEFL’

Tefl.net is a well-established and popular website geared towards EFL teachers. A recent article on the site lists the 100 publications that most changed TEFL – one of which is the Cactus TEFL site.

Cactus TEFL has been in existence for almost a decade now, and right from the start has offered a unique service to prospective and existing EFL teachers.

Our unbiased approach to advice and admissions, and our huge network of respected contacts within the TEFL industry helped us to produce a comprehensive, up to date and neutral website, which continues to attract a large number of visitors each week.

Whilst there are lots of TEFL related websites around today, when the site was first launched this was not the case and it was relatively hard for anyone interested in TEFL to find the information that they needed.

Our aim was always to provide visitors to the site with the facts to allow them to make an informed decision about whether TEFL is for them, and about the type of course that they should take. In addition, our course listings have provided practical help in comparing locations, start dates and prices. In this regard, our format was an early version of the price comparison sites that have become so popular today.

Over the years, thousands of would-be TEFLers have used the site as a resource to research TEFL and how to become qualified before making the decision to take a training course. Thousands more have gone a step further and used the site as a free admissions portal to apply for the TEFL course of their choice.

We’re delighted that the site has been recognised for its worth, and are happy that we have been able to help so many people begin their TEFL journey over the years.

For more information on TEFL courses, and details of TEFL opportunities around the world, please visit www.cactustefl.com.

Cactus-to-Conference update from Fiona James

“When Cactus contacted me recently I couldn’t believe that another six months had passed since writing my first reflections on what Iatefl had done for me and my teaching. I asked that they bear with me until after the weekend when I go to our little country place to the north of Cordoba in the south of Spain. It is here, where I write now, that I am most able to switch off from teaching and professional commitments and relax in the gorgeous rural surroundings with my family. Yet funnily enough, detached from the world and my day to day reality, this is the place where I often find myself generating my most creative ideas. I put this down to creating the distance between ourselves and our routine responsibilities, which allows us, or at least me to see things from a bird’s eye view as it were, from a new angle, with a fresh perspective, (something I touched on in my first article) – and that is precisely what I tell myself I should offer in this follow-up article.

Sadly many of the wonderful ideas I wanted to put into practice on my return have fallen through the sieve and only a handful, in comparison to those that impressed me, have found themselves sprinkled into the classroom. I am learning that it is impossible to put everything into practice and that the most important thing is to prioritize with what we consider to be key areas that can serve us and our students well, depending on where we and they are at any one time. Needless to say there is no shortage of teaching ideas available to us within a few clicks of a mouse or from colleagues, friends and mentors. I am having to learn to balance such an intense input of ideas in relation to the immediate demands of the individuals who have trusted in me to assist them in their learning of English. Neither have I accessed writings, as I intended to do, from some of those who I found truly inspiring at Iatefl – but there is time for everything and at the appropriate moment I know I will seek out what I need. What truly makes a lasting impression, I believe is never lost, only put on standby until the time is ripe.

Despite my relatively short teaching experience, I have a clear vision of one day becoming involved in teacher training. Before going to Iatefl, I debated a great deal on whether or not to submit a speaker proposal as I thought that organizing a workshop, which could be of any real interest to others, was somewhat premature, and could even be perceived as over-zealous, bordering on presumptuous by others who have been in the profession for much longer. (I am still wondering if this is a “reality” and whether interested people would really question this, or whether it is a distortion based on my own self-limiting views….) For me, it was a daunting idea to think that I could hope to offer anything of any value alongside the great names we are all familiar with at such a prestigious event. 

However I was gratefully swayed in my final decision to go ahead by three very inspiring people:  the first was Bonnie Tsai, whom I met at Pilgrims in 2009; she told me that that she considered that being a teacher trainer is more about having the right attitude, regardless of the number of years of experience, (by no means underestimating having the necessary requirements of knowledge and skills for such an important undertaking). The second person was Chaz Pugliese, whom I met for the first time a few years ago at ACEIA, the yearly Andalusian teacher conference in Seville. He told me that if I was really interested in becoming involved in teacher training, the best way to start was to offer myself to give in-service teacher training workshops at the places I work and to give workshops at conferences. Last but not least was my dear friend Sylvia Velikova, teacher and teacher trainer, whom I met on an NLP course at Pilgrims. Sylvia professed to seeing me as a teacher trainer in the making. So, bang on the deadline I sent off my proposal, which, to my surprise and added boost to my self-confidence, was accepted and even included in the TDSig special day agenda.

Well before the event I set about developing a workshop based on the theme of “The Power of Choice in the Classroom” and the whole process, prior to the event, was one of constant reflection, research and experimentation. The element of choice has since become one of the pillars of my teaching. Although the outcome of the speaker proposal was to deliver the workshop, the fact is that the stages leading up to the conference served a much greater purpose, namely that of self-reflection of my teaching practice, which continues to propel me forward to constantly question what I am doing as a teacher and how I can achieve the best possible outcome for my students, to fine-tune what works best and reassessing what doesn’t. My subsequent participation as a speaker at the conference served to make my first Iatefl experience even more unforgettable in many ways and indeed inspired me to offer further workshops in the future. I consider that even if only one person gained a new insight from my perspective, all the efforts were more than worth it, not to mention the enormous personal benefit and deepened insight I gained from the experience.

Moreover the process seems to have marked the beginning of a self-fulfilling prophecy of becoming a teacher trainer. I was recently approached by a small group of private schools to organize teacher training sessions with both their non-native teachers and their management team for this academic year. This outcome strengthens my belief that when we believe we can do something and work towards achieving our goal, providence moves with us. It is with this positive note that I would like to encourage you to believe and follow your dreams, to freely share your ideas with those around you, however trivial they may sometimes seem. We are all unique and we can all offer something of value, no matter how small we may appear to ourselves. But a word of caution – “Be careful about what you want, you might get it” (Emerson).”

Cactus reveals the winner of the 2011 Cactus-to-Conference IATEFL Scholarship

Cactus is very pleased to announce that Camilla Heath is the lucky winner of the 2011 Cactus-to-Conference IATEFL Scholarship.  Camilla’s scholarship entry was the clear winner out of the dozens submitted and she’ll now get the opportunity to attend the conference next year, become an IATEFL member and promote her teaching career.

The Cactus-to-Conference Scholarship was created in 2009 to enable one new EFL teacher the opportunity to become a member of IATEFL (the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language), and to attend the yearly conference.  While all EFL teachers are eligible for IATEFL membership, in reality it’s not something that a newly qualified teacher can afford, so Cactus’ scholarship offers a unique opportunity to network and gain greater knowledge about the ELT profession.

Scholarship entrants this year were asked to draft a short article about their experiences of their best lesson.  Camilla’s winning description of a particularly good day at work caught the judges’ attention and explained concisely the hugely rewarding aspects of the job.

My Best Lesson

My best lesson still makes me smile if I think about it: it is absolutely necessary to remember the good times in order to counteract the bad ones! At the end of the lesson, I smiled at my learners and the whole class – all thirty of them – grinned back at me: we had all learnt something during the 150-minute lesson.

I had decided to make a role-play game to get the whole class speaking English together. Every learner had received a character card from me with their new name on it and the details that they would need in order to find a partner in the class. I had organised the class so that the desks were in twos and facing each other. On my desk I had a bell which I would ring at regular intervals to get the learners to move seats if they had not found a partner and look for a new one using their personal character cards.

My learners are between 14 and 15 years old who all have artistic talent and are accepted into the school on the assumption that they will go on to do something creative in their lives. The school is a Co-Ed Montessori school in Amsterdam that was founded in the 1960’s and is unique in its approach to learners and education.

The class came into the ramshackle Portakabin room and sat at their desks, grumbling about the arrangement as they were all out of their comfort zones. On the desks were their cards that they all immediately picked up and started reading. The characters are all very varied in every respect from age to profession to likes or dislikes. Some of the learners asked me how they were supposed to get into a character who was 104 years old and blind or a five-year old. I said that if they met the right person, it would probably be automatic. I explained the ‘speed-dating’ idea and gave them two minutes to sit at a table and talk to the person opposite to see if there was a match or not.

After ringing the bell to signal the swapping around of learners, I realised two things. Everyone one of the children was speaking animated English – trying to find their partner – and that some of the learners had already paired up. I interviewed the already formed couples and asked them why they liked each other so much. The answers that came back were varied: liking the same food was important or having the same pastimes but mainly because they literally spoke the same language – they communicated enough to be able to find out about each other.

At the end of the lesson, we talked about what had worked. The learners said that they enjoyed being able to use the language that they already had learned and I saw the one thing that they really wanted to do – socially interact.

If you are interested in being considered for future Cactus-to-Conference Scholarships, please find more information here: https://www.iatefl.org/scholarships/cactus-to-conference

Cactus announces winner of 2010 Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship

Introduced in 2007 in memory of a friend and colleague who was tragically lost in a road accident, the Suzanne Furstner Foundation supports language and educational training across the world. Every year since its introduction, the foundation has funded a scholarship enabling one budding TEFL teacher to take a training course to help them on their way.

The TEFL course has been offered in a different place each year – firstly in Spain, then in Mexico, last year in Italy and this year in fantastic San Francisco.

All scholarship applicants are assigned a task, involving both a language awareness exercise and some creative writing based around the TEFL course destination. This year, the standard of entries was as high as ever, and Simon fought off some stiff competition to take the top spot. His piece was not only original, it was also interesting, funny and engaging. We are sure that his linguistic creativity will help him become a fine TEFL teacher, and wish him luck with his CELTA course in San Francisco.

Congratulations Simon!

Here is his winning entry in full for you to enjoy.

San Francisco – A Flyway

“Only one is a wanderer. Two together are always going somewhere.”; Not an endorsement for bilingualism, but a voice reverberating around a council house living room in West Suffolk. A nine year old boy watches a woman, on a knackered eighties model television, confess her love on a San Franciscan street in Alfred Hitchock’s Vertigo. I’d been aware of San Francisco from a young age for a few reasons, in part due to my mother who was an ex-hippie, then living what she now refers to as a “conformed life” (she now resides in a mobile home in Norfolk). She’d often muse about being a little older so she could have been there in San Francisco during the Summer of Love. Then there was my Grandmother, a force of nature that would pass through our home regularly, often talking about her “women’s problems” – how she was constantly hot because the birth of my mother had forever altered her blood flow, and how ever since her menopause she’d been even hotter. A doctor had told her that the cool, sunny San Franciscan climate would be perfect for her condition, especially during the foggy summers; “No more sweat’n over noth’n” she’d say in a broad East Anglian accent. Then there was my Great Grandmother, who used to make us watch these old films in the first place, especially the detective ones. Two of her favourites – The Maltese Falcon and Vertigo both acquainted me with Golden Gate City. She’d routinely have an afternoon sherry or three, doze off and leave me and my brother in the company of Sam Spade as he chased crooks around the Bay Area. Four generations under one roof, every Sunday. Perhaps it was these early screen impressions, the white streets and cable cars, or later interests in counterculture and San Fran Beat poetry that fuelled my wanderlust for California. More likely, was that the West coast sunshine and salty air of the Pacific seemed, and still does, like the antidote to low grey skies, English cynicism and the monotony of working class life. I’m perfectly aware this is probably an invented hyperreality. I’m also conscious of the fact the grass isn’t always greener, and that the voyage to enlightenment is internal, I Ching and so forth – I don’t care, I want to fly.

My relationship with language is more experiential and personal. I was born in Puglia, Italy to a very young English mother and an Italian father. After an illicit but passionate romance between the two of them that ended with the same posthaste and irrationality with which it began, I was back in England with my mother. I saw my father sporadically, and our early time spent was tender if not rather comical. I didn’t speak Italian, as my mother refused to teach me on principle, and although a man of good nature, my father was a labourer from south Italy – languages were not his strong point. Our quiet time together was filled with physical gestures and decipherment, not dissimilar to silent-era Laurel and Hardy sketches. Although I gradually began to understand the regular questions; “Inglese mangiano questo?” (English people eat that?), “Quando viene in Italia?” (When are you coming to Italy?), and “Chi era quell’uomo a casa?” (Who was that man at your Mum’s house?) it was thanks to the later summers spent in Italy with my colossal paternal family that I learnt Italian. I remember all the phases of learning vividly, especially the early impatience and frustration of not being able to express myself coherently – particularly to my father, for whom I had so many questions. (Fret not prospective pupil, for the routine banging of one’s head in vexation upon hard surfaces is not an action this TEFL teacher is unaccustomed to.) Yet after nine years of seasonal holidays, I was finally able to confidently speak Italian. Thereafter I spent more time with the people and the Adriatic region I love. By which time ironically, the questions I had always wanted to ask my father had lost importance. Learning Italian taught me the unifying potential of language, and its ability to open up new worlds.

I was on a knee-crushing economy flight back from Puglia last summer when I was seated next to a Lecturer from the Università di Bari. We exchanged pleasantries before, seeing as I’m English, the inevitable topic of language arose. The gentleman expounded enthusiastically on the importance of French philosopher Jaques Lacan – He rhapsodised on Lacan’s theory that language was our world, how it dictated our thoughts and actions fundamentally and how the two axes of language; substation and displacement – correspond to the working of the unconscious; “It is the world of words that creates the world of things”. What I found most fascinatingwas the idea that when we have feelings or thoughts that are indescribable linguistically, it’s because we have transcended these mental barriers. When learning Italian, what struck me the most was the words and phrases that didn’t have a precise English translation – I couldn’t truly capture what I wanted to express. More interestingly, was the fact I was able to understand these expressions in Italian to begin with. So here’s my own theory; if by learning another language, one can think in another language and adopt more dimensions of expression, thereby dissolving more of these mental barriers semiotically, then one can expand the understanding of one’s own mind and one’s own reality. I find the idea of being a part of such a process by teaching a language to someone indescribable. (Pompous theorising over)

What is describable is my current situation. I’m approaching twenty-five and my feet are itching. University is over, I’m flat broke, and I’m standing at a fork in the road. So like my Nonna Lucia used to say while watching the indigenti from her balcony; “If you don’t have money in your pocket, you better have honey in your mouth.” Hopefully my words here have been sweet enough. A TEFL course could certainly make them sweeter, and provide enough nectar for those I teach to make their words sweeter still. Brazen desire and optimism maybe all I have to offer, but I am ready. Like the the Shorebirds that migrate to the Sacramento Valley and tidal marshes of San Francisco every autumn, I want to fly, if only for a month, to the City By The Bay. To quote a great San Franciscan poet;

Say it, say a new joy,

a fresh start, a new body.

Longing in the heart

too stark

to be denied!

Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2010: Shortlisted Entry Number 5

Applicants who wanted to apply for the scholarship, which comprises a four-week TEFL course in San Francisco plus a language course, were asked to write a maximum of 1,000 words on the topic ‘San Francisco’, interpreted any way they choose.

The entries were assessed according to the quality of the writing, the relevance to the theme and the accuracy and variety of the language.

You can read Teresa’s entry in full below.

San Francisco – Five Days to a Perfect View

Day 1: Ina Coolbrith Park

On my first day in San Francisco, Tree recommends that I take the trolley so I can look around. After a thrill ride through town, I wander up the steep streets to find Ina Coolbrith Park. The walk is hard, but I’m convinced the view is going to be perfect. I stop once to ask for directions—in English. The gardens up this way are beautiful. I see a cluster of trees ahead and know I have found the spot. I find a secluded spot and plop down to breathe. The sun peaks through the trees and I shield my eyes to see my surroundings better on my surroundings. I can see the bay around between the trees, so I move toward them to see if I can see around them, but a house blocks my sight. I walk further farther down and try different angles, but my view I still can’t see. I look at my watch. I am supposed to meet Tree for dinner, but I’m already exhausted. I have to head back.

Day 2: Alcatraz

I sleep in late today. I think I pushed myself too hard yesterday. I decide no to climb any more hills.

I decide I to go to Alcatraz: it is a big tourist spot I think it will have a good view of the city. And I won’t have to walk a lot.

At the dock, the clerk tells me the next boat ride I can buy a ticket for is in one hour. I walk around and get some snacks for the trip over—and some motion sickness pills.

On the boat, I stand on the deck freezing. The harbor is beautiful. Alcatraz looks scary but also peaceful. I see purple flowers on the shore. The trip is not long and I’m glad for that. I unzip my jacket and follow the others into the building.

I take the tour in English. I have some difficulty understanding, but I decide to just move on and look around when I get lost. I learned about some interesting escapes. What’s a bootlegger?

Day 3: The Presidio

There is too so much to see that I have a hard time deciding what to do. I find a wooded path through the park that leads to the water. It is nice to have this in the city. I take a walk onto Yacht Road and listen to the Wave Organ play the music of the ocean. I listen for so long that I actually fall asleep.

I move through Crissy Field, where I have a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is amazing. I really like this place.

I wander back to town and meet Tree in an area called Cow Hollow for dinner.

“I heard the park is beautiful. I want to check it out this weekend,” she says.

“It was very nice. There is a lot of trees,” I reply.

“There are a lot of trees.” she corrects me. I repeat after her, the way she always encourages me to do.

“Did you walk over the bridge?”

“No! I am…what are you say…?”

“How do you say. Scared?” Tree always helps me find the words I’m looking for.

“Scared, but a different word.”

Tree always has paper in her bag. She writes down other words: afraid, worried, frightened, terrified…

“Terrified! I am terrified to try.”

Tree laughs, “Are you afraid of heights?”

I nod a lot.

“Okay. Maybe we can go across together this weekend. Would that be okay? We can take a taxi over first and come back on foot if you are feeling brave.”

“On foot? What mean you?”

Tree explains that on foot means walking, and corrects me again.

We make plans to visit the Exploratorium this weekend and then to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m still a little terrified.

Day 4: Lincoln Park

This is my favorite so far. There aren’t a lot of tourist attractions here, but I can wander through this jungle all day. I am glad I packed snacks. I take the coastal path. I’ve heard that there are two shipwrecks that can be seen, but I do not find them. This area feels so alive I cannot help to feeling energized. The wind zips through the trees and my hair. Though it is chilly in the shade, the sun is warm. I spend hours here, wandering and stopping to take in the horizon whenever there is an opportunity.

This place is perfect.

Day 5: Golden Gate Park

Tree is going to meet me at the Japanese Tea Garden after class today. My legs are hurt sore from all of the walking I did yesterday. I decide to relax and take a tour of the botanical gardens. The gardens are very nice, but I wonder why they call it the Golden Gate Park when I cannot see the bridge. The guide explains me to me that Golden Gate is a nickname of California, not just the name of the Golden Gate Bridge.

After the tour, I go to the de Young museum. In the African art collection, a museum volunteer asks me if I have seen the view from the observation deck. He gives me directions and I get to see another amazing view from up here.

In the Japanese Tea Garden, Tree and I discuss our weeks. Tree tells me how excited she is to start teaching me what she has learned from her CELTA classes. I tell her that I did not find the best view of the city, because I like them all.

I also tell her that I am ready to walk over the Golden Gate Bridge tomorrow.

Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2010: Shortlisted Entry Number 4

Applicants who wanted to apply for the scholarship, which comprises a four-week TEFL course in San Francisco plus a language course, were asked to write a maximum of 1,000 words on the topic ‘San Francisco’, interpreted any way they choose.

The entries were assessed according to the quality of the writing, the relevance to the theme and the accuracy and variety of the language.

You can read Simon’s entry in full below.

San Francisco – A Flyway

“Only one is a wanderer. Two together are always going somewhere.”; Not an endorsement for bilingualism, but a voice reverberating around a council house living room in West Suffolk. A nine year old boy watches a woman, on a knackered eighties model television, confess her love on a San Franciscan street in Alfred Hitchock’s Vertigo. I’d been aware of San Francisco from a young age for a few reasons, in part due to my mother who was an ex-hippie, then living what she now refers to as a “conformed life” (she now resides in a mobile home in Norfolk). She’d often muse about being a little older so she could have been there in San Francisco during the Summer of Love. Then there was my Grandmother, a force of nature that would pass through our home regularly, often talking about her “women’s problems” – how she was constantly hot because the birth of my mother had forever altered her blood flow, and how ever since her menopause she’d been even hotter. A doctor had told her that the cool, sunny San Franciscan climate would be perfect for her condition, especially during the foggy summers; “No more sweat’n over noth’n” she’d say in a broad East Anglian accent. Then there was my Great Grandmother, who used to make us watch these old films in the first place, especially the detective ones. Two of her favourites – The Maltese Falcon and Vertigo both acquainted me with Golden Gate City. She’d routinely have an afternoon sherry or three, doze off and leave me and my brother in the company of Sam Spade as he chased crooks around the Bay Area. Four generations under one roof, every Sunday. Perhaps it was these early screen impressions, the white streets and cable cars, or later interests in counterculture and San Fran Beat poetry that fuelled my wanderlust for California. More likely, was that the West coast sunshine and salty air of the Pacific seemed, and still does, like the antidote to low grey skies, English cynicism and the monotony of working class life. I’m perfectly aware this is probably an invented hyperreality. I’m also conscious of the fact the grass isn’t always greener, and that the voyage to enlightenment is internal, I Ching and so forth – I don’t care, I want to fly.

My relationship with language is more experiential and personal. I was born in Puglia, Italy to a very young English mother and an Italian father. After an illicit but passionate romance between the two of them that ended with the same posthaste and irrationality with which it began, I was back in England with my mother. I saw my father sporadically, and our early time spent was tender if not rather comical. I didn’t speak Italian, as my mother refused to teach me on principle, and although a man of good nature, my father was a labourer from south Italy – languages were not his strong point. Our quiet time together was filled with physical gestures and decipherment, not dissimilar to silent-era Laurel and Hardy sketches. Although I gradually began to understand the regular questions; “Inglese mangiano questo?” (English people eat that?), “Quando viene in Italia?” (When are you coming to Italy?), and “Chi era quell’uomo a casa?” (Who was that man at your Mum’s house?) it was thanks to the later summers spent in Italy with my colossal paternal family that I learnt Italian. I remember all the phases of learning vividly, especially the early impatience and frustration of not being able to express myself coherently – particularly to my father, for whom I had so many questions. (Fret not prospective pupil, for the routine banging of one’s head in vexation upon hard surfaces is not an action this TEFL teacher is unaccustomed to.) Yet after nine years of seasonal holidays, I was finally able to confidently speak Italian. Thereafter I spent more time with the people and the Adriatic region I love. By which time ironically, the questions I had always wanted to ask my father had lost importance. Learning Italian taught me the unifying potential of language, and its ability to open up new worlds.

I was on a knee-crushing economy flight back from Puglia last summer when I was seated next to a Lecturer from the Università di Bari. We exchanged pleasantries before, seeing as I’m English, the inevitable topic of language arose. The gentleman expounded enthusiastically on the importance of French philosopher Jaques Lacan – He rhapsodised on Lacan’s theory that language was our world, how it dictated our thoughts and actions fundamentally and how the two axes of language; substation and displacement – correspond to the working of the unconscious; “It is the world of words that creates the world of things”. What I found most fascinatingwas the idea that when we have feelings or thoughts that are indescribable linguistically, it’s because we have transcended these mental barriers. When learning Italian, what struck me the most was the words and phrases that didn’t have a precise English translation – I couldn’t truly capture what I wanted to express. More interestingly, was the fact I was able to understand these expressions in Italian to begin with. So here’s my own theory; if by learning another language, one can think in another language and adopt more dimensions of expression, thereby dissolving more of these mental barriers semiotically, then one can expand the understanding of one’s own mind and one’s own reality. I find the idea of being a part of such a process by teaching a language to someone indescribable. (Pompous theorising over)

What is describable is my current situation. I’m approaching twenty-five and my feet are itching. University is over, I’m flat broke, and I’m standing at a fork in the road. So like my Nonna Lucia used to say while watching the indigenti from her balcony; “If you don’t have money in your pocket, you better have honey in your mouth.” Hopefully my words here have been sweet enough. A TEFL course could certainly make them sweeter, and provide enough nectar for those I teach to make their words sweeter still. Brazen desire and optimism maybe all I have to offer, but I am ready. Like the the Shorebirds that migrate to the Sacramento Valley and tidal marshes of San Francisco every autumn, I want to fly, if only for a month, to the City By The Bay. To quote a great San Franciscan poet;

Say it, say a new joy,

a fresh start, a new body.

Longing in the heart

too stark

to be denied!

Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2010: Shortlisted Entry Number 3

Applicants who wanted to apply for the scholarship, which comprises a four-week TEFL course in San Francisco plus a language course, were asked to write a maximum of 1,000 words on the topic ‘San Francisco’, interpreted any way they choose.

The entries were assessed according to the quality of the writing, the relevance to the theme and the accuracy and variety of the language.

You can read David’s entry in full below.

San Francisco- Star Fleet and the Summer of Love

San Francisco is a city steeped in cinematic history. It is no mean feat to recall the number of times the city has provided the backdrop for a romantic comedy, high speed car chase or dramatic courtroom thriller. Think of titles such as ‘The Rock’, ‘Gone in 60 seconds’, ‘Dirty Harry’, ‘Escape from Alcatraz’ and ‘The Woman in Red’ and almost instantaneously you are beset by images of the golden gate bridge draped in a pacific sunset. However, it is not about any of these afore mentioned films that I wish to focus the attention of this essay.

In 1986 the fourth feature length film of the science fiction series ‘Star Trek’ was released. The film, entitled ‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’, was set in San Francisco and told the story of the crew of the ‘ U.S.S. Enterprise’, an intra galactic vessel from the 23rd century who returned to the San Francisco of the 1980s in order to prevent the destruction of Earth in the future.

Star Trek is based on the premise of an intra galactic peacekeeping agency known as ‘Star Fleet’, of which the ‘Enterprise’ was a member. In many ways Star Fleet is the equivalent of a 23rd century United Nations. It’s primary aim being to foster peaceful, working relations with extra terrestrial beings and to explore the unknown parts of our galaxy. Star Fleet’s headquarters? San Francisco.

The choice of the Star Trek writers to position the headquarters of Star Fleet in San Francisco is an intriguing one. Consider being asked to choose a city, on Earth, to pose as the head quarters for the largest peacekeeping force in the galaxy and I would hazard a guess that San Francisco would struggle to make the top five on your list. Surely an organisation of this size would demand the surroundings of a city with the strength of New York, the charisma of London or the flamboyance of Paris? Not so.

So what is it that San Francisco has or depicts that made it so appealing to the Star Trek writers as the home of their fictional heroes? In a word, peace. Since the 1960’s San Francisco has been synonymous with the ideology of a world of peace and harmony, the capital of free thinking and liberation. The catalyst for this long standing reputation is attributable to the ‘Summer of Love’ event held in 1967 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The Summer of Love provided a platform for various youth movements across the U.S.A. to voice their opinions and protests against human rights and environmental injustices that were occurring throughout the world at the time. The event was labelled a “union of love and activism”.

The effect that the Summer of Love had on San Francisco and the rest of the world was profound. A song entitled ‘San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)’ was released in 1967 to co-inside with the Summer of Love and proved to be an instant success. The song became a symbol of hope across the U.S.A. and Europe where young people adopted it as an anthem of freedom.

With San Francisco’s reputation for peace and freedom in mind, it becomes perhaps more understandable why the early Star Trek writers chose the city as the spiritual home of their sci-fi adventures. Where better to place the headquarters of an organisation dedicated to the nurturing of friendships, peace and understanding than in the city that brought these concepts to the forefront of world thinking?

Star Trek may not seem to be the most obvious of links when thinking of San Francisco. However, for me, the two are intertwined in my reasons for wanting to study on a TEFL course and to teach a language abroad. Since a young age I enjoyed the Star Trek notion of being in far flung area of space, exploring new worlds and encountering the unknown and it is perhaps this aspect of my personality which attracts me to a TEFL course the most. The opportunity to visit foreign climes, interact with diverse cultures and to become part of the local community in those cultures is an ideal that I find strongly appealing.

I am aware of and have experienced some of the opportunities that knowing a foreign language can provide and the restraints that not knowing one can impose. To learn the skills that would help me to teach a language to others and enable them to explore new opportunities is the most significant benefit that I would hope to gain from a TEFL course. It is through the Suzanne Furstner Scholarship that I hope to learn these skills and develop the foundations for a career as a language teacher abroad. I hope you are able to consider my application.

Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2010: Shortlisted Entry Number 2

Applicants who wanted to apply for the scholarship, which comprises a four-week TEFL course in San Francisco plus a language course, were asked to write a maximum of 1,000 words on the topic ‘San Francisco’, interpreted any way they choose.

The entries were assessed according to the quality of the writing, the relevance to the theme and the accuracy and variety of the language.

You can read Ilaria’s entry in full below.

San Francisco

My students were looking at me as if I was crazy, but hopefully they were unaware of how nervous I was; I said goodbye and we all walked out of the classroom towards the reception desk. They started talking, all together, with the secretary. I couldn’t understand a word of Chinese, but I could see that their expression changed, they seemed really happy and they were frantically looking into their bags for their purses. Were they booking the course? When the secretary confirmed that the students enjoyed the class and 7 out of 10 paid for the Beginners course I was speechless. The demo lesson was torture for me and, I imagined, for them too. It was my first one, I prepared for hours and must have gone over all the suggestions of my trainers about a thousand times before entering the classroom. I wasn’t confident that the topic I chose was suitable and I kept hearing the voices of my colleagues telling me how Chinese students highly considered teachers. No wonder they were surprised to see me sitting in circle with them, and no wonder they were shocked when I asked them how to spell my name on the whiteboard after we practiced the Italian alphabet, at the end of a lesson where not a word of Chinese was spoken.

At the beginning of the first lesson, the week after, they asked me in English if I was going to speak Chinese from then on and were horrified to hear that it wasn’t an option, and not just because it was my second week in China. I felt that they needed to see that we can communicate with people even without speaking their language, so I invited them to come with me and see how I ordered my dinner at the restaurant downstairs. The owner was used to my “pointing” and the silent conversation went on as usual with me indicating a picture on the wall, him writing down the price, me paying and happily walking out of the restaurant with my dinner. We went back to the classroom, I gave them an Italian menu full of pictures, I took their silent order and wrote down the price; they realized that we were all in the same boat. No matter how hard it was, we had a lot of fun and we all learnt so much from one another. At the end of a long day, when I was reviewing their written tasks, I felt proud of their progress and proud of myself, not because I am a good teacher, but because I achieved my goal.

After pursuing a career in translation, having worked for free as an intern for an independent Italian publisher and having published several translations, I went travelling in Spain and accepted a volunteer position as teacher of Spanish for the local Town Hall. It soon became clear that being with my students was far more rewarding than those endless, lonely hours in front of the computer, just like seeing my name on a language certificate rather than on the inner cover of a book.

How do you give up years of effort and say goodbye to lucrative contracts without feeling guilty towards those who supported you for all the time it took to get there? At 34, all I was hearing from friends were engagement plans and house mortgages, while I was talking about re-inventing myself, go back to school and become a teacher. And after my training course, when those friends who got married were talking about having children, I was over the moon because I got my first official job as a teacher, in China!

After this first experience, I want to learn more about teaching and I would like to create the basis for my future. I know I will never be a sought-after English teacher as I am not a native speaker, but that might not be the case everywhere, if I can be a good teacher. San Francisco is the link between my most recent past in China and my future anywhere I’ll be needed, as it is the door to a better world for so many people, not just from Asia. San Francisco raised again from its own ashes and it was chosen as the ideal place by millions of people who felt it was time to live their lives instead of what everybody else defined as such; great writers were inspired by its vibrant atmosphere and the grandeur of its landscapes and those same writers inspired me when it was time to start all over again.

I became a bit of every place I have been to and I learnt the language of every country I lived in; if by doing my job I can inspire even only one of my students to go and experience a different culture, I’ll be happy. He or she might have to travel for miles, or just be willing to listen to a neighbour from a different country. In some places people are never more abroad than when they are at home. But I didn’t say that, Benjamin F. Taylor did, about San Francisco.

Suzanne Furstner Foundation Scholarship 2010: Shortlisted Entry Number 1

Applicants who wanted to apply for the scholarship, which comprises a four-week TEFL course in San Francisco plus a language course, were asked to write a maximum of 1,000 words on the topic ‘San Francisco’, interpreted any way they choose.

The entries were assessed according to the quality of the writing, the relevance to the theme and the accuracy and variety of the language.

You can read Zusanna’s entry in full below.

San Francisco

IF YOU’RE GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO…

(FICTION)

If you’re going to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you’re going to San Francisco

You’re gonna meet some gentle people there

Today the darkness is at its deepest in the south part of Czechoslovakia. And so is communism. Mark with his two colleagues from the arms factory, Peter and Joseph, are sitting in Mark’s flat, listening to Viennese Radio. Mark can tune his radio to the Western station, as the reception on the outskirts of the capital where his flat happens to be is good. They’re risking being arrested for it, they know, yet to hell with it, they think. It’s worth it, anyway.

“What if the neighbour reports you?” whispers Mark’s mother when she catches them in Mark’s room. “You know who our neighbour is, don’t you?” Mark does know. The neighbour who lives in the flat opposite in their block of flats is a secret police agent.

“Listening to a Western radio! And to this song!” Mark’s mother points to the transistor. She first heard the “San Francisco” at the Prague Spring uprising against Soviet rule in 1968. Young people like her then adopted it as an anthem for freedom. For the same reason, the communists who suppressed the uprising later banned the song.

For those who come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

In the streets of San Francisco

Gentle people with flowers in their hair

“We tried to stop the Russians with flowers,” says Mark’s mother quietly. “It didn’t work,” she sighs and leaves the room.

The three friends carry on listening. Today, here in the Eastern Europe, it’s raining cats and dogs but they let themselves to be transported by the vibrant music to the very West, to the beaches of San Francisco, soaring in hot air as they imagine San Francisco to be based on pictures they had seen in the geography book at school and supported by the vibrancy of the tune and the vocals of John Phillips.

“What a pity I don’t understand a word,” says Mark after the song has finished. “Next time, I’ll smuggle an English dictionary and the lyrics from Vienna and we can translate them. I met someone on the flea market the other day who can help me,” says Peter.

All across the nation such a strange vibration

People in motion

There’s a whole generation with a new explanation

People in motion people in motion

When they later translate the words, Mark wishes to move to San Francisco; to swap his country of hopeless and suppressed people for the people in motion and for the strange vibration all across their nation. How wonderful life must be there! It becomes his vision.

Ten years later.

It’s five years after the Velvet Revolution and many of Mark’s colleagues from the arms factory that had gone bankrupt, including his friends Peter and Joseph, have left their country to find a better future abroad. Mark fulfils his dream too and emigrates to San Francisco. He’ll live with Joseph at first who’d gone there earlier, done a TEFOL course and has now found a job for Mark in the San Francisco Military Factory. Mark comes on tourist visa he got for six months but he doesn’t intend to return. He lands in the country full of opportunities and has got a vision of a new, bright future, not loaded with heaviness of the past, he thinks. He’ll start working in the factory tomorrow, learn English like Mark and earn lots of money. However, an unexpected chain of events that starts only an hour later slightly yet essentially changes the chain of his thoughts. Nick, a friendly and outgoing guy from San Francisco and a good friend of Joseph comes to pick Mark up from the airport and doesn’t drive Mark straight to Joseph’s flat but instead he takes him to a place that takes Mark’s breath away. At the end of the day Mark finds himself in the San Francisco Columbarium – a huge posh building with thousands of urns with human ashes neatly laid in cosy pigeonholes dug into tall walls. Today an event called “Get To Know Your Neighbour” is taking place here and Nick’s grandmother is attending it with her whole family. Nick couldn’t miss. Later Mark understands that her ashes are going to be laid here too after she… Mark doesn’t want to finish the sentence, not even in his mind. 

People of San Francisco must have a great sense of humour, if they take death with pinch of salt, Mark thinks. However, when Mark is standing in the huge hall of the Columbarium and staring at all those pictures of people whose ashes are right in front of him, another thought crosses Mark’s mind like an X-ray: These people here cannot change anything in their lives anymore, as they’re dead, they cannot do anything better… But I CAN! Perhaps I won’t have to work in an arms factory for the rest of my life. Perhaps later on I could do something else, like opening my own restaurant one day. Isn’t America a place of opportunities and fulfilled visions after all? The restaurant would have to be on a beach, Mark decides.

For those who come to San Francisco

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

If you come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there

If you come to San Francisco

Summertime will be a love-in there


Ten years later.

Mark owns three restaurants, all near San Francisco beaches. Today his mother is coming to visit him for the first time. He’s going to welcome her at the airport with a flower. And he’ll stick it in her hair.