Have you ever dreamed of traveling the world, of tasting rich and spicy foods that you could never find at home, and meeting people from many different places? You can experience these things in the field of TESOL. After working abroad in the field for over three years, I currently have a different agenda. But, truth be told, going abroad is how I got to where I am today and to me, there will always be something very enticing about living and teaching abroad.
Back in 2007, when I moved to South Korea to teach English, I had actually been one of the lucky applicants accepted for an entry-level position at Starbucks Headquarters. I had thought about going abroad before I applied for this job. But, I’d shied away from the challenge and was enjoying another one of my dream jobs, a job that enabled me to work with very intelligent and creative people and to use my communication skills on a daily basis. Plus, I got free Starbucks all day long! Still, I sometimes found myself daydreaming about going to South Korea while I biked to work. As I looked at Pike’s Market under the pale glow of sunrise, I wondered what the mornings in South Korea were like. Although I loved working for Starbucks and my coworkers, I couldn’t shake my dream of going abroad and any department I would have wanted to move up into would have required experience abroad, too. So, my path was as clear… or, as clear as it can be when you’ve decided to move to a country you’ve never been before.
When I first moved to South Korea, it took me a long time to adjust to living away from my family. Working through the language and cultural barriers was challenging, too. In the classroom, I had to adapt my humor so as to make my students laugh – a key ingredient for effective teaching, in my opinion. But, by the eighth month I was there, I discovered that I had just begun to get a handle on things and I didn’t want to move home yet. I had a great experience with my school, with my students and with my colleagues. Overall, I can’t say enough about what an experience I had living and teaching in South Korea.
I am so grateful for where that path has taken me: to finding my love for teaching (I literally look forward to going to work most of the time). It has also given me the opportunity to work on becoming a more professional teacher through my experience as a MAT@USC TESOL student. And I am thrilled to now be working as an English teacher at an IB World School in Los Angeles. Through the experience of earning my degree in TESOL, I am learning how to teach in a way that accommodates both my students who’ve learned English as a first language and who’ve learned English as a second language. I am also developing a broader perspective about what education is and how teaching is performed across the globe. I am becoming a better teacher.
Earning a Masters in TESOL can give you access to many opportunities abroad at private schools and at universities. In the United States, it can give you the opportunity to work for universities, adult schools and can also give you a specialization to develop curriculum and/or more effectively teach students from different cultural backgrounds. So far, the classes I’ve taken at USC have opened up my mind to developing intercultural teaching methods and imparting all of my students with knowledge of a broad worldview, rather than just an “America” or “USA and Western Europe” worldview. It’s different than when I was in school. Change isn’t easy, but sometimes it takes you to new experiences that are more fulfilling than you could have even imagined. If you’ve ever had that dream of living abroad that couldn’t be shaken, then perhaps a career in TESOL is for you.
