I Taught English Abroad

Apr 24 2024 9

I Taught English Abroad Podcast artwork

Hello, and welcome to ‘I Taught English Abroad’, a podcast series by the TEFL Org. If ‘I Taught English Abroad’ sounds like a simple idea, then it’s because it is. As the world’s most accredited TEFL provider, we at The TEFL Org know that our students can go on to have incredible experiences, whether they teach in classrooms in far reaches of the globe, or online from the comfort of their homes. Whether these students teach online or overseas, one vital fact remains the same: it’s utterly life-changing.

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How “getting geeky” with English language sparked a successful career

Apr 24 2024 52 mins

Pronunciation is an integral part of learning a language, and there are so many different accents, types of English and ways to perceive phrasing. Ellie Caudwell Casey, a linguistics expert so enthusiastic that she wrote 25,000 words on the /r/ sound alone, tells us about finding an audience online, how drilling into the specifics of linguistics and phonetics can help English learn

From leaving Iran to La Dolce Vita

Apr 17 2024 45 mins

We don’t meet many TEFL teachers who start in Iran, take online classes with American universities, and then opt to live and work in Italy. But then, we don’t meet many teachers like Roya Abedi.The definition of a determined self-starter, Roya has used social media and online word-of-mouth to start a very popular English teaching business. We hear all about the IELTS, her motiv

How TEFL started a journey to every peak, every nation and both poles

Apr 10 2024 47 mins

Johnny Ward is a one-of-a-kind. Growing up poor in Ireland, Johnny made it his mission to make a career out of doing things that he loved. To say he succeeded is an understatement; Johnny’s been to every nation on earth, climbed the highest peaks, rowed across the Atlantic, visited both Poles, dodged bullets in warzones, lived it up in Turkmenistan and so, so much more - and it a

Meet Japanese TikTok’s favourite English teacher

Apr 03 2024 56 mins

When he joined TikTok during the pandemic, Michigan-born TEFL teacher Patrick Smith thought it’d be a fun way to kill some time while teaching in Japan. Instead, it turned into an amazing platform for Patrick to share fantastic teaching stories, with over a million followers keeping up with his updates. We talked about the African-American teacher experience in Japan, using socia

S5: I Taught English Abroad - trailer

Mar 27 2024 2 mins

How could I Taught English Abroad possibly go bigger than it did last season? How can we outdo ourselves after reaching lots of new listeners, recording in person and even doing some travelling of our own for season 4? Well, it was simple. We stuck to what we do best: great chats with amazing guests. We meet a man who’s travelled to every country, climbed the 7 summits and visite

Goodbye boredom, hello Cambodia

Jan 22 2024 46 mins

The idea of the career changer is something we talk about a lot at The TEFL Org. We like to imagine that teaching English can be a get-out from the tiresome commute, the job that remains unfulfilling, the same old.For Andy Korterling, of Can Travel Will Travel and the Pigs on Bikes YouTube channel, that’s exactly what TEFL became. And while it wasn’t the easiest transition from

Transcribing Spider-Man to blazing a trail in Iran

Jan 16 2024 50 mins

How determined does a person have to be to achieve their goals? How highly must the odds be stacked against you for you to give up?Sara Alami, an English teacher from Iran, couldn’t have had a more difficult road to where she is now. She’s the co-founder of an Iranian English language school, teaches online to students around the world and has a massive social media following.

As real as it gets: TEFL in Los Angeles

Jan 09 2024 44 mins

Imagine your first ever teaching experience was in a purpose-built Korean village, where everything was in English. Even if you’ve worked on film or TV sets, or in the entertainment industry in some form, it’d be quite a jarring experience.Well, that’s what happened to Angie White, our next guest, who decided to explore the world of TEFL teaching after some time working in Ho

There is room for us: deconstructing native speakerism, leading the discussion

Dec 19 2023 51 mins

Let’s be clear - the English language can be difficult. Whether it’s on a conversational level, where idioms stalk almost every sentence, or at the academic level. So, imagine navigating English for both casual chats and textbooks when it’s not even your mother tongue?Our next guest, Cecilia Nobre, grew up in Brazil, absolutely fascinated by language. So, she mastered both co

Who runs the world?

Dec 12 2023 56 mins

We love confidence here on I Taught English Abroad. The confidence to say “I’m going to be a teacher”, for example. The confidence to travel to entirely new places, either having gained employment, or just going to see what you can find. The sheer - as we call it in Scotland - gallus to say “I’m going to do this, and what’s more, I’m going to be good at it”; we like