TEFL Tutor – Judy Mabe
I've been in TEFL since 1987 and have taught in Outer Mongolia, Ghana, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Guatemala and also in the UK where I’ve worked with people from more than 50 countries.
TEFL has given me wonderful experiences: Living in the Czech Republic in 1990, when young people were excited about all the new opportunities opening up for them; experiencing the hospitality of a family in a remote Guatemalan village whose prize possession was a Singer Sewing Machine; working with a ‘100 cigarettes a day’ Russian heart and lung surgeon; my first class of adult students who were very conscientious and always did their homework; the four-year-old children who loved learning new songs and shrieked with pleasure when I told them I had a new one; learning to play the drums and sing with Africans; the female office workers in Verona who always looked as if they'd just come off the catwalk. And the happy Mongolian man who sold some horses and became the proud owner of a Russian motorbike. However, there can be sad times as well - such as working with asylum seekers whose lives and prospects are so bleak.
As an i-to-i tutor, I've now taught hundreds of people to teach EFL and have memories of them too: I particularly remember the woman on one of my weekend courses who had sold her house to go travelling and then had spent most of her savings. She attended a TEFL course because she needed to ‘learn to earn’ before setting off again.
What I particularly enjoy is learning about the values and beliefs of other cultures. And it’s usually such fun working with people who want to learn English.
