Teaching
Education is prized highly in the destinations we work in. In most cases the ability to speak just a little English means access to better jobs and better opportunities. Often, local teachers are excellent at teaching grammar and literature, probably better than most ‘native’ English speakers. However, many of these teachers have asked us to send people to help teach the spoken word. For those whom English is not their first language, getting the hang of the phonetics, how you pronounce the letters and words, is not something they can teach easily and so this is something they need some help with. Therefore, you don’t have to be a qualified teacher to help. A good command of spoken English is all you need.
In some of our destinations English is already widely spoken
Ghana and India for example. Spoken English is still valuable but here you can also get involved with helping to teach maths, science, sport, geography, etc. We would be very keen to know subjects you studied for a-levels, highers, IB or degree and if you would be interested in teaching them. We often have requests for people to help with music, drama, art and sports as these subjects are very often neglected.
Our partner schools in Ghana are located in and around Cape Coast. Most of these schools are private schools, but they certainly don’t compare with the elite private schools in our home countries.
In Kerala, most of the lessons are conducted in Malayalam and English. Historically, Keralans have begrudged speaking the Indian national language, Hindi, and so English is an important language to learn if the children want good jobs.
We work in both Primary and Secondary schools in Guadalajara, if you prefer working with either age group then do let us know. Both age groups have formal English lessons as part of their curriculum but most of the English they know will have been from American TV programmes.
Children at primary schools in Tanzania are taught in Swahili but are then taught in English at secondary and post secondary education. As most children speak Swahili at home too it is incredibly important that they learn English
Our teaching placements in China are in primary schools and middle schools in Beijing. During the summer months you can also help in rural community schools for the poor. Being able to speak English in China really does improve the employment prospects of the children you will be teaching.
Education is not free in Cambodia so most children have to fight to be educated to a reasonable standard. If parents can’t afford to send all of their children to school they simply send the eldest boy, which means there is a huge difference in literacy between men and women in Cambodia.