Working Abroad in Greece - TEFL

By: Bex (Rebecca Hall)

“TEFL? Oh, you’ll be just like all those other hippies that think they’re teachers and spend all their time in Jesus sandals, relaxing on the beach whilst the real teachers, like me, do all the work.” My sister clearly didn’t have a high opinion of TEFL teachers. Actually, come to think about it, she didn’t really have a high opinion of me, so maybe that’s where the malice came in.

So what? I wanted to teach English as a Foreign Language. Actually, I begrudgingly admit that there was an element of truth to my sister’s comments: I did feel, deep down, that I might swan around the world for a while, go and teach English in Thailand or Vietnam, somewhere HOT. Relax in the daytime and then knuckle down to work in the evening (most language schools operated in the evening). But then I started the one month CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults) course in order to equip myself with the relevant skills to do so, and realised just how hard this teaching English lark would be! It is no exaggeration to say it was the hardest month of my life…only a slight exaggeration to say harder than my three year International Relations degree. My head swimming with phrasal verbs, present continuous, present perfect, past perfect and oh, not forgetting present and past simple verb structures, I was in a daze when I accepted my first post-course teaching role: in a small, unheard of, unpronounceable village in Central Greece. It was only once I was on the plane that I finally shook myself out of my daze and realised I wasn’t headed to Thailand after all.

*

“He gave you any trouble today?” my boss asked. She was referring to a disturbingly attractive teenager who had, indeed, been giving me trouble.

“You have a Greek boyfriend Miss?” he’d cheekily enquired during first introductions. But looking at him now, he was violently shaking his head behind my boss’s back. “Er, no—we’ll get along famously, I’m sure” I smiled as reassuringly as possible.

It was clear these kids were afraid of my formidable boss, but then again, she had to be strict in order for them to settle. Having volunteered taught in Asian countries before, I was used to kids being mild, willing to learn and respectful, yet the downside of that meant not a lot of interaction. Here, in Greece, I could see that wouldn’t be an issue!

Did I get to teach in a Greek school? Yes, and no. ‘No’ in the sense of the word ‘school.’ By that I mean I wasn’t teaching in a school run in the daytime Greece has a system whereby kids go to state school in the daytime, and afternoon schooling—frontesteria—to pay for lessons all over again (don’t ask). So my role was as an English teacher in one of these frontesteria.

Starting at 4pm through until 10, did I get to relax in Jesus sandals by the beach in the A.M.? Did I grow dreadlocks? Hell no! Living and teaching in a foreign country was one of the steepest learning curves for me. Grading assignments, understanding the examination system and compiling lessons appropriate for this took up a lot of my time in that first year. And yet I stayed in Greece and moved to Athens. I have grown to love the cheeky interactions with my students: their imagination, inquisitiveness and passion (yes OK, their boredom shines through too sometimes, especially as they’re so tired from the day school...who can blame them?)

Now I’ve settled into a routine, it has become easier. But teaching in a foreign country, there’s always something to learn: about the culture, the people and most importantly, yourself.