My first experience with teaching.

Leaving meal with students and the new teacher

Two months into living in Japan, I got a job as a English teacher at a private academy. I moved next to Tsurukawa Station.

They nearly put me off teaching for life. They wanted me to start the next day without any training. They knew I had no experience but didn't care. My friend who got a job at a different academy got training before starting. All I got was observing one lesson. And looking back I realise this was not a proper TEFL lesson. The old teacher didn't do lesson plans. I had nothing to refer to, except some bullet points. They blamed my accent for the lessons not going well, but in truth I was clueless and did not give the students the lessons they deserved. This was one of the worse points of my life. I felt powerless and I eventually gave up. I felt this ruined my whole experience by this points and decided to leave Tokyo 8 months after I arrived.

But, that being said, I am glad I had this experience. I used it later on during my training as what NOT to do. I did really well during my CELTA course and was told by my peers and students I was a great teacher. I have also been re-signed two times at my current job in South Korea. I could of given up teaching after what happened but instead I used it to improve. I did a TEFL course with classroom training before I came to South Korea with i-to-i and it was the best thing I ever did. If you are thinking about Teaching English then training is a must otherwise you will be over your head like I was.