Teaching English as a second language huh? So you like to go to Korea or Japan to teach?
I am aware that place like South Korea and Japan are popular places for teaching English but as far as my interest in teaching English there are quite low. My dream places to teach abroad would be Russia but I'll take any place in Europe.
Also some things to point out: when teach abroad in a place like South Korea or Japan, you're teaching these people English as a foreign language (EFL) as English is not widely spoken or an official language in these places. To call it ESL teaching would have learners come to places like Canada, USA, Australia and UK where English is widely spoken and is an official language.
You got a university degree already, why not go to work immediately?
By going for certification I can cover more ground. There are places that require that someone have some sort of certification such as TESL/TEFL, TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages which I hear is the same as TESL/TEFL but used more in the USA than Canada) or maybe a masters degree in the teaching ESL/EFL field. Don't believe me? Take a look at the ads on Dave's ESL Cafe. If it's not possible for me to teach abroad at least I will be qualified to teach here in Canada. Best to build up some street cred before others abroad can take you in.
The story
Not a lot of people have heard of the field of linguistics and somehow the idea that comes up when either I mention this or my parents do to other people, the other people seem to think I'm studying to become a polyglot. Since I did a general degree and not an honours degree chances for me to do a masters degree are pretty low. Another career choice path would be dealing with speech problems and I wasn't too interested in the field. My main reason for doing a TESL certification is that I would like to work abroad and as I have mentioned earlier would like to work in Russia. Around campus I've seen advertisements for oxford seminars in which certification can be done in a month but I ended up applying to universities on the advice from someone who actually is a teacher of ESL. She said that courses like oxford seminars don't really prepare students as well as a university course since university courses offer the teaching experience (called a practicum).
Ontario, being my home province, I looked for universities there that have the program as well as outside of Ontario such as Quebec and Saskatchewan. Memorial University did have a program at one point but suspended that due to some necessary courses being infrequently offered (so I heard). If I were to apply to Concordia University (in Montreal, Quebec) it would have been starting in the winter semester as their written component for the application had to be done there (the times given for it was during the semester break but the round trip fare plus accommodation at the time (February 2012) wasn't worth doing it for a fall semester start). Also with the recent Quebec student protests who knows if I would have even gone there.
From this list I looked at some places that I could go to for certification and I applied to two places (I could have applied to more but I got lazy): Woodsworth College's TESOL program in Toronto and CTESL at Carleton university. Applying to these places was not easy as I had to "jump through hoops" as my dad puts it (written components). Both Carleton and Woodsworth have one year programs which should make me prepared much more than taking a one month course.
Woodsworth College got back to me first. I would have gone there if Carleton did not accept me but Woodsworth College is affiliated with the University of Toronto so since I got an offer from them I was for certain going to get one from Carleton. If I had gone to Woodsworth I would have had 4 courses per semester (not counting tutorials) but the majority of them were from 6pm to 9pm, even if I got Mondays off I am not too fond of night classes. Also Woodsworth's program costs a wee bit more as I also have to factor in residence expenses.
Now with Carleton comes the interesting bit. The application date was before Woodsworth's. I of course had to send them multiple transcripts because of this and I wouldn't receive an offer until they knew I have convocated. I was told I got accepted much later, two weeks I guess, after Woodsworth offered me something. I was hoping I would get something in the mail but all I got was a guide to first year package (doing a certificate course is weird, it's techncally an undergrad program but you're not really an undergrad when you do it as a post-grad). I was hoping the package would include my student number but I was able to recover it after talking to some people. The funny thing is the reason why I didn't get a student number sent to my mailbox was that it was the same student number Carleton gave me when I first registered with them back in 2006/2007 in case I didn't get into MUN. I thought by dropping the courses for the European Studies program I initially signed up for would cancel my account. My account did expire but my information was still on their database.
So in the end I chose to accept the offer from Carleton. How will this experience be for me? Unlike when I was at MUN when campus was just a 10 minute walk from where I lived I will be making friends with OCtranspo and travelling each direction for about 40-60 minutes (which should be good enough time to catch up on sleep or reading assignments but the fall schedule's not out by this time so it may be less time that what I have guessed). I won't have the chance of taking a nap in between classes but who knows, I might find a bench somewhere. The best part is I don't have to save coins for laundry, budget my bank account for groceries, or fight with someone for the tv. Yes I'll be living with my parents during this period but I had my chance out on my own. As for my future courses I just hope there's not a lot of paper writing but at the same time I'm curious to how the practicum's going to be. The upcoming year should be interesting.
