TESOL Course--What I SHOULD have done - ESL discussion

I SHOULD have bypassed Thailand and gone originally to SK and saved not 100, but 1600 on TI's TESOL course by not taking it in the first place. I also would have gotten my airfare reimbursed by the same school. There are schools out there that don't require one to actually possess a TESOL--they provide TESOL training onsite for free if you don't have one. I don't know how plentiful they are, though. Based on where I stand now with one year of teaching under my belt, I think my TESOL course at TI was a rip-off. I used maybe 10% of what I learned at TI in my first year, plus I had to take a training course here on testing, as TI slights the topic of testing for some unknown reason. If you are taking a TESOL course and can't get it for free, find the absolute cheapest one out there that offers the 120 hours/6 hours combo. Heck, my school never checked if my TESOL was actually real. They never made even one phone call to TI to check my credentials. Yes, I could have gotten a fake TESOL cert made on Koh Sarn Road in Bangkok and been just fine (and 1600 USD richer).

RhenoThai

My advice - ESL discussion

Catherine, my advice to you is to not take the course. It's probably not accredited anywhere, and it doesn't offer the 120 hours of in-class study or the 6 hours of teaching that other TESOL mills offer. Take it from a guy who 'learned the hard way' after dropping 1600 USD on TEFL Intl's TESOL, you can find schools in Korea and Taiwan that will give you training for FREE AND reimburse you for your airfare! That's a good deal if the schools are good. I'd check into it. Don't make the mistakes I did. I came to Thailand (mistake #1) to take the TESOL course. I got a job in Thailand (mistake #2) teaching for about 700 USD a month. Because I chose to stay in Thailand and teach, I won't get reimbursed for my airfare (mistake #3), as almost no schools here reimbuse for airfare. With these mistakes in mind, here is what I would do IF I only had a time machine: I'd at the very least take the TESOL course in Korea, the country that pays teachers probably 3x more, on average, than they are paid in Thailand. If I'd done that a year ago, I'd now be getting my airfare back AND I'd have about 12K more USD in my bank account. I'd also choose a school that offers free TESOL training in the first place, so I'd save yet another 1600. Live and learn!