After five years of on-and-off English teaching in the Czech Republic, the UK and China I came back to the UK in search of something to study. A year-and-a-half later (the year-and-a-half when I didn’t write anything here) I had an MA in Applied Linguistics, and a year after that I seem to be the headmaster of a TEFL-training school in Beijing.
It’s not a bad job. I could get paid a bit more and work a bit less if I went back to taking kids’ classes full time, but I don’t think I could stand it. Instead I get to work normal hours, go home at 6, get weekends off, and don’t have to spend one moment dealing with spoiled kids and obnoxious parents.
In the morning I teach one class of teaching methodology and one class of grammar. I’ve had to get quite good at grammar, hopefully a transferable skill, not sure how, but we’ll just have to see. Then in the afternoon I observe classes, work on the course, manage the students and other (part time) teachers. It’s not that stressful, everyone’s nice, and it’s good experience for when I eventually come back to the UK, as TEFL-trainers seem to be fairly well-paid there.