An Experience of a Lifetime

Hi! My name is Rachel and I am 21 years old and from Arizona in the United States! Before I go into all of the elements of this program, I just want to say that this was by far the most incredible experience of my life. Madrid is now my favorite city in the world and working as an English teacher at Canterbury was such a special experience. I will hold these memories and this experience close to me for the rest of my life. If you are considering getting your TEFL certificate, you absolutely will not regret going through this program.
I attended the TEFL certification course in October of 2021. It is an intensive course but it is definitely manageable and worth the time. I really enjoyed everything I learned and I loved getting to know my classmates. The course gives you so many tools and resources so that you can feel prepared to teach a real class. Part of the course includes working with real students and getting feedback so that there is a smooth transition between being in the classroom and going out to teach. The teacher John Bouse is incredible and honestly one of the best teachers I have had the privilege of learning from. You will be in good hands.
After the course, I worked for Canterbury Consulting as an English tutor. I loved working with these students and was able to be their tutor from October until May! Working through Canterbury is really nice because of all the support and I would definitely recommend working with them if you get the chance, especially to start out with. This will help you get an idea of what it’s like to work with students in a real-world setting and you might even make connections to find more students! My only disclaimer is that I was not able to get enough hours through Canterbury alone to support myself financially in Madrid, so if you are planning on solely financially supporting yourself through this job then you will need to put in some extra work to find students. There are several online companies that you can work for such as Cambly and Italki. Also, I would look online and see if there are any language exchange events you can go to and maybe find clients or make connections there! If you have any issues, definitely don’t be afraid to talk to James for help. It took me a few months, but I was able to get enough students to support myself and make it work!
I also took Spanish classes with Angie and I absolutely loved it! You can get by in Madrid without knowing Spanish but it will be a little bit difficult and you won’t get the full experience of living in Spain. So I highly recommend putting in some time before coming to Spain to learn Spanish. Babbel is a really great app as well as Lingo Pie and Innovative Language Learning. Then once you finish your course you can start taking classes with Angie. I did my classes with her online and she is the best. She makes a personalized lesson for you and meets you wherever you’re at to help you improve.
Madrid is a really unique city that you won’t be able to help but fall in love with. It is a very safe city so you will never feel uncomfortable walking around alone or taking the metro at night. The people are incredible and the city itself is beautiful. If you are worried about finding a place to live, I recommend the app Idealista which is how I rented my first apartment. I signed the lease and everything while I was still in the States, which made me nervous, but everything worked out great! Another suggestion is to get your monthly metro pass as soon as you can. I waited a long time because I was nervous but it went really smoothly and the metro system in Madrid is amazing and really easy to understand. You can just use google maps to tell you which stops to get on and off at!
I hope all of this information is able to help you on this great adventure! This was the best decision I ever made and it changed my life forever. Thank you :)