Alumni Spotlight: Rachael David

I chose the ITTT program because I was impressed with how organised it was structured and how each was followed up with multi-part questions to show that you had really absorbed the material. I chose to do the program online as I was already teaching in Korea so I could do both at the same time.

As aforementioned, I was already teaching when I started the ITTT program . However, I appreciate the fact that they emailed a list of countries/salaries/ease of acquiring a visa so that you could spend more time focusing on teaching in a particular country rather than having to search through all.

The advice I would give is to research the country and school where you are going to teach. Be aware of customs that may be allowed in your country but not in the other. Ask questions about the school where you are going to teach. Speak to current teachers there if possible to get honest feedback.

Most travelers want to know about the food, the culture, the language, the people and how long it takes to adapt. That I would say, depends on you. The first few months can be challenging but once you open your mind to this new culture and extraordinary experience, little miracles start to happen.

Doing the program onsite takes six weeks however, there is also the option of doing it online, which allows for more flexibility. The online program gives you up to six months to complete it. I would say that one would perhaps need 4 hours a week to dedicate towards reading and answering questions.

My biggest concern was how would I manage if I could not speak the language- in my case, Korean. Yet, the school I taught encouraged students to speak English at all times. Still, since I was going to live there, I learned the basics, explored the country and made many Korean friends who helped me.