 Hi, welcome! Linda here back this week with another live session. How are you all doing? I hope everybody's doing well today. I'm doing well. Yeah, we're back again this week with another live session. As you can see, this time we're going to talk about why you should take a TEFL course right now even if you're not leaving yet. So meaning even if you aren't going to go abroad to teach yet, why should you take a TEFL course right now? Still, why is now the perfect time? That's what we're going to go into today. Before we do that though, hi! If you can see me, if you can hear me, just put a high into the comment box and where you're watching from. I'm always super curious. Where are you right now? I am in South Korea. It is 10 a.m. Friday morning. And thank you so much for being here. Since you're already here, please don't forget to like and subscribe. So we are live on Facebook right now and also on YouTube at the same time. So I would really appreciate you if you could give us a like and a follow and a subscribe if you haven't yet. We share a lot of great content on our YouTube channel and also on our Facebook page on a daily basis. You'll find a lot of great teaching tips there. Job offers as well. We also share a lot of like general TEFL TESOL information. So if you're interested in teaching English abroad, you should definitely like and subscribe and be part of the family. So where are you watching from right now? Do let me know because I'm curious. Also, today's live session, we do have 30% off. We do share a 30% discount. So what you can do is you can scan this QR code to get 30% off any TEFL or TESOL course from ITTT. Or if you can't scan the QR code, that's totally fine as well. In that case, you can just use the code that I'm just sharing with you guys in the comment box. You copy paste that code into the browser, fill out your application and you also get 30% off. Okay. It looks like this with Facebook live minus Linda at the end. So if that's something that interests you, go for it. If you're not yet certified, highly recommend you do. We're also going to talk a little bit. We're going to talk a bit about certification. I'm also going to show you what a ITTT TEFL certificate looks like in like the print, the embossed certificate. I have it here mine. I'm going to show you and yeah, then we're just going to talk a little bit about like I said, why you should take a TEFL course right now, even if you aren't leaving yet. Okay. So we're going to talk a little bit about the timeline of things. If you're thinking about teaching English abroad, what's the timeline? How early should you start? What sort of the steps are involved? And why should you take a TEFL course right now, even if you don't want to leave yet? All right. I hope that makes sense. And yeah, please guys, let me know where you're watching from. Where are you watching from? I'm in South Korea, 10am Friday morning. What about you guys? I see people are watching. Don't be shy. I'm very curious. Also at the end, there will be time, there will be a Q&A section at the very end of this live session. So this is your time then to ask questions that are not related to today's topic, but obviously feel free to ask any questions that you might have at any time during this live session that is welcome and totally cool. All right. We have Juliana here. How are you doing? She says, hi Linda. I'm watching from Illinois. It is 8pm now. It is too hot today and the weather is like summer. Yeah. In Korea too, it's been quite warm, but today is very cloudy, kind of gloomy. Maybe it'll clear up later today, but it still looks a little bit. It's cloudy now, but it's getting warmer as well. All right. Juliana from watching from Illinois. What about everybody else? While I'm waiting for you guys' answers, I am just going to give you a brief introduction of who I am if you haven't seen me before. Okay. Brett is here. Hi, Brett. How are you doing? Good evening from California. Too windy here. My sinuses are paying for it. Oh no. Okay. Oh, I hope you'll feel better soon. All right. Just a quick intro about me. My name is Linda. I'm a travel creator and content creator. A travel, did I say travel creator? I'm a travel writer and content creator under the name Linda goes east. And I have my own website at Linda goes east.com where I share stuff about life in South Korea and living in Asia and teaching in Korea and teaching in Asia. So if you're interested in going to Asia, I recommend checking out my site and also on Instagram at Linda goes east. I'm originally from Germany and the US. Like I always say, my mom is German, my dad is American, but I was born and raised in Germany and then also spent some time in the US. I also lived in China and for the past seven years I've been based in South Korea. I'm also, this is the other side basically of what I do. I'm a TEFL and TESOL marketing professional at ITTT, which stands for international TEFL and TESOL training. And you can find ITTT online on TEFL course.net and on social media as well. We have different profiles. Some of you are watching here on Facebook and on YouTube. We also have Instagram at international TEFL training. We're also on Pinterest. We also have a podcast. So if you type in the TEFL and TESOL podcast by ITTT on iTunes and Spotify and all the and all the major podcast platforms, you'll also find us there. So do check that out. And what is ITTT if you just randomly stumbled upon this live and you're wondering what is ITTT? ITTT is a leading TEFL and TESOL course provider worldwide. We have a bunch of different TEFL courses for people who want to pursue a career in teaching English as a foreign language abroad. So that is what we do. TEFL and TESOL courses. And I know that some of you watching right now are already certified. You have taken courses with us before. Some of you might have taken TEFL courses from other providers and some of you might not have taken any TEFL course or TESOL course so far. So everybody's welcome here. This is just our weekly live sessions where we just provide lots of teaching information and TEFL information to anyone, to anyone who will listen basically for free. That's what we do. All right. And I see some people have joined. So back to today's topic. This is what we're going to talk about. Why should you take a TEFL course right now even if you are not leaving yet? So even if you are not, if even if you don't want to go abroad yet to teach, why should you take a TEFL course right now? And yeah, please let me know again. Where are you watching from right now? We have Juliana from Illinois. We have Brett watching from California. And now we have Mathur. Hi. How are you doing from Bangladesh? How are you doing? Good morning. All right. Good to have you here. All right. I'm just going to wait a couple more seconds for some other people to maybe share where they are watching from. And then we are jumping into today's topic. Okay. And maybe let me know with the hands, the raising hands emoji, if you're already TEFL certified. Can you do that? I know some of you are already. So in the comments, can you just put the raising hands emoji? If you're already TEFL or T-SOL certified, that would be great. We also have Ali from Egypt here. Awesome. Hi, Ali. How are you doing? So raising hands emoji, if you're already TEFL certified. And you might not know, but there's always like a 20 second delay between me actually talking and then you guys seeing it on Facebook and on YouTube. So I'm just going to wait a little bit for the answers to come in. That's why. So yeah, if you're already TEFL or T-SOL certified, give me that raising hands emoji if you can. I know some of you might be like, might be on your phone or it doesn't work, but that's fine. That is fine. I know that Juliana and Brett are already TEFL certified. Ali is also T-SOL certified. That's awesome. Great. What about Mathieu? Is Mathieu already TEFL or T-SOL certified? Let me know. And then we're just going to jump into our presentation for today, our slides for today. All right, good. I'm going to keep an eye on the comment box. As you might know, if you've seen this before, I don't have any mods or anyone. This is just me working basically on two computers. And I need to keep an eye on the comments. So if I miss a comment, don't be mad. You can leave another comment letting me know that I missed yours, and then I get back to it. And at any time, feel free to just ask your questions about TEFL and T-SOL. Okay. Mathieu says no, but very intended to have it. So a TEFL or T-SOL certificate. Great. So in case you missed it, we do have 30% off today, Mathieu. So, oh, that's the first one already. Hope this one, this way. Where is it? Yes. 30% off today. Any TEFL or T-SOL course. So maybe Mathieu, this is something for you today. And anyone watching who is not yet certified, you can scan this QR code, get 30% off. And you can also use this link here. Just going to share that one more time. It looks like this. Just copy paste this link, fill out the application, and you get 30% off your TEFL or T-SOL course. All right. Yes, Juliana. This is the raising hand. Would you great? Yeah. I think there's another one with like a person too, but that's fine. Yeah. That's perfect. Awesome. You did use the right one. Okay. Great. All right. Then let's move along. So why should you take a TEFL course even if you aren't leaving right now? So I'm going to make myself smaller. First reason for taking a TEFL course right now or a T-SOL course, even if you aren't leaving right now, first reason it makes sense from a financial standpoint. And now you're probably thinking, hey, how does it make sense from a financial standpoint because a TEFL course, a T-SOL course costs money. So how does that make sense? Hear me out. So when it comes to teaching English abroad, you are going to be faced with three main expenses. The first one being your TEFL certificate. The second one is transportation, flights. So how to get you from where you currently are to your new destination, your country, where you're going to be teaching in. And then the third one, the third expense is the basic startup costs to help you through until your first paycheck, right? Because you have to work at least depending on how you're getting paid, but normally you have to work a full month before you get your first paycheck, right? So this first month, or maybe sometimes even longer, like six weeks or two months, if you have some training before that is not paid either, depends on your job, then you need money to get you through until you get money from your teaching job. So those are the three main expenses. And now if you basically wait until the last moment to do all of this, all of those three things together, you're going to have a very big hole in your pocket and you're going to have to pay for all of these things very close together. And for many people, most of us who don't just have thousands of dollars laying in our bank accounts, this is very difficult to do. So what you want to do is to register for your TEFL certification course anywhere from one year to six months before your desired date of departure so that you can kind of space out, spread out these three main expenses so that you don't have to have them all in one go together. So first you take your TEFL course and yeah, you can take this course anywhere from one year to six months before or even two years, whatever. The good thing about this is that TEFL courses, TEFL certifications, this one I'm going to show you closer, close up later, does not expire. They're good for life. They do not expire. There's no expiration date. So you can really with no pressure just take your TEFL course and have it once you're ready or so that you're ready when you're ready. So let's have a look at what I like to call the teaching English timeline. And as you can see, there are five steps here. So and this takes anywhere from six months to a year depends on where you want to go, the country you want to go to. And sometimes the government teaching programs, they will also hire way way in advance. So sometimes up to a year in advance for the next school year. So this is what it will look like from number one, choosing your TEFL course to number five, starting to teach can be six months and longer. We usually see it longer as well, especially now, you know, after the pandemic, you need a couple of extra documents or extra things. And it takes a little bit more time, right, to go to another country. So that's what it looks like. So let's just walk through this real quick. The first one, like I said, step number one would be to choose your TEFL or TESOL course. And like I mentioned in the beginning, for example, at ITTT, we do have a variety of different TEFL courses. So you really need to do some research and to check, you know, which course is the right one for you. So what I recommend is reaching out to our consultation teams, our course consultants. So they will know exactly which course would be right for you, for your personal background, for the qualifications you already have, and then also where you want to go. Because depending on, it all depends on also where you want to go, the country you want to go to, then we would recommend maybe different course or this course or that course. So you need to take your time and do some research. And we'll obviously at ITTT also help you find the perfect course for you that will get you where you want to go. And once you have that, once you've picked your course, and then it is time to work through the course units, obviously. And so depending on which course you choose, this might take longer, or you might get done quicker. Or also if you're working, if you're not working, it all depends on how, you know, your personal situation and also your study style. But with most of our courses, you also have up to six months to actually complete them, which is really great. I remember when I took my course, I was working full time. So I finished my course, I think it took me about four months, because I was working full time. So I did not have that much time. I worked on like a couple of, I worked on the course, like a couple of hours a week. So in the end, it took me about four months to complete the whole thing. So you need to also take that into account. And then once you've done that, you've completed all the units, you've completed your final test and summative task, and you pass your test, then you will receive your hard copy certificate in the mail, we'll send that to anywhere in the world, doesn't matter where you live, you will get it. And you also get a PDF version of your certificate as well, as soon as you graduate. So that's the first thing that you get. And then once you have that already, you can start applying for jobs, which is number four here, step four. And the application process also, depending on where you want to go, country you want to go to, or what kind of school do you want to go to? Do you want to work for a private school? Or do you want to work for a government program? The application process might be shorter or longer, depending on the employer. So you also need to kind of take that into consideration. And then you would think about the transportation costs, which is the second biggest expense, what we talked about. So this will be in between four and five, right? Once you've already have a job, you signed the contract. And then you need to think about how do I get there? Now sometimes, especially in countries in East Asia, so China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, they will actually pay for your airfare, also Middle East in the Middle East. Most of them, most employers, they will actually cover the airfare. So you don't really need to worry about that. But there's many regions where you do actually have to pay for your own transportation to get you there. So this expense would then be here, which is this number two expense. First expense you will have from the three main expenses we talked about is right here at the beginning for your TEFL course. Second one is then here for transportation. And then the next one would be right after here, once you start teaching, which was the getting you through until your first paycheck. So those are the three expenses. And just to earlier, you start with this process. The more sense it makes from a financial standpoint. That's the first reason what I, what we were talking about here. And also one thing that I forgot also, your TEFL certificate, actually, even though nowadays it is pretty much a universal requirement for any employer for teaching English abroad. But when I actually got to Korea, seven years ago, I actually had a higher salary because I was TEFL certified. And there were some other teachers who were not TEFL certified. So it also makes sense from this financial standpoint that you'll actually make a higher salary when you're TEFL certified compared to teachers who are not certified. So that's another thing to keep in mind. Okay. So this was reason number one. Now let's jump into the second one by you should take your TEFL course right now, even if you aren't leaving yet. So reason number two, you want to get started on your job search and take advantage of as many options or opportunities as possible. So like we just talked about, it can take between three and six months to line up a teaching position abroad. So this would be this application process can take anywhere from three to six months or even more depending on where you want to teach. So there are some government programs, and I know I keep mentioning these government programs. I'm sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about. These are like programs like Epic in Korea or the Jet program. So those are programs from governments, countries like Japan and Korea has those. They're government funded and they hire teachers to work in their public schools. And these programs are very well organized. They've been running for years and they hire, every year at the same times, they have hiring seasons. So you need to take into consideration these hiring seasons. If you already know where you want to teach, say, hey, I want to go to Korea. The hiring season here will be in the position we'll start in February, March, actually March, March, February is where when the school year starts. So the hiring typically already takes place a year before that for the Epic program. So you need to know these things so that you will be ready. And you can take advantage of this opportunity because if you don't do your research and then you don't have your TEFL certificate in your hand, you won't be able to apply and you won't be able to go to and take this job that you want to take, basically. So you need to take that into consideration, but actually also around half of ITTT course participants, they haven't even decided on a destination upon signing up because there are just so many great countries and places where we'd love to go. And most ITTT course participants around half haven't decided on that and they kind of just start the process and do their research as they work through the course or we with our course consultations help them make up their mind and find the perfect destination, basically. So yeah, this is just the thing you want to be ready. You want to start as early as possible so that you can then take advantage of as many options as possible. You don't want to wait until the last and final moment and then not have, you know, have a lot of pressure. This way is just very pressureless, pressure-free. And you can take this on in a very relaxed kind of way, basically. I do think I have some additional info here. Yeah, I already mentioned that, but that's the good thing also with no pressure. A TEFL certificate never expires, so you don't have to worry about it becoming invalid at all. So even if you are not sure yet where you want to go or, you know, you need to start early in advance for a one-year invet hiring season, you can do all of that with the certificate. And I'm just going to show you now and I hope it works because my background is blurred. I wonder if I can change that. Oh, I think I can. Okay, there we go. All right. Oh, and this is my light. It's okay. Anyway, oh, you can't even see that. It's out of frame. Okay, so this is what the certificate looks like and I'm just going to even get rid of this right now. So just to show you guys what an ITTT certificate looks like and like I said, they never expire. So you can really, without any pressure, just take the course and then, you know, look for the perfect teaching position without any pressure or time pressure or whatever else so that you can really work through all of the opportunities available to you and you don't have to rush into things. Okay, so this is what it looks like. It has your name on it and then also the ITTT logo and it will also say how many hours, I hope you can see that, yeah, how many hours you have, how many hours the course was and also the date when you took the course and then there's an embossment here and there is, which is very important, a number down here and with this number, this is a unique certificate number, you can punch that into our website or rather your employer would do that to verify that this is a legit certificate and that really you are the one who took the course. So that's I just wanted to show you real quick and just again, they do not expire. So yeah, you don't need to worry about that at all. All right. Okay, so this is reason number two, which again was that you should get started on your job search and take advantage of as many options as possible. That's why you should take a TEFL course right now, even if you don't want to leave yet. All right, then the third reason would be taking the first step of enrolling in your TEFL certification course gives you more time to think about teaching abroad. All right. So the first and second reasons that we just talked about kind of look at it from a financial and logistical point of view. Now this one, the third reason is more focused on the mental and emotional aspects of things. Okay. So if you're like me, I sometimes just really procrastinate a lot and wait until the last moment to get things done. And then in the end, maybe you're not ever going to reach your goal that way. So I'm also working on that to kind of get better. But if you're like that, then this point maybe will really change your thinking. So once you take the first step of enrolling and starting your TEFL course, then you are already so much closer to your goals of living and working abroad. And I think this is just such an important reason, especially because I am like that. So that's why maybe this really speaks to me. But you can always talk about, hey, I want to go abroad. I want to teach abroad. But what are you actually doing to realize this goal, to make it come true? What are you actually doing? So, and we all know this is like the same with like, I don't know, starting to go to the gym or whatever. Basically, the hardest thing, the hardest thing is to start, right? Oh, am I gone? Oh, here. The hardest thing is to start taking the first step. So once you do that, and in this whole thing, your TEFL or TESOL certification course, that's your first step. So once you've taken that first step, you'll be already closer to living that dream. And then you have to kind of push through because you already paid that money for the course. So you need to work through the units. And then we will, we are there. ITTT is there. And we send you all this information. We talk with you. So there's no more backing out basically. You really need to follow through now. So once you enroll in your TEFL course and you start working on that course, your adventure has officially begun. And then you're told your mindset is going to change completely. So I think this number three reason is very powerful because a lot of people, I hear a lot of people because I am living abroad and I teach English. And a lot of people like from back home or they're like, oh, I really want to do that too. That's so cool. Interesting. I would love to try that out. But it's just all talk, but they never actually do it. So this reason is your, this number three reason here is your call to make it happen. Don't just talk about it, you know, take action, enroll in the course, and then your adventure begins. Once you take this first step, because taking the first step is always the hardest. I hope this makes sense. But yeah, I think, do I have one more thing too is yes. So this is kind of a mind, sort of like a mind map of like images what I have in my head when I think about this. So yeah, once you have, so you're thinking about, hey, I want to teach abroad, I want to live abroad. Once you enroll into your course, and you already have that, this is like the biggest thing. Once you have this done, you can then think about all the other things you can think about. Maybe you need to get a passport. Maybe you need to think about, you know, your airplane tickets. Maybe before you go there, do you want to do some traveling in that area? Or you can already start planning some trips for when you're there, right? You can think about what you will pack is the weather is the climate very different from where you live right now. So you need to think about that. Is there something you still need to get like camera stuff or like something else you need for this journey. So once you have this, this is sort of the key, the key that opens up this whole adventure. Once you have that out of the way, you can focus on the fun stuff because obviously taking a course is not the fun part, right? So that's why we kind of dread this, right? We always dread things that are not fun because yeah, they're not fun. We don't, we want to do fun stuff. But once you do this, the not so fun stuff, you can focus on the fun stuff, which is all of this, planning your trips, thinking about, oh, do I need a new rain coat? Whatever. Do you need a new camera? I need to get my passport, etc. So I think that's just what I'm trying to get across. I hope I'm making sense. Sometimes I feel like I just ramble and it's not making sense. I apologize for that, but I just want to be clear what I mean with this reason. So this is kind of the mental, getting into the right mental state to really then, because at ITTT, this is our goal, right? We want to help you achieve your dream, basically. And I think this third reason, this third reason is just really our kind of push. We want to help you really follow through and really achieve your dream because we at ITTT, all of us in our team, we live abroad or we have lived abroad and we've done that. So we know how amazing it is, how great it is to live abroad and teach English. So we want that for other people too, I guess. So, yeah. Okay, so this was reason number three. Let's move on to the fourth reason why you should take a tuffle course right now, even if you're not leaving yet. So it is connect with fellow ITTT students and travelers. So getting in touch with fellow ITTT students or grads and world travelers is a great way to exchange thoughts and make new friends before you even arrive in your new destination. So I think this is also a really, really great point. And our Facebook page really has a lot of information. We have a review section on our Facebook page and you can check that out and people share where they are teaching. And also, which is really great on our blog, we actually have a lot of ITTT course graduates who share tips on how to go to China to teach or how to, you know, just tips for we have a couple of teaching programs. So the jet program, how do you get into the jet program? What other options are there? What is it like living in a tiny apartment in Tokyo as a teacher? All of those things. So read up on that and that is really going to help you figuring out where you want to go. Because a lot of us we have already have kind of made up our mind. Oh, I really want to go teach in English in Korea, maybe where I am in Korea. And then you talk to ITTT grads who are in Korea. You do your research. Maybe you check out my website. And then you realize, oh, actually, it doesn't really look like a place that I would enjoy. The food is very spicy. The culture is very different. I think maybe this is not actually what I would like. And then you stumble upon a different destination. You realize, oh, actually, this is a better fit for me. So that is just a great way to that's why you should get started with your TEFL degree or TEFL course. So you're kind of immersed in this world. You have access to all of these resources to, again, better make up your mind of this is really of the destination where you want to go is really where you want to go. If this is a great fit or not. And you can also, if it is a great fit, you're like, oh, yeah, this is actually really sounds like a place I want to go to. You can already make friends. You can already talk to people. Because like me, bloggers, I share a lot of information on my website. I'm always really keen on helping others. So I get a lot of emails from people reaching out to me and asking questions. And I'm always very honest with them. And I always, if someone wants to meet up, they're new to Korea, or they move to my town, I'm like, yeah, let's meet up. So we're, you know, don't be shy. Like people really like helping other people and enjoy making new friends. So this is a great way of doing that. So you already, you're not alone already. You know, there's been, there've been thousands of people who've been through the same thing, basically. Okay. All right. Yes. So this is what I was talking about. A great resource is also our blog. So for example, this is something I wrote, what it's like to teach English in Korea and in China, sort of like the differences. This is something a graduate wrote about the JET program, how do you apply? So these are people who have actually been through this themselves. So if you want to check out these stories, oh, if you want to check out these stories, just go to teflucours.net slash blog and you'll find all of those things there. Or there's more stories. There's like, yeah, you know, five important things to prepare you for teaching English in Hanoi. We have why Buenos Aires is the ideal place to teach English. People who actually lived there and taught there, wrote about this and just really great. So just go to the blog and check this out. And then you can also reach out to these people. They have all, they all have author profiles linking back to their own website or social media, so you can actually reach out to them. And we have Amitava here. Hi. I'm sorry, I'm getting back to your comment quite late. I hope you're still here. I'm doing very well. The weather is a little gloomy and cloudy today. How about you? How are you doing? Thanks for watching. So yeah, this was number four. Now we're already at the last point, which is reason number five, you can make money teaching English online, right? Even if you aren't leaving yet, even if you maybe you're not ready to go abroad yet. You're not quite sure where to go yet or whatever it is, you're not ready yet. You can make money teaching English online. And not only money, you can also gain valuable experience when you teach English online, teaching experience that will prove extremely useful for your teaching job in an actual classroom later on, right? So even if you, or now is not a great time, but still you know that you want to teach English in the future, take the course and start teaching online. It only has benefits. You get money and you get teaching experience. So this is really great. You earn some money on the side and then you can take this money to use for your adventure abroad, right? Sort of like prepare you for that for those startup costs or for fun trips while you're there. So this is just a great way to kind of get you started, right? Especially the teaching experience. A lot of employers will definitely see this as a huge plus when you've already worked in online teaching and you've gained valuable classroom experience before your teaching job abroad. All right. Oh yes, there's more to this. So if you are interested in teaching English online and how to get started, we actually did some really good live sessions before in the past. So one was like, what to know about teaching online in 2022? That's what I did. You can watch that. It's in our playlist on YouTube and also on Facebook. And then this is from my colleague, Lisa, who talks about the best online teaching platforms. The best online teaching platforms for teaching. And I've actually started teaching online after I watched her live session. So she inspired me and she mentioned a lot of really great platforms and the differences in how much you can earn on which platform and the different setups because some actually give you lesson plans, but some you need to plan your own stuff. So it's very different. So yeah, if you're interested in teaching English online, do check these out. Again, you'll find those on YouTube in our playlist and on Facebook as well. Okay. So this is it. And so let's recap real quick what we talked about the five reasons why you should take a TEFL course right now, even if you aren't leaving yet. So the first point we talked about was that it makes sense from a financial standpoint because there are three main expenses when it comes to teaching abroad. The first one is your TEFL certificate. The second one, the transportation or the flight to get you to your new country. And the third one is the money you will need to get you through until your first paycheck. And if you do this all together in one big ball, it is overwhelming. So you want to spread it out. So it's not all together. So first, you take your TEFL certificate so that you can then either wait, teach online, make more money so that you then have enough money later on for the other part. That was the first point. Second point, get started on your job search and take advantage of as many options or opportunities as possible. Like we said, it's never too early to start when it comes to teaching English abroad because of the different hiring seasons. There are some places they hire one year in advance. Others they just hire immediately. You can just walk into the door and they are looking for somebody right now. But it takes really anywhere from six months to up to a year to start teaching English abroad. So start as early as possible so that you know all the opportunities that you have. When are the hiring seasons for the country that you're interested in so that you're then ready. You have your certificate in hand and you can start applying and you can start teaching. Third reason, taking the first step of enrolling in your TEFL certification course gives you more time to think about teaching abroad or it will get you in the right mental state. Maybe you're just thinking about teaching English abroad, but you're not actually doing anything. So when you sign up for that TEFL course, you're already, your adventure has officially begun now. You're in it. You're really doing it and it's going to get you in a different state of mind. You're going to be more motivated. You're going to be like, yes, I'm doing this. This is happening. I'm going abroad instead of before when it's just all a dream and it's not something you can hold onto yet. But when you have this, it's something you can hold on to. It's real. All right. Number four, you can connect with fellow ITTT students and travelers. You take this course. You are in the TEFL world. You have access to all of this information. You can reach out to ITTT students and other travelers. You can ask them. You can gain as much information as you can. You can make connections and you have access to all of these opportunities. Number four, you can make money teaching English online. So even if you aren't ready to leave yet, you have your TEFL certificate and you can start teaching online from home, from where you are right now. You can earn some money while you're waiting to go abroad. And secondly, you gain valuable teaching experience, which will help you then find a teaching position abroad. It would be a huge plus if you already have teaching experience, even if it is online, especially now with the pandemic and everything. Online teaching is just as good as in-person teaching and is just as recognized. So those are the five reasons why now is a great time to take a TEFL course. And I just want to mention one more time that we do have 30% off today. So you can copy this link, copy, paste this link into your browser. You get 30% off your TEFL or TESOL course from ITTT, which will get you started and your adventure will begin of teaching English abroad. Again, this certificate never expires. So even if you take it now, you're not ready to teach, but you want to teach in a year, in two years, in three years, in 10 years, it's all good. We also have lifetime job support for all of our ITTT course graduates, which means we will help you find a job in the country where you want and where you can teach, where you can find a job. So we will help you with that. We'll help you with interview preparation, your TEFL resume, all of those things. Even 10 years later, you can still come to us. You'd be like, Hey, I have this ITTT certificate. Now I want to go abroad, help me, and we will be here to help you. All right. Then, yeah, let me open this up. This is the end. Now we are in Q&A. So I have some comments here that I want to have a look at. And yeah, now is your opportunity to ask any questions about either today's topic or anything else related to TEFL teaching. You can ask away. We have a question here from Mark Phillips. Can you link the online tutorial from your friend, I'm now in Mexico, to gain teaching experience volunteering, but teaching online, maybe the ultimate solution. Oh, great. How is Mexico? Awesome. Yes. Let me link that. Hold on. I'm just going to go back here. And I'm going to share those two links with you in the comments. So this is one. And I think I can actually, if I click on watch on YouTube, I will get the link. One second. Okay. Okay. I'm going to share this now with you here. And it should appear. Yeah. So this one is the video from my colleague Lisa about all the different teaching platforms. And then the other video that's also worth watching the one that I did. I'm also going to share that with you real quick. So that is what to expect from teaching online in 2022. And then you can have a look at both of these. We also have blog posts about this stuff or in our FAQ section as well. So those are the two videos, this one and this one. Okay. Mexico is awesome and tranquill. Cool. Yeah. I wish I was there right now. I'm jealous. Really jealous. Okay. Oh, is it just turning on? No. That's not what I wanted. Okay. Yep. This is what I wanted. All right. And that. And we have a question here from LaTurk. Hi. How are you doing? Hi, Linda. Nice topic for today's live session. I've listened when you made the recap. I'll be watching the recorded video later, quite late. Yes. I agree. Taking a TEFL course has lots of advantages. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Thank you for watching. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome, Mark. And we have LaTurk asking a question. Does ITTT help to look for English teaching jobs in the Middle East, especially Qatar or United Arab Emirates? Yes, we do. We also have, so we do that for sure. We will help you. Like I said, we have lifetime job assistance for all TEFL and TESOL course graduates. So you can, you have access to that and you can let us know where you want to teach and then we will help you find a job there. We actually partnered, we have partnered with many different recruitment agencies, TEFL recruiters who specialize in different regions. So we also have recruiters that specialize in the Middle East who will help ITTT course graduates find work there. And we also have, we also have a job section on our website where you can check for current job openings as well. These are advertised jobs. So these are free to access for anyone, even if you are not a TEFL course graduate. Looks like this. It's just TEFL course.net slash TEFL minus jobs. But as an ITTT course graduate, you will also have access to unadvertised jobs that TEFL schools and recruiters only share with ITTT. So those will be a little bit different. Okay, good. I hope that answers your question. I'm going to take a sip here of my drink and then I'm waiting for some more questions before we sign off for today. All right. Juliana says, thank you so much for hosting this review session on teaching English abroad preparation. I'm glad to be a part of the ITTT learning community. Thank you so much, Juliana. That's so sweet. I appreciate it. I appreciate anyone who comes back here week after week. It's really nice. And I feel the love, I feel the love coming from you all. Thank you. All right. We have time for a couple more questions. So if you're curious about anything related to teaching English abroad or online or in Korea in Asia or anywhere else, let me know now is your opportunity. And then I will be back again next week. But do let me know if there's something on your mind right now that you're curious about. Now is a great time. Then we can just call it a day. Oh, maybe I have a question for you guys. Hold on. Yeah, maybe this one. What is your biggest concern about teaching English abroad or online? That's a question I have for you guys. What's your biggest concern about teaching abroad or online? What are your concerns that you have? That'd be really interesting to know. Maybe I can help you out with something. Some of the concerns. Yes, you're welcome. So what are some of your biggest concerns about teaching English abroad? Is it the different culture? Is it the language barrier? Is it different food? Is it finding new friends, new people, being alone, being away from family? What is it? Let me know. What is your biggest concern, like the number one concern that you have about teaching English abroad or online? I know all of you watching, you have at least one concern. I know. Because I'm like that. I overthink everything and in my head, there's like, I go through like a million different outcomes to be ready for whatever life throws at me. So I'm curious, what is your biggest concern about teaching English abroad? And then once I know that, we can sign off for today. But do let me know. I'm very, very curious about that. Don't be shy. Don't be shy, please. Don't be shy, please. Give me an answer. I can't leave. I can't sleep tonight if I don't get an answer for this. Please let me know. Please let me know. No, you're too shy. All right, let's talk about online teaching, technical difficulties with online teaching tools. Yeah, I mean, that's definitely a big concern about teaching online for sure. I have also, I've actually, I thought I might, I've been, I'm starting to ramble. I started teaching English about a year ago. And I actually thought I would encounter more technical difficulties than I actually have. So I never really had like a big issue. So I've been lucky so far. If you, you know, always have like your same setup. If you have your, if you always use the same laptop, you always use the same program, you should be good. And it's also like practice, the more practice you have, the better. I use like online whiteboards and zoom and different tools. And in the beginning, it was like, you know, I was not familiar with those, but it's also practice. So the more often you do it, the better you get at it. And there's also things like most online teaching platforms, they know that sometimes there are technical difficulties and they have support teams. So the platform that I teach at, so if a student is late, I just press a button. And then the team or the platform is notified and they actually send a message to the student. So most platforms, they will have these little features and tools like in place, in case some technical difficulties happen. Juliana says, I'm culture shock. Yes, absolutely. I also think so. But I think this is also something that's just super interesting and exciting. So it can also be a positive thing. Just because, because it, you know, makes you more open-minded. You get to see your own culture from a different perspective. Because people, when you tell people like, yeah, I'm from the US or I'm from Germany, they, you know, they have their ideas of what that means. And then they tell you about it. And then you just kind of see it from a different perspective. And when you live in a different country, you also adopt some of their culture. So you also become more open-minded and you see things from different perspectives, which is just a huge asset to have. Even if you don't want to be a teacher abroad forever and you return back home, having this ability to just see things from different perspectives, being able to, yeah, have this culture, I don't know how to call it, but this like feeling or this ability is very, very valuable in our international work field. No. Yeah. So it's something that a lot of employers in any kind of company really look for in their employers these days. So it's a great asset. All right. I mean, Tava said, Linda, did you have time to check about English wizards from Poland to advertise that they help with the visa process and other formalities also? I've asked you about them last Friday on the 6th. Yes, I did check that out and I had not heard about them before. So it was interesting to check out. I'm not familiar with the visa process. So I would just reach out to them and then maybe I would also reach out to, if you want to work in Poland, maybe the Polish Embassy in your country and ask them about this if they think that this is legit. I really can't speak to that, but I would just do more research and maybe also search some reviews online on sites like reviews.io or TrustPilot or also just social media, Facebook reviews to see what people are saying if this is legit or not. Those would be my tips. All right. I think this is it today. We hit one hour now. So thank you guys so much for watching. If there is still a comment coming through, I will look at that in a little bit later. Thank you so much for watching today. And for all of your questions and comments, I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much for everyone who's back here again with Amitava, with Juliana, LaTurk, Mathur, Brett, Mark, all of you guys. Did I forget somebody? Ali, you know, all of you guys, thank you so much for being a part of this. And I see you all again next week. And if you have any topic suggestions, you can send them to me via email or here you can reach out to me on Instagram at LyndaGoesEast if there's something that you'd like me to cover next week or in the future. Let me know. And I'll do that for you. I'll try my best too. And yeah, I hope you all are going to have a wonderful weekend. And I hope to see you all again next week. And thank you so much. Thank you to Amitava. Have a great weekend. Thank you guys. And see you all again next week. Hopefully I'll be here. I'm waiting for you. I hope you'll join again. Thank you guys. And see you later. Bye.