TESOL Training by a HECS type scheme..read on

A HECS system for TESOL Training? YES we have it... please read on We currently- May 2012- have a high volume of demand for TESOL Trained language teachers together with offers of great contracts and conditions overseas. Furthermore, we have prospective employers who are prepared to pay for your training against later deductions from salary. THIS IS EXCLUSIVE TO ENGLISH EXPLORER! We are currently looking for expressions of interest from people who meet the following: 1. You are a Native English speaker from any national background, with Secondary Graduation. 2. You will be asked to lodge a CV that portrays you as a highly enthusiastic, team oriented person who is motivated to teach ............................................ and then: 3. Employers will select from the catalogue of CVs we hold and will speak with you, usually by phone or SKYPE. 4. If you are selected, English Explorer will conduct your TESOL training at a minimum level of Advanced Professional Certificate or you are free to choose Diploma or Advanced Diploma studies. Payment will be deferred like HECS 5. You will be contracted to work for the employer for a year, under an agreed arrangement. 7. Your TESOL training will be in mixed mode, mostly on line. However there will be an additional Fifty Hours of intensive classroom teaching instruction for all candidates, undertaken outside of Australia, with real non English speakers. 8. FOR NOW we are looking for expressions of interest aiming at two aproximate departure periods, October [2012]and February [2013]. Simply reply to info@tesolcertification.net with your name, age and phone contact details. We will respond promptly. *** One of the things that we at English Explorer pride ourselves on is that we do go and teach overseas, as well as visit other language schools. Our language teachers don't sit behind a desk working from old tired text books. They go out teach and write the material that we use. I don't know of any other TESOL trainer who is able to make this claim and validate it. Look back at some of our blogs for other countries. Last year was Spain. In May of this year [2012] I am in Italy, currently Bologna via Venice and later to Caen, France. A quick aside comment is expect Venice to be overpriced for everything excepting coffee and buy a multiuse Vaporetto ticket on arrival. Get out as soon as you can if you want your money to last. Furnished apartments are better value than backpackers - wherever you are. I'll blog this sort of information later. I visited several of the many language schools here and rate Madrelingua, via Georgio 6, owned by David Stephens as the one to aim to get work at, http://www.madrelinguabologna.com/tefl_jobs_bologna.html. They are currently [ and always?] looking for highly motivated, well qualified teachers with proven experience. They are not afraid to pay top rate, but they do expect full value in return! Check out David's Blog at http://imparareinglese.blogspot.it/ for a more intimate background of the school and its philosophy--also some useful free resources available there. This brings me to ask; "What do you want to read in our periodic Newsletters?" We tend to keep them short and just promote special deals however we are looking for direction from You the recipients. Please drop me an email with thoughts and ideas for the next issue. English Explorer will give two free nights accommodation at More Homestay [ www.homestaybali.com ] for all those of you that give me ideas to work with :) Thanks for being a subscriber, but more importantly tell me what you want in our communication with you.

Want to Work in Italy?

This is a long overdue posting , but the first version got lost between writing and sending . Don’t like the closed architecture of IPads, I am beyond needing an Apple Nanny! [or any other sort] After two miserable wet days in a very expensive Tourist Rat Trap---Venice the blue skies produced sufficient blue not just for pjs for a baby elephant but several herds to have big floppy, flappy pjs with enough material left over for graduation gowns for them all. Minnie aka the tomtom is once again showing up her deplorable accent, her Italian is no better than her Spanish last year but I guess an Italianate would bamboozle us totally. Notwithstanding the other woman in Harry's life is managing remarkably well and so there have not been any clangers as a result of my accent or vocabulary.. Which is more than can be said for the overriding behaviour of my iPad that insists on its own way of spelling. Venice is a city of romance, masks, music, and is filled with all of these. The atmosphere despite being very touristy is pleasant, unrushed and a great reflection on life without motor vehicles or motor bikes. We were able to navigate our way around the canals and alleys using both vaporettos and shank's pony. We certainly did the regulatory 6000 steps a day plus some. And we experienced both kulcha and culture on the way. The former on sale all over the place but the latter was far more interesting. Harry's choice was to listen to Barber of Seville, so one darkish night we set out to find the palazzo where the performance was being held. In the queue was the Vampire of Venice, a very strange American man indeed who had decided to dress for the opera and presented quite strangely, one could see the vampirism hiding beneath his cape. The performance was in a private palazzo which was in need of financial support much needed for renovations, the floors had an evil slope and the rising damp had reached great height! Each act was performed in a different room. It all ended so late that we missed the last vaporetto to our lodging and so yet another 6000 steps were achieved. The back alleyways are eerie late at night, but we felt very safe. The piece de la resistance however was a performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The soloist a young man who I am certain will take the world by storm. His playing and dexterity, the tone of his instrument and the obvious enjoyment he experienced were amazing. I have never seen a soloist so comfortable with his music, so at home with what he was playing and so inspirational. His music still reverberates in my head. Constantin Beschieru. Look out for the name. The front of house person wouldn't sell me the cd on offer because it was a different soloist whom he said was not as good and I would be disappointed! We took the vaporetto on 2 separate days to visit the islands of Muranno and Burrano. The former is filled with glass chutchkies ( the sort that need dusting and adorn most surfaces in our house! ) beautiful Mille fiori ornaments and beads and greater glass objects, all at a tourist price, inflated. We didn't get to see any of the glass foundries in action but we did go to a glass museum and after seeing the many processes the glass goes through are much more understanding of the prices. We by far preferred Buranno, possibly due to the paucity of tourists ( it is less well known and a longer ferry ride) but also due to the really brightly painted houses, a bit like the beach houses on the Mornington Peninsula but on a much larger scale. Loads of photos to prove it. Buranno is the home of Italian lace making, and we spent time perusing the amazing gifts etc that can have lace, besides fans, rather gorgeous umbrellas, book marks etc. Now of course one can't be in Venice without mentioning the gondolas. Suffice it to say that we felt the cost was exorbitant and better spent on numerous coffee/ pastry sessions. And the price went up for a singing gondolier, and up some more for alcohol and of course in 20 minute increments. And finally just a little word about the Jewish ghetto. We enjoyed a walk around the very first ghetto, and a tour of three of the five synagogues but more rewarding was our discussion with a glass Judaica producer , and the ensuing purchase of a numbered facsimili copy of the Kaufmann Hagadah which is as important as the Sarajevo that Geraldine Brooks wrote about. More about the fresh produce etc in the next email. OK Jobs for TESOL persons. Venice………I’d say forget it. Too many young people willing to work for a bed and that’s about it. Get yourself to Perugio or Bologna or any city with a few decent universities. Pay in Bologna varies from low to quite decent obviously it depends on the school. I would opt for Madrelingu http://www.madrelinguabologna.com/faq1.html More about the fresh produce etc in the next email

"If You Can Read This, Then Thank A Primary School Teacher!"

The title of this post was the Teachers' Union slogan for better conditions in Australian Primary Schools. The message is poignantly true, as much so now as then.

For the weeks over this years Christmas break and beyond I have been in the Beluleng province of North Bali in a village called Les, approximately thirty kilometres east of Singaraja, following the coast road that goes around the island. Though Les is rather remote from Legian and Kuta it is easily accessible if you have the time. What has 'saved' Les though from the unplanned invasion of mass tours is this same remoteness in the minds of the majority. Here is an unspoiled Balinese village of some 8000 or so persons. The traditional way of village life marks each day. At approximately 4.30am the Temple priests call the community to prayer and the treck to the daily fresh food market begins for both buyers and sellers. Refridgeration in private homes is pretty much unknown and food is purchassed 'as needed' for that days meals. The first session of school [there are five Primary Schools in the lower village]begins at 7am followed by afternoon school at 1pm. The older children go by Bimo at 6.30am to a nearby village for either Vocational or Junior and Senior Secondary school.

Les has one [ 4 star ] homestay

and a near zero western population. What it does have though is enormous potential for a laid back, comfortable, off the track time out break, with walks, swiming/snorkeling, massages, and tuition in cultural activities and Balinese cooking readily available. Local English speaking guides are contracted to More. 'More' homestay is a joint venture between a Balinese family and the Australian Ethical and Green Foundation, the latter donate their share of income back to the village education fund. So your patronage creates and supports jobs as well as aiding education in the village. www.homestaybali.com

Les also has a 'top village' again there is a Primary School but due to the remoteness and the one hour walk up and down 30degree jungle tracks these children are effectively excluded from going to Secondary School.


The village have an ambitious plan to build a Junior [and later a Senior]secondary school in the Top Village. Work by parents has already begun though currently it is stalled by lack of funds. The Ethical and Green Foundation is working on behalf of the village to attract the necessary funds to ensure its completion and the chance for these children to compete educationally.




My tasks over these last weeks have been associated with the school building, hosting embassadors from such identities as Rotary International, as well as establishing the foundations bona fides with local government. Each of these activities has been successful in its own way.

Have YOU ever thought of volunteering, giving of your time and expertise to help others less fortunate than yourself? The rewards are huge. Apart from knowing that what you are doing will transform the lives of others there are the new understandings that come into your life, the friendships and the experiences that you could never expect to have.








The Ethical and Green Foundation will be seeking volunteers to join our programmes in Bali in 2012. Contact us for more information if you have a genuine interest.
email me at harrycs@englishexplorer.net.au