TEFL Institute Alumna Adriana is living in and loving Spain as a TEFL instructor after taking our TEFL Professional Online Course in 2009.
"A few months from now will mark the four year anniversary of when I first fell in love. In love with Spain.
In January of 2008 I spent five months living and studying abroad in Alicante, which is located on the east coast of Spain, south of Valencia and Barcelona. I ended up studying abroad in Spain more by chance than choice. Growing up, I had always wanted to study abroad in London, but when my junior year of college began, my advisor notified me that I was missing a foreign language credit that was essential in order to graduate on time the following year. I went to the study abroad office with a friend and began looking at programs that were offered in Spain because I thought that since I had studied Spanish before, continuing with it would be most logical. At the same time, my best friend from high school (who was studying at a different university) had just decided to study in Alicante in the fall and was contemplating staying the year to study with me in the Spring. It ended up turning out that my friend had to defer until the Spring semester, so we were off to study in Alicante together after the New Year.
Since the moment I had arrived in Spain I felt as though something inside of me had awoken. I remember emailing my family and friends on a daily basis and saying how I never wanted to leave. I recall one specific phone conversation with my father and I had said to him, 'I found my happy place. I want to live here forever.' His response was, 'Well, Adriana, you graduate in a year and you need to start thinking about what you are going to do after college. Why don't you look into teaching English there?'
A year and a half later, I was preparing my return back to Spain. However, this time I went to Cordoba to teach English as an Auxiliar de Conversacion, which is a government funded position for Americans to be 'Language and Cultural Assistants' in select bilingual elementary schools, high schools or language schools. Like most Auxiliares, we were placed in small towns or cities outside of the main city in the providence and we worked twelve hours a week in the morning. This, as you may imagine, left us with lots of free time, so I decided to take on private classes and found a job at a private nursery school as their English teacher, twice a week.
When I first moved back to Spain, it never crossed my mind that being an English teacher was something I saw a future as. After Christmas vacation, I returned to school and thought perhaps being a teacher is not for me. However, later that same day, during a private class, something again 'awoke' inside of me, which was contrary to what I was feeling earlier that morning. All my life I have loved volunteering and sought out ways to help people because of the gratification that results from it. I realized that there I was helping Noelia, my 10-year-old student, who had gone from a very low level of English to being able to hold basic conversations with me. I never felt so proud. I realized in that moment that this is what I wanted to do, I wanted to be an English teacher.
Despite changing my mind too many times to count, I decided to move back to New York and planned to start a Master's in Bilingual Childhood Education, knowing that I wanted to return to Spain as a real teacher, with my own classes.
When I had left Spain in June, I viewed it as a love. Sometimes we need to walk away to really know if it's what we need and want. So naturally, after being back in New York after only four months, I felt a longing in my heart and began to miss Spain. In September, I began searching for teaching positions in private language schools and academies. I sent my resume out to schools in Seville and Cadiz, and knew that with my TEFL certification and experience, I would be a prime candidate. I was getting more responses than I had initially thought and that is when I reached out to Mike at the TEFL Institute. I called him to pick his brain about moving back to Spain to 'teach in the black' (which means going to Spain on a tourist visa that expires after 90 days and staying abroad to teach illegally with no official work contract). Mike told me how he had successfully done the same thing years before and that it was worth taking a chance. With that, I bought a ticket in November, and it was official - I had decided to move to Spain and this time there was no return ticket bought.
I arrived in Seville with an upperhand - I had a few contacts and the help of my roommate, and was quickly introduced to other American English teachers and directors of private language schools. I knew the risk I was taking by arriving during the middle of the school year and without any type of legal working documents or visa, but was optimistic and positive. At first, I began working as a private English tutor and substituted part-time. In the spring, a friend told me that her language school was going to be in need of an English teacher soon. Quickly after, I was contacted by the director and was offered a part-time teaching position to teach twice a week. At the end of the school year, the school offered me a position to teach a two-week intensive English course during July. During that time, I was already going on a few interviews for teaching positions for the upcoming year, 2011 - 2012, and I was reapplying to the Auxiliar de Conversacion program through the Ministry of Education. Through one of my private classes, I was introduced to a friend who was an American owner of an English academy.
In May, I was offered a full-time teaching position based on whether or not I was able to get a work visa or working papers. (*Please be aware that A LOT of schools and academies will not even interview you if you do not have an EU passport or a work visa, which is necessary for Americans. However, there are schools that 'overlook' this and are willing to take the risk in hiring an American without a work visa, so dont' take it personally if schools do not call you back for a second interview.) The English academy's director and I both knew the potential risks that were involved in having me work illegally (Or under the table as it's often called), but we were willing to take on those risks.
In August, I returned to New York for a friend's wedding with plans to head back to Seville after three weeks. A week before I was planning to return to Spain, I was notified by the Ministry of Education that a position in Andalucia (the southern part of Spain) had opened up if I was still interested. Little did they know, nor was I able to tell them that I had a job waiting for me back in Seville already. I made phone calls for three days straight trying to find out from the Junta de Andalucia where they intended to place me, and was finally sent an official acceptance letter stating that I would be in a neighboring town, only fifteen minutes from Seville by train. I was ecstatic. I couldn't belive it! I didn't know whether to cry or scream, so naturally both happened, accompanied by a non-stop grin. I had it, the answer to it all, a STUDENT VISA! (*The Auxiliar program entitles you to a student visa which I learned recently allows you to work up to twenty hours). I tried to rush through the process as quickly as I could but had to change my original flight to three weeks later. Looking back on it, those three weeks seemed to be the longest three weeks of my life, just waiting around for paperwork that was beyond my control. But now as I sit here writing this from the comfort of my home in Seville, it was all worth it - all the time and money spent. In retrospect, time is just minutes piled up and money is just paper, and nothing compares to having your dreams come true.
So the moral of my story is to always follow your heart and your dreams. The job of a teacher is a difficult one, but to know that at the end of the day, if you have impacted even just one life, then you have done your part. Always believe if there is a will, there is most certainly a way."
Check out more TEFL stories from our alumni and staff around the world!
