Ms Kelly Blackwell, you are talking out of your…
“In order to teach English in a private language school you need to be able to speak English fluently and have a certificate from either Trinity or RSA CELTA. These courses are around 4 weeks long and can even be completed online.”
Oh, don’t even know where to start with this one, so let’s bullet point her, shall we (real bullets not being available)?
- In many language schools you do not need any kind of certificate
- In many others you don’t necessarily need Trinity or the CELTA
- The Trinity and the CELTA cannot be completed online, although others that she doesn’t mention can
- The CELTA is the name of the qualification, not the governing body (which is Cambridge ESOL) and so “from… RSA CELTA” makes no sense
And one I’m not sure about
- I don’t think it’s officially called the RSA CELTA anymore, although how the poor old Royal Society of the Arts got involved in the tacky TEFL trade and then thrown out I have no idea
So, I know what you’re all thinking- this guy’s just been in the game too long and is getting wound up about semantics and trivia. Well yes (to the first part, assuming by “the game” you mean “TEFL”) and no (to your pooing pooing of this very important post)- because Ms Kelly Blackwell is not just an expert who can tell you “all you need to know about teaching overseas“, she’s actually selling you a book about how to do it to. It’s called “Kelly Blackwell’s Complete Guide to Securing Your Job at an International School” (a title almost Jacobean in length) and it’s worth a look because the second hand car salesman sales job is a real giggle. You can see pages of sub- local cinema curry house advert guff here, including:
“I’ve also had two friends come to visit me as well…I’m living the life..”
“Can you get a teaching job abroad without going to a job fair? You sure can!” (This is apparently written by a New Zealander- if so, one who’s being watching too much Hong Kong Fuey recently…)
“My Article Collection which includes over 12 articles I’ve Written on Teaching Abroad” (So that’ll be 13 articles, then, will it? Unless it’s 12 and a half…)
“FREE Gift #2 - Worth $145- Direct Access to my Links of Vacancy Pages of International Schools Around the World” (How precisely does she calculate that figure? I’d love to know!)
“P.S. Order today and recieve the ‘Limited Time Special’ price of only $37, and your FREE GIFTS worth a whopping $250. which I can only guarantee for the next 24 hours. After that it could be increased to the original price at any time.” (Could be increased? COULD? That’s even bad bad salesmanship…)
And it goes on- but “over 12 articles” was my favourite, I think I might have disturbed the neighbours laughing at that one.