TEFL Logue Review: Travel To Teach

Due to popular demand (well, due to a nice request as a comment on this post), the TEFL Logue has visited the website of Travel to Teach in order to profile it.

Travel to Teach provides, in their own words “something between tourism, backpacking and volunteer work.” Participants choose a country (Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, or Vietnam) apply, pay the fee, and get teacher training and support upon arrival. There is additional teacher training in Thailand, which people can opt to pay for and follow, such as the CELTA.

The organization was created in Thailand by volunteers who felt that “the idea of volunteer work, and of contributing to the countries whilst visiting” was great, and that “by working out of a developing country we could keep moderate fees, create working opportunities and maintain closer contact with the volunteers, the communities and the projects.”

From reading a couple of the project descriptions, it appears that volunteers teach in communities that might not otherwise be able to afford English teachers – but as the actual context you would be teaching in is quite important, this is well worth inquiring about specifically for the country you want to go to. Incidentally, there are also non-teaching volunteer opportunities, such as teaching computers or doing restoration work in Thailand.

There is an information on the fees, which range from $640 for four weeks in Cambodia to $2840 for twenty four weeks in Bolivia. They also link to the Guide to Ethical Volunteering, and state that that they have developed their program in accordance with the principles in that guide.

Finally, there are plenty of volunteer stories to read through, as well as one account which was published on Bootsnall as a travel story: Volunteer Teaching In Thailand.