Month: March 2016

Creativity in class is a tricky thing. You can’t simply tell your students to be more creative, or to come up with a new idea. The harder you push someone to be creative, the more likely they are to shut down and resort to familiar and safe thoughts.

For our latest RTT event we took our teachers for an Asian fusion night in Taipei, Taiwan. We wanted to bring our teachers together for a nice sit-down meal where we can all really chat and catch up.

Surviving mandarin can be an essential part of a foreigners experience, and it is something that is good to try to tackle a little earlier on in your time away. Last week we brought you part 1 of surviving mandarin, so this week we bring you even more help to get you started.

One of the big perks of living abroad is the chance to study and fully immerse yourself in a foreign language. And while you probably won’t directly use your new knowledge of your students’ language in ESL class, there are a lot of reasons why learning a language improves teaching, they are as follows

The convenience of Taiwan is something that is commented on by many that travel and live here. The backbone to this is how well designed and efficient the transportation services are on this small island, something that really came in handy on a recent trip I took to Taichung.

Surviving mandarin in places like Taiwan and China can be a real challenge for a foreigner so learning the basics is key. There are plenty of resources that teach basic Chinese words and phrases for visiting a place like China or Taiwan.

Balancing your time as an overseas English teacher is more difficult that it may seem. Being given the opportunity to live in a foreign country will be a pivotal experience in anyone’s life. Making sure to take advantage of the opportunity while still being able to perform your duties as a teacher can be a challenging task.

Talking about Valentines and White day in the ESL classroom can be met with a number of reactions. Depending on the age of your students, talk of love and romance may be met with “Awww,” “Ewww.” Either way, Valentine’s Day is a huge part of our culture, and your students will love setting aside some time to have fun with it.