02/25/2021
hello hello and welcome my name is linda thanks so much for
tuning in um yeah i'm back here again
like every week i guess um live with itt talking about
yet another very exciting and interesting teaching and tefl topic today and i
think especially this topic is going to be so useful um
and it's i think not talked about enough right we always talk about how to choose the correct tefl course
how to choose you know how to find jobs and all this kind of stuff but
not we're not going down into the nitty-gritty of the actual tefl interview and that's what we're
gonna do today so we are talking about the 15 most asked questions in a tefl interview
and hi guys thanks so much for watching i see we already have a couple of people here
if you can see me if you can hear me as always please drop a high into the comment section so
that i know that everything is working how it should work um you know sometimes
there can be technical malfunctions you never know and i am trying out this mic um so you
never know but let me know let me know where you are in the world where you're watching
from i am in south korea it is friday 10 a.m um i'm super
excited that it's friday weekend i have a few things planned but um first we gotta you know get the
job done here so that's what we're gonna do today hello daniel
daniel says good evening so daniel where are you watching from what where are you because evening for
you so maybe are you in the u.s are you in i'm thinking
in in south america okay there you go haiti awesome from haiti
cool thanks so much for tuning in that's great all right um
did i already say my name i forget my name is linda linda from itt
yeah and we're gonna talk about tefl interviews today hi moses good to see you again
hi juliana good to see you again as well still from illinois that's awesome great
i love seeing the same people week after week it's really nice our family is growing
and some new people as well that's really great so let's give it a
couple more minutes for people to join um like i said i'm going to go through
the 15 most asked questions in a tefl interview today so
if you want to teach english abroad or online these are the 15 uh questions that
you're most likely going to get asked during the interview process um
okay moses i have another meeting just came up to say hi i will try watching the video later
thanks so much for dropping in saying hi i really appreciate it and have fun during your meeting and yeah you can
always watch the replay of all of these videos so that's really convenient even if you miss the live session you
can tune in later and then re-watch so thanks for dropping in moses and um have a wonderful day
we have giuliano hello nice to see you again nice to see you again too i'm chatting from brazil
that's awesome it's always good to watch your videos thank you giuliano good to see you again as well that's
great i love having a chat with you so as always you know the drill you know you can
throw your comments at me at any time and at the end there will also be a q a section and time to ask questions
so today we have 15 questions that i'm going to go through and obviously how to
answer them um so it might take between 45 minutes
and an hour today um just to let you know as said if you can't watch the whole session that is
totally no problem you can re-watch it at any time it will be available on our facebook
page and also on youtube as always we are streaming live on both
platforms at the moment so we are live on facebook and we are live on youtube as well so that's really
exciting and um if you are listening to this as a podcast episode
hi thanks for downloading we always turn our live events into podcast episodes
so you can find our podcast on any major podcast platform you know
itunes spotify google podcasts and we recently just hit 1000 podcast downloads so yay
that's amazing thanks so much for supporting the podcast and um i think let me see oh one more
thing you know the drill don't forget to like and subscribe of course so that you do not
miss any of our um future live sessions that would be very important um
you know subscribe to our youtube channel we also have a lot of other great content besides our live
sessions and also our facebook page we share really useful um teaching content or you
know tefl information every day on our facebook page so
you know check that out give it a like and there will also be um a discount
today as always if you've watched before you know the drill it's um this little qr code
oh my god i really need to okay there we go yay so you can scan this qr code at any time
with your phone and then you will receive a 30 discount if you are unable to scan it i'm also
just now going to drop the um the discount link into the comment box
so you should see that very soon popping up look out for that so if you apply
through this link you will get 30 off any of our tefl or tesol courses so that is this one
it looks like this that's a discount link and um yeah i think that's it for the beginning
we can jump right into the topic um if you've watched my lives before you know i like to prepare a bit of visual
um you know a visual presentation so i'm going to turn that on for you guys and
yeah let me know also maybe before i start that what's your experience
with um interviews so have you done a teaching interview
before um and how did that go
or have you never done an interview awesome carlos says hi there it sounds
interesting i'm all ears for you awesome thanks so much we also have fouls on hi
i hope i say that correctly fauzon it's a beautiful name so
what's your experience with tefl interviews i actually recently did a tefl interview
um i started teaching english online i think maybe three weeks ago for a
teaching platform and i might do a live about that about that experience in the future i'm not sure yet um i haven't
you know i don't have enough experience about it so far so um i might share that
in the future but i did join a online teaching platform and i had to go through an interview process
so um that was also you know it's always a bit daunting to go through an interview
you feel nervous you don't really know you know what they expect from you and all that stuff so that was my
experience it was pretty relaxed it wasn't that um strict of an interview
so that was great and i passed and i am now teaching english online and it's
it's good fun it's good fun
all right fawzon says i have a dilemma i subscribed but i couldn't study have you got a cure you know you just
gotta sit down turn the lessons on and you just gotta do it there is no other way you know you have
to work through the lessons you have six months but six months to complete the tefl
course typically but you know it can go by quite fast so you might want to
start soon okay juliana says i've never done it before
today i hope to catch some tips yeah absolutely absolutely okay great so
um hold on let me turn this on and get rid of this
banner there you go
okay so the 15 most asked half most asked questions during a tefl
interview and i have to say these questions were hand-picked in
a partnership in collaboration with a recruitment agency a recruiter a tefl
recruiter so um they know exactly what interviewers ask and so um
you know these are really the questions that the interviews ask the most so
yeah first though i always like to introduce myself a little bit so i
am a travel writer and content creator um my blog name website name is linda
goes east you can find it at linugoses.com and on social media at linda goes east
just if you're interested i'm originally from germany and the usa
um so my mom is german and my dad is american but i've been based in south korea for
almost six years now and i really love it here and also i work for itttt as a tefl and
tesol marketing professional itt if you don't know stands for
international tefl and tesol training you can find us at teflcourse.net
and on instagram at international tefl training and we are a leading tefl and tesol
course provider worldwide and i think some of you already have taken a course with us
some people are currently taking a course and some people are thinking about it so that's great you know come on in
open for everybody and as said don't be shy in the comments you know leave your thoughts in the comment box i
always like to have a conversation you know a give and take during these live sessions
i learned so much from you guys your you guys experience and you learn stuff from me so this is
our opportunity to exchange experiences and information and i am
here for it so please don't be quiet don't be shy um there are no stupid comments there
are no stupid questions um you know that's why i'm here that's what i'm doing
every week we are going live every week i think i forgot to say that we are going live every week twice
so once me and then my colleague lisa she also goes live on
tuesdays and what's really interesting about her is that she is a non-native english
um teacher from russia so because we also have a lot of non-native
english um speaking course takers who want to teach english abroad or online
so i think if you fall into that category also please check out her lives because
she offers a lot of great info about you know how to advance in your
teaching career as a non-native english speaker what you can do to improve and
all of those things so um look out for her and i just want to mention again check
out this qr code that you see in the upper right hand corner it's a 30 off discount code for
all of our courses and i'm also going to share a discount link into the comment section
i shared it a few minutes ago if you can find it it looks like this so at any time
over the weekend until monday you can apply and you can get a discount 30
off okay great then let's get started first i have
prepared a tefl interview checklist for you guys before we jump into the actual
questions so what's really important before you do the interview the first
one is you should find a quiet and well-lit spot
of course if your interview is um you know in the evening time okay because most interviews i for
i think i have to say that first most tefl interviews are skype interviews right
so um you will be in your home country at home and they will interview you via skype so
you need to make sure that you are in a quiet and well-lit spot in your house so that the picture
is great like hopefully for me right now um and if maybe you don't have a
well-lit place in your house you could buy um you know one of those
ring lights per for example they're very very cheap actually or you know you can just put a
lamp sort of behind the computer that kind of shines on you
and you can get a little bit of more light on your face that works really well also make sure
it's quiet you know i have two cats so i'm always in this room when i do my lives and i close the
door so that they don't come in and photobomb my live sessions so you know take
precautions like that also make sure that you test your skype connection
if you don't uh do skype frequently um you know maybe test it out with a
friend first you know to see how your skype connection is um also have earphones and a microphone
ready if you can it usually enhances the audio a lot
and will be highly appreciated by the interviewer also very important make sure that
you're online around 15 minutes before your interview starts you know what i like to do is just send
them a message maybe like 10 minutes before like hello um i'm online now i'm ready whenever you
are looking forward to talking with you soon um that usually you know creates a very
good impression um then also make sure that you dress
to impress you know you need to take it as a real in-person interview if you go to
it when you go to real in-person interview you also dress to impress maybe not like this obviously
but um you know you would dress up and that's what you also should do in a
skype interview same thing so make sure you have you know nice hair maybe put some
earrings in like i have now put on a shirt you know things like that also
um make sure you are wearing nice pants or you know a dress a skirt
whatever even though they can't see the bottom half of you they might ask for something you know oh
can we see like your tefl certificate or can we see this and that and you might have to get up and
get it and then they might see oh you're wearing like sweatpants or something like that so make sure you
dress completely um because that might you know not be so
great also non-verbal communication is very important as it is in a real in-person interview
as well so watch out for your body language you know don't do this one don't like start playing with your hair
that's what i do all the time or you know things like that have eye contact
uh just the same as you would in a real in-person interview and remember that you must communicate
well you must give you must give good answers because this is about a teaching job
so you need to make sure that you can speak english correctly and well you can articulate
well so that's where our questions come in
always make sure that you are prepared for the interview i think a lot of people they just don't
prepare for the interview and they just jump in and then they start rambling because you
get nervous and things like that so this is what this live session is about sort of a mini prep session for you
to get ready for a tefl interview all right let me know if there are any questions
about this checklist before i move on to the actual questions or if anybody would like to add
something to this checklist let me know i'm gonna have a
sip of tea meanwhile
you know there's always a delay um between me speaking and then it actually
going through to you about 20 seconds so i always give it a bit of time
for you guys to be able to respond um so there might be some awkward
little silence in between while i'm waiting um but i think this checklist is pretty
straightforward um a lot of those things are pretty obvious and pretty clear so there
shouldn't be an issue all right i guess i'm just moving on but
you know if you have any comments or questions at any time you can leave a comment and i'll get back to you
so let's get into the questions
question number one tell me a little bit about yourself
so this is 100 going to be asked um it is an icebreaker question
however you should really take your time and practice um this question before you do the
interview okay so um this question is about
you being positive and telling the interview about your good points what makes you a good teacher
and also why are you interested in moving abroad to teach you should cover that you can talk about previous travels
previous work experience or you can talk about your personality uh why your personality is good
makes a good teacher um and also some of your hobbies you know if you have an interesting
hobby that might set you apart from other applicants um also like i said
this is even though it's a pretty basic question you should practice this beforehand and
i know a lot of people don't do this they don't practice before because you know i'm just going to introduce
myself but since it's probably going to be like the first question they ask you
you might be nervous you know it's the beginning of the interview and then you might just not really know
what to say in the moment because you get nervous so what i recommend is writing this out before the interview
especially is self introduction because they ask they're gonna they're going to ask this 100
so write it out before the interview about a paragraph of self introduction and
then practice it you can practice it in front of a mirror or you know just some like key points but a lot of time
people go into the interview they get asked this question and then they get nervous they don't know what to say they start rambling and we just want to
avoid that because that's going to be one of the first questions and first impressions are key so you
have to nail this self-introduction right even though it is such a simple
question it's very very important
okay i think that makes sense too right all right yeah and juliana says i had a
video mock lesson interview for a tutoring job yes i'm actually going to talk about
that also in a little bit so a lot of times um the interviewer will ask you to hold a sort of mock lesson
during the interview um so i'm going to talk about that in a bit yeah that's also very very common for sure
okay then question number two what do you know about the country you
are moving to and why do you want to teach there so this question you want to research
about the country beforehand you probably already have some idea because you are choosing that country to
go abroad so there must be a reason why you're choosing that country so do some research about the country
what's the capital city you know um just some cities there some attractions there or maybe some a bit of
the history and things like that mention places that you're interested in seeing
but it's very important not to spend too much time talking about traveling yes
one of the reasons why we move abroad to teach is because we want to see a new country
we want to do traveling but as an employer you don't want to hear a teacher only talking about oh i want
to you know visit this place in that place and i want to travel the whole country you also want to make sure that this
teacher also cares about their job and puts as much energy
into the work that they do into their passion for traveling if that makes sense so um you know it's
important to stay professional and also talk about you know why you want to be a teacher
um yeah i'm pretty sure that also makes sense but that's very important because i
think a lot of people get like excited because they really want this job they really want to go abroad and then they
maybe only talk about what all the fun stuff that they want to do and they forget you know talking about
the job um because you always have to think about what's you know what the employer obviously
wants to hear so that is very important to keep in mind
let me know if i go too fast or if you have any comments any questions
let me know but yeah oh hold on yes juliana says explore a
new culture would be a good phrase absolutely yes so you want to
tell them you know oh yeah i read about this country in a book and they explained you know
the different traditions and cultures and i'm really intrigued and excited about that and i want to
experience a new culture that is completely different from my culture so that those are always good
phrases right exactly very good usually there's you know very specific
reason why people move to a certain country so for me i taught before coming to korea i taught
english in china because i actually studied chinese and i learned about the history and about the
culture so that was one reason so you could say something like that because you maybe
learned the language or you're interested in learning the language and things like that so that is
definitely a great answer good all right
question number three of the 15 most asked questions in a tefl interview
obviously they're going to ask about what kind of teaching experience you have
now if you have teaching experience great you're not going to have a lot of problems answering these
questions but if you do not have any teaching experience and you can prepare for this before you
know think about a time any kind of experience that you had with children or in a role where you taught
somebody something so this could be babysitting experience this could be summer camp experience or
any other kind of experience that you have had working with children or adults
so this could also be um you know volunteering at your church
or doing you know teaching children you you teach them how to play the flute or something like that or
even if you just had a baking class with your younger cousins anything
like that so all of that you know are plus points if you do not have any teaching
experience and typically every one of us has some sort of experience
like that and if you don't if you really really really don't then you might get behind that um
and get some sort of experience in that field because there's a lot of opportunities
you know in our communities to get some kind of teaching experience
um yeah or you could also talk about if you really don't have any teaching
experience you could talk about your learning experience maybe you had a very positive learning
experience you're like oh i had i was learning spanish and i had this really great spanish teacher
and he really inspired me i really liked his teaching method and then you would mention a
method that you particularly liked that he had that really inspired you to learn hard you study
hard to learn spanish so that could also be a good answer if you don't have any experience
yeah okay juliana says it's good you're going well with your presentation
oh thank you great okay moving on question number four
question number four have you ever lived abroad before or have you been exposed to different
cultures throughout tr through travel so this question is your interview your interviewer will
want to know that you're somewhat familiar with the ins and outs of moving through another country not only moving but
yeah like you can handle being in a different place that's
basically what they're trying to do uh juliano has another comment he's got
you've got to he says you've got to show them that beyond being a good teacher you're a
good person as well yes exactly that's a very good point
and daniel says i'm teaching creole in my country cool very good yes so that's you know
that's a great experience as well if you might not have experience in teaching english
but you might have experience in teaching something different right teaching your language or teaching a
musical instrument or teaching dance or yoga or painting or you you
know whatever it may be those are all teaching experiences of course so that's great
all right back to question four so they might ask have you ever lived abroad before or have you been exposed to
different cultures through travel so there you can talk about travel experiences
and how you sort of navigated that especially if you um
you know traveled somewhere by yourself that's a really really that would be a really great answer
you took the solo trip through south america for four weeks you know and
you picked up some spanish on the way but you had some problems you know navigating but you
overcame them and you learned so much and you know stuff like that so they
just want to make sure that if they hire you and you move abroad to their school that you're not gonna have a
total culture shock and leave after two weeks basically because hiring from abroad is very
expensive especially in countries where they provide free housing free airfare all of
those things so it costs them a lot of money to bring you over so they want to make sure that you
are able to adapt um to the country and you're able you're not just gonna go
you know get up and leave irma says you're giving light to my
dream of being an english teacher abroad thanks for the session hi good to see
you irma that's awesome all right walter says i'm not a teacher
but i used to work as an interpreter awesome that's definitely also great to
mention you know any kind of work experience you know it doesn't only have to be
tied to english teaching they want to know about any experience in particular of course you
wanted to be as close to english teaching is possible but being
an interpreter i think that's definitely a work experience that you should mention for sure irma says i forgot to greet
thailand no you're good you're good it's just great to see you
awesome because i like i always say i can't see who in particular is watching on the
streaming platform i can only see how many people are watching and obviously your comments but i can't
see if you're not writing a comment i can't see you watching right
so great so does anybody have a comment about this
question what would you answer of course if you've lived abroad you can you know
talk from that experience even if it's a different country of course but it shows that your adapt
your adaptability to living abroad moving abroad um also travel
even if you haven't traveled much you know you can still talk about a road trip that you took in your own country or
you know anything like that that's all those are all great great answers
so let me know about you how how you would answer this question
how would you answer this question hi afiya hi there thanks for tuning in hello
so when i moved to south korea and i had my interview with my school here i talked about
you know how i moved to china and i taught there and i navigated through life in china
and they could relate it's another asian country and so that was i think a positive
positive answer but yeah all right let me know how you would
answer it and i'm just gonna go to the next question but i'm just gonna pick up your comment
if anybody comments all right so question number five
now this is a long one so for example let's say you'd like to
order some food or buy train tickets but you don't speak the language yet
how would you tackle these tasks during your first months abroad i mean if you lived abroad before very
common scenario right so you might be able if for people who lived abroad this might be an easy
one to answer but basically this question with this question you need to be creative
and talk about how you might accomplish tasks in a different language and this shows the interviewer how
well you understand your potential students struggles right because they
are uh they have to deal with this during your classes
they are not native english speakers so they will have trouble um communicating in english
potentially depending on their level so the interviewer wants to make sure that you are able to
reflect and are able to imagine what your students are going through
so some of us might have an experience like that that they can talk about you
know and some of you might not so it's an interesting one
right i'm curious how some of you might answer this so let's read it again let's say you'd
like to order some food or buy some train tickets but you don't speak the language how would you tackle these tasks during
your first months abroad so maybe you would say okay i would write i would probably look it up in a
dictionary how to say it right in the language and then
try to practice it at home and then go out and um talk to them and then if they don't
understand i would probably show pictures that's what i would do
yeah it's an interesting question for sure and so take all of these you know as
a general guideline obviously they're they're probably not going to ask all of these questions during your
interview um you know but be ready
for these questions like i said in the beginning these are questions that i've received from a tefl
recruitment agency from a tefl recruiter they gave me the set of questions so
those are real questions that people get asked in tefl interviews so take all of these questions and you
want to prepare for your interview you want to have a paragraph
per like an answer a paragraph of an answer for every question and you need to
practice that before your interview because you don't want to wing an interview like that
all right we have some great answers here daniel says i will cook my own food
i love that that's awesome but i don't know if they would like this
answer though because you're not confront confronting your issue but it's great and ophea says i'll buy
one months worth of tickets at once and one month one month of food that's great
great guests but i don't know if those would be good answers they would probably uh you know they would they would laugh
about it like i do now but it's not tackling the issue you might want to think about that one
harder but yeah i know you're just kidding
all right fazon asks if i someone don't gave any don't ha it doesn't have any teaching
experience how do they make it out of that question well this question isn't about teaching
experience right so i think we all have probably have
some kind of situation um where we had a language barrier maybe
so even even like when you talk if you're if you haven't traveled abroad
maybe in your own country there were some issues um with someone traveling in your country
that you have that you could talk about some kind of language barrier situation or also okay
if you don't have an experience and they ask you a question and you just don't have an experience
you can just make something up okay you can invent something make up a story it doesn't have it's not
a lie detector test right so you can just make something up and you should
you know to nail this because most people can't just lie on the spot that's why you have to
prepare for your interview so you would take all of those questions that i mentioned and you have to write
an answer to it a paragraph three four sentences four or five whatever
and if you don't have an experience like that you need to invent one right so this takes some pre-planning
so that's why you want to why you want to prepare for the interview beforehand so you know they don't have a lie
detector they don't know you they don't know your life so um you can just make something up you know you can
google this there are a lot of answers great answers out there as well and you can just take one like that and
you know kind of don't take it word for word from google because then they might know you took it from
the internet so you need to put your own spin on it but you know if you really don't have an experience
like that then you know you can just make something up
irma says maybe google translate may help though sometimes it is not 100
accurate will that be fine sure sure it shows that you're you know quick
thinker but you also understand that google is not really like 100 accurate yes definitely
that would be a good answer too juliana says i helped my classmate order
food in france and taught her how to communicate with the waitress this would be a great answer it shows
that you know you are a teacher right a teacher at heart i guess you teach your friends
something so that's great that would be an excellent answer
okay fauzon says you might find it awkward but i don't lie in any possible way i totally understand totally i get it
you know and if you don't have an experience like that then you can just say oh i don't have an experience like that
but this is what i would do that also works you know
you can just be upfront and honest oh sorry i do not have an experience like that but here's what i would do if i was in this
situation and that's completely fine none of us have all the experiences in the world
right so juliana says i would say i'd go to a place where people speak
english and ask for some help okay okay that's also a good one
you might also maybe you might want to find an answer that shows
uh how you can handle a different situation what if there are no english speaking people that can help you
you know so but yeah it's a good answer
sure you're welcome fawzon honesty is always great of course of
course i don't condone lying that's not what i'm saying
all right okay then let's move on to question number six
what do you hope to learn from your year of teaching abroad so this is also a very
very common question and you need to base your answer on your motivation to teach okay do not use this question as
an opportunity to talk about traveling to other places or learning the local language
okay i actually have to disagree with the learning the local language part
i think that's pretty okay to say because you know that shows um that shows your
willingness to learn so i think that's actually a good answer but yes do not use this question
to just talk about traveling oh i want to see this i want to see that i want to climb that mountain i want to go to that
beach you know no take this you can say that of course you want to
make a well-rounded answer so you can talk about a little bit of traveling you know oh i
want to go to you know this national park is very high on my list i would really love to see that
and i'm planning on you know learning the local language i have a plan to take this
language proficiency test perhaps after a year and reach this in this level and i also
would really like to fine-tune my teaching skills there are still a few things that i would really
like to work on and i would like to take this opportunity to learn from all the other
teachers here and maybe add some new teaching skill to my
skill set something like this so you want to focus on the teaching part your
self-development part and i think language learning is definitely part of that so you can definitely say that
i hope this helps let me know what you think but yeah
question number seven so they might ask you what is your favorite age
range to teach and why and so with this one you really need to
basically look at the job description of the job that you're applying to
and then answer accordingly so if the job said the job description says teaching
kindergartners then it would be kind of weird to answer oh i love teaching adults
because they're like well this is a kindergarten position so base your answer on that um
and if you're if you're open to teaching all ages it's great to say all ages but maybe
still then you would kind of narrow it down it's a little bit too broad to say all
ages you could say like i love teaching students of all ages but
but i particularly love teaching younger children um things like that so
yeah always base your answer on the job description that's a really good um
thing to keep in mind so if the job description says teaching students aged
6 to 10 then you would say children and that's probably why you're applying for
this job anyway in most cases so if you really want to teach kids why would you apply for a job
teaching in a university that doesn't make much sense anyway so typically
no problem with this question but then also elaborate you want to say why you like working
with this particular age group so don't just say yeah i love teaching kids
and then they're probably going to be like yeah why so elaborate why you enjoy working with
children why you enjoy working with adults or why you like
you know teaching students of all ages so you want to elaborate your answer
always elaborate your answers if you just answer yes or no or a very very short answer it's just
not gonna go over well so and daniel has a really good answer
here the kindergartners are learning well okay so are adult students not learning
well but i know what you mean they're very i
taught kindergarteners as well they're they're very easy to excite to learn
to motivate to learn um you know a reward system works very well on them
so you give them a sticker and they're like oh yeah let me do this other page too so um yeah you could maybe say something
like that that's a good answer great question number eight
what would you say are the most important qualities in an eslt an esl teacher needs to have good
question some good answers would be the following that i've listed so good communication skills with a
clear and concise voice time management skills in class
creativity and a passion for working with young learners or adults patience for new language learners and a
sense of humor and ideally especially the first part good communication skills with a clear
and concise voice you want to portray that during
your interview that you are all of those things right so
during an interview you're most likely or some most of the time at least in my experience you're
interviewing with also a non-native english speaker most likely some kind of manager from
your school who are most likely not going to be english native speakers so you want to adjust your voice also to
them so that's a really good um way to do your interview
to sort of talk in the teacher voice very concise very clear
because that's what they need for their students
all right juliana says it's a kind of question that you have to answer what they want to hear yes
that is true that is true but i mean i think we can all agree that those these traits make a good
teacher correct so also time management skills in class so that's why you want to show
up on time for the interview be online 10 minutes 15 minutes early
have maybe you know have your your resume in front of you have your like me i have
it here my tefl certificates in front of you you can have it all in front of you or
your interview notes always have a pen and the notebook ready to take notes and things like that that shows
also your organization skills all of those things
make them laugh that shows your sense of humor all of those things
all right moving on question number nine what is your greatest strength as a
teacher what can your new school expect of you so for this question your school they
will want to know what you excel at or what you think you do best
and this answer really depends on everybody individually so
you know if you lived abroad if you learned a foreign language you can draw from that experience and
can say yeah because i learned you know spanish for for five years
so i know exactly what it's like to learn a new language and that's why i will i understand
i'll be able to understand my students very well and will be able to teach them well
or yeah i've lived abroad in um spain for three years so i'm very
adaptable i know how to adjust to a new culture uh things like that and you can also of
course talk about your tefl course yeah i've completed three different tefl
courses so i know exactly what kind of teaching
skills to use in what situation i know how to plan my lessons very well you can
draw on your own teaching experience yeah i've been teaching online for two years and it's been great
i had a lot of students that were able to pass their toeic exam or pass their
ielts exam you know show something off put something on the plate for them
for this question all right juliana says i always do that
during my interview that's awesome perfect great so this answer you know you you should
really think about this before the interview all of those questions like i said don't go in the interview unprepared um i know i
keep saying that but that's very important so really sit down and think about your answers
write them down and you can also show them to a friend you know or ask your friend to ask you
the questions and then you answer and then give you feedback or your parents
or anybody you know um so that's a good way of practicing and preparing for your
interview and you know it's it's not you you don't have to prepare for
every tefl interview individually right because they're all going to ask similar
things for teaching jobs abroad so you just do your tefl interview prep
and then you can do all kinds of different interviews right so
yeah i hope i'm making sense i feel like i'm starting to ramble again
okay question number 10 how would you describe your teaching
style and actually i have never gotten asked this question before um
but i also haven't interviewed at too many schools um because typically yeah typically they
will kind of have their own teaching style in-house so a lot of times you would get
training from you know other teachers in the school to that
to fit that teaching style but yeah they might ask that and if they ask that you should review
the advertisement for the job and focus on the qualities mentioned in the job description or
do some research about the school most of the time you are able to reach
out to current to teachers currently teaching at the school so you could ask them what the teaching style of the school is
or you can just talk about your own personal teaching style what you believe in
maybe a good answer would be yeah i don't like to focus on you know too much on textbook only i
like to have a variety of different materials also using a lot of new technology
i like to use virtual interactive white boards but i also like
using flashcards but then i also like to use a lot of authentic materials like newspaper
articles and also songs so like you could mention something like that
and i think that would be really impressive if you have an idea if you have any i feel like any clear
idea that you have about your teaching style would um definitely be a good answer
even if you don't have any teaching experience yet you can still say yeah i took my tefl course and they
presented a range of different teaching styles and i really resonate with this one in particular
because and so on and so forth
all right question number eleven how would you go about teaching a
specific lesson to a group of young learners so this is where the mini mock
lesson comes in most of the time they would tell you in advance if they want you to teach a mock lesson
they might also sometimes have you record it um
and if if um they ask you to record it it would be important not to edit it too much
so not cut it usually that's a requirement if you have to do a mock lesson um
before the interview and then send it in do not cut the video file because
they might wonder well what happened like she can't you can't hold a whole lesson
uncut or like you know what happened during the cuts it might be kind of strange it doesn't
flow so do not cut it and if they ask you to hold a mock lesson
during the interview you have to obviously prepare that in advance and know what you're doing
so prepared in advance so that you can and one ideally that you can adapt on the spot
in your interview that would be really important and um this is also something that our lifetime
job support includes so we offer a lot of help with this
specific situation mock lessons so it's not my department not what i do
but my colleagues the admins the post course support team
you can email them and they will help you create mini lessons for your interview
so that's also the great thing about itttt and our tefl courses that you have that
lifetime job support that includes help with your resume
also something like this interview prep um and you know this help with many
lessons um that you might have to teach during your interview
okay question number 12 how do you maintain
discipline and control in your classroom how do you handle kids with behavioral issues and i think this is a very common
question in interviews i got asked that before and here you also want to draw on your
ex experience and explain effective ways that you've used for classroom management in the
past so how you've handled different situations from your previous teaching
experience and if you do not have any teaching experience you can talk about your
lesson planning skills and how they are designed to keep the students busy
engaged and focused on the lesson that is a really good answer for people who
don't have any teaching experience i would write that down right there
if you don't have any teaching experience and they ask you this question you can talk about your lesson planning skills that you've
learned during your tefl certification course and how the lesson planning
how your lesson plans are designed to keep students busy engaged and focused on the lesson this
is i think a really great answer if you don't have an example and also i mean you can again just
invent a situation that you've had before and say that that's also good
yeah but i mean yeah if you never taught before then and you suddenly have a teaching
experience then of course that that would be awkward so um yeah
but even if you can't think of one you you have been a teacher but you can't really think of one
um you can do that invent a situation from or you know you can combine
previous events into one situation things like that
all right hello heck matula nice to see you again he
says hi teacher good morning i remember you yeah eggmatella
i hope i'm saying that right it's a really great name i love his name good to see you we are talking about the
most commonly asked tefl interview questions today 15 questions we're already at number 12
but you can always watch the replay so don't worry about that all right
let's move on to question number 13. question is how do you deal with kids
that learn at different rates to other students in class so this is also i think a very very
commonly asked question some uh schools you know they will group
their students not according to level but according to their age
so you might end up teaching um students of different levels
and then the question is how would you deal with that so a good answer would be this is sort of like a textbook
answer but it works would be matching students with poor english
speaking abilities or poor english skills in general with a student who is more advanced so
always match a weaker student with a stronger students they can work together the stronger
student can sort of mentor the weaker student the weaker student can learn from the
stronger student that makes if that makes sense i mean that makes sense
so that would be a good answer for this question
or if you have a specific experience of course from your past teaching experience then you can also
say that of course and question number 14 how proficient
are you with technology in your classroom um so you can mention using hardware
such as tablets and computers or specific software apps i know especially in the
past year i think all of us have become very very proficient with the use of
technology in our classes you know apps and online education sites or
online teaching platforms online tools especially if you've seen
my colleague lisa's live sessions she actually talks a lot about this kind of stuff
she's been teaching online for a while and she uses a lot of great online resources
so um yeah i think all of us can definitely say something about this
me included i recently started teaching online and i've used a couple of really great
apps and online teaching interactive boards or like online education sites
so there's so much out there i'm sure this would be very easy to answer but even in the classroom um
you know i i sometimes use my ipad for with flashcards it's not only
um really easy obviously to prepare but it also you know saves paper and
is better for the environment so that's also a good answer to say
all right and final question question number 15 do you have any questions
okay for here the worst thing you can do to this question question is to say
no i don't have any questions okay never say no i don't have any questions
you should have a couple of questions ready written down in your interview prep on your paper in
front of you you know anything from how many foreign teachers are currently working at your
school what does a typical teaching day look like at your school um what is your well you should probably
know that what is your school's mission and motto um you know
what is perhaps you could ask what what's the neighborhood like where your
school is located um
any any question like that just don't say no i don't have any question
what would be other good questions to ask at the end of a of a tefl job interview please let me
know what you would ask at the end if they say oh do you have any questions
what would you say my voice what would you say when they asked do
you have any questions for us you should be like yes and then
let me know type it into the comments right now what would be a good question
for to ask as an interviewee to the interviewer in a tefl
uh interview i already gave you a few examples but i would like to know i would like to
hear some more some more good answers what would you say
i'm not signing off until i hear some good questions
let me know please let me know
i'm waiting i am waiting
good foul's on great i would say have you ever had an algerian teacher
before then other questions will come based on their answer that is also that's a really good
question yeah yeah good i like that
have you ever had an algerian teacher before have you ever had a german teacher before
have you ever had a teacher from haiti before yeah really really good nice
moses what are some of the professional development development opportunities available at
your school yes that's a great one that is really
great because that shows you're eager to learn you're eager to improve you're eager to move up
self-development perfect that's great very very good nice job good
excellent what else we're getting some good stuff here i feel like you don't even need my sessions
you're already pros over here that's awesome even better than the
questions that i came up with excellent excellent
i want to hear some more i want to hear some more now i'm intrigued you're all really great
more from moses i love it what are some of the challenges foreign teachers face at your school
okay yeah uh-huh great okay sure
or you could also say what are some benefits for foreign teachers to come to your school
what what makes your school so great right danielle i would say
you never have a black teacher or teach to teach for your students yeah have you
ever had a black teacher at your school before sure that's a good question yes same
with like the algerian yes i like that that's great juliana
says i think the great question would be about their specific teaching style and their expectation
for their students learning english yes that's also really good yes you could ask them
what's your teaching style at the school
uh i have to laugh at that boson i might say have you ever met
linda she's really fun uh you're really fun
just kidding no i like it i like it you're fun yes okay some good answers
here awesome all right we are one hour and seven minutes in
guys that's amazing so official q a but you already got some
really good answers for me and questions um let me post
the 30 off link into the comment section one more time i just put it down looks like this
you can click on it it will lead you straight to the application page of our courses
but you can also first you know check out the website in general and then just go back to this link when
you apply to make sure you get 30 off and you can also scan the qr codes
here for 30 off i know that since all of covet qr codes
are everywhere now so maybe um because it took me a while
to figure out qr codes i never knew you could just scan it with like the phone camera somebody showed me
that a few months ago but um i was like what i didn't know you could do that
that's awesome so either scan the qr code or
use um the link everything is fine 30 off and then
uh before i sign off do you have any questions okay fauzon what will happen if someone
doesn't reach the 75 percent as a total so in the tefl course to pass your tefl
course yeah um it's very rare i have to say not a lot of people don't pass um
but you will be able to extend it for a small fee and then you can retake um
either you can retake you can retake the whole course i
believe yes so there's always option options it's not the end
but really it's quite rare for people not to pass don't worry about it you seem like you
can handle it you know how many units are you in did you complete a lot of units yeah
all right i'm going to make myself bigger again hi hello here i am
um yeah so if there are any more questions i'd be
happy to answer them if not i will be signing off been here
now an hour and almost 10 minutes um thanks so much for everyone sticking uh
staying here until the end it's awesome
so awesome it's fun to be here every week you know and seeing familiar faces new faces answering you
guys questions all right moses has a question one quick question since you are
teaching in korea i think this is appropriate an appropriate question to ask you okay
i see that itt has an in-class course in korea if i sign up for the in-class course does
that increase my opportunity for being placed in a school in korea mind you i am a non-native okay
um yes we do have an in-class course in korea it's pretty new um it's super exciting it's going to
depend on your nationality for korea they are sort of strict um
so you might or you might not so it's going to depend on your nationality i forget where you are from i know you
said that before but i i'm sorry i forgot um so typically in south korea you would get a
e2 visa i feel like a small little space here anyway um english teachers get an e-2 visa
this visa is only issued to people from uh seven
english-speaking countries okay great you're from india perfect in that case so it's seven
english-speaking countries canada us um uk ireland south africa
new zealand and australia but there is a special uh thing for indians in particular
so if you're from india and this is i think particularly for the epic
program and i think you've heard about it i did some live sessions about this program before
so go to the epic program website and they have a
disclaimer specifically for indian nationals if you fulfill all of the requirements
and you have a teacher license from india then you also qualify
so you should look into that for indian nationals it's possible so
check that out okay irma i want to ask do you think a
working experience in customer service will be a good plus yeah of course customer service yes
any kind of uh experience working with people absolutely absolutely
absolutely yeah daniel says what's your nationality linda
i am both german and american i have two passports
i actually had to renew my german passport was a bit of a hassle but i made it and yeah i am
a dual citizen and i have a korean
uh id card i don't have a korean passport and i don't need one either all right
brett says i'm registered for a course this summer and really excited about it how many days in advance do you
suggest arriving before the start of the course i'm from the u.s by the way okay which
course is it where is it the korean one it's totally up to you as long as you show up on the first
day of the in-class course you're good i mean depends you know if you want to do some travel traveling before
your course you can arrive earlier or you can stay longer it's totally up to
you but which course are you taking curious that's exciting
good for you love that
oh rome nice well you know you could uh travel before the
course and then take the course four weeks right you're taking the four week course so you could arrive
early check out some other places in italy and then go to rome spend four weeks there or the other way
around also depends on your budget um you know so
that's awesome i have you ever been to rome i've been to rome me and my husband we
went to rome i think it was yeah 2019 for like three days it was amazing yeah it was great
yes four weeks okay yeah so you know depends on your budget
you can extend your trip
however you like i i would recommend it you know it depends how much time you have off and your budget but yeah
totally stay as long as you want as long as you can
daniel says do you have a plan for haiti like a plan to visit haiti
i would love to visit haiti i've seen pictures it's beautiful it's just i live in korea so it's super super far
to get there um but yes i would love to go if i could stay at your house you know
that would be great okay moses is asking into our group
anyone currently talking tefl here looking for a study partner i'm interested feel free to leave a
private message cool tefl study partner that's awesome
yeah hook up with moses and study tefl together that's amazing
cool cool cool okay well um i hope that this session was helpful
um and you learned a couple of things here and there and you can always watch excuse me
watch the replay of course and don't again don't forget to like and
subscribe so you never miss any of our other future lives uh
live sessions and yes brett brett says i've heard wonderful things
about korea yeah korea is great i have a lot of american friends here
um very popular you can earn a very good salary you can live really well here it's a fun
place um definitely check it out come over it's cool you could teach in
italy first and then come over to korea yeah everything with a tefl the world is your
oyster basically great don't forget to take advantage of
the discount if you are yet to take a course and um i see
you guys hopefully next week i'll be here um i would love for you guys to be here too
um and yeah thanks so much for tuning in i hope to see you all again
and again moses is looking for a tefl study partner uh send him a message that'd be great
and yeah i hope you guys have a good night a good day anything oh yeah and juliana says happy
lantern festival i totally forgot about that happy lantern festival actually funny a memory and this is one
of my favorite favorite moments i think ever
i when i lived in china i actually traveled during chinese new year and i didn't even know
it was the lantern festival but i flew to shanghai
and the arrival time was like at night it was already dark and so lantern festival is the last day
of chinese new year correct um and you typically light fireworks that day right
and so i am arriving in shanghai at the airport and we're already sort of descending and
that's when all the fireworks went off it was amazing i was in the airplane
and you could see all the fireworks all over the city on um
the lantern festival day it was amazing a once-in-a-lifetime experience i think and like totally not
planned did not know about it but it was amazing that view seeing all the fireworks over the city
and you're watching this from above from the airplane was great i just remembered that that just blew my
mind that was one of my favorite moments ever so and i didn't
have like a pho they had a phone but like i didn't record it or anything so it's just like
in my mind forever in my mind just one of those memories and those are
the best memories right some of the best memories you just don't have any pictures or videos from and
that's okay you know anyway guys um i'm rambling um
i'm signing off now for real um and i'll see you guys next week and i
wish you an amazing weekend um and stay safe out there
and see you next time thanks so much bye bye signing off
