Why I Became an English Teacher

My first job as a teacher with students from Vigo

My first experience of teaching English was in 2004, when working in Dublin for the Geological Survey of Ireland on a temporary 7 month contract - which changed my life for the better in so many ways and which I can't describe here.

Before I left the UK, I made arrangements to live in a student apartment block that was just being finished. Knowing that it would not be completed before I arrived in Ireland, I booked into a nearby B&B and spent my first few days walking to and from work.  

When the day came to move into the apartment, I didn’t really know what to expect. Wandering around what I thought was a completely empty apartment block, I went into one of the communal living/dining areas and came across Jason and one of his mates, both from Dublin, watching TV and sharing a spliff. I am not sure who was more surprised – me or them – as none of us had expected to find anyone else there in the building.

With our introductions made, I learned that, somewhere, I would also find Graham from Co. Cork and Lina from Lithuania – a university student who was employed to do the cleaning. Over the course of the next three months, we became really good friends

What nobody had told me about, however, was that we would not be the only occupants of the building and, much to my surprise, there was a sudden influx of students from Europe who had come to learn English at Trinity College and who would be staying between 2–8 weeks during the rest of the summer.

Although mainly Spanish and Italians, there were also Poles, Croatians, Swiss and even a very strange Russian couple, who caused a great consternation with a dry powder fire extinguisher one night in protest at one of our many parties, when just about everyone else in the apartment block could be found talking English, laughing and having great fun.

Perhaps it was just because I was keen to interact with them or, the Irishmen excepted, the only native English speaker, but they soon began to look upon me as their confidante, asking me all sorts of questions about the practicalities of living in Dublin.

Before long, they all started coming home from their lessons and began to ask me about various aspects of English grammar, verb tenses etc. that - even as a well educated person - I simply could not answer. Undeterred, throughout the rest of the summer I tried to help my new friends as much as I possibly could - and I can honestly say this was the best time that I have had in my life.