Jon George, originally from San Francisco, U.S.A., is our recent TEFL grad from the course in August 2012, has found a special niche for himself in Madrid. His ‘Madrid’ story begins with his desire to create an adventure.
After college the traditional 9 to 5 schedule was of little interest to him, he valued his youth and thought the better step after college was to create an adventure that would be more valuable than an entry level job. With his sights set on teaching abroad, he searched for a teaching programs. With a friends recommendation he decided to look into TtMadrid. In his own words, when he looked into TtMadrid, “I immediately saw that this was a high quality program, and I was not disappointed when I took the course. During and after the course, it was easy to see why Tt has such a great reputation. Also, Tt has been very helpful with life outside of teaching. They helped me get my legal documents and the staff is always knowledgeable about any questions someone may have.”
He does admit the month course was intense, very intense, he enjoyed getting to know the staff and becoming part of the ‘Tt’ family. When asked what one word he would use to describe John, the Director of Studies, he said, “Boss. In every positive aspect of the word”. John, has been the DOS for TtMadrid since August 2010 leads 10 four-week courses a year and does each one with a large lively personality and with the mission to get every trainee through the course successfully. We even went as far to ask Jon “If you could have any job at TtMadrid what would it be?” He decided that he would like to play any role in the office because, “Any role would be a lot of fun. You get to interact with the students and the staff seems like a small family…but Natasha’s job would be best!” Natasha is the Director/Owner of TtMadrid.
As far as teaching life goes, he hit the ground running after TtMadrid. He’s found that he prefers working with adults even though kids are ‘fun’. “I prefer teaching adults, which is what TtMadrid prepared me for. The kids are fun, but there is a lot more classroom management involved. The adults want to be in class and want to learn English. It is also easier to talk to them because they know more about life in general.” He has also discovered that it’s not only kids who say the darndest things. Once one of his students was trying to explain, in the context of his story, that his friend’s engine ‘blew up’, instead he said the engine ‘farted’!
Jon LOVES living in Spain and especially Madrid. According to him, the city has a lot to offer in terms of nightlife, new experiences, and job opportunities. He loves to go out with friends especially in the Malasaña area, which is known to be very trendy and packed with many shops and bars. In fact that’s probably where you’ll find him a year from now as he plans to continue teaching and living here.
“Teaching is a really fun job. You have the liberty to choose what hours you want to teach, what kind of classes you want to teach, and, you’re helping people. TtMadrid provides you with a great background not only to teach, but to meet new people and have a great time in Madrid.”
WRITTEN BY: MONICA BIXBY
