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TEFL and Spanish in Buenos Aires
In coming to Buenos Aires it was important to me to both learn Spanish and pick up some job skills for my future travel and career. For this the option of one month studying Spanish plus the TEFL course offered by Elebaires was an excellent option for me.
I arrived in Buenos Aires and was picked up from the airport and taken directly to the student residence in San Telmo. The residence is very near all the attractions of San Telmo and the facility itself is beautiful with garden, study room and internet access.
A month of Spanish course really allowed me to get to the level where I could communicate confidently with the locals. The teachers where very helpful in explaining the some of the tricks to understanding the local way of speaking Spanish. The class was a good balance of speak, reading and writing without ignoring the grammar basis required for learning a language properly.
In the TEFL course we had a great grounding in the theory of teaching English. After this we had to give demonstration lessons. This was a little scary at first but we were well prepared by the supportive tutors. This practical activity set me in good stead for teaching in Buenos Aires.
I quickly found some classes through some local institutes recommended to me by the TEFL instructors. I found Argentine students to be a pleasure to teach, they mainly already had an intermediate level of English and were very keen to speak. This meant that my main job was to correct them and work on some more advanced grammar structures. I really enjoyed the experience and made some lasting friends.