Egyptian girl getting TEFLED in Barcelona

Amy Wahba graduated in the Trinity CertTESOL in Barcelona in July 2016. In this blog post she explains how she came to study with us and what she loves about Barcelona life.

My name is Amy. In Cairo I was an Egyptian English kindergarten teacher. I have always loved teaching career because it is very rewarding and it makes you feel GREAT about yourself. One of its great benefits, is that it helps you travel. Teachers are needed everywhere in the world and in some countries they specifically need English Teachers. Basically you get to live, travel and work in a foreign country. Who would not want that?

That’s why I decided to take the Trinity CertTESOL course (‘the TEFL course’). With a great amount of research I found Oxford TEFL in Barcelona providing this course .So, I decided to quit my job and apply for the Trinity CertTESOL + the Developing Teacher course with Spanish classes. I did this because I wanted to come to Spain for an entire year, gain the international work experience and learn a new language that can be added to my resume. I came on a long-term student visa in order for me to stay in Spain for a year and the visa service provided by Oxford TEFL. 

If you are planning to stay for more than 3 months in Spain and you are form a country which is not within the EU, one person you will definitely get in contact with a lot is Regina, the visa support officer and career adviser. Before going to the embassy, Regina went with me through what the embassy will need and also sent by mail an acceptance letter that included my name and the type of course I was going to do in Barcelona. With her help everything went smoothly. Three weeks after my Trinity CertTESOL interview, I had gotten my visa and was ready to fly to Barcelona!

I started the Trinity CertTESOL course on the 4^th of July 2016, and got my certification on 30^th of July. I can’t even begin to explain how fantastic it was as it provided me with the skills necessary to become a successful teacher and gave me a network of teachers who I trained with. As a kindergarten teacher I rarely used grammar with 5 year olds so I have forgotten a lot of the grammar that was revisited in the course. You get to learn stuff you never knew before. After all, who really knows their past perfect continuous from their present perfect? You really get to learn how to teach English as a foreign language.

During the course you may not have enough time to explore the city you are in. However, you will make great friends who you will explore the city with once you are done with the course not to mention the laughs you will have during the course.

Barcelona is such a great city because it’s almost never boring. I love how friendly everyone is around here. There are a lot of expats living here so Catalan and Spanish people are used to foreigners everywhere. That means that you won’t have hard time to communicate if you don’t speak Spanish. Another plus is the beach where I go every weekend or every other day to recharge my batteries and get my ‘”om” factor on. I enjoy the architecture of this city as well; brilliant, awe-inspiring cathedrals with magnificent contemporary buildings that you will never stop staring at.  Barcelona is not a big city so everywhere is pretty reachable by metro which I am enjoying so much as I have friends in different neighborhoods and it is never hard to meet up with them to go for tapas. Have you ever heard of paella? It’s a typical Spanish meal made of rice and seafood that is the cream of the crop as it is SO yummy and SO filling.

Now, since I am done with the course, Regina has sent my resume out to all the schools they are in contact with in the area and I’m sure soon enough I will land a job. I am so excited for what the future holds for me now that I have gained this experience in Barcelona!

Would you like to study or live in Barcelona? Get qualified to teach English in only 4-weeks with our Trinity CertTESOL course and take advantage of our visa support (non-EUs) and free lifelong careers service. For more information visit this page, get in touch or apply here.