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May 12, 2005
Dear TEFL Grads,
Well, it's springtime at last in Boston. Despite the prediction of freezing
temperatures tonight, the weather is indeed warming up and, after a
tepid beginning, the Red Sox are heating up. Or maybe it's just my faith
in them that remains warm. You may remember that it was on this page
last spring that I predicted that the Red Sox would win the World Series
in 2004. ("Faith, the evidence of things unseen…")
Speaking of evidence, at least anecdotal evidence of the growing renown
of our TEFL Certificate Program, of which each of you remains a part,
continues to grow. In March, on a trip to New York to see Fiddler on
the Roof, my wife Siri Devta and I had a delightful dinner with Bertram
Grant, who taught ESL at the Institute for eighteen months, serving
briefly as a TEFL trainer, and is now based in New York. Bertram told
us of a conversation he had had with some other ESL instructors in New
York where a couple of them suddenly brought up The Boston Language
Institute's TEFL Certificate Program, saying how good it was. ("Have
you ever heard of it?" they asked Bertram.)
In another instance, Jonathan Shank, currently in the spring part-time TEFL program, was finishing his stint in the Peace Corps in Kazakhstan last year when he, too, was in conversation with other ESL instructors. Upon mentioning his desire to enroll in a TEFL certificate program after returning home, he was told, "If you're from Boston, you should go to The Boston Language Institute."
Myrna Norris, assisted by Catherine Rogerson, is leading a team of five trainers, all graduates of our program, in delivering and constantly fine tuning our curriculum. They and all of you have much to be proud of.
We hope to hear from each of you in the months ahead. May God bless you all.
Siri Karm Singh Khalsa
President
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The Photo Award for this month's newsletter goes to Suzie
Sims Fletcher (November, 2002), who has just returned
from China, where she was teaching at a university.
The recipients of the award receive a $50 gift certificate to the Boston Language Institute online Bookstore.
Click here to view
Suzie's photos.
To read her China journal and to see more pictures click here.
You can submit your photos for consideration
in our next Photo Contest by e-mailing
them here.
Suzie Sims Fletcher
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On Wednesday, January 28, 2005, TEFL graduate Hannah
Treworgy (August 2003) participated in the current TEFL
program's career workshop. She spoke to TEFL trainees about the
year she spent teaching English in Incheon, Korea. She obtained
her teaching position at an English academy and kindergarten through
a recruiter she found on Dave's ESL Cafe. She told the class that
she had received many offers, but chose this school because they
had been in business for 8 years (very important in Korea) and
because the recruiter agreed to put her in touch with a western
teacher at the school who freely gave her lots of specific answers
to her questions. She said that everything in contracts is negotiable,
and that it is important to be firm and know what your own limits
are in terms of working conditions and compensation. Hannah told
trainees that after her initial culture shock, she soon built
a strong network of Korean and western friends and had an unforgettable
cultural experience. She added that trainees will find their TEFL
certificate to be a "huge bonus" in their future ESL careers.
Hannah Treworgy
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