Job Discussion Forums

[Alan13446]

Hey gang...

Been following your posts and comments for a long time....seems everytime I want to take the plunge, life got in the way, and while I dealt with it, I got older.

So now, 53 this year, still wanting to do the ESL teaching thing in Turkey...born there (not a citizen) to mixed parents, left to Germany when 7, then US, then Canada, these days I write technical documents and training resources for high tech companies. Teaching/training experience, in a corporate and manufacturing envorinment, I have. Takes nothing to get TESL certification through Oxford at the local university.
I look 100% western as well, and somehow have retained enough Turkish to be able to make my way during holidays there...amazing how it all comes back.

Soooooooooooo, the question is, asking you fine experienced people, am I too old to be considered by the local schools? My thought was to somehow become affiliated with large Turkish corporations, such as the Sabanci group, to teach their engineers and managers proper technical english....the "Turklish" I see on their web sites makes me cringe, as poor grammar and spelling will impact how a turkish company is perceived by western companies.

Don't even get me started on touristic sites...go up the Galata Tower and read the wall mural on the history of the tower....

Military needs english teachers...Ministry of Education needs school teachers to teach english....do they hire "ESL Teachers" such as your selves? Or is it primarily private schools?

I also have an 18 year old son who has visited Turkey a couple of times and loves the food, gazoz and cats everywhere, blonde blue eyes like his dad...while chatting, I said, "I can teach the engineers and you can teach their grade 1 kids"...he's willing...thoughts?

Newbies gotta start somewhere, right?

[coffeespoonman]

Nah, man, you're fine. Might take you a bit to get into the corporate training circuit, but you're certainly not too old to find work. Get a CELTA or the equivalent, show up here and start networking; do some work for a language school or two part-time just to get some pocket money/experience. You'll find that for a motivated person, it's surprisingly simple.