For the last two days we have been at Playa Kamala, a small beach resort on the Pacific coast. We are two days into a five week intensive Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA). The course is run by the Ecuadorian company Southern Cross, but the qualification is accredited by Cambridge University. Once passed, this will allow us to consider jobs as English teachers, worldwide. So far the course hasn't been too stressful, this evening we did our first actual live teaching to Ecuadorian students. Seemed to go OK, but they were just 20 minute lessons.
The course is residential, based on a formally run-down hippy beach resort, near the hippy-hedonist town of Montañita. It is a job in itself trying to study and work, while virtually living on a beach. The roar of the pacific ocean is ever present, even when in bed. There are no shops, but there are scorpions and geckos around and there is at least one boa constrictor in the near-by mangroves. The cabinas are not at all air tight, so being indoors feels just like being out on the beach, but we'll get used to it. Either that or we will kill a pig and start bickering over a conch shell.
About Me
- Graham
- I am a British academic who teaches and researches internationally. I have a PhD in Psychology from University College London and I'm an honorary research fellow of the University of Sheffield. During 2012-2013 I taught Psychology and conducted research at Chuo University in Tokyo. However, I am now based in Quito, Ecuador, where I am a professor of psychology at Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
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