Ally Jones | WYGU

Ally Jones (32)

What did you want to be when you grew up?

An archaeologist.

What’s your dream in career terms?

Something where I can travel, speak lots of languages and get to meet loads of interesting people.

What’s your reality (what are you doing now)?

Teaching English in Lausanne, Switzerland.

How did you get into it?

I wanted to travel around Europe but I didn’t want to live and work in UK. Russia seemed really interesting for me but didn’t know any Russian so I it wouldn’t have been possible for me to stay there and really experience the culture...then I went to a seminar in Melbourne about TESOL. Did the course a year or two later and then flew out a few months later.

How long have you been doing it?

About 4 years now.

How do you feel on a Monday morning?

Happy that I don’t have to get up early!

What does a typical day involve?

Going to school, planning, teaching, going to another school and planning, teaching and then going in to a company and teaching.

What's the best part of the job?

Meeting people, helping people and learning new things.

What's the worst part of the job?

At the moment it’s spending a lot of time travelling from place to place but it varies really.

What 3 personal attributes do you think are most important for this job?

You need to be very personable I think. If you’re likeable generally you’ll have great students and great classes where you can have a lot of fun. A good sense of humour is definitely not essential but I think it helps break up the monotony of study and keeps students motivated and retains a great classroom atmosphere for everyone. You also need to be creative. If you come to class and do things the same way every time, all the time, you’ll get bored and so will your students, and this is not a productive environment.

What do you see yourself doing in 10 years time?

Working with some amazing people, having travelled to a lot of new places and being a lot more knowledgeable.

How has the job or industry changed since you began?

There have been some great books which have been released over the years to help learners and teachers. But the biggest thing for me I think is the new interactive whiteboards which are revolutionary. Going further back before I started teaching I guess all forms of technology have changed things a huge amount.