(upbeat music)
- Good morning, everybody.
My name is Mary, and I'm gonna be doing
the Takeover today from Budapest, Hungary.
It is just about 7:30 here.
So we're about to get started,
and I'm looking forward to telling you
about what I do in my day.
Okay, just a little bit of background info
about me, I am from the States, so I'm from Michigan,
and I, before this, I was an accountant,
and I actually had my degree in theater,
so I acted professionally as well
I did the online TEFL certification, which was great,
because it allowed me to work full time
and really be able to save up the money, which was
really important for me.
And actually, before this, in 2018
I was teaching in China, I taught at a university,
and I also taught some business English classes there
as well, so we won't really be talking
about that here, but if you have any
questions about that kind of thing, you can
find me at my personal page, which is
@MDILLWEED, and you can ask me
any questions about that there.
So just to tell you a little bit about my job,
I actually teach at an after school program,
which means that I do not work until one,
and then I work until five two days a week
in the mornings, I do go into the kindergartens that are
in our program, which is what I'll be doing today.
And I found my position through CETP, which is
the Central European Teaching Program.
I found them through ITA's links and websites,
and I'll explain a little bit more later
about why I chose this program, why I chose Hungary,
and all of that, but now I have to get going,
so I can start my day.
Talk to you later!
Okay, so we're done with the kindergarten,
and I'm now at the school, and we have about an hour
to prep, or eat, whatever I need to do, and then
we're about to go into the staff room
and see all the other English teachers.
Okay, here we are, hi guys!
- Hi. - Hey.
- Hi!
- [Mary] Hi, so, that's Colin.
- Hey, world.
(teachers laugh)
- [Mary] Colin is also an ITA alum.
- I am, I teach, sports here to first, second,
and third graders.
- [Mary] Yeah, and Olivia, hi, Olivia!
- Hello, I teach first grade art.
- [Mary] Yay, and Jasmine.
- Hi, I teach first grade story telling
and music and games!
- [Mary] Yay, awesome, thanks, guys!
Oh, okay, I am back home and I'm gonna
give you a quick tour of my apartment,
and I'm gonna tell you about why I picked Hungary,
and why I picked CETP.
Okay, so we come in through my front door,
and then, so this way goes to the main
apartment but in here I have a little
coat room, here's my bathroom, right off the
front door, it's pretty small, but it's
everything that I need. (laughs)
And then this is the kitchen.
with my dining table, and then through here,
and then that's my washing machine right there,
and then through this little closet,
it's my favorite part of the apartment, is my
fridge closet, (laughing) I don't know why it's in there,
but it makes me really happy.
And then I have a second room, which has
my sofa, my bed, just kind of everything.
It's not a huge, but it is all the space
I could possibly need, I'm really happy,
and it is just me, so I do live alone.
Yeah, that's all my apartment.
Okay, so now I wanna tell you a little bit about
why I picked CETP, and Hungary.
CETP provides you support when you land,
and for me that was always something that was
going to be really, really important.
So, they picked me up from the airport,
they provided, like a week of training
that included Hungarian language classes,
and culture classes, and even some teaching tips,
and then also, in your contract,
your school is required to provide you
a place to stay, to provide you an apartment,
so my apartment is provided to me
and I do not pay rent monthly, however there
is a fee that is involved with CETP, but it is
legit but you can always talk to the ITA
advisors about that.
I viewed it as just paying all my rent up front and to me
the comfort of knowing that I was going to have a place
to come to was so worth it.
And that also leads me into the other reason
why I picked Hungary in particular, is that here
in Hungary, Americans can get legal visas,
working visas as English teachers,
where in a lot of the Western countries, it's quite,
it's a lot more difficult, if possible at all.
And to me that was something
that was gonna be really important
to have the legal residence card, for me.
So, the company that I work for is called
Boys and Girls Club of Hungary or BGC,
and I actually teach at two different primary schools,
and then I go to the kindergarten, but there are three
different kindergartens within the program as well,
so it's quite big.
Okay, so I'm gonna post a little screenshot
of my weekly schedule.
Monday and Tuesday I work at primary school A,
which is right downtown
and I can see Parliament when I get there,
it's really cool.
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday
in the afternoon I work at primary school B,
which is closer to me.
So primary school A takes me about half an hour
to get there, and then primary school B
takes me 15, 20 minutes,
give or take, it's all really easy to get around the city.
And then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go
into a kindergarten that is very close to primary school B.
Quick breakdown of the day, most of my days I show up
at one, for an hour I play with the kids out
on the playground and then I teach for
an hour whatever the lesson, whatever the Club tell me.
So I mostly just teach role play
to third graders, and so that's kind of our topic,
and we have different things, but I mostly work
with role play and getting the kids on their feet.
As you met some of my coworkers,
they had a lot of different subjects,
so whether it's art, or sport, or whatever
it might be, for the hour we teach that subject.
And then kids have snack time,
they have homework time, and then, which is
a break for me to prep, and then for the
last hour it's kind of like a free play time,
English interaction time.
So that's what most of my days look like.
So for today, Thursdays, are a little bit
different for me I teach the older grades,
so I teach fifth graders and sixth graders,
and for that, I don't go out onto the playground,
I teach an hour and a half lesson back-to-back.
So I teach an hour and a half of grammar to fifth graders,
and then I turn right around, and I go teach
an hour and a half of film, which is really fun,
to sixth graders, and then I'm done at four.
So then I can just go home.
So I do not have a typical work week that most teachers
have here, I feel pretty lucky and CETP really worked
with me because I have a drama background,
that they felt that this would be a really good
fit for me, and I'm pretty happy,
And it's nice to have a lot of other English
speaking teachers as well, and coworkers.
I feel pretty lucky, but also it wouldn't be
for everybody, some people really thrive
with the structure of an actual classroom
and the ability to give homework, and the ability
to give grades, and I don't do any of that,
And you have to be really proactive
about getting the kids on the playground to come
and talk to you, play with you, and winning them over,
so that they just don't like, go play football
the entire time.
Or you go and play with them and play football,
and each teacher kind of has their own method
so it's fun to see us work as a team.
And so I fit really well, and I'm really happy there.
Not everybody would be.
An important thing to remember when you're
looking to come teach abroad, is that there are
so many options, and there are so many possibilities
of what your journey could look like, you really need
to advocate for what you want, and really think about
what that looks like, because you can kinda make
your journey totally our own.
My experience here is totally different
than what I was doing in China,
and that's the other part of teaching abroad,
is you kind of just have to be open, and willing
and flexible, to kinda go with a lot,
and it's amazing how rewarding,
and surprising everything is.
(upbeat music)