Tony Gruntjes
How has TEFL, and pursuing this lifestyle, benefitted you with regard to your creative craft?
To be very honest, having a job as a TEFL teacher does not give you an incredible workload. For me this resulted in having a lot of "free time" (or at least "non working time") to let the creative juices flow and spend on my creative passion, while having a stable salary to support myself comfortably in the country of choice.
Would you recommend this lifestyle to aspiring creatives?
Be open-minded. The TEFL course is just theory. You learn more and learn to adapt while actually doing the job. You can not learn this from the books. So be prepared for that. Also adapt to the countries customs as much as possible, you will definitely not have any problems then what so ever, so you can fully enjoy your time! I've also seen the other side, people trying to hold on to their own culture and be steadfast in their customs and ways. I can assure you that they didn't have as good as a time as I had.
What positive refections can you give regarding your experiences, after having completed the TEFL course and travelled to a new country?
Ever since coming back to my home country, I notice that you get stuck in everyday life. Workloads are different. Expectations are different. I miss the days where I could spend half my work-time on photography, videography and drawing. Now I'm lucky if I can get an hour in on a working day. Lifestyle wise, TEFL is ideal to pursue your creative passions.
Photographs taken by Tony
