Nepal: Teaching English to Buddhist Monks

In this post: Overcoming the obstacles of a curriculum and learning material deprived teaching experience.

I must start by stating that this post will not give you every last piece of information that you'll need while teaching, although it will cover every base and give a gist of how you'll want to approach things such as lesson planning and student/teacher dynamics. It is also a 'first edition' post; I'm getting so many emails and messages about the topic that I felt it would be better to publish it sooner and refine and expand further when I have more information to add. Forgive me if the writing isn't to the highest of standards: at this point, it is relayed as information that I feel people will benefit from. I will be continually adding links and detailed information which will further aid people who are wanting to know more, or already in a volunteer/ESL environment. Enjoy!

 Balloons: The last resort of a worn out ToEFL.

The first and most common question I hear is 'how did you end up teaching Buddhist monks in Nepal.' The answer is, 'I don't know, exactly.' I don't remember setting out to find the experience, but somehow I caught wind of the possibility via the internet (most likely through Googling 'teach English abroad' and the ads that resulted). It immediately seemed like the ideal option for me - fresh out of a Cambridge CELTA qualification and looking to apply what I had learned to actual teaching. The idea of being able to work with Buddhist monks in Nepal was a bonus, and there was no question of where I would end up choosing to go.

 When a lesson ends up running short, letting the kids take photos with your camera and phone can be a fun way to take up the extra time.

The next step was deciding which company to join the program with. I narrowed my search down to three (Global Crossroads [USA]. PlanMyGapYear [UK] and i-to-i [UK/Intl]). Based on their tenure and history of supplying volunteers to Nepal, I chose i-to-i [part of the TUI travel group].

At this point, the next logical step would be for me to write about the process of applying, booking, organising, prep, flights, and so on. But I'm not going to talk about volunteering in Nepal through a private company in this post. While in Nepal, I eventually became aware of the reality of the 'NGO cartels' and the equally nightmareish 'volunteer rackets.' I now realise that people shouldn't and don't have to pay exorbitant sums of money to volunteer. In reality, private companies and NGOs take advantage of un-informed individuals, using their lack of experience in the area to extract extortionate sums of money from them. This money is then put straight into the pockets of corrupt 'in-country co-ordinators' or is used to fund positions that don't need to exist.  By volunteering with gigantic private corporations or NGOs who require you to pay large sums of money, you are depriving the monastaries of donation money and offering fewer chances for local Nepali business or charities to become involved in the welfare of their communities and religious groups.

 The youngest students at Dhagpo Shree Drub Ling, the Manang society monastery at which I also volunteered.

This isn't going to be an article that blows the lid off the scam. I'm not going to name names or bring companies into disrepute - I'm simply going to offer advice on the multitude of different routes one can take to contribute something to these monasteries in Nepal that don't involve shady agents and huge fees. I'd like to think that if people aren't paying a large company huge amounts of money to do nothing, then they would be able to make donations directly to the monasteries at which they're volunteering. These monasteries desperately need basic learning and teaching materials (books, pens, pencils, copy books, board markers, paper) and people who are willing to dedicate a few hours a day to help these young monks learn English.

I am in the process of letting certain companies know that their 'in country co-ordinators' are behaving in a way that is immoral and unacceptable. Until they have been given a fair chance to assess their situations and re-evaluate the conduct of the people they contract, I won't be saying more on this specific area of the issue.

 In the foreground: Big Norbu, Rinchen and Changba.

First Steps 

You've decided that you want to teach English to Buddhist monks in Nepal. Before you set out making the idea a reality, you'll need to be sure of a few things.

You'll be contracted to work a number of hours a day (between one and four). This may also include Sundays, as Saturday is the only 'day off' in the Nepali week. This means fulfilling these hours to the best of your ability. Of course, you'll want to visit other parts of Nepal and take part in trekking or activities, so make sure to book these either before or after your contracted period at the monastery. A visa for Nepal can last up to 90 or 150 days - plenty of time to have fun.

A common question is 'do I have to be a qualified teacher/have passed a TEFL course?' In an ideal world, you'll have some level of ESL qualification and maybe even ESL experience. The reality of the situation is that the level of material deprivation and lack of consistency in these volunteer programs means that a great deal of what most qualified ESL teachers know is immediately thrown out of the nearest window. In this instance it is determination, a positive attitude and resourcefulness that are infinitely more valuable than rigid methodologies. I would always advise both qualified and unqualified/experienced and non-experienced individuals to grab a basic TEFL book. I came across a battered copy of 'The Essential TEFL Book' (you can purchase it here) that had been supplied by i-to-i and it is definitely one of the better course books I've read. It offers practical solutions and exercises and can be adapted to fit the situation you'll be in: no curriculum, no materials, no guidance.

A colour picture book is a rarity at many monasteries.

 Once you're certain that you have the dedication and resourcefulness to do your best in a teaching position, consider how long you'd like to stay. Kathmandu is not an easy place to live for more than a few weeks. The pollution and poor sanitation are likely to make you ill. Power cuts can last for up to 18 hours a day, or as little as four hours a day - but they are daily, without doubt. If you are, in terms of ethnicity, anything other than Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani or Nepali in appearance, you will be considered a tourist and will receive the hard sell of every tout and street vendor you come across. Another volunteer I worked with was a Swedish national of Indian heritage. While I paid huge fees to enter tourists sites, he was admitted for free. I would be hassled by street vendors while he was invisible to them - definitely the better option. Finally, the pollution and constant noise of car and motorbike horns will wear you down if you're not used to them. These are the main negative factors of life in Kathmandu. Aside from these things, there are endless places to visit and people to meet, and countless beautiful areas outside of the city to visit when you're not volunteering - Nagarkot, Chitwan, Pokhara and Mustang to name but a few.

 There is never a dull day when you're working in one of Swoyambhu's many monastaries.

Because monasteries receive mostly clueless gap year kids for a couple of weeks at a time, the history of continued and progressive learning in the classroom is poor. The students will have been taught the same basics over and over again, with no follow-up teaching to compound and re-inforce their learning. Staying for at least one month will allow the students to learn more material, more thoroughly, and you to create a solid yet compact curriculum. You can stay in Nepal and volunteer for as long as your visa will allow you, or as long as you think you're able to stay sane - up to 150 days if you don't hold Indian or Nepali citizenship of some kind (and are therefore exempt from limited visas).

You can read my previous blog posts about life in Kathmandu as a volunteer for more ways to help you work out how long you'd like to stay, and what to expect after you've stepped off the plane.

Making It Happen

Having witnessed first-hand the shocking state of the Nepali volunteer and NGO system, I must first say that I cannot whole-heartedly recommend going to Nepal to teach in monasteries with ANY international company. Looking into the inner workings of NGOs or private companies is almost impossible with internet-based research. Of course, they'll only be publishing information that makes them and what they do look good. More often than not, it simply isn't. At some point in the process, you will be paying them large amounts of money that do not end up in the hands of the people who need it most.

If you want to do this the 'right' way, the only option is to book a return flight to Nepal and find your way to Thamel. From there, you can find a number of offices that offer trekking and adventures who will most likely also offer volunteering options. Failing this, they will be able to help you contact someone who can. Again, you'll need to ask questions, as these companies may be equally unscrupulous when it comes to making volunteers pay to work in monasteries. Although it is off topic, I would advise people in all seriousness to avoid 'orphanages' in Nepal like the plague. They are almost entirely set up to take money from volunteers. The children are often bought from destitute parents in impoverished areas, and live in squalour and poverty at these 'orphanages.' All money and donations of clothes, toys and learning materials are taken, quite literally, off the childrens' backs and sold by the adults who are supposed to protect these children. The money is pocketed by the individuals 'running' the orphanages. Said individuals are also known to pressure volunteers for money at multiple points during their stay. Sadly, incidences such as this are only the tip of the iceberg in the vast ocean of volunteering and charity scams, in Nepal as well as other countries.

If you'd like contact details of some of the business owners in Kathmandu who do offer good volunteering programs, please email me at rebeckawolfe@gmail.com and I can introduce you to them or simply offer you their contact details, so you can send enquiries when you're ready. They may refer you back to me due to my extended experience with direct volunteering and international companies.

Although it may not seem like work, time spent in front of English language tv shows helps to re-inforce receptive skills. Make the students answer questions about what they watched or summarise a programme so they can work on continuous descriptive skills. The boys at Shree Gautam Buddha are big wrestling fans: CM Punk and John Cena are their heroes.

I am currently working on compiling a list of contact details of individuals who I know run responsible and honest volunteering programs. It's currently a short list, but I'm utilising my contacts in Nepal as a means to find and vet more program co-ordinators, as well as contacting more monasteries to let them know that they can have volunteers whose donations are not kept from them. Phew. I'll also be listing direct contact details of monasteries who I know are in need of volunteers. It's currently a short list, as my three hectic months in Nepal weren't nearly enough to revolutionise the 'monastinc volunteering' cartels. I hope that like-minded individuals can do their own groundwork and continue to add to the list. My biggest concern is that, currently, I have no way to vet applicants with a full-disclosure DBS check. Hopefully in the next few weeks, I will be working with a company in Kathmandu who can offer these checks for free in the UK and other countries. All DBS checks for individuals in volunteer and aid positions are free of charge, and no company should insist that you pay them or the Disclosure Barring Service any amount of money to complete a full disclosure check for voluntary work.

You only have to google 'teach Buddhist monks in Nepal' to find endless companies offering the experience. If you do wish to utilise the services of these companies, I implore you to spend a great deal of time on research. Try and contact others who have worked for them, read into and beyond  what's being said on their websites, and think laterally in terms of how they can offer the programs that they offer. They need to pay their staff, and that money comes from you. Of course, if you go 'direct' then you have no need to pay pointless middle-men. It is now common practice for people looking to make a cheap Rupee to literally traipse around Kathmandu, going door to door to every monastery and nunnery they can find, 'signing up' monasteries to receive volunteers. They promise volunteers and donations. This usually ends up as 'volunteers who don't know what they're doing' and 'donations that are kept by the company.' They are using the monasteries to extort money in the same way that 'orphanages' have been doing for years.
 

Dawa, the youngest monk at Shree Gautam Buddha, playing a rock catching game with small, handmade cubes of marble.

Teaching

There may have been a great deal I've left out between 'how to get there' and 'now you're here.' Unfortunately, having not trodden this path myself due to booking through an international company, the advice I can offer is limited. Hopefully, the links I'll supply at the end of the post will aid you in finding the best way to get to Nepal having secured a volunteering position. Don't let international companies convince you that you couln't possibly do this without their help. I can absolutely assure you that you can go from your front door to Kathmandu and back without the need of any international company doing things for you, or using their 'in country co-ordinators' to bully you into playing ball. Said companies will at best treat you like an irresponsible teenager, and at worse will cajole and intimidate you into their (unreasonable) way of doing things. There is no need, and I am happy to talk people through alternatives via email if needed. 

If you've found what you were looking for, and the start of your contract is imminent, the following section will help you in the practical aspects of making the best of your time spent teaching Engish. This advice can be applied to almost any ESL teaching position in a setting where you have few or no learning materials, no curriculum and no guidance. These kinds of situations are commonly faced by ESL teachers who are teaching or working in a 'developing' nation, or an environment where poverty prevents teachers and students from having access to basic resources such as books, teaching materials and the internet/computers.

Step One - Assessment

Assessing the progress, capabilities and learning styles of a group of young learners you've only just met is extremely difficult. Often (as was the case for me), the students may initially seem to be quite advanced in English. They may appear to have good conversation skills and a functional grasp of grammar, at the very least. However, it is often the case that they have simply learned a limited amount of language that they repeat daily. Ask them to deviate from their normal conversational patterns, and they will be stuck. Many Nepali people, children included, speak Nepali, Hindi and English at a very minimum - they have an astounding ability to absorb languages from almost any source. The children at Shree Gautam Buddha were all fluent in Tibetan (as taught to all monastic Buddhists and many lay Buddhists). Half also spoke Bhutanese, most spoke and understood Hindi, and the other half were native Nepali speakers. Rest assured that you and they will be off to a good start.

You must first employ the 'teach-test-teach' technique. Devise a basic test that includes aspects of vocabulary, short continuous prose and grammar that will allow you to work out which level of instruction will most suit your students (beginner, lower intermediate, upper intermediate). Start with easy questions, and finish with challenging ones. Explain to your students that they must try their best and write their own answers (no collusion) - and that the test will help you as a teacher to know what to teach them. Be sure that they know it is not a 'pass or fail' situation.

 The Holy Grail of teaching: an entire class enganged with the material.

 Step Two - The Classroom

I first need to address the greatest difficulty of learning and teaching English: grammar. Grammar is a nightmare. English grammar is (after German) probably the most challenging to master, for native speakers as much as non-native learners. You MUST be completely capable of working with grammar. Before you start teaching, grab a book such as 'English Grammar for Dummes.' It's an excellent choice for those who have had no ESL training - don't assume for a minute that there isn't an area of grammar that you could learn more about. Some of the grammar teaching books I used during my CELTA course seemed like gibberish to me until I had read English Grammar for Dummies a few times over. Auxilliaries? Irregulars? Gerund? What's a phoneme? Use to and used to? Present perfect, past continuous? Conditionals? Sickening. It's okay to hate every second of it. But learn it inside out, for the sake of your students and your sanity. Nothing is more undermining for you as a teacher than to not be able to answer your students' questions about the language you're supposedly fluent in.

I'd argue that the second most difficult aspect of ESL (and every kind of teaching), after the seventh circle of hell that is grammar, would be crowd control. If you've perhaps previously worked as a pampered JET programme kid in Japan or at private language academies in China or Korea, an un-supervised class of teenage boys is going to hit you like a freight train. You will be a butterfly in a hurricane. In the monasteries, there are no other authority figures in the classroom to peel your students off the window bars or pry them from their hiding places under their desks. There will be headlocks and elbow-drops. There will be airborne stationery, shoes, footballs. Every class will have at least one pyromaniac. It will be your job to quell the uprising before it even begins - so set the right precedent on your first day. Teaching young learners can be terrifying for a first-timer. But I can almost guarantee that the children you'll be teaching in developing nations (and certainly in Buddhist monasteries) will be infinitely more agreeable and dispositionally balanced than the average British or American teenager. Discipline still exists in these cultures, even if you are not the one to adminster it. The values of respecting one's elders and teachers is not a forgotten concept as it is in the West, and this is something you will notice. 

Sometimes, chaos is the better option.

Remember that above all, that you will have a real effect on the young people you teach. At times, it is challenging, but try to be somebody that they are excited to see every day. If they enjoy being around you, you're far more likely to be able to relate the teaching materials to them and to have a positive and fun classroom environment. Sometimes lesson plans just don't work in the situations you find yourself in. This is why you need an archive of 'backup plans', which will be covered further along in the post.

Step Three: Lesson Plans

Lesson planning is essential in ESL, regardless of the nature of your classroom environment. If you've had CELTA or TEFL training, you'll be familiar with the different types of lesson. You can use these techniques and adapt them for a classroom that may be lacking in materials. Remember to supplement language based (grammar) lessons with receptive skills (listening, reading) and productive skills (speaking and writing). You will likely be lacking any kind of audio and AV equipment when teaching in Nepal or a similar environment, although if you have a smartphone, you can easily construct and record dialogues. You can even find ready made dialogues and exercise questions on the internet or in coursebooks - just read them aloud with a friend and press record. Don't forget to speak slowly and clearly, avoiding colloquialism and regional dialect. You can create your own worksheets, or print worksheets found online. Word searches are excellent for vocabulary based lessons - once the students have found the words, they can add them to their vocabulary books and try to define them and then use them in a sentence. Don't forget - there is never a bad time to draw pictures where words fail. Hilariously bad drawings will always lighten the mood, so don't worry if you can't draw well.

Another important aspect is thematic consistency. Don't just jump from unrelated topic to unrelated topic every day. Dedicate a one week period to one particular topic, and aim to cover each skill set and lesson type based around said topic. Alternatively, base one week around a specific skill set, and choose a variety of topics in which you develop this skill set. Again, this is a time to be referring to your English grammar guides and your TEFL guidebooks. It is important not to become too 'talk and chalk' - an easy mistake to make: that of standing at the chalkboard, talking too much and writing summarisations of what you've just said. A good lesson will have a five minute introduction to the day's work (including the 'pre-teaching volcabulary' section), followed by one, perhaps two exercises and a five or ten minute final exercise or practice to finish on. Be sure to always allocate time slots to each exercise. Also include one 'backup' exercise in case you burn through the material before the end of the class (which should only happen because the students are completing the work to the best of their ability - no skipping over things that are too hard).

The normal levels of wrestling and chaos are to be expected.

One thing that I think will apply unilaterally to all young ESL students is a love of the art of storytelling. The right kind of continuous prose exercise will usually present itself after some trial and error. While teaching, I found that my boys were at their most engaged when writing stories. As Buddhist monks, they will have been raised and educated in a world of art, scripture and religious history and thus it is a prosaic form with which they are familiar. Although the art of storytelling is fading slowly from Western culture, you'll find that many cultures who aren't 'hyper-modern' will still have a strong connection to the mythologies and folklore that is intrinsic in their culture. Even in the 'hyper-modern' nations such as Japan, the art of the folk tale remains strong due to the almost complete homogeneity of the population. With any class, the challenge lies in getting them to tell their stories in English, as accurately as possible. Start with outlining and exemplifying the basics: a standard tale will have a beginning, middle and end. Is it something that happened in the past? Is it set in the future? What message or moral is it trying to convey? Who are the characters? Why do they do what they do?

If you are teaching in India or Nepal, your students will have the benefit of being of a nation whose history lies in great oral and written traditions. Familiarise yourself with the Ramayana and the Mahabharata - the two great origin tales of India. My students, although from Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, were all familiar with these tales. Before you move into character stories (you may never even reach this point), get the students to write short stories about themselves. Set out five to ten questions to which the answers will form the structure of a story. From here, build on vocabulary and form. Offer them interesting conjuctions: 'later', 'finally', 'and then', 'after that', 'because of this' - it will help them move from single sentences to coherent paragraphs. Be sure they understand how to use adjectives and tense.

 The best part of my day and the best memories I hold are of my students smiling, laughing, climbing the walls, wrestling - just being themselves.

Step Four: Backup

In my first lesson with my students at Shree Gautam Buddha, my lesson plan fell about 20 minutes short. I had planned for it to take an hour, but the material seemed too easy for the students. In teaching, an early finish is harder to recover from than a late finish (when you can set task completion as homework). Should you find yourself with ten minutes remaining (and ten minutes is an understandable margin of error - it shouldn't be more than this if you're aware of the students' ability and are planning properly) you can whip out an English learning game. Even something basic, like hangman, can take up the extra time. Others such as pictionary, hot seat and description-drawing games work especially well. One example is to stand at your board area and ask the students to help you draw an animal (mythical or otherwise). By asking them questions about the animal's anatomy (legs? How many? Fins instead? Four legs? Are they skinny legs? Short legs?) and trying to elicit vocabulary without offering it, they'll be working on their descriptive skills. You should be able to introduce them to new adjectives with an activity such as this. The exercise should get some laughs, and you can let them take turns at drawing while the rest of the class offers descriptions.

You only have to spend a few hours on the internet at the start of your placement to find all of the last minute lesson-thickeners that you need. The same can be said for lesson plan ideas, if you are stuck or feel that limited resources are making things difficult. Try not to lean on 'backup' options too heavily (I often did). Keep them varied and challenging. They work well in game format - split your students into teams. In the case of hot-seat or pictionary, instigate an 'English only' rule. My students would often try and bend the rules by mouthing the answers in Tibetan or Bhutanese - in instances such as these, the more you know of the students' first language, the better you'll be at making sure they're trying their best with English.

 Getting to know the students is the most enjoyable part of the job. Why work with boring adults in an office when you could travel around the world and meet amazing people of all ages from all walks of life. Playing football with Buddhist monks? Probably more fun than the AGM or end of year stock reports.

Step Five: The Students 

Something that really makes a good teacher is the ability to understand your students. It seems daunting and sometimes even impossible. I didn't think when I started at my monastery that I had a hope in hell of remembering my students' names. Fifteen boys, all with shaved heads and identical outfits - not to mention the fact that they introduced themselves as 'Justin Bieber' and 'Akon' more often than not. But, after three months, it felt as though there had never been a time when I didn't know them. This is also useful as you'll need to know without asking if a student is absent (role-call isn't something the monastery had ever needed to utilise).

Understanding your students goes beyond knowing their names. You will soon identify the educational needs and capabilities of each student. When I think back, I remember Changba. He was the oldest in the class and was awkward, difficult and stubborn. The senior monks told me not to worry, that he was just stupid. But whenever I would look at his work, it was clear that this was not the case. He would always say to me 'Miss, I can't write, nooooo!' every time a writing exercise was about to start. The same goes for drawing and speaking. His nickname became 'I can't English.' But he was capable and he wasn't lazy. I didn't have the benefit of having enough time to gain a deeper understanding behind Changba's issues and, although he could be immensely frustrating and sometimes disruptive, I always insisted to him that he was clever and capable. If I could have stayed longer, I may have begun to see the benefit of this. It is absolutely vital that you believe in your students. Never tell them they can't do something, or make them feel as if you'll give up on them if they can resist long enough. I also remember Lakhpa, who was incredibly shy and not forthcoming in class because he found English difficult. He needed a great deal of gentle encouragement, and praise for making the effort in taking small steps to improve. There was Big Dawa, the class pyromaniac, who was often very distracted and boisterous. When he put his mind to his work he was clearly very capable, although it took a long time to stop him from putting a lighter to anything flammable. Then there was Small Dawa, who was often to be found hiding under a desk. Although the yongest student, his grasp of English was excellent - evidence that age can often have little bearing on ability.

Balloons: an excellent learning aid.

It is also important to divide your attention equally between all students. It is easy to only pay attention to the troublesome students, or to only engage with the most capable and well-behaved. But you must give equal time and effort to each and every students. The loud and lively will either be finding the work too easy or too challenging. Identify which it is, and provide them with either extra material, or extra support. Still more important is to not lean only towards supporting the louder students. The ones who are shy and quiet need just as much help and encouragement. It is easier to overlook them because they aren't disruptive, but you are doing them a disservice if you cannot allocate them the time and support they need. It is better to accept ten minutes of chaos behind you while you help a quiet student who needs attention than it is to quell the rebellions at the cost of helping students who are well behaved but in need of guidance and encouragement.

The most important message to leave your students with is one of belief: belief in their own abilities and the knowledge that you believe in them, too. Let them know that you think they're capable; that you don't doubt for one second that they have every chance and every right to become great at what they do. Let them know that talent and natural ability come second to dedication and perseverence. Even if they feel that English is too hard and they cannot possibly do well, remind them that if they believe in themselves and simply keep working at it, they can shine. Regardless of anything, young learners must be instilled with the will to persevere in any situation. Too often, children are told that they 'can't' before they've even had a chance to try. 

 A standard day at work.

Your students will also challenge you in many ways. Don't assume that bad behaviour equates to a bad student. Young people, especially teenage boys, will test the boundaries of what they know with difficult behaviour. Often it seems as if by pushing you away, they are testing your 'worth'. Truly, it is their own value in their eyes of their teacher that they are trying to determine. If they push you away and you surrender, they will conclude that in your eyes, they are not worth the effort. Thus, their value of themselves is further diminished. It can be nightmareish, but if you persevere through every kind of difficult behaviour and never stop telling your students 'yes, you can, and I believe in you,' then you will eventually break through to them. Sometimes, you don't have long enough with them for the breakthrough to be complete. Sometimes it can happen with such subtlety that you never notice it happen. Even if you feel like you didn't reach them, by leaving them with the knowledge and understanding that you never doubted them, you will have forged the beginnings of a path that they may be able to one day see more clearly because of your support. 

Finally, on a practical note, dont forget that not much (if any) of the monastery budget goes onto learning materials. For under 1000 Rupees (ten US/AUS dollars or about 6.50GBP) you can go to a local stationery store (there are several in Swoyambhu near the monasteries) and buy enough exercise books, pens, rulers, pencils and other materials for the entire class. If you can, find children's books and picture books (the Dorling Kindersly kind are ideal) in charity or thrift stores in your own country (be sure they're in good condition) and bring them with you to Nepal. Some of the monks in the poorer monasteries have never seen a photograph in a book. Such simple things can bring hours of entertainment and learning to children who truly need it.

 The best crew I've ever had - and the best people I have ever known.

English is truly a world language and the ability to use it properly can open up so many doors to young learners in both 'developing' and 'developed' nations. Nothing is more vital to these students than being able to grab an opportunity and allow it to lead them forwards. Whether English becomes another string to their bow, or the entire orchestra in the soundtrack of their lives, you must never lose your motivation to teach these students to the best of your ability, and the best of theirs. 

I can only finish by saying that the time I spent with these young Buddhist monks was the best time of my life. At once the most difficult and also the most challenging - sometimes seemingly futile - but truly, the most meaningful. I desperately want to return to them soon, and I truly wish there was a way for me to teach them every day, see them through to the end of their education, and witness what and who they will become as adults. I don't think I could imagine a better way of spending another five years, even though I've just now finally landed my dream job of teaching in Japan after years of hard work. 

ESL will not make you rich, and it will not make you famous. But I find truth in the idea that the world does not need more famous people, nor more rich people. It doesn't need more celebrities, fifteen more seconds of fame, more people clinging desperately to a forged identity that is slowly becoming transparent and meaningless; nor more throats cut in the chasing of personal gains. The world needs more people who look past the feeding of their ego and outwards to the world around them,and the ways in which they can make it a slightly better place. There needs to be a renaissance in the art of choosing the greater depths over the lofty heights. The world needs more people who aim to be better being at who they are, instead of aiming to eventually become something that they are not; eternally chasing a dream while the world arounds them becomes a nightmare.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at rebeckawolfe@gmail.com - I will always reply. You don't have to have any kind of qualifications to volunteer, you just need to be over 18 years of age. You do need to demonstrate that you will take the position extremely seriously, and that you will put the needs of your students before your own. If you'd like me to add more to any specific part of this ever-growing post, drop me an email with your suggestions.

Thankyou.

བྱ་བ་ལམ་འགྲོ་ཡོང་བར་ཤོག