Studying in a place like this could seem like a dream.

For most people who arrive in Playa del Carmen to take Spanish classes, it is. A couple of hours of practice in the morning leaves the rest of the day wide open for scuba diving, snorkeling, paragliding and any number of beach activities, or possibly a visit to one of the local Mayan ruin sites. The nights are filled with heavy drinking, dancing with beautiful Latinos and a quick fumble on the beach before the patrolling police intrude.

For those of us who arrived to undertake a more intense course, however, things couldn’t be more different.

At the International House Riviera Maya, two types of students drift in and out: The aforementioned Spanish learners and the ones with the bags under the eyes.

Should you find the latter, you’d do best to avoid their gaze. They’re under a lot of stress and have no time for social niceties when they’re too busy trying to remember how to conjugate a verb.

These are my people. I was a part of that world for four weeks in November. I was one of those weirdos who wanted to teach English as a Foreign/Second Language and decided to travel to the Mexican coast to study for a CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching for Adults), one of the most difficult and intense TEFL courses in the world.

To give you a rough idea of what life was like, here’s an example of a typical day on a CELTA course:

7.30am: Groan at alarm and roll out of bed. Walk with half-closed eyes to the bathroom and take a cold shower. (The temperature is not by choice.)

7.40am: Brush teeth and comb hair. Switch on TV to watch crazy Mexican transvestite present early morning show.

8.30am: Trudge downstairs for breakfast.

8.50am: Make your way to school. Get hit by usual wall of heat as soon as you step out side.

8.56am: Walk past this place -

9.02am: Arrive at school. Sleepily greet the receptionist before shuffling in to the computer room.

9.04am: Spend the next hour and ten minutes going over your lesson plan, printing out anything you might need and fighting with the photocopier when it refuses to meet your every demand.

10.15am: Have a panic attack and run around the school frantically when you realise your whole lesson will be ruined if you don’t find white tac.

10.22am: Find the white tac.

10.24am: Arrive into your class and begin organising seating. Get the whiteboard set up ready. Greet your fellow CELTA students: Half are there to teach after you this morning; Half are having the morning off and observing you.

10.32am: No students have arrived. Keep waiting.

10.37am: Still waiting.

10.41am: Your first student arrives 11 minutes late. Mexican time!

10.53am: Your final student arrives and your class begins. Teach for the next thirty minutes.

11.23am: Sit down to observe the next two teachers. Fill in your self-evaluation sheet by leaving the “Things I did well” column blank and writing a 1500 word essay under the heading “Things I need to improve.”

12.23pm: Class is dismissed. Head to the cafeteria to comfort crying CELTA student overcome with how horribly they think they taught. Feel free to take over this role at any time too.

1pm-3pm: Theory class. Take detailed notes when being taught actual teaching techniques. Wish that the ground would swallow you whole when you realise you know nothing about grammar … not even what the present perfect is. (Present perfect? Isn’t that when I’m in the present, eating chocolate, and everything’s absolutely wonderful?)

3pm-4.30pm: Lunch time. Head back to your student residence for some food and a little sleep.

4.30pm-5.30pm: Feedback from your peers about this morning’s lesson. Completely ignore the positive points. Focus wholly on the criticisms and will yourself to improve.

5.30pm: Having taught this morning’s lesson, your day at the school is now finished. Go home and work on your one of many assessments due in the next few days. Have another shit fit at not knowing anything about grammar and hating Michael Swan for pretending it’s easy.

If you observed this morning, spend the next three and a half hours planning tomorrow’s lesson at the school. Once the school has closed at 9pm, go home and continue working until 2am. Then put an extra three hours work into your assignment due tomorrow.

~*~*~

Okay, maybe I made it sound as though everyone on the CELTA course is completely miserable the whole time. But this typical day is taken from the beginning of week three – a time when all your work is due and things start getting serious. This time is make or break time: Everyone will have at least one crying fit and disbelieve they’re good enough to be there. Everyone will wonder ‘Why the hell am I doing this?’ at some point … especially when seeing how happy-go-lucky the carefree Spanish students are.

But it is worth it in the end.

It’s a lot of hard work. (What do you expect from something that’s organised by the University of Cambridge?) But it genuinely changes you from someone who has an idea of what teaching language is to someone who’s confident and really able to do it.

When I think about the first lesson I taught – only a short 20 minute segment on the subject of shopping – I cringe. I really knew nothing. I had no techniques in place, talked way too much, and wasn’t so much teaching as I was reading over things in the book.

Four intense weeks on the CELTA course changed all of that. I learned how to explain things properly; I learned how to talk clearly and slowly; I learned how to listen; I learned all about grammar! I learned how to teach.

Being thrown into a course like this was a blessing. I went from being someone who has no teaching experience to someone who didn’t want to leave the classroom.

I can’t imagine trying to teach English as a second or foreign language and not doing the CELTA. I just don’t know how people do it. The CELTA gave me plenty of teaching practice with different levels (Elementary and Intermediate), constant feedback to take home and put into practice, and lessons on techniques and ideas for the classroom from some of the best teachers in Mexico.

I lost a lot of sleep between November 7th and 2nd December but I wouldn’t take it back at all. I learned that I really do love teaching and that there’s always room to improve yourself.

I also made a lot of wonderful friends.

I was the youngest of our dynamic CELTA group at 24 years old. There was another 20-something Brit in our group, Steven, who reminded me so much of home that I think he helped curb my homesickness. A proper Northern boy with a fabulous down-to-earth attitude and a wicked accent that dazzled some of our students at times.

Joyce & Andy were the married couple from New York: He a former lawyer and she a former trainer. While Andy stood at what seemed like 8 feet tall and spoke in a very soft, compassionate voice, Joyce was a tiny little thing, kooky and hilarious and never afraid to put herself out there.

Matt was the American with the British sense of humour. A complete grammar nerd who took on helping me out with my work as well as tackling his own  when he’d find me pounding on his door in tears at 10 o’clock in the evening. He was my fellow geek who I could share little anecdotes and jokes with. Having spent three years teaching in Korea, he was also already an excellent teacher who I learned a lot from and still, to this day, use some of his mannerisms and quirks that I observed.

And then there was Frankie. Oh, Frankie. What an absolute doll. Such a sweetheart. The Aussie rock singer with the heart of a seventeen-year-old ended up becoming one of my closest friends. Perhaps the best teacher in the class and one we always looked up to in awe, Frankie’s honesty and big heart always meant she was there for you. So much fun and always willing to say ‘Yes’, I’m glad to have crossed paths with her and know she will be a lifelong friend.

From L-R: Andy, Joyce, Matt, Steven, Yours Truly & Frankie

Doing a CELTA isn’t just about learning how to become a teacher, after all. It’s about the people you meet – whether you’re studying with or teaching them – and the experiences you have during that time. It changes you as a person because you push yourself and learn fast about what you’re really capable of. You discover how much you’re able to cope with in stressful situations, and you also learn about the way you communicate and interact with others.

When people ask me how the CELTA course was, I warn them that it’s intense and that you get a lot of sleepless nights. But, the truth is, I’m glad I did it. It was the first thing I ever worked hard for and ended up achieving something I’d been dreaming of.

That’s one more thing crossed off my bucket list.