It’s a brand new adventure, but I’m getting old for this kind of excitement

19th of March 2024

‘Oh God, oh God… what am I even doing? Why do I always have to make my life so complicated?’ 

I am sitting in Vienna International airport departure hall, asking myself these questions while waiting for my flight to Malta. But honestly queries alike have been popping up in my head for months now: 

‘Can I really do this? Is my level of English adequate to teach? Is my qualification good enough? Can I really become a teacher of English as a foreign language, despite being a non-native speaker and coming from a totally different field?’ 

The list of my doubts is unending. 

Despite all that, on this sunny but chilly March morning, 2024 AD, I find myself sitting in the airport with a signed contract in my backpack and the prospect of spending my summer on a mediterranean island. While all this sounds quite exciting, I can’t shake off a feeling like it’s going to be a disaster!

Let me take a step back though and explain how it all started: 

From an Au-pair to an English teacher

During the Covid-19 quarantine in 2020 my life turned upside down. In a span of three months I lost my job and a long-term romantic relationship as well. The closed borders did unbelievable things to my freedom possessed brain and so I decided to leave my home in the Czech Republic. I needed to take a step back from my life and gain a different perspective. But as in the times of the pandemic there weren’t any jobs available abroad, the only position I could get, was to be an Au-pair.¹ 

1. An Au-pair is a nanny who lives with the host family in a foreign country and takes care of their child/ren in exchange for food, accommodation and a modest salary. It’s a popular way to learn languages and experience different cultures. The Au-pair program is usually open to young people without children, under the age of thirty.

I found my placement in Switzerland and had originally intended to stay there only for six months. Those six months turned into three and a half years. During that time I went from being an Au-pair to a full-time Nanny, and somehow also found myself in the position of a start-up director. I fulfilled my dream of learning French, I made friends for life, I visited places I had never dreamt of and I was the happiest I had ever been in my entire life. My stay in Switzerland was exciting, full of discoveries and personal growth but at the same time, it wasn’t enough. Therefore, while doing all of this, I had been simultaneously working on my long term goal of becoming a teacher of English as a Foreign language. 

Why that occupation, of all things, you might be asking?

Well, I think I can admit to myself at this point that the Covid-19 quarantine and FOMO² had something to do with it. I had spent quite a lot of time on travel focused youtube channels at that time and I discovered the possibility of travelling the world as an English teacher. It was quite an inviting prospect, given the circumstances of 2020. 

2.  FOMO - Fear of missing out.

So, instead of being fully focused on my wonderful life in Switzerland, I spent quite a lot of time with my head in English language coursebooks and teaching methodology. I studied for my CAEs,³ then took a CELTA course,⁴ and I finished my preparation for the field with a speciality course focused on teaching teenagers. It took me over three years to get to the point when I felt ‘kind of ready’ and I knew it was time to ‘close my eyes and leap’. 

3.  CAE (C1 Advanced) is an English exam produced by Cambridge English Language Assessment and widely recognized throughout the world. It is one of the highest language certificates a learner can obtain. 
4. CELTA stands for ‘Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages’ and is one of the most demanded qualifications in the field. The courses are run by authorised centres and based on specifications produced by Cambridge English Language Assessment.

In November 2023 I finally landed an ELT job.⁵ It had been four months since I finished my CELTA training and three years and three months since I arrived in Switzerland. 

 5. ELT stands for English language teaching.

Despite having my roots deeply rooted under the Swiss pre-Alps⁶ at that point, I knew it was time to leave, because if I were to stay a little longer, I would have never been able to leave. I would have spent the rest of my life in wealth and prosperity, but I would inevitably end up as empty and purposeless as I was when I left the Czech Republic all those years ago. Besides, I still feel like I need to prove ‘something’ to myself. 

What that ‘something’ is, I still can’t describe. 

6. Swiss Pre-Alps are areas of the Alps between the Swiss plateau and the northern side of the Alps, with the highest peaks at 2.500 m. I lived in one of these areas, near Montreux.

Looking at it in retrospect, having been offered a job only four months after finishing my qualifications, wasn’t so bad. But I have to say that I had sent my applications to at least thirty companies. 

I had a total of three interviews. 

I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything else as I was a freshly certified, non-native English teacher with next to no experience. The fact that someone wanted to talk to me at all was close to a miracle. 

Therefore, as you probably understood, I couldn’t exactly choose a locality where I would travel as a teacher. Despite sending my CV all over Europe and Asia, I only got one offer. That was, from a language school in Malta. 

So I took it. 

Was it my dream destination?

Hell no. 

I hate hot weather and I am literally uninterested in the sea, swimming or water sports. 

I took the job because if it works out, I will leave in Autumn with at least four hundred hours of teaching experience under my belt and my position in searching for my next teaching job will be much stronger. 

At the same time I feel like this language school truly has a lot to offer in terms of training and insight into the field. There is a lot for me to learn and I want to learn. I know it will be tough at the beginning, but I want to gain experience and grow as a teacher. Because, even when this all had started on a whim, I felt like I found myself during the CELTA certification course. Teaching felt like something I might be able to do and do it well. Unlike many other jobs before. That’s why, regardless of the locality, I am grateful for this opportunity. 

I also find it pretty funny that I had been offered a job by this particular company,⁷ because when I was a teenager, I always salivated over their language course catalogues and brochures and wanted to take part in some. Malta was on my list. So the fact that I will find myself in one of their schools as a teacher seems humorous. Like things have come full circle. 

So that’s how it all started. 

7.  To protect the privacy of the company I worked for, I will not mention the company's name in this story. Additionally, I will alter certain details about the work culture to ensure that the company cannot be identified. 

New start in Malta

Now I’m sitting on the plane to Malta and I am slightly shocked to find that my plane ticket also included a meal. Specialities from Malta served on Maltese ceramics plates. My mind immediately starts doubting if it is really included in the price or if they would charge me extra when leaving the plane. But I immediately discard that idea as stupid, because who the hell would serve you a meal without asking if you want it, unless it had already been paid for. So I just dug in. 

To explain further, I bought the cheapest variant of a business class ticket, because with the included baggage allowance it turned out to be cheaper than an economy ticket with added checked-in baggage. 

Oh well… It also turns out to be a full-meal included ticket. 

So I am stuffing myself with traditional Maltese dishes and watching Mt. Etna in Sicily approaching behind the window. Soon we will be landing in Malta and a whole new adventure will be waiting for me, together with many new challenges. 

That second thought doesn’t really help the meal to go down. 

Because, when we are talking so openly here, I have to admit something to you, dear reader. I’m already thirty two years old and I am not sure how long I can maintain this lifestyle. You might think that it’s still quite young, but moving from country to country is exhausting on its best days. Add a mind with anxiety issues and attention deficit disorder, and the result you get is sometimes more than the body can stand. 

So, I have to openly admit to myself that this might be my last adventure. Even though there is a list of countries where I would like to teach English, once Malta is behind me, I am not sure how many more challenges like this I can pull my body through. The shells our spirits reside in have their limits. I’ve learnt that lesson the hard way.

At the moment however, I need to focus on what lies ahead of me. We are landing and I need to force my mind to be present. 

Did you know there are so many huge cruise ships in the sea around Malta? And is that a stronghold on that small island in the sea next to the island? 

There are so many things about this place that I don’t know. 

But I can’t wait to find out.