I am an English native speaker who has been living in Portugal. I was always asked to help tutor students and clarify their doubts for their English tests and that is how I got the itch to start teaching.
Even though I am a native speaker, I knew that there were some skills that I needed to develop in order to become an ESL teacher.

So, while researching online for information about how to get my certification in teaching I came upon the TESOL – Teacher Training at Royal School of Languages here in Portugal. I sent an email asking for information and got a call to go in and speak to the teacher responsible for the TESOL. I found out about not only the basic training course but that I could also specialized in other areas like teaching children or teens, teaching business English, etc.

Luckily, everyone at Royal School was very helpful and they helped me reach my decision of becoming an ESL teacher.
TESOL helped me to understand how to teach something that for me was normal, natural. I learned a lot about planning my lessons so that my classes would go better. It also gave me the techniques and tools I needed to deal with more difficult topics or situations. Somethings that I still use today, after almost 10 years, are the activities and the games that we read about in the TESOL training course.

Today I know I am a better teacher and that I help my students more because of the TESOL.

If you are thinking about becoming an ESL teacher in any part of the world, you should first complete a TESOL training course. There is always room to learn and improve. The more you know, the more your students will know too.