1

The resort on the IH CELTA website looks more modern and flashier than the Nugent, also the CELTA section on the Nugent site is written in the past tense ("we hosted CELTA courses from 2006-2012"), so I'm gathering the venue has recently moved.

I'm also going to be doing a CELTA course there, in November.

2

Oh, thanks for that, I kinda guessed so, but it's frustrating that there is no information online for this new place!
I would love to hear from you about how the course was, I just bought my grammar book and doing my pre-interview task, it's gonna be a tough month! But at least we'll have a pool :)

3

Thanks for reminding me about the grammar book, I had completely forgotten that I needed to buy that :-(

Will let you know how the course goes! Cheers!

4

Hey everybody,
So I e-mailed IH asking about the accommodation and they told me that they had moved and sent me the website of the new place. It looks amazing and if you were to stay there and not do a CELTA it would cost you $140 a night so I think that the price of the CELTA including accommodation and food seems very good.
here is the website:
http://www.vdararesortandspa.com/

5

^ Wow, sweet digs! The swim-up bar seems particularly detrimental to studying ..... self discipline will be required I think! :-)

6

good luck on the course! I can't wait to hear about it (no doubt a couple of breakdowns will occur!)

7

^ LOL, thanks! I've been in Chiang Mai for a few weeks already, and drove over to check out the resort the other day. It certainly looks nice, and it's kind of in the middle of nowhere in a leafy suburban area outside town, which will probably help minimise distractions!

8

That's great news! That's why we choose Chiang Mai because it's quieter than most other places that the CELTA is offered!

9

Halfway through week 2 ..... it's a lot of work and stressful at times! Rewarding though, and dare I say it, quite enjoyable also. Tutors are great and the resort is nice, meals are generally good or even very good with only one or two exceptions so far.

Renting a motorbike for a month (about 2,500 baht from Mr Mechanic in town) will enable you to pop out and get snacks, go to Big C, go into Chiang Mai at the weekend etc. Otherwise it's 300 baht each way to charter a red sawngthaew to take you into town, which can get expensive and it's not so convenient.

10

Thanks so much for the information! I really appreciate it...I'm glad that you are enjoying it. It gives me hope that I won't have a nervous breakdown ;)

That's a great idea about the motorbike, I think myself and my boyfriend will definitely rent one.
I know you are very busy right now, but I'm just wondering about the interview. Is it very difficult? Are there many grammar questions?
We probably won't have it for a while, so take your time in writing back!
Thanks for the updates.

11

Are you excited for the CELTA yet? :-)

The interview wasn't too hard, and not much in the way of tricky grammar questions (as I recall) .... they just want you to show you're reasonably intelligent and likely to be a good learner. You're not expected to know much before the course starts ..... bear in mind that many of your coursemates will have no teaching experience whatsoever.

Anyway, I am sure you have already had the interview by now! Sorry for the very late reply.

About half of my course had teaching experience, and the other half didn't ..... and interestingly, the two people who achieved a "pass B" (the highest mark awarded on our course) didn't have any previous teaching experience at all, achieving a higher score than all of those who did have experience.

12

That is interesting, maybe people with experience think that they don't have to work as hard as the ones without experience or the others felt that they needed to work harder!
Yeah we had our interview and it was much better than I had expected, we got accepted onto the course and then found out that the Chiang Mai course was full :(
We are now booked onto the Bangkok course for the same time, I was really dissappointed about it but I guess everything happens for a reason and it works out a little cheaper.
I just finished my pre course task too so just trying to get everything organised here before leaving, I can't believe how fast the time flew!
Congratulations on finishing the course...was it as bad as I'm thinking?

13

I think those of us with experience did certain things while teaching which got us marked down in a few areas. That's not to say that they were necessarily bad habits, just certain ways we did things after thousands of hours classroom experience, which didn't exactly tally with CELTA's very precise checklist of criteria.

Those without any experience or baggage from previous teaching experiences were a "clean slate" whom CELTA could mould perfectly, therefore they could achieve higher marks. That is definitely not to say they were better teachers. The best teacher on our course - by far - was an experienced American guy who has taught in Korea for some years. He may have "only" got a pass, but ask the students which teacher they preferred and the decision would have been unanimous.

It's hard work, for sure, but enjoyable at the same time and ultimately very rewarding. Observed classes (you'll teach 8 of them over the 4 weeks) are nerve-wracking, and the preparation for each class can take up a lot of time. Also, the grammar written assignment (probably it'll be the first assignment you are set), is tough. The tutors warned it would take about 8 hours to complete, but it ended up taking me about 11 hours that first weekend! Only 2 out of the 11 of us (including me! ;-)) passed it first time without having to resubmit.

Two words of advice about the written assignments ..... first, don't write too much (most of the resubmissions of assignments 2,3 and 4 were due to word count being too long). Cut out all unnecessary waffle, be concise and to the point.

Second, try and do BOTH assignment 2 AND assignment 3 during the second weekend. During the week, you'll be very busy planning for your observed teaching, and trust me you'll feel a whole lot better having got both assignments out of the way early. Only a few of us did our assignments early, and as we got into week 3 we were very glad we had done so as the workload is quite intense by that point.

You will definitely enjoy it although you'll probably struggle to remember the last time you worked so hard - it was definitely a wake-up call for me after a year traveling and not working prior to taking the course!