Learning French in France with a host family

One of the most recent host families to sign up on www.xilfee.eu is a lady who has a separate flat for a student in France. It sounds an ideal way to learn French; visiting markets, eating locally grown produce and having, by the sound of it, a generally good time.
The cost per night is low and even after flights are taken into account, this should work out to be a really economical way of learning French in France.

Teaching English via a video - I like it!

One of my followers on Twitter posted a new video this morning which I very much like.
Short, sweet and to the point. I can't seem to 'embed it' so here is the link; Short learning English video
I am going to begin emailing all the tutors on our dynamic database www.xilfee.eu shortly and show this clip to them asking them to try something similar.
What do you think?

Host families for foreign students in the UK

www.xilfee.eu has 49 host families and tutors now registered on the site. Its interesting to see how much effort some families have put into their profile, nice photographs, a video, interesting information, while others have put very little information, no photographs or video and the spelling is poor on several as well.

Its also interesting to note that the ones who have made an effort with their profile and log in frequently so that they are brought to the top of the searches, have many more 'hits' to their profile. I also know that generally, these people are much more busy.

www.xilfee is a great way to advertise your services whether you are a language school, homestay tutor or a host family. At the moment its all free.

So if you would like to find more students to teach or to host, visit www.xilfee.eu, build a profile and enjoy the benefits.

Finding good host families for foreign students in the UK

Wanted: Host families for foreign students in the UK! I have seen many advertisments like these in the newspaper, shops, leaflets to the house. Language schools and local organisers who are often desperate to find good host families for their foreign students find it difficult to know where to advertise and how to get to their market audience.
xilfee.eu is changing all that. LO's, language schools and students can all advertise on this 'dynamic' database to find the ideal student or put you in touch with language schools who are wanting host families.
Its also ideal for established host families and homestay tutors with their own businesses, websites and advertising material but who would like to keep their profile high to attract more students.
At the moment its all free, so why not sign up and get started now.

Celta courses in the UK

I have been trying to find out more about good Celta courses in the UK for one of my host families who wants to go into teaching.
I have asked around but seem to have come against a blank wall. I've had one recommendation for a site but they only seem to offer the courses in the USA or Australisia which isn't a lot of good for my host.
She would like to go abroad to teach, somewhere warm and pleasant, but wants to do the course before she goes.
I am going to start a forum on xilfee.eu so that I can interact more with our readers.
Any recommendations regarding Celta courses will be appreciated.

Homestay students in the UK

Finding homestay students in the UK can be easy or difficult depending on your location. For many homestay families in London and Cambridge, work is easy to come by as these are staple tourist destinations.
Homestay families who live 'out in the sticks' or somewhere not so interesting, should not despair though as many students are looking for an ideal homestay family rather than a tourist hotspot and will choose personalities over all else.

When presenting details on www.xilfee.eu it is important that the homestay family in a rural or a location which is not hugely interesting, presents themselves to the best advantage by taking good photo shots and at least one video.

If you speak a foreign language too, even if you only speak a little, look at the camera and say 'hello' and 'welcome' in that language. You will be amazed how inviting that is to a student who speaks none or very little of the language they are engaging you to teach.

When you have completed your profile, ask someone else to look at it and make changes. View it as an outsider; would I want to pay money to stay with this family? If yes, you've got it right, if no, keep trying until its right.

You can teach English from anywhere in the world; so it seems

Looking at some of my virtual networking sites this morning, I was struck at how many English people there are who teach English but not in England.
Teaching English as a foreign language jobs abound worldwide and in the most interesting, civilised and uncivilised countries.
I wonder what other work could take you so far, with so little (in the way of baggage) and be so interesting.

If you are working abroad, teaching English as a foreign language, I would be really interested to hear from you as I would like to put your information on our website.

Adding video to promote teachers of English as a foreign language

I have spent some time today contacting various video suppliers to encourage the use of videos in host families and language schools profiles.
I believe that by seeing a video of a host family, a student will find it easier to make his or her mind up.
Teaching video's are also useful for homestay tutors to use as they give the student an idea of what to expect from the teacher.

Its a beautiful day today!

I wrote on Friday about 'the Friday feeling', the weather was dreadful, constant heavy rain, cold and just plain miserable.
Today! Well fantastic!

Anyway, I've just set up some tefl teaching for myself for later in the week. Someone in Panama which should be interesting as they are six hours behind us.

Here is the picture I was trying to download on Friday too.

Teaching English in the sun

I have that Friday feeling, the rain is belting down (its even wet for our ducks, they look miserable) and the weather forecast is nothing to look forward to.

I was hoping to bring you a lovely picture of a lovely beach, sea lapping and someone working on a laptop in a bikini. Sadly I can't as something has gone wrong with my photodownloader thing, so you will have to wait until its up and running, probably next week now!

Anyway, think about it, teaching English, on a beach, in the sun, with a bikini on (if you are female anyway); does it make you feel any better?

I hope so.

How to earn money by teaching English in the evening

I have been dishing out work left right and centre recently to people on www.xilfee.eu who have a profile on the site and are looking to teach English.
Some of this work is spasmodic, most of it not. One instance last week was a Spanish man who wanted just a few hours of tuition which has now turned into each night plus a recommendation to his friend. At £20 per hour and between one and a half and two hours a night, its a nice extra income. He is keen too. No teaching sullen 15 year olds who don't want to learn for this lady. He comes each evening prepared to knuckle down and take homework away.
If you are looking for work teaching English take a moment to register on www.xilfee.eu so that when I get offered extra work in your area, I can call you.

A shortbreak

Due to some unexpected problems with this blog section, we have been unable to post recently. I am hoping however to have cleared that particular problem & normal service should now be resumed.