Cross-Cultural Training
The Via Lingua TEFL Certificate Course includes vital concepts and strategic skills to live and teach effectively abroad. Trainees learn a variety of cross-cultural skills with which to analyze different cultures, as well as their own. This awareness leads to a deeper understanding of self, others, and the world around us; most importantly, it expands perspectives and allows us to see the world from other cultural viewpoints.
As teachers, cross-cultural training involves not only learning about the place you have traveled to, but making authentic comparisons to what you have known before. Inside and outside the classroom, your beliefs and values constantly shape your professional and personal development. The goal is learning about yourself and those around you. Your students, of course, want to learn the language of English, and you will want to learn the language of cultures: yours and theirs!
In our cross-cultural training and mentoring, the goal is learning about yourself and others. Just as you will want to learn another language in order to communicate with the local population and understand the new world around you, so you will want to learn the silent language of cultures, your own and your host country's, that are constantly crossing each other's paths.
The Via Lingua TEFL Program empowers you to appreciate the differences between your culture and the local one, thereby increasing your understanding, respect and enjoyment of the local environment. These skills, along with your classroom teacher-training, are powerful and life-changing. After all, this is global citizenship, truly being part of and interacting with the local culture.