DAVID'S A GOLIATH

The affable gent in the picture with the grin as wide as the brim of his hat is none other than David, tavern keeper at the rather splendid David’s English Teaching World. Judging by the vast scope and sheer ambition of his network of blogs, I imagine he lives in an extinct volcano on a remote South Pacific atoll, as the fellow clearly courts English Teaching World domination. He seems to spend a good deal of his time philanthropically promoting all TEFL-related blogs in the hemisphere, including my own humble jumble sale of shaky wisdom and myopic insights, garnered from over a decade spent wandering, with no little wondering.

What is refreshing about the big man is his willingness to give equal column inches to both the determined “TEFL is a serious career” crowd and the irreverant, back seat of the bus “TEFL is a lot like skiffle” splinter group (of which I am the self-appointed Brown Owl.) We should, I feel in my bones, be distrustful of anybody who seeks to attach a brightly coloured, Windows XP interface to TEFL, accentuating the positive and conveniently ignoring the darker side. After all, in working in TEFL, we are neither guaranteeing our sainthood nor doing the devil’s bidding – like every job, it has its ups and downs, its moments of low farce and genuine, heartwarming pleasure.

So, if you're busily looking for the TEFL lowdown, or even a TEFL hoedown, be sure to swing by David’s empire – just avoid Oddjob and be careful not to fall into his shark tank on the way out...