Different career paths within TEFL: Volunteering on the Peace Boat

Have you ever considered volunteering as a TEFL teacher?  teflhub is running a series of articles and interviews to help you decide if you’d like to take the next step in what must be an incredibly rewarding experience. This is an updated version of an interview with the Peace Boat which is an international NGO based in Japan, now recruiting for their 95th voyage setting sail in August this year.  Teachers of English (and Spanish) help the international group of passengers communicate and in doing so, help achieve the Peace Boat’s goals:  promoting peace, human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment. To find out more, read on…

For 30 plus years now, Peace Boat has been sailing for positive change around the world! We are a Japan-based international non-governmental and non-profit organization that works to promote peace, human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment. Peace Boat seeks to create awareness and action based on effecting positive social and political change in the world. We pursue this through the organization of global educational programs, responsible travel, cooperative projects and advocacy activities. These activities are carried out on a partnership basis with other civil society organizations and communities in Japan, Northeast Asia, and around the world. Peace Boat carries out its main activities through a chartered passenger ship that travels the world on peace voyages. The ship creates a neutral, mobile space and enables people to engage across borders in dialogue and mutual cooperation at sea, and in the ports that we visit. Activities based in Japan and Northeast Asia are carried out from our eight Peace Centers in Japan. We operate upon the values of cooperation and solidarity, work based on civil society movement, financial self-sustainability, participatory and horizontal working system, support and promotion of volunteerism, and independence from any political party or religious affiliation. 

Given the wealth of opportunities that Peace Boat participants have to interact with people from around the world, it is important that they are equipped with the language skills necessary to make that interaction as fulfilling and meaningful as possible. To meet this need, both English and Spanish language classes are offered on each Peace Boat voyage; these being two of the most widely spoken languages of communication on the regular routes. Previous voyages have also seen classes in Russian, Vietnamese, Cantonese, French, Portuguese, Korean, and even Swahili. Peace Boat's onboard language program is known as GET (Global English / Espanol Training). GET is a communication-based program that aims to improve students' communicative ability and instil confidence in using English and/or Spanish through a dynamic combination of onboard classroom study, language based events and activities, and exchange programs in ports of call. Furthermore, the GET Programme embraces the concept of Global Language - language as it is used daily around the world as a tool of communication between people from different cultures and countries. For teachers, the program offers the opportunity to work with a great deal of autonomy, using their creativity both in and out of the classroom while enjoying the unique experience that is Peace Boat.

There are on-going rolling interviews about every 105-110 days as that is approximately the duration of one global voyage. About a dozen or so volunteer teachers are selected each time to teach to 100+ participants on board in group and private classes and then in turn, to teach larger open classes to all 1,000+ participants on the boat. In addition, teachers host informal chats, coffee talk and other more entertaining and interactive events including group excursions using their acquired language in ports, making short films, books, and the list goes on!

If you are interested in the volunteer language instructor position aboard Peace Boat's Ocean Dream, please visit us at: http://peaceboat.org/english/?menu=110.

Peace Boat's language training programme, is now accepting applications for English and Spanish language teachers for the 95th global voyage departing Japan on August 13, 2017 and returning to Japan on November 24, 2017. The Volunteer Language Teacher application deadline is 17:00 JST (Japan Standard Time) on Friday, April 21st, 2017. National interviews are scheduled to be held on May 13, 14 (Saturday and Sunday) at the GET Office in Tokyo, Japan. Interviews for oversees applicants will be conducted via Skype around the time of the national interviews. Please check back to our website as these dates are subject to change. For other inquiries please contact us at the address below, or send us a message here. 

CONTACT DETAILS: 
Address: 1-32-13-4F Takadanobaba, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-0075, Japan 
Tel: +81-(0)3-5287-3192 
Fax: +81-(0)3-5287-3193