Job Title:
Teacher of Bulgarian as a foreign language.
One Sentence To Describe Work Role:
To encourage and coach my students while navigating through the difficult field of learning Bulgarian language.
Number Of Years Dedicated To This Field Of Work or Lifestyle:
4
Category Of Work:
Self employed
Country / Area of Work:
Bulgaria
Industry:
Education
Type:
Employment
Key Skills For The Job:
Ability to constantly reassess your work and performance. Willingness for self-improvement. Excellent practical knowledge of Bulgarian and English. Excellent communication skills. Patience. Ability to simplify and explain difficult linguistic notions. Ability to see in your mind the process that leads to achieving specific goals. Having a creative mind and the ability to solve problems. Liking people and believing in them beyond what they do for themselves, keeping their confidence level high.
Vital Key Skill:
To be successful in this field of fork one needs to be able to think out of the box, to analyze the efficiency of work generally done by others and learn from it with the result of offering superior practical results.
Your Personal Experience Of Entering This Role:
Having worked in real estate for some years I got to know the expat community in my home area and I realized that one of the key needs the expats had was learning Bulgarian efficiently. After that, I saw that the quality and practical results of the schools of Bulgarian as a foreign language were not satisfactory. I always had a fascination about teaching and working with people so I decided that I want to work and prove to myself and others that it is possible to see better results. I found the best literature on the subject of Bulgarian and spent time studying. After that, I came up with my very own strategy of how to work as a self-employed person. Still trying to improve wherever I can. Most of what I know I have learnt on the job.
Tips For Undertaking This Work:
You have to by all means like working with people. Excellent communication skills is also needed. You must have high expectations for yourself but be very patient with others. Be ready to think out of the box and solve the many problems that will occur. You need to understand that there is always a better way to do the job! You have to be able to create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere during teaching. You have to keep improving!
Future Progression Or Developments:
I want to design a complete system of my own for all levels of teaching of Bulgarian. I want to present it online as a complete course and be able to reach more people. Possibly start my own school in the future where I train the personnel to work based on the principles and methods I have found to be practical and efficient.
Advice You Would Give To A Younger You:
All the advice I can give to a younger me is: keep believing in what you are doing! Keep believing in yourself and others! Keep improving and keep looking for more resources and ways to improve what you do!
What Are The ‘Tools Of The Trade’ Used Daily:
Good variety of excellent grammar and vocabulary books. Online sources for grammar references. I create for myself any grammatical tool that I find necessary (charts, sheets etc). I use apps created by others to help learners of Bulgarian such as Bulgarian Verbs. Zoom Cloud Meetings is an excellent platform for online lessons. In addition, I use a good cloud service to back up all the work is a must.
A Typical Day’s Duties:
Most of the days of the week I travel to different places for group lessons, I have online lessons and groups at my place. The time in between lessons I use to travel from one place to another and plan. Normally this takes from 9 am to about 8:00 pm. Between lessons I also maintain correspondence with the students.
Is Travelling A Regularly Part Of This Work:
Yes, it is.
Weekly Working Hours:
Full Time.
Type Of Hours Arrangement:
Flexible based on needs of my students.
The Best Thing About The Work You Do:
The best thing for me is to see the progress my students are making. I’m happy when I listen to their success stories about how they are able to do more with Bulgarian, how they are able to talk to the people they like and love. I am happy to see how all of this improves the quality of their own life and makes them feel more at home in the country where they live as expats. I feel very satisfied when I see my ideas work and when I see the results I am expecting.
Your Least Favorite Thing About The Work You Do:
The least favourite thing about the work I do is probably the amount of time needed. When you work for yourself you don’t have fixed working hours. Sometimes you finish late at night preparing materials or maintaining correspondence. It doesn’t really bother me though.
Any Duties You Hadn’t Anticipated Prior To Undertaking The Work:
There are no duties I did not anticipate before I started my business. My previous employment in real estate had prepared me to perform my duties in my work with people (keeping constant contact, good communication, constant pursuit of goals).
The Top Perks Of The Work:
Being able to realize the potential I have in teaching and seeing good results where people believe it cannot be achieved. I am thrilled to see people whom other teachers would consider unteachable (people with no prior knowledge or affinity to study a foreign language, sometimes of age between 65 and 74 coming from more than 20 nationalities from around the world) making progress where even they did not expect it. Also seeing some gifted individuals make tremendous progress in a very short time. All this combined with the satisfaction of working the best job I could imagine for myself and the freedom to do it exactly the way I want it done with the prospect and the adventure to always explore new ways of doing it, while making new friends in the process, getting to know other cultures and hear many stories.
Other Work In The Same Sector:
Teacher of English, translator, interpreter.
Additional Info You Wish To Share:
Changing my field of work has been one of the most exciting things I have achieved in my life. Before doing that I never knew the feeling of being happy and loving what I do, at the same time making my income from it. The feeling of freedom it gives you is unparalleled. In the process, I am so happy and pleased to see the life of my students in Bulgaria improve. My students normally become friends and find opportunities to meet online or in-person outside of the lessons. I love seeing that happen! I like the fact that my work creates an opportunity for people to go beyond the language barrier and help and show appreciation to each other!
Where People Can Visit For More Details On Your Work:
Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tarnovosolutions
