Volunteer teaching English in Bali to encourage students by developing skills and achieving their future goals. Conversing with fluent, native speakers greatly improves student’s English language skills, a tool essential for future employment. The ability to speak English has become essential as a language to learn for Balinese people to move forward in life. As a result, it enables them to have direct contact with tourists, enhancing the country’s recognition and visibility on a global stage.
BACKGROUND TO THE TEACHING PROGRAM
English is a key component in both the formal and informal industries that exist in Bali, as well as the communication mediums that underpin them. This ranges from the schools, offices and banks to the shops and restaurants that make up much of the booming tourist industry in Indonesia today. Bali is a destination that has become not only a hub for tourists from across the globe, with its beautiful scenery and traditional authenticity, but is also recognised as an ideal location to hold international conferences and seminars.
PMGY’s volunteer teaching English abroad program gives volunteers the chance to really make a difference by opening possibilities of developing English for local children in Tabanan. The explosion of tourism in Bali means the need to speak English has never been greater. Though English is taught in school by a local Balinese teacher, the opportunity to converse with a native, fluent English speaker is invaluable.
Balinese people are warm and friendly. You can expect the local community, the staff you work with and the children you teach to welcome you into their community with open arms. They will be excited to speak with you and hear all about your life! Your volunteer work in Bali can benefit your prospects as much as it does the people you teach. You will come away with skills that are easily transferred into the workplace, such as leadership, time management and organisational skills.
TEACHING VOLUNTEER PLACEMENT EXAMPLES
Your schedule will be mixed when you volunteer teaching English in Bali. You’ll spend your time across the different projects where we provide free English lessons in Tabanan, with the main placement opportunities being arranged through the Akasa Foundation. Moreover, the PMGY Bali volunteer program runs additional English teaching projects across the year. Consequently, we can help to maximise the positive impact you have throughout the local community when you volunteer in Bali. Here are some examples of where you could be teaching:
Akasa Kindergarten English Class - The Akasa Foundation provides a Community Learning Centre, founded by Ketut in 2011. This includes volunteers delivering English classes at our Akasa kindergarten project. Until recent years, Ketut ran this within her family home. However, the centre now has a permanent location only a 5 minute walk from the Volunteer House. Having lived within the Tabanan community her whole life, Ketut had noticed a lack of opportunity for children from less well-off families to thrive within the educational system. Consequently, Ketut was driven to set up the Foundation and to seek the help of international volunteers. As a volunteer teaching English in Bali, you can support the quality and diversity of the knowledge that could be shared with these children. A major goal of the centre is to provide basic education to preschoolers from low-income backgrounds, in preparation for eventually joining school. Another is to offer additional education for students already attending school.
Akasa English Course - As part of the Akasa Foundation, the local team provides an extracurricular English course to children in the village. Students can attend during the afternoon to receive extra tuition in English. In turn, this builds their confidence with Volunteers in Bali. Originally, this project was part of the Akasa school. However, with increasing numbers attending, the Foundation opened its own Akasa Learning Centre to run this program. Therefore, the project base is now a 2 minute walk from the Akasa House. There are three different age groups including an array of abilities and backgrounds. This is an opportunity for you to get creative and provide engaging after-school lessons that excite the students and increase their love of English!
Elementary and Junior High School Program - As a volunteer teaching English in Bali, you will get the chance to visit several different Elementary and Junior High Schools. We currently team up with around 12 of these schools each year where we provide each class with around 3 hours of English Teaching from our volunteers, per week. These schools on the PMGY Bali volunteer program are generally located between a 10-25 minute drive from the houses by bemo. With general English taught by their Balinese staff, it is incredibly beneficial for them to have the opportunity to practice with other English speakers from around the world. Not only do the children benefit, but their teaching staff will also hang around during your lesson to pick up on how you pronounce different words and phrase sentences. This improves their practice when it comes to teaching English and inevitably enhances education for the students and broadens their prospects! The students are so eager to learn and are super appreciative of the volunteers, you will find at the end of some sessions they will show gratitude by touching your hand to their forehead as they believe that this will entice your wisdom to flow through your hand and into their mind.
Kaniva Hospitality University - During term times you may get the opportunity to visit a local University which provides training for young people wanting to work in the tourism industry. The students here have high aspirations and dream about one day leaving Tabanan to become hotel staff in Dubai, Japan and in the Cruise industry. Lessons with the volunteers help to expose them to different accents and boost their confidence in speaking English with tourists. Topics for these lessons will be provided for you and the students will prepare lots of questions to ask and engage in general conversations throughout your time with them. They are inspired by your love and choice to travel to Indonesia. In turn, encouraging them to really immerse themselves in your lesson to enhance their English and achieve their goals.
Timeus - For two afternoons each week, a group of older students will visit the Community Learning Centre. Alternatively, the volunteers will visit them. The students at Timeus have varying Special Educational Needs as well as eye-sight difficulties. They love spending time with the volunteers by chatting away about their favourite music and instruments and appreciate the extra confidence it gives them! Some are preparing to go to university, whilst others are looking for vocational pathways. Teaching the Timeus group is a great experience and will test your adaptability as you plan and prepare diverse subjects and activities that will engage the whole group.
OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER TEACHING CHILDREN IN BALI
Return Airport Transfer - Your return airport transfer is not included in your Program Fee. The most common method is to use a ridesharing app or private taxi service. Participants can often be travelling across their final few days and therefore are not necessarily heading back to the airport directly from our accommodation. The costs depend on your method of transport and your final destination. This can often be split across multiple participants if you are travelling with someone else on the program.
Major Holiday Destination - With Bali being our most touristy destination we often find that volunteers would like to travel as part of their trip to Indonesia. Being in a more affluent and holiday destination means that our volunteers often do not feel as engaged in the project work as much as they can in more developing locations such as Ghana, Tanzania and India where they feel a clearer need for international volunteers. Therefore, we recommend participants to potentially sign up to volunteer for a shorter period to allow the chance to potentially travel as part of their experience and if the volunteer project is of particular importance then to perhaps consider a more high impact location.
Experience - For the English Teaching program, teaching experience is not essential as the mere presence of a native English speaker is invaluable. As long as you are creative, determined and resourceful you can have a constructive impact on the development of the children’s education.
TEFL Course - We encourage volunteers to prepare as much as possible for their teaching program overseas. You can make the most out of your time by completing our convenient, inexpensive and international accredited 60 hour Online TEFL Course. The cost of this course is only 150 USD.
Resources - On the teach English in Bali project, resources can be very limited. Volunteers are recommended to bring materials to the project each day to maximise their productivity and day to day involvement. It is therefore important for volunteers to prepare well in advance to get the most out of their teaching English project experience.
Weekends - Your project work in Bali runs from Monday-Thursday and weekends are free (Friday-Sunday). You are welcome to relax and hang out at the volunteer accommodation but most participants will use this time to travel and explore the country. As a result, you can check out our Bali Weekend Travel Guide for top tips on how to spend your weekend. We also run two separate weekend trips which you can sign-up to before you depart for Bali. We offer the Gili Paradise Island Trip along with the Ubud Trip with opportunities running every month.
