Why Teaching in Mexico?

Mexico's beauty lies in its effortless grace in combining all of its faces: beautiful hundred-year-old colonial buildings, pristine beaches, mountains and volcanoes and air-conditioned shopping centers.

Mexicans are a deservedly proud people who are eager to show off their often-stereotyped nation. Of course everyone realizes that nowhere on Earth can put on a fiesta like Mexico, but this is just a small part of the larger cultural picture.

Volunteering in Mexico

Projects Abroad is based in the most Mexican city in the world, Guadalajara. Mexico's second city has few foreign tourists so you will be a novelty wherever you go. Mexicans are a proud yet pragmatic people. While holding onto their rich culture, they also embrace the opportunities that they have being neighbor to the world's largest economy. With their geographical location in mind, many Mexicans want to learn or improve their English as it is a gateway to many jobs especially with companies who trade with the US. Schools and Universities are seriously short of English teachers and this is where our volunteers are of real value.

Volunteering in Mexico

Voluntary teaching is beneficial to everyone involved. Firstly, it provides our volunteers with the opportunity to work in an environment culturally different from their own. This provides volunteers with an experience that is unique to Mexico and they will return home with a far greater understanding of the way in which millions of the world's population think and act. They will more importantly have an understanding and appreciation for Mexican youth culture and during their teaching classes will gain an insight into the way in which their students think, live and interact. Teaching will ultimately equip them with fuller and better cross-cultural understanding.

Secondly our volunteers are providing an important skill for the students they teach, that of conversational English. Having a native English speaker is a massive advantage and very helpful to the schools in which they teach. Both students and staff members alike wholly appreciate the language skills and enthusiasm our teaching volunteers bring to their classes. The students also use the opportunity of having a foreign teacher to learn about the customs and practices of the West.

We hope our teaching programme will provide an opportunity for two different cultures to learn from each other. In the 21st Century the importance of greater cultural and linguistic exchange cannot be underestimated. We hope to provide new language skills for the students in the schools in which we place volunteers and also for the volunteers themselves to learn and gain knowledge from the classes in which they teach.