A story of a native teacher

I arrived in Makassar for the first time in early May ’08 and was soon to discover that it wasn’t as small as I thought it was. I had just got married 4 weeks before to my wife in Surabaya, where I had worked for the previous 2 years in 2 different schools. However, I wanted a change to a different city and a new challenge. Some ex-pat friends of mine had told me that Makassar was an interesting place, with friendly people and had many beautiful places nearby.

My first impressions were ‘Wow, this is much better than Surabaya’. I went for a walk along Pantai Losari and watched the many boats and ships in the harbour and of course stopped and tried the local bakso. I knew then that I would enjoy living in Makassar.

On my first day at Briton I was immediately met with the biggest smiles and friendliest reception staff that I have ever met. I was then taken to many of the other Briton centres – I lost count how many or where they all were - where all the staff were equally as friendly and professional. OK, so Makassar is not as small as I thought it was and after a few hours in traffic jams, I was reminded of my time in Surabaya. 

I was introduced to many teachers in all the centres and found them all to be as friendly and professional as the administrative staff. I knew then that I had definitely made the right decision and that I really would enjoy working here.

I observed many classes to get a feel for the way that Briton teaches. I started teaching in 1994 and have worked in many countries around the world, with some excellent teachers, as well as some of the best schools in London, so I can confidently say that I know what I’m looking for when I watch a class and how well it is run. Well. I certainly had no cause for concern. In fact, I was very impressed with the all-round skills that all the teachers at Briton displayed. I realised that the reason for this was the on-going training programme that all the teachers here participate in. At least 2 times a week the teachers will get together for a workshop and share new ideas. All other schools that I have worked at in Indonesia are lucky if they do that 2 or 3 times a year!

The school facilities are second to none that I have seen in Indonesia. Every centre has a language laboratory with computers for English practise, access to resources on the Internet and of course to talk to their friends on Friendster 

I was also pleasantly surprised at the amount of courses that Briton offers. There were the obvious separate courses for Young Learners and Young Adults, as well as business courses - English for Professionals - but within these, they also catered for much more specific requirements which I had not seen in other schools in Indonesia. Briton has really developed courses to suit the real needs of their students and that is one of the things that sets them apart from the rest.

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