Teaching Others: How Can You Benefit From It?

When you teach others, it can be a very rewarding job. If you have ever taught someone, you will know what I'm talking about. No matter who you taught, or what you taught, the moment when your student gets what you are trying to explain is special.

I have been giving tutoring for English for over nine years now. I had smart and not so smart students, students who wanted to improve and such who were annoyed at my presence. There was one thing, however, which all of them had in common: This special look, a mixture of pride and disbelief, when they finally understood something which had been a problem for them before.

It is the bonus I get for teaching. No money in the world could ever make up for the feeling of actually having made a difference in someone's life. If your student looks up at you and seriously asks you why his teacher at school can't explain things as easy to understand as you do, you know that you do the right thing. Plus, when you need to explain grammar rules to your students, you often learn something yourself. Or do you know every grammar rule and exception? Believe me, your student will ask you about the things you don't yet know.

I rarely ever made grammar mistakes at school, yet often enough I didn't know why something was right. It just felt right. When I started tutoring, I suddenly had to know. So I looked it up. There were still grammar structures for which I didn't find explanations. Yet, of course, my students asked me. And somehow, I was able to explain it to them.

You see, teaching has sharpened my own grammar skills. Learning so many languages has also sharpened my understanding of complex grammar structures. I started to compare and to think about it. Languages are logical to me. Math is not. Am I weird? Maybe. But once you learn how to see behind the language, to see right to its core, you will understand how it functions. And then you will be able to explain it.

For everyone who just starts giving tutoring, I have dug out one of my articles full of advice: How to Give Tutoring to Younger Children

If you know your subject (it doesn't need to be a language) well, why don't you start today? Get yourself the extra money as well as the other rewards!