Review: More than a gap year adventure – Martin Hajek

For those of you who follow ELT blogs, you’re probably familiar with Martin Hajek’s TEFL in Colombia, which has loads of good stuff. Martin and I have interacted a few times over the years, as ELT bloggers do, but one day, Martin got in touch and asked if I wanted to collaborate on a project he had in the pipeline. My interest was piqued, and I eagerly said “Why not?”. Martin explained to me that he was writing a book that aimed to help newcomers to ELT find work, whilst at the same time transmitting the importance of professional development, especially for those looking to move ‘up’ in the ELT world. He also mentioned that the wanted to collect essays from ELT professionals, and these essays would cover a whole range of topics, from attending conferences to starting a YouTube channel.

When I heard Martin idea, I immediately thought that I wanted to be on board, and that this project has the potential to really impact teachers in their ‘formative’ years. So, I agreed to ‘come on board’ 🙂 What follows here is my review of the Martin’s self-published book More than a gap year adventure – How to make a long-term career out of TEFL – although it will be a little different to my normal reviews, as I’ll also highlight my own contribution.

Three-sentence summary

Martin Hajek’s More than a gap year adventure is a book for all newcomers to ELT – it aims to provide an informative overview of what to expect, look out for, and aim for when trying to make a long-term career in ELT industry. Hajek devotes substantial space to exploring the ‘must-knows’ of the industry, ensuring that the reader is fully prepared to not only find their first job, but also move through the career ladder in ELT successfully. However, one of the most unique characteristics of this book is that over 20 ELT professionals from around the globe have included short ‘essays’ that provide the reader with a very clear and practical overview of how to become successful in numerous aspects of language teaching – everything from starting your own YouTube Channel, to finding work as a non-native teacher.

Favourite quotes

So, usually, I would talk about my three takeaways, but I’m going to change it up for this review. I thought I would highlight seven of my favourite quotes from the book – although there are of course many, many more!

“In addition to hiring people who should be nowhere near the classroom, some employers don’t know anything about teaching either. They just set up a language academy based on the assumption that it is an easy way to make money, but they have no idea how to deal with the academic side of things.”

Hajek, 2024, p.11

“In my experience, to have a sustainable, financially-viable career in ELT, I believe you either have to go freelance, or look for a way to move beyond entry-level jobs at language institutes and academies. Traditional ELT is broken.”

Bueno, T. in Hajek, 2024, p.107

“It’s important to plan breaks into your conference experience to give yourself time to process what you’re learning. The longer the conference, the more important those breaks are.”

Millin, S. in Hajek, 2024, p.130

“Traditional curriculums, especially in ELT, often follow a structured path that relies heavily on course books and the Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP) model. While these methods have their merits, they can fall short of harnessing the wide range of benefits that technology can provide.”

Moses, A. in Hajek, 2024, p.146

“The best thing about the DELTA was that I got to read a lot of the SLA theory, discuss it with my colleagues, apply it in my teaching, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of different methods and approaches. DELTA answered my Whys.“

Tsateri, R. in Hajek, 2024, p.165

“[Chasing likes]. This is one of the perils of blogging. Knowing that a post will reach a large audience and create discussion can be motivational. However, it might also result in chasing likes and shares with perhaps more formulaic content. Some of my worst posts have been the ‘clickbait’ ones.”

Clements, P. in Hajek, 2024, p.183

“When you first start making videos for YouTube, it may feel a little unnatural sitting in front of a camera or phone. However, after a while, you will soon start to discover a rhythm and develop confidence.”

Sketchley, M. in Hajek, 2024, p.193

What you might like!

So, I would be biased if I starting writing what I liked about the book – I am part of it, so I love everything of course 🙂 Instead, I’ve pinpointed four things that I think you will like about More than a gap year adventure.

  1. Doesn’t gloss over the details, and it talks about the realities of our industry: A quick search on Google about how to make a career in ELT will bring you to a plethora of pages that talk about how easy it is, as well as loads of companies that can help you make it big time. You’ll also find the ELT equivalent of ‘get rich’ schemes. Martin has done exceptionally well at highlight what early-career and ‘pre-career’ teachers need to know, whilst also calling out all the bulls&!t that is out there! ELT has its dark side, and is incredibly soul destroying in certain contexts, and people looking to make a career out of ELT need to know these things! I thought the brutal honesty and frankness from Martin and the contributors was refreshing and on point.
  2. Covers a lot of ground: When I started Sponge Chats, I wanted to highlight to teachers that you can make a career out of ELT – there are other avenues to take, and ways that you can ‘make’ it. Martin has done this amazingly, although through text and using numerous ELT professionals. A lot of focus is on the essays – there are 23 of them, and they talk about loads of lovely things. But Martin’s preceding chapters cover a whole lot of ground also.
  3. To the point and easy to read: All of the essays are very much to the point and written in an easy-to-read manner. They are not long, boring or long-winded, and more importantly, they highlight the different roads people have taken to get to where they are, whilst also providing practical ideas.
  4. Loads of really experienced and active ELT professionals: When I read the list of people involved, I was super happy because I knew that I was part of a project that involved really motivated ELT professionals that know their stuff (also, was really happy to see many guests from Sponge Chats!). Martin really went out of his way to get people who ‘walk the walk’ so to speak. He also did extremely well in my mind at getting a diverse range of ELT professionals, from a wide range of contexts. This will appeal to many readers.

My contribution – READ: A framework for engaging with ELT literature

So, what did I write? I wrote an essay on engaging with ELT literature – surprising, I know! Martin suggested that I write about this topic because of my reviews, and I had been wanting to write about how I go about ‘reading’ for some time, so I agreed. Whilst I won’t share my essay (you will need to get the book!), I will share the opening section:

“Moving into the world of ELT can be scary for many teachers, especially once they finally get into the classroom and start working with learners, other teachers, teacher educators and managers. One of the first things that occurs is often shock and a feeling of constantly trying to keep one’s head above water. In this critical period of a language teacher’s career, most find support in various formats such as speaking with other teachers and working with local teacher educators.

One other form of support that is readily available, but perhaps not engaged with as often, is that of reading. In this brief essay, I would like to expand on the what and why of what one might call professional reading, as well as outline READ, a framework that can be used to engage in professional reading in such a way that it impacts your practice as effectively as possible.”

Fuller, J. in Hajek, 2024, p.115

I had a lot of fun writing this – and seeing the end result was really rewarding. Thanks again to Martin for inviting me to write this essay!

Who should read this book?

  • ‘Pre-career’ and early-career teachers: This is the obvious choice – the content is aimed at those starting out in ELT (and in their first years). Another reason this group of teachers should get this book is that it is incredibly cheap!
  • Pre-service course providers: So, this is not a group that should ‘read’ the book, per se, but I do think that this is the group that should invest in the book. In my conversations with Martin, he made it clear that he would like pre-service course providers to take more of an active role in preparing teachers for the realities of working in ELT, to which I agreed fully. I think this book is a good way of doing that!

Final notes

Martin Hajek’s More than a gap year adventure does a lot to combat what I’ve come to think of as ‘teacher tourism’. He has created a potentially powerful tool that can be used with teachers in their formative years to best prepare them for the realities of our industry. I know that a lot of my readers are teachers with many years of experience, teacher trainers and managers, and so I don’t expect many pre- or early-career teachers to read this; however, I would really love it if you could all spread the word about Martin’s work. Also, I’d love to hear your opinion – feel free to comment or get in touch!

Lastly, I’m going to a leave the list of contributors here – you’ll see that many of them are friends of Sponge ELT!

Book details

References

Hajek, M. (2024). More than a gap year adventure – How to make a long-term career out of TEFL. Self-published.

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Published by Jim@SpongeELT

Teacher, Trainer, Manage, Blogger https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-fuller/

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: More Than a Gap Year Adventure – TEFL in Colombia
  2. pickronkholten's avatar pickronkholten says:
    April 15, 2025 at 4:48 pm

    regal! Analysis: Examining the Historical Context of [Current Event] 2025 superior

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