LANGUAGE teacher Ann Molloy recalls the time she had to enlist the services of a Spanish bouncer to separate two of her students from Iraq and Iran. “Life teaching English as a foreign language is never dull. It was a volatile class, but over time everyone bonded and helped each other which makes teaching English such a challenge,” she says. Ann, who lives in Formby, was just 18 when she took her first teaching post overseas and in recent years there has been a growing demand for English speakers of all ages to teach the language abroad. But the murder of the 22-year-old British language teacher, Lindsay Ann Hawker, in Japan in March, has raised questions over the risks involved, particularly for women. “I don’t know much about the Hawker case itself but common sense goes a long way and I certainly never felt threatened during my time teaching English as a foreign language,” says Amanda Mason, who now trains teachers on the TESOL (Teachers of English To Speakers of Other Languages) course at Liverpool John Moores University. Amanda fell into teaching by accident in her early 20s after graduating with a degree in agriculture. “I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do and went travelling. In Thailand, I needed to earn some money and they were crying out for English teachers at a local language school. I started work and I had great fun.” After returning to the UK, Amanda gained a TEFL (Teaching English as Foreign Language) qualification before returning to teach in Indonesia and Spain. “Once I qualified, it was much better. I got a post at a well-run language school in Indonesia with my flight paid and accommodation. “For me, it was my love of travelling which guided me into this career. It is not until you work in a country that you really get to understand the people and the culture. And when you are working in small groups, especially teaching a language, you find out so much about people.” Lynda Hazelwood, a language teacher for the past 30 years, agrees. “In my first post, I was very nervous as in those days there were very few courses about and I was taken on without any qualification in TEFL,” says Lynda, of Knutsford. “Fortunately, I was already a language teacher, but I was in for a shock when I found that my students knew more grammar than I did! | 
