I hope that everybody in the TEFL business understands that speaking a language perfectly does not automatically mean that you are a great teacher. By analogy, there are genius self taught musicians, but since they have never learned music theory, they will probably not be able to transfer that knowledge to other people. They are wonderful to listen to, but as teachers they might be absolutely useless. A person who knows ten chords but possesses the right attitude might be more useful to a student than a genius musician. In this post I'd like to talk about the kind of attitude that will get you far in this business even if you're not a perfect teacher just yet. 1. ALWAYS BE POLITE AND RESPECTFUL When a student enters the classroom, say hello, smile and ask them how they are. If this is a problem for you, you're not cut out for this job. This is a basic human interaction which is a prerequisite for this job. Furthermore, do not ask direct questions about your student...