Teaching English From the Edge of the Map (and Why It’s an Advantage)
La Réunion sits in the Indian Ocean, 9,000 kilometres from Paris and about as far from the London publishing world as a French territory can get. When I tell people I’m an English trainer here, the first reaction is usually sympathy — as if distance were a handicap. It isn’t. It’s a specific advantage I’ve spent years learning to use.
The island has a particular need: French professionals who must operate in English — for business, for qualifications, for careers that extend beyond the island — but who have almost no access to native-level English instruction grounded in a French-speaking context. The mainland has London within two hours. La Réunion has me.
That’s a small market, you might think. But small and underserved beats large and saturated every time. The IELTS student in Paris competes for attention with a thousand tutors. The professional in Saint-Denis who needs a TOEIC for their promotion has considerably fewer options. I am often the specific option.
And then there’s the remote layer. My CELTA, my IELTS preparation expertise, my Business English background — none of it requires a physical classroom. A Zoom link and a strong connection (and La Réunion’s fibre is surprisingly good) opens the entirety of the French-speaking world. Antilles, French Guiana, Senegal, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire — all markets where English is an economic accelerator and quality instruction in a bilingual context is rare.
ONE ISLAND, MANY MARKETS - THE REMOTE REACH La Réunion (home base) | +-- Antilles +-- French Guiana +-- Senegal +-- Morocco +-- Côte d'Ivoire | +-- what travels over the link: business, exams, legal, healthcare +-- the rule: anywhere French meets English
The interesting thing about being far from the centre is that it forces you to be very specific about what you offer. You can’t rely on footfall or proximity. You have to be the person who does a particular thing well enough that people seek you out despite the distance. That clarity — knowing exactly what you do and for whom — turns out to be exactly what makes an online practice work.
I’m a CELTA-certified English trainer who speaks French, who has lived the French administrative system from the inside, and who teaches from a place most of my students will never visit but which gives me, daily, the experience of being a professional operating across languages and cultures. That’s not a limitation. It’s the pitch.
If you teach from the edge too
Name your niche and context. If you speak your learners’ language, hold a CELTA, and understand their administrative systems and professional hierarchies from the inside, that is the offer. Don’t compete as a generic IELTS tutor.
Map your market. Remote means your students can be anywhere English is grounded in a context you share — the Antilles, French Guiana, Senegal, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire. Each has distinct needs (business, legal, academic, healthcare). Pick one first.
Be visible with specifics. Not “I teach English,” but “TOEIC preparation for French professionals in Dakar.” Specificity attracts search intent.
Teach structured lessons online. Task-based lessons work over Zoom for a student in Senegal exactly as they do for one in Paris — and you are offering expertise they cannot find locally.
Distance is not a barrier to teaching well. It is a filter: only the students who need your specific offer find you.
The edge of the map is not the end of the map. For some things — remote teaching, written work, specialised expertise — it’s just a slightly unusual home for a practice that exists online anyway.
I stopped explaining the distance. I started using it.
Related reading: Why I Teach: The Philosophical Case for Language Education, and my step-by-step guide to creating a teaching micro-entreprise in France.