Job Discussion Forums

[pingouin59]

I read an ad the other day about a job in La Defence. The ad mentioned that the ideal candidate would have a good understanding and respect of local language, culture and norms. Although I lived many years in France, I don`t exactly know what they mean and imply by Norms and cultural, and language understanding . In other words How different are French professional students from their counterparts from other countries?

Thanks in advance to share your cross-cultural expertise

Gerard

[riverboat]

Interesting. As a teacher in La Defense, in my opinion its probably code for "we're looking for a teacher who is able to understand how to keep a variety of different clients happy". I suspect that by "local culture and norms" they could mean "the typical type of person taking English lessons in La Defense, and what their expectations are".

A lot of these people are used to calling the shots and being in charge at work, so can need careful "handling" in English lessons. Some need a lot of ego-massaging to get them to actually do any work in class. Many will say they really want to improve their English and are really motivated to do lots of homework etc, then will fail to ever do even the shortest set task outside of class. Lots of the time they are having an English lesson between two meetings, or in the middle of a busy working day, and you can see that their brain is only half in the classroom, with the other half still being at work. Some have very specific expectations of what they want to be doing in class and the type of activity that will be helpful to their job.

The "local language" bit is a bit strange - do they just mean they want someone who can speak a bit of French? Not sure about that.

This is the only place I've ever taught, but I think that being able to adapt your teaching style to different students is absolutely crucial for the job, and I know that in many of the schools here the primary objective is "keep the clients happy" not "make sure the clients learn something". These can be two very different things...

Anyway that's my take, but maybe I've completely mis-interpreted and someone else will have a different idea...