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"Class" of 150 students
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Sinaman



Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
You got it wrong. The truth of the matter is that any job that requires you to sell your dignity, honor, or integrity is a job you'd do well to avoid.

It sounds as though the boss wants to make money in adversarial way, ie sell the dignity of the foreign teacher. If the owner was a better businessman, he'd work together with the foreign teacher to find strategies that do not humiliate the teacher and still make him money. He needs to think win-win.


Oh please, get over yourself. You teach ESL to young kids in China, what do you think that job entails? You really don't think that part of your job is to do demo classes with a lot of kids in them? I don't see how doing these classes "sells your dignity, honor or integrity" Laughing

If you see yourself as being above entertaining kids as a teacher of ESL to young children then you are in the wrong job. Simple as that. This is the nature of the job in China, no one is forcing you to stay and "sell your dignity", by all means, leave...


Quote:
Anyways, you cannot assume about people, and secondly, what can a student honestly learn when in a group of 160 or 200 or 100 equivalent to what they might learn in a class of say, 4 or 5?


I think we pretty much established that these classes are not for learning anything. They are there to show off the style of teaching and to show the teacher's teaching ability, which seems to be beneath most of the super skilled super talented "I could be a mega rich investment banker if I wasn't teaching ESL in China" teachers we have here.

Really if these kind of things "sell your teaching integrity" here is an idea, go back to school become an actual certified teacher and get a job teaching. You won't do this? Why? No money? It will take years? Etc, etc? Well then suck it up and do your job.

Quote:
Sinaman, aren't you in the EFL game still? Albeit it running a kindergarten?


Yeah, but I don't teach anymore apart from filling in every now and then or do demo classes (which I think are fun and make me a bit of a celebrity where I live because of them). I think there is a distinction to be made from the uni teacher earning 4-5000rmb a month to what I am actually doing
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Javelin of Radiance



Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sinaman's right. If people sign on for a job and part of the job involves marketing schemes like the one in this thread then suck it up and do it. That's part of your job. If it's not part of your job then no worries. And for those of you who think it's demeaning to be called into such service, I refer you to the world of clowndom where many famous people got very rich by making people laugh at or with them. I'm talkin about Bozo, Mr Bubbles, Doink the Clown, Mr Noodles, Krusty the Klown and even his European counterpart von Krusten.
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Sinaman



Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 85

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No one is asking them to dress up as clowns, but look at examples of children entertainers such as The Wiggles and Hi-5. They are not above entertaining kids but the sensitive ESL teachers we have on this board seem to look down on this.
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LarssonCrew



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 1308

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 5:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Let me put it this way, I'm a lawyer, and that's what I trained as.

Can you imagine if I get 160 or 200 company bosses or legal department heads from Xi'an into an auditorium and play 'law games' or a mock trial in front of them or mock negotiation to show my 'negotiation style'? I'd get laughed out the room. Why? Because how does it REFLECT what you can do?

Also sinaman, PLEASE read what I'm writing, why do I need to go back home and become a certified teacher when I teach 3 hours a week and use the rest of the time to work as a lawyer, which I've ALREADY trained as?
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DirtGuy



Joined: 28 Dec 2004
Posts: 529

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here's how things have worked out so far:

Got the boss to postpone the "class" for one week so that my co-workers and I can develop a better presentation. We have agreed to break the big group of 150 into 5 groups of 30 and we are looking at ways to have the groups compete with each other in some way. My primary job, aside from being a Westerner, is to demo and then practice greetings and good byes. Everyone here uses "hello" and "bye-bye" but they enjoy learning things like "later" and fist bumps. I will have both a whiteboard and a microphone but I plan to circulate amongst the attendees.

This is all well and good but I now find out that my boss has planned a series of 6 of these for the school, culminating in a Christmas party. It will be my job to plan the party. Don't have a clue how to do this but I have plenty of time to figure it out.

Overwhelming? Yeah, a bit but at least the boss and co-workers are all helping. Demeaning? Not really. This is just part of the game and I accept the whole package.

DG
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choudoufu



Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

xmas party is a piece of dangao. youtube is your friend.

download 25 or so classic xmas tunes (dean martin, doris day....)
for background music.

download 10 classic xmas carols with lyrics on screen. print off the
lyrics as well. (do be sure they match...) santa's little helpers will
lead the carols.

download three or four classic xmas cartoons (charlie brown xmas,
grinch who stealed xmas....) keeps the kids busy even if they don't
understand the dialog.

bake some xmas cookies and xmas pizzas.

order an artificial tree + decorations + santa suit from taobao.
santa's helpers decorate, serve the food, run the videos, and
do the clean up.

i'm afraid you gotta to be santa, but that part only lasts ten minutes.
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