Job Discussion Forums

[Fancy0416]

I have seen a couple of postings from individuals who are DOS in China and Japan, but have never found a good job description for what they do. Would some of you who do, or have done, that job please expound on your duties as you see them (or would like to see them ?)

R. did a nice job with the glossary, but for a newbie (or worse, a gonnabe) there are many more acronyms that would be helpful to have spelled out. So, anybody want to take a shot at a more complete glossary, please do, I know I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Sherri]

Bear in mind that the job description varies from school to school. Here were some of mine:

--Overall responsibility for all locations (3 schools in Tokyo, 1 school in Osaka).
--Management of 20-25 English language instructors, 3 location-based ADOS: duties included recruitment, orientation and teacher development, making and supervising work schedules, working with Japanese management over contractual issues, evaluations and observations.
--Direct administration of 3 Tokyo schools: duties included setting up the academic term schedule, insuring the smooth-running of day-to-day operations.
--Development and maintenance of English programs and courses, duties included placement and level test development, oversee in-house development of course materials, selecting texts and supplementary materials.
--Management of level leaders and in-house working groups
--Work with the Japanese management to plan marketing strategies, brochures and other publicity.
--Conducting workshops at JALT (Japan Association of Language Teachers) conferences

[arioch36]

Honestly...not sarcastically, nut honestly, most "DOS" titles in China are meaningless. My personal experience is that school hiring foreigners for such positions prefer young inexperienced people who won't speak up when something is stupid. Who will agree to spend there weekends going to different school locations to promote the school or fill in for missing teachers. And when you add up the actual number of teaching, working hours, you aren't getting paid half as much as you really thought.

You almost will never be involved in true management decisions, text/class development, or anything of import.

My personal experience in China. But I think it is backed up when you look at the job qualifications for such jobs

[leeroy]

My old boss for EF (who's now working high-up in head office) had the following responsibilities:

* Not coming in because he was hungover and/or Man U played the night before

* Sleeping on his desk and sticking newspaper on his office window so we couldn't see

* Having drunken rows with expats in hotel bars then bragging about them

* Doing the crossword with us

* Bitching about our host country and listing all the ways it was inferior

* Commenting on all the big cheeses in EF that he knew

* Advocating PPP as 'the only way to teach'

* Vaguely talking about observations but never actually doing them

* Making sure that no students ever failed their test (we had the highest pass rate in the country)

Fittingly, perhaps, "to doss" is a British verb meaning "to be idle". Being a DOS for EF sounds great...

[SueH]

<<Fittingly, perhaps, "to doss" is a British verb meaning "to be idle". Being a DOS for EF sounds great...>>

Also N. - 'this job is a real doss'

Presumably originating from doss-house...

[leeroy]

To expand...

Noun: (a) dosser : (A person who dosses)

"He's such a dosser!"

Noun: (a) doss: An easy task

"Man, teaching advanced communication is a doss, all I have to do is sit there and watch them argue!"

Phrasal verb: to doss about: (To be lazy, over a period of time)

"Did you finish writing those tests?"
"No, the chief brought some weed so we dossed about and played computer games"

[fat_chris]

Man, I've been dossing about for the past few months. Time to find some work.

[Capergirl]

[leeroy]

Indeed capergirl - you have to be careful with those plosives,

To doss, meaning to be idle - and
To toss, meaning to make love alone.

Mind you, I suppose you could doss and toss at the same time, simultaneously being a "dosser" and a "tosser". Uh-oh, I sense this thread being deleted soon!

[Capergirl]

[leeroy]

Yep - toss and w*nk are technically the same, although I expect there are subtle contextual rules about when you'd use one and not the other.

W*ank seems a bit 'harder' than toss, somehow... (pardon the pun)

[Capergirl]

[Gordon]

My oh my this is an educational thread.

Don't feel bad, it was a new word for me too.

[Wolf]

I once worked for this Dosser,
Who I must say was a Tosser,
I would say that is rank,
Was between toss and w*nk,
Yet I noted his lack of Ballser.

[Fancy0416]

Wow, if you don't log on for a couple of days, seems things can really take a turn for the verse on a thread

I appreciate the input, both real and punny! Look forward to sailing down further streams of consciousness with the wits on this board...even if I am only dosser in comparison