Job Discussion Forums

[guest of Japan]

This thread has become a very clear guide to interviewing.

[shmooj]

I'd have to agree with Roger.

EFL is not a free travel ticket. You are messing with people's minds and you have to take that seriously. Some of your students may be meeting their first and last westerner in you and you have to take that seriously too. EFL is fundamentally about cross-cultural relationships and that is a very very deep thing. Terrorism and fanaticism are born when we get these cross-cultural relationships wrong.

For someone who was born in the Philippines, not knowing how to spell it speaks a lot about the person. If I was, as a DoS, trying to assess what cultural experience a candidate might have, mispelling the place they were born would show me that perhaps they haven't even bothered finding out about that country since that time. This kind of "cultural experience" then becomes a liability because it shows a dangerous kind of presumption about what cross-cultural issues really are.

Guest of Japan is right too. Perhaps we should make this forum into a kind of Room 101 interview process! Anyone who passes here would be certified ready to teach without interview worldwide

[jobe3x]

Who knows I may make a great english teacher.

Just because I didn't grow up thinking it was life dream to teach esl dosen't mean that I can't do the job. If I had known about earlier it, who knows I may just majored in linguistics in college.

I think I have a lot to offer. Having grown up being exposed to both chinese and western culture, I have unique insite in to what my students are going through. I think I navigate the two for my students. Since I can speak two languages already, I think I'm qualifed to teach a new language. I know what my students are going through. I didn't learn manadrin until my late teens.

I know I going have to get some training on basics of teaching grammar, lesson planning and etc.

[shmooj]

Jobe3x

You may well make a great English teacher and I seriously hope you do. I think all teachers are made and not born. I speak as a teacher trainer. So, there is hope for us all.

Now, the one key to this is to be able to learn humbly and willingly from those who point out your weaknesses. Strengths don't often get pointed out unfortunately so we have to learn to listen when people make comments about our weaknesses. If we sat back waiting for praise, we'd get bored and bedsores. Check out your namesake: Job 3:10 - trouble will find you out!

Yes, you will have to learn a great deal about grammar and to be very particular with your own language. For example, it should be obvious to you that your spelling is weak. Mispelling a word like "linguistics" speaks volumes to people in this field. Spelling then needs a lot of work if your students and employers are going to have confidence in your abilities. It is a shock and very tough when your students know more spelling or grammar or have better handwriting than you. But you can do it !!

However, the reason you will succeed will have precious little to do with the fact that you have experience of two cultures and can speak a couple of languages. Believe me, I grew up in five or six countries and it was hard work becoming someone I now feel confident to say is a good teacher. In all honesty, I had a great deal of pride from my childhood experiences when I first entered EFL because I thought (WRONGLY) that I was a better teacher than others because I had cross-cultural experience prior to becoming a teacher. But teaching in a country and living in it are two different things. I had to humble myself and learn again.

So, listen carefully to the advice here and if you take it to heart and I'm sure you will be a great teacher.

[dduck]

[jobe3x]

Yes, my spelling a little weak. But first drafts of any type of communication are going to have a few errors. At that point, your just trying to express the idea. The errors usually get corrected in latter drafts. My grammar in college earned me straight A's in all my english classes.

However, I must admit I rely on spell check a little to much. It's made me sloppy with my spelling in recent years.

[Gordon]

unfirchinitly thar iz know spillchek on da chokbord.
I have to agree with shmooj, just because you are good at other languages and know about cross cultural communication does not make you a good teacher. You may understand what your students are going through but it does not mean you can explain it to them.

[shmooj]

SUPERB!!!

He finishes an MA without having yet learned that misspell has two "s"s

Who is this guy???

THanks for pointing that out Mr. Lama, I'll add you to my list of enemies