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stupid of me?

 
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isa



Joined: 31 Oct 2003
Posts: 6

PostPosted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 8:13 am    Post subject: stupid of me? Reply with quote

i plan to teach EFL outside my home country in a little over a year. i'm eyeing turkey, to be exact. i have a degree, though unrelated to this field. i don't have a CELTA (or its equivalent) yet, but i do plan to get one by next year. in the meantime, i thought it best to teach at a local language school, just to make sure that TEFL is for me (also, to add a little oomph to my resume).

so i applied for a position and was accepted. however, upon spending a few hours with 4 other teachers at that school, i backed out. i found that they didn't really care about their students or EFL at all. i didn't want that kind of mentality to rub off on me.

did i do the right thing? or should i get used to that way of thinking?
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shmooj



Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK

PostPosted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good for you and good for the profession! Good for the rest of us who work hard to maintain and raise standards worldwide.

It may have cost you personally in the short term, but the long-term benefits of what you did and the attitude you have will reap rich rewards later on with your colleagues and students who respect you for the attitude you have. No one would have respected you there no matter how hard you would have worked.

You'll find your niche. The TESOL world is a big place. Wink
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lozwich



Joined: 25 May 2003
Posts: 1536

PostPosted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 3:32 pm    Post subject: Re: stupid of me? Reply with quote

isa wrote:
so i applied for a position and was accepted. however, upon spending a few hours with 4 other teachers at that school, i backed out. i found that they didn't really care about their students or EFL at all. i didn't want that kind of mentality to rub off on me.

did i do the right thing? or should i get used to that way of thinking?


In every profession you will find people who aren't very happy with their jobs. Sometimes, I think people are genuinely unhappy, but then there are other people who spend their days complaining because they seem to enjoy that, even though they would never think of changing their lives... Rolling Eyes

The most important thing for me is to do what I want to do, and at the moment being an English teacher is it. Very Happy When I meet teachers like the ones you mention, I try not to let their attitude get me down, and resolve to follow my path, not theirs. Although interactions with other teachers are important in the workplace, I feel that the students are the most important. Did you talk to every teacher there? Or maybe you were just unlucky to meet the miserable ones? In taking a job, I would also be really interested in other teachers' attitudes to the working conditions.

But mostly, I think its the most important to trust yourself, and if this school was wrong for you, then you most definitely did the right thing.

Have a good day.
Lozwich.
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Ben Round de Bloc



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1946

PostPosted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 12:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
so i applied for a position and was accepted. however, upon spending a few hours with 4 other teachers at that school, i backed out. i found that they didn't really care about their students or EFL at all. i didn't want that kind of mentality to rub off on me.

did i do the right thing? or should i get used to that way of thinking?

-- isa


Those few hours might not have been enough time to make such a judgment. You didn't mention how many teachers worked at the school. Were there 4 or 25? In other words, did the attitude of those 4 teachers indicate the majority or only a small minority of the entire teaching staff? Also, what situations did you observe them in to come to your conclusion about them? Letting off steam in the teachers' lounge? Teaching in class? Working 1-on-1 with students? The day after they found out they were getting a pay cut, larger classes, and a bunch of extra duties added on?

My concern is that first impressions aren't always accurate. For example, at the school where I work, if a visitor spent a couple of hours with the right group of teachers on the right day at the right time and really didn't know them, he/she could come to the conclusion that nobody there cared about students and EFL. However, based on my 30 years as a teacher, I'd have to say that my current school has an extremely high percentage of caring and dedicated teachers.

Lozwich's response:
Quote:
But mostly, I think its the most important to trust yourself, and if this school was wrong for you, then you most definitely did the right thing.


As the bottom line, I agree with Lozwich's response. If you felt that uncomfortable about the atmosphere of the school and the possibility of working with those 4 teachers, it was best that you went with that feeling and backed out. However, as you go through the process of finding the right first EFL teaching job for you, try not to be too quick to judge.
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dmb



Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 8397

PostPosted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Get your CELTA and go to Turkey. It's a great place for a first teaching position. I did it 12 years ago and have no regrets
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