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manholecover
Joined: 14 Oct 2011 Posts: 7
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 8:01 am Post subject: Students' attitudes toward English in Colombia |
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Hi,
I'm trying to teach in Colombia this year and wanted to find out the appetite for English in most cities, especially on the Caribbean coast. Are students eager to learn English or is it something they have to do and do so with less exuberantly than say flossing their teeth? Are most of the English students at language schools or universities upper class and educated? How has your experiences been working with Colombians in English classrooms?
Thanks!!!
MHC |
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spanglish
Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 742 Location: working on that
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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Adults at institutes - extremely motivated, generally pleasant to teach
University students - from very motivated to fairly apathetic, generally very pleasant to teach
Teenagers and kids - from very motivated to apathetic to downright hostile, very difficult to teach in a K-12 context
At language schools you will have middle-class professionals. Universities will be upper-lower class to upper-class depending on if it's public or private. |
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manholecover
Joined: 14 Oct 2011 Posts: 7
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Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 7:13 am Post subject: |
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thanks, spanglish! I appreciate all your responses and advice! |
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Gregorio
Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 105
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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I agree with what Spanglish said. At the top tier colegios, there is a lot of money and the students all have drivers, maids, nannies, buttwipers, etc. The only adults in their lives that aren't servants are their parents. In turn, they often transfer this "servant" mentallity toward the teacher.
It's sad really, but this makes them difficult to teach and outright disrespectful, more so than in the United States in my experience. From what I hear, it is often more difficult in English classes because they plagiarize very often and don't seem to understand why it's wrong. I teach math and history, but I have had the same experience, just on a smaller scale. They often want to speak in Spanish, but obviously in an English class, this is only going to hurt. You have to be really strict and penalize them if you hear them speaking Spanish.
I would say that a class of 10 rich caribbean colombians is like a class of 20 average students in the United States, not including extreme urban/ghetto environments. |
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spanglish
Joined: 21 May 2009 Posts: 742 Location: working on that
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:22 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for your perspective, Gregorio! I put in a year at a very rich school on the coast - I definitely agree with what you have to say. |
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windowlicker
Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 183 Location: Bogot�, Colombia
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Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:06 am Post subject: |
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Gregorio wrote: |
I would say that a class of 10 rich caribbean colombians is like a class of 20 average students in the United States, not including extreme urban/ghetto environments. |
Every time I hear people say they want to move to the coast, all I can ever think is, "you have absolutely know idea what you're getting yourself into." It's not all surf's up and carnaval all year round. |
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G22
Joined: 25 Oct 2010 Posts: 89
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Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 6:06 am Post subject: |
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All of my students have been eager to learn. The people at institutes put up their own money to take classes and they generally want to get the most for their money. High school (colegio) students can sometimes be a bit difficult, but they generally become enthused if you make the lesson interesting. |
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