Job Discussion Forums

[it'snotmyfault]

Thought it might be interesting to hear a few horror stories, especially from those with years of experience.

From my limited experience so far, two stand out, both in China.

One was a class of intermediate teenagers in a training school that I inherited. The previous teacher had been moved because the students complained that he was dull!
The class was 8am on Sunday morning, none of the students wanted to be there, no matter what I tried they were so quiet. Every week it was like pulling teeth.

The other was in an affiliated high school, where supposedly the best students in town go! It was basically full of spoilt brats (50 of them) who didn't have to try because their life was already sorted out for them by their rich parents.
After a few of the classes the students didn't even look up when I went in and started the lesson. I noticed it with some of the classes the Chinese teachers taught too, the teacher would be giving the lesson and half the class would be asleep.

[Glenski]

Toss up between the time I taught a class of elderly students, and one of them passed out, or the class with 3 students (poor chemistry among them, old man couldn't read at all and forgot his glasses all the time, old housewife had no clue about grammar, and young office woman was too shy to utter a single word).

[santi84]

Reminds me of the French class I was taking (in a francophone town) where my 90 year old classmate refused to speak French. It was really odd

[Ixchel]

[chica88]

[spiral78]

I must admit, students from the US are typically the most difficult in my experience over the past decade (obviously I'm not teaching pure EFL).

It seems that the notion of American exceptionalism has been taken by some (not all) US school systems and applied to every individual student. This translates to a policy of 'whatever it takes to help you reach your highest potential.'

If that means getting a resit on an exam that went poorly, fine.
Your essay got a failing grade? Rewrite, of course.
Basically, if 'I' am not winning the game, the rules should be changed.

When students used to this approach are studying abroad where standards actually exist, they don't necessarily have the skills to deal with actual rules gracefully (to put it politely).

So, my nightmare class?
Includes a US student who questions the fairness of institutional standards constantly, and publically, and including other students in the arguments.
End up wasting far too much time justifying what we are doing, and the standards applied to their work.

I'm afraid that this also applies to trainees newbie level EFL/ESL cert training courses in many cases.

[johnslat]

Dear spiral78

And any American who takes exception to your post and considers it offensive is, in my opinion, being exceptionally defensive

Regards,
John

[Irishdave]

My very first grammar lesson was a nightmare and that was during CELTA training! I still passed but was never confident enough in my own knowledge of that particular grammar point!

I have never sweated so much in my life in front of so many people. Luckily they were mostly Spanish students there, so they loved me anyway

[jaffa]

Worst: adult Aramcons, as opposed to teenage trainees. The most arrogant, lazy, rude and ignorant people I've ever met.

Best: Bosnians.

[fluffyhamster]

The worst lessons that I've had to teach were those written by somebody else. Mind-numbing warmers, or indeed main activities, along I kid you not the lines of Hangman. (A crazy set-up at a combined J-SHS in Japan had resulted in each foreign teacher having to teach classes in at least 4 grades, and nobody was allowed, and probably wouldn't've had enough time anyway, to develop their own activities for any grades for which they hadn't explicitly been assigned lesson plan-writing duties). The Japanese co-teacher was shocked when somebody from the back of the class shouted in their best yakuza Japanese something along the lines of "Get on with it and actually teach us something, dammit!". Word got back to my agency, who tried to hold me responsible for the perceived failure of those particular lessons (yeah, right ).

Mind you, a group of retired Japanese matriarchs led by one with a particularly fragile ego (who literally screamed with rage the one time - only one time, as the class disbanded themselves after that - she was very politely but necessarily corrected...er, it was supposed to be an English lesson?) is also a contender for first place.

Oh but wait, another has surfaced from my Bourne-like suppressed memories. Running round a kindergarten on a JET one-off visit, desperately trying to avoid a mini wannabe K-1 fighter who must've landed dozens of thigh kicks in total. Eventually the kindy workers hauled him off, but not before the score was a clear Japan 39-Gaijin 0.

If I think of more I'll post 'em.

[Glenski]

[spiral78]

[john123]

Interesting.

Best class/es - pre-sessional General English class mostly comprised of Chinese and Thai students.

Worst - virtually every single class in Serbia. Gosh, what a bunch of _______

[spiral78]

Wow. I've always liked Serbian students....they're serious about it, but definitely ready to work hard, in my experience....

[sokunen]

The first time I came to work in Vietnam, one of my classes was a children's class. The rule with those types of classes stated a Vietnamese teacher had to co-teach the class with the foreigner, since these kids were absolute beginners. Surprisingly (ha!), I was alone every time. I am absolutely terrible with children, and I couldn't communicate to them what to do since I spoke no Vietnamese and they hardly knew their numbers in English.

I complained to the other foreign teacher, who had been there for a few years, and he said, "Whenever they 'forget' to bring a Vietnamese teacher in, I'm not going to teach. It's pointless. I put on a video and sit there. It's unfair to the kids, but it's also unfair to me. I am not a baby-sitter."

I tried to do some games and some videos, but it became such chaos. At one point, I helplessly stood there as five-year-olds run around me, some jumped off of desks and kicked books around, others screamed and ran around, and I almost took a puzzle piece to the eye. It was absolute chaos. The kids were totally unruly, and try as I might, I couldn't stop it. Me against ten kindergarteners? It was a battle I always lost.

I drank a lot of wine when I got home that night. In fact, now that I look back on it, I believe that sort of became a pattern every Saturday night when I worked at that cluster%*#@ of a "school."