Job Discussion Forums

[scot47]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3325192/The-slavery-of-teaching-English.html?fb

[Sashadroogie]

Oh Scot, not this tripe again, please... yawn Zzzzzzzzz.

[santi84]

It's a sad, sad day when you don't get treated like a living god for being born white and English-speaking.

Here in Quebec, having a baccalauréat en enseignement de l'anglais langue seconde is the golden ticket to a government teaching job with a substantial salary (versus COL) and full benefits.

But hey, that requires five years of university and bilingualism. Those darn pesky qualifications. Imagine that? Demanding teaching qualifications for a teacher? Get outta here...

[fat_chris]

[sixthchild]

I think you need to bear in mind that article was written a decade ago (almost) would like to think things have moved on a tad since then, otherwise why are we still doing it?

But to be honest, NO LET ME BRUTALLY HONEST HERE, those fools who end up or even start working at so called language schools really deserve all the crap they get; usually woefully inexperienced or qualified they are at the bottom of the heap in everyway so:::::::.

[Sashadroogie]

Not judging the whole world by Turkish language school standards, are we?

Been there too long if so...

[fat_chris]

[sixthchild]

So Sasha, you telling me these are great places to work in? In fact is anybody saying that?

[Sashadroogie]

Language schools vary massively, even in the same city. The English Centre in Istanbul was a fairly good place to work, if I remember. Salary was low, but other conditions were good, more or less. ET, on the other hand was always rubbish.

But other places to work vary massively too. Even in Istanbul, can you really say that all tertiary institutions are better run than the likes of ET? I'm afraid I can't.

I could easily re-phrase your statements to the brutal effect that anyone who doesn't work for himself, avoiding all educational circuses, deserves all the crap thrown at him. Not so sure how accurate that would be globally, but is much closer to the truth east of the Oder.

[sixthchild]

Well what can I say Sasha, my limited experience of 20+ years fades into insignificance next to yours and of course I know absolutely bugger all about this wonderful industry we find ourselves in. All those people over the years I have met who at some point worked (sorry slaved) in one of these establishments were just out and out liars about the kind of things that went on in these places. I think less than 1% of them actually had any qualifications to speak of and really the more sensible ones either married rich or went back home.

[Sashadroogie]

You have 20 years - I have over 15. Not really important. But if all the people you have met have said the same thing, and were uniformly unqualified, this suggests to me that you have only encountered a limited segment of the teaching population of the whole world.

Notwithstanding that comments like that above about language school teachers are quite unkind, they are not even all that accurate. You make it sound like all language schools are cowboy outfits with no clue, while universities are paragons of methodological virtue. Dubious contention to say the least. I would much prefer to work in a language school like the British Council, say, than for Bilge or Isik University, for instance.

[spiral78]

C'mon. There are some good language schools. The good ones usually offer a reasonable, safe, and legal 'in' to the field for newbies and provide a reasonable level of support in terms of housing and remuneration. Teachers who don't want to pursue advanced quals sometimes stay put for years - and/or move up to DOS or other positions inside the language school.

There are some good universities. They support teachers with higher level quals with better pay and benefits than at private language schools. They provide a more supportive and challenging work environment.

And there are some good self-employment gigs around. Higher pay because there's no middleman. Often eliminates or minimizes the travel around a city to student offices. Time/opportunity to get to learn the culture of a corporation and to work within it.

And every venue has an opposite side.

There are some language schools that exist on exploitation of unqualified or unwary newbies.

Some universities we read about on these boards are clearly equally exploitative and unsupportive of good teaching.

And I know some self-employed teachers who are pushed to deliver far too many hours/courses/classes/materials in return for better-than-the-average pay.

There are simply no black-and-white truths in the EFL world.

[johnslat]

Dear spiral78,

"There are simply no black-and-white truths in the EFL world."

Well, yes - except for that one.

As I tell my students. "There are no 100% rules in English - except for the rule that there are no 100% rules."

Regards,
John 100% of the time.

[spiral78]

Dear John:

Yes, I also tell 100% of my students that there are no 100% rules in English:-) And newbie/would-be teachers should know that there are no 100% truths that apply to teaching. It's not a world for those who are intolerant of ambiguity!!

Best,
spiral

[Professional TEFLer]