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goldenfrost
Joined: 25 Oct 2013
Posts: 12
Location: ireland
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 Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 10:56 pm Post subject: I get really discouraged when I read articles like this |
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3325192/The-slavery-of-teaching-English.html
I know this article is a few years old, what is your opinion of this piece? I love teaching English as a foreign language. I only have two years of experience, but I hope to get further qualifications in the future because I like this job, but when I read pieces like this, I get down, because I invest so much enthusiasm in it and I worry that I'm going to end up suicidal and think all of this English teaching is a waste in a few years time like those people mentioned in the article. I don't agree with this piece, because it doesn't reflect my short experiences in English teaching. Sure the pay could be better, but I've been able to live on 1,000 a month and I want further qualifications, so I can be paid better. I know, I should take this article with a grain of salt. |
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Tudor
Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 339
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buravirgil
Joined: 23 Jan 2014
Posts: 967
Location: Jiangxi Province, China
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 12:58 am Post subject: |
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Despite a prior thread, I'll add...
| goldenfrost wrote: |
| Sure the pay could be better, but I've been able to live on 1,000 a month and I want further qualifications, so I can be paid better. I know, I should take this article with a grain of salt. |
In my opinion, what you have written is as concise and accurate an appraisal as is possible about the piece as a whole.
Taken in parts, aspects of it lay bare at least a few fairly grotesque conceits despite the author's writing skills. First and foremost of which is the title because slavery is nearly unique in its meaning. People indulge and extend sympathy to friends and family with analogues and oblique comparisons to slavery, but no endeavor involving free will and a paycheck can be termed slavery without diminishing a comprehension of its effect on humanity, past and present. Add to that a litany of occupations of equal pay and worse working conditions and the author's frame surpasses mere conceit to border on a menacing ignorance.
The first paragraph involves the body-shaming of a woman with a descriptive flare more typical of fiction than journalism only to further vilify a presented caricature by recasting supposed quotes through implication. Within an inch of column space, the author blurs the conventions of reporting with the liberties of a narrator to demonstrate little practice with either form. What follows employs anecdote, convenient illustration, and exaggeration to achieve concocted conclusions marked by sweeping and absolute qualification.
Likely everyone on this forum, however, can perceive seeds of truth to some of its complaints and know grains of salt are necessary to digest it. Language mills are avoided by most for many reasons the author experienced. But despite being "published", it's merely a grouse elevated by a novel means of distribution (now ten years in passing) and not likely to have passed an editor's desk before the Internet. |
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Sashadroogie
Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 5:07 am Post subject: |
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| There is little in this article to recommend itself. Ignore it. Don't be discouraged by this writer's foolishness and failure. |
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goldenfrost
Joined: 25 Oct 2013
Posts: 12
Location: ireland
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 8:53 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry Tudor, I didn't know it had been discussed before. |
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Agamemnon
Joined: 24 Jun 2014
Posts: 34
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| Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:09 am Post subject: |
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| Perhaps the author did himself no favours when he put the thing together, but more than a few places do exploit their workforce, not just in the TEFL industry. At the end of the day, if the place sucks then move on! |
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