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cnthaiksarok
Joined: 29 Jun 2012 Posts: 288 Location: between a rock and a sandy place
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 8:58 am Post subject: |
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Balzac wrote: |
There's always opportunities if you're looking in the right place and have the right expectations! Just be prepared to roll your sleeves up and do your fair share. |
Well put. Have always found this to be true and things that first seemed dire, generally work themselves out in a decent way if you can keep your positive emotions outweighing the negative ones.
Not trying to be too hippy-dippy - Ie; still gotta' pull up your own bootstraps and sort yourself out sometimes.
Have a fairly similar situation to the OP's friend w/low quals, lots of experience and only a tad bit younger. Starting an MA online this week (as a matter of fact) in an attempt to quell those concerns. (Obviously, the MA is targeted for job searches outside the ME - and as a plan B.)
Lord T wrote: |
You know the industry is changing when middle-class chaps from the Home Counties are now expected to have qualifications and speak an oriental language or two. |
When I've been in the position to hire or comment on applications / resumes - I've typically expressed strong interest in some (even a very small amount of) language skill when a teacher has lived for a year or more in any given country. At the very least, some language awareness or even some degree of interest.
IOW, it says a lot if a "language teacher" has lived in Thailand (for one example) for seven years prior, yet doesn't list the language as a skill on his resume.
Last edited by cnthaiksarok on Thu Nov 10, 2016 10:02 am; edited 3 times in total |
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desertfox
Joined: 14 Jun 2015 Posts: 120
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 9:50 am Post subject: |
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cnthaiksarok - you have made some valid points. Every piece of language acquisition helps when Teflers are seeking jobs.
You are right - if one has spent a substantial amount of time in the same part of the world, then one's cv should include or reflect that some effort has been made to learn the language, or aspects of it.
We do after all put ourselves forward as language teachers, notwithstanding the fact that many teflers often fall into this type of career rather than seek it out.
Good luck with the MA by the way. You are doing the right thing. |
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cnthaiksarok
Joined: 29 Jun 2012 Posts: 288 Location: between a rock and a sandy place
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 9:56 am Post subject: |
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Cheers desert fox...or may I call you "Blanford" ?
Awfully nice of you to say.
And yepper - it's the right thing,..never too late to learn - never too late to up the quals, either.  |
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siologen

Joined: 25 Oct 2016 Posts: 336
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 12:48 pm Post subject: re: upping "quals"? |
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never too late to up the quals, either. |
Depends on circumstances/finances surely? |
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Lord T
Joined: 07 Jul 2015 Posts: 285
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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All this talk of 'culling' is starting to make me nervous.
I suppose we have to ask what it is we can bring to the job that
someone on a lower salary can't. |
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cnthaiksarok
Joined: 29 Jun 2012 Posts: 288 Location: between a rock and a sandy place
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 2:26 pm Post subject: Re: re: upping "quals"? |
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siologen wrote: |
Quote: |
never too late to up the quals, either. |
Depends on circumstances/finances surely? |
Was kind of hoping that that'd go w/o saying.
There are more options / opportunities these days that don't necessarily cost a lot of money but being "online" will almost certainly not be regarded in the ME. |
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Balzac

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 266
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 3:07 pm Post subject: Re: re: upping "quals"? |
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siologen wrote: |
Depends on circumstances/finances surely? |
To be honest, I don't think so. If you are serious about being a professional teacher, shouldn't you be investing in yourself with the aim of getting as qualified as you can?
There are many very affordable courses out there these days, both online and face to face, and flexible enough to suit anyone's timetable as well as pocket.
No, for me there is no excuse for not developing your potential and anything else is just laziness. To be a TEFL teacher 10,15 or even 20 years and not have gone from a first degree (in Anthropology or whatever) + CELTA says a lot about you. As a hiring manager, I personally wouldn't touch you with a proverbially large barge pole.
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Balzac

Joined: 14 Jun 2007 Posts: 266
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 3:17 pm Post subject: |
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Lord T wrote: |
All this talk of 'culling' is starting to make me nervous. |
Yes I fully understand. However, not upgrading your skills is like having a grave already dug. Culling will come your way eventually if you don't invest in upgrading your own skills.
Lord T wrote: |
I suppose we have to ask what it is we can bring to the job that someone on a lower salary can't. |
From an employer's perspective, we are showing that we are willing to invest in ourselves as professionals and besides, how can we ask our students to invest in themselves if we are not willing to do so ourselves? We are also showing that we know the value of lifelong learning and are also prepared to keep up with the demands and skills our ever changing job requires.
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desertfox
Joined: 14 Jun 2015 Posts: 120
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 5:21 pm Post subject: |
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All the posters who have emphasized the importance of upgrading qualifications are absolutely right to do so.
It is vital, especially in the current economic climate, falling oil prices etc.
However, there is one qualification to the argument that needs to be made. The job market in Saudi Arabia (I can't speak for the other Middle Eastern countries, but I dare say it is similar), is highly dysfunctional.
I work alongside a chap who is armed to the teeth qualifications wise. Everything and more that one would need for a teaching job, up to a DOS. When he applies for jobs he gets bags of interviews and bags of interest. He also gets bags of promises, very few of which come to pass. He gets very few concrete offers, that is the reality. He therefore continues to earn, for example, the same as I do. I am somewhat less qualified than he.
And I think this is where the problem lies. The OP's friend who has the BA in Anthropology, in my view has probably "got away with it" for years. Namely, that he got lucky once when the job market was a lot easier in Saudi and found a decent paying position. My guess is that through buttering up those who were supervising him, he saw absolutely no need to upgrade any qualifications that he had. He probably viewed it as a waste of time because he felt relatively secure and comfortable in the position he was in.
Now that the economy is contracting, chickens are coming home to roost. He can't complain. Like others in the world of tefl, he has had a "good run.'
But time to go. |
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siologen

Joined: 25 Oct 2016 Posts: 336
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 5:55 pm Post subject: re: hmmmmm |
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To be a TEFL teacher 10,15 or even 20 years and not have gone from a first degree (in Anthropology or whatever) + CELTA says a lot about you. As a hiring manager, I personally wouldn't touch you with a proverbially large barge pole. |
Well, I do not have a CELTA, and the only reason it is worth my time to get one, is it would open up doors for teaching in Europe. If I did not give a rats a**e about teaching in Europe I would not even bother with it. I think part of the problem is the BA the OP in question has, that kind of subject (Anthropology) is more academic by nature and something that I would expect to progress as follows: BA>MA>PhD. But in Asia that BA would not be a problem, in fact, it may well help the OP to get a better teaching job than your average tefl gig in say, China or Taiwan. To each their own on this one! |
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nomad soul

Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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siologen wrote: |
I think part of the problem is the BA the OP in question has, that kind of subject (Anthropology) is more academic by nature and something that I would expect to progress as follows: BA>MA>PhD. |
No, the problem with his degree is that it's unrelated to TEFL. |
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scot47

Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 7:05 pm Post subject: |
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But a degree in English Literature is ? Personally I would give preference to the graduate in Anthropology !
I would have more faith in someone who has read Evans-Pritchard on the Azande and less faith in someone who had spent three years reading Sylvia Plath ! |
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siologen

Joined: 25 Oct 2016 Posts: 336
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 7:20 pm Post subject: re: agreed |
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nomad soul wrote: |
siologen wrote: |
I think part of the problem is the BA the OP in question has, that kind of subject (Anthropology) is more academic by nature and something that I would expect to progress as follows: BA>MA>PhD. |
No, the problem with his degree is that it's unrelated to TEFL. |
I agree, hence why I said the OP should have pursued the MA route...then teaching Anthropology at home/abroad would also be on the cards?  |
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siologen

Joined: 25 Oct 2016 Posts: 336
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2016 7:22 pm Post subject: re: lit-rat-ture |
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scot47 wrote: |
But a degree in English Literature is ? Personally I would give preference to the graduate in Anthropology !
I would have more faith in someone who has read Evans-Pritchard on the Azande and less faith in someone who had spent three years reading Sylvia Plath ! |
What has english lit-rat-ture got to do with the price of fish? |
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plumpy nut
Joined: 12 Mar 2011 Posts: 1652
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2016 12:03 am Post subject: |
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Balzac wrote: |
Culling will come your way eventually if you don't invest in upgrading your own skills.
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There's a high chance of being culled in Saudi Arabia and it has nothing to do with real teaching skills. It has more to do with the stupidity, dishonesty and haughtiness of the Saudis. |
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