Job Discussion Forums

[sanadamushi]

Hi, I have taught English as a foreign language and as a second language since graduating uni. in 1995. Korea and Japan and immersion classes in the U.S. I started my master's program in International Affairs at Marquette (private school in Milwaukee, U.S.) in 2000 and finally will finish up this December.

It was very very hard to go from teaching at a company in Japan, great hours, money, students, to coming to the U.S. and not being able to find anything but back-braking work and the rigor of an academic program the likes of which I had never encountered.

Anybody else out there who has made the leap into a master's program from the teaching field overseas? Tell about your experiences, anyone who is thinking about it? I might have some advice for you.

[Gordon]

I'm doing my Masters now by distance and working f/t at a university in Japan. I agree about the workload, I am finding it more difficult than I imagined and have never been busier in my life. I understand what you mean when you work overseas, come back and not be able to find work or your work experience counts for very little. I think when I finish my masters I might head off to the Middle East.
Good topic, I wonder about others' experiences too.

[dmb]

I started my MA(distance) three years ago. I've finished four out of the eight modules. I haven't done much over the last year though(read nothing) It is so difficult getting back from work and opening the books.

[sanadamushi]

Personally I had never actually lived and worked in the U.S. outside of a university setting and coming back here with no credit history, made finding an apartment and buying a car difficult. I thought I had saved enough money 15k, but it was gone in 6 months. The best job I could find was 12$/hr and it was a warehouse job from 3am to 11am. I dropped out of the program for 2 years to earn money at a sales position, but never got back ahead and just decided to go for it and took a part-time book store job for 8$/hr and have racked up 25k in student loans.

To those of you who go back, I can't emphasize enough thorough planning and perhaps a savings of 20-25k at least. Gordon and dmb, sounds like you are still overseas and doing the master's, my hats off to ya, that, while difficult sounds like a better approach.

I am seriously thinking about coming back to either Japan or Korea, but like most of us, am tired of the eikaiwa/hagwon scene. Where does one go from here?

[Rice Paddy Daddy]

Are you guys serious?

Getting a course work M.A (and one by distance at that) is one of the easiest things most people could do in this business.

A monkey could almost do it.

WOW! 4 courses in 3 years LOL!!!

It's an easy degree to do - Calling them 'M.A.' degrees is a misnomer.

[dmb]

correct. It is easy. Just time consuming. And after work,sometimes 12 hours a day, I'm too knackered to do any studying.

[ls650]

[merlin]

I'm doing my MA with USQOnline.
Like most things in life it seems to give people what they put into it.
For me it's opened up a whole new world of possibilities, too many to describe here. But that's because that's what I wanted it to do.
If I had wanted to breeze through and not learn a thing I could have done that, too.

[Sekhmet]

Just out of interest, how effective is a distance Masters?? In terms of finding jobs, I mean. I'm currently studying for a Diploma, and that's hard work, so I can only imagine how hard the Masters is!!! I'm planning to do a taught course after my contract expires here next year...
I want to go into teacher training, and maybe management. The only problem is although I have some experience (2 years at the moment), I'm not sure it's enough. And bearing in mind how expensive it is to get a Masters, am I better off waiting and getting some more experience?
Thanks for your input!!!

[guru]

This monkey is really tired.

I got a Master of education degree, full time on campus in 1993. Easy! I'm doing my Master of Applied Linguistics (Macquarie University) by distance Ed. I'm nearly finished after 2 and a half years. I would rate it 5 times harder and 5 times more taxing.

Let's face it, at uni a lot of what the lecturers say is what already is in notes. Thus it's just waffle. At uni, you sit at class, daydream, write down notes you never look at again and forget what has been waffled aboutfor an hour. Then you go to work doing your assignment. Distance ed just cuts out the waffle and gets straight down to business reading, learning, research and writing.

Perhaps it is really the regular degrees these days that are for monkeys!

[atomic_donut]

I am three weeks away from submitting my final field project paper to complete a Masters of Social Science, majoring in International Development (RMIT University). Sounds ok? Well, it is a specific degree that is supposed to assist those already in the aid and development industry, and does very little to improve my prospects of getting employment in the same arena. Maybe I will not get the chance to use it properly, and it may become just some pretty letters and words on my CV. I am considering going back to study again in 2005, but concerned about whether I will be institutionalised in the higher education system for too long,with the fear of it working against me.

I spent some time in northern Thailand working as an English teacher to kids of ethnic minority backgrounds while completing off a couple of units, and it was useful to help me pick out some issues I wanted to touch on for my research paper, because I had time to look around and think about what I wanted to write on. Depending on the mark I get, I will send it away to journals (hardcopy and online) and working papers series to see if I can get it published. Next year may see me do either a Grad. Diploma in Education or a Grad. Diploma in TESOL, just to allow me to compete for a place as a teacher and have some knowledge about classroom management and how to best plan lessons for a specific audience. I have taught English in China and Thailand (I amin the inexperienced category), but this time I vowed not to go back again until I had a respected teaching certificate. It may not make me a real teacher but it would give me enough to work with to at least put theory into practice. But I am also having second thoughts about such a move.

I was able to meet and discuss teaching matters with some very good,wel lexperienced teachers where I was at by meeting themin town once in a while, such people who told of their frustrations of not being able to put their ideas into full use because of local politics. Then there was the case of some who got their CELTAs as a ticket to booze up and just notseemingly care about their job, title and responsibilities that go with it. In Thailand I saw a few foreign 'teachers' use their jobs to fund their excessive beer drinking exercises almost every night, and this made me wonder on how they can actually do the right job, especially if they insisted on using "youse" (plural) as a legitimate word, and if they would actually pass habits like these onto their students (I calmly pointed out that there was no such word, and that he should check his notes again). I actually got into a fight with one bloke over such a matter because he accused me of "taking the bread and butter out of his mouth". By that, he meant that I was stealing students that should have gone to him, which was unlikely, considering that I worked at a schoolduring the daytime and and taught kids who could not otherwise afford to go to school, and he worked for a private company teaching in evenings. Also, if he didn't spend so much on booze, then there would have been more money for bread and butter.

[merlin]

[guru]

For developing your professionalism I recommend the CELTA. The course at ECC in Bangkok is excellent.

The best advice for classroom management is trial and error and observation from experts. Ask if you can sit in on collegues classes. It is good for professional development (If they are a good teacher).

Just remember that some get into teaching English for the travel and others for the teaching of students, and others for both.