Job Discussion Forums

[Boy Wonder]

Here goes... click on the link and savour the sarcastic cynicism..because after all it isn't too far from the truth.
www.englishdroid.com

I liked it!

[dmb]

Did Swan and Walters really write that article about Mario on that link?
http://www.englishdroid.com/comeoffitmario.html

[dyak]

Haha... that site makes me cry laughing!

[leeroy]

This is a re-hash of a website that was around a few years ago known as "I hate teaching English". It seems that the owner has decided to re-do it - albeit not using his real name anymore. Very wise

[Deconstructor]

I checked out the site. It was hillarious. I couldn't stop laughing.

The best part: it's all true.

[merlin]

[basiltherat]

funny, yes. But its a shame that people can be so negative about this gig. I mean, I have had some great success stories doing this teaching thing. All right, the conditions we work under can be pretty appalling but its better than being one of the unemployed; of which there are a lot. I think you can take this job seriously if you want to. Its really up to each individual and his/her attitude to it and life in general.
Anyway, it keeps me off the streets.
regards
basil

[leeroy]

Simon Barne was his real name - I worked for EF Indonesia too, and knew people who knew him. We even swapped a couple of ideas for his old site on his (now extinct) yahoo group. If we're going to get tied up in specifics, I believe the URL was

www.simonbarne.com/ihateteachingenglish

I distinctly remember a lot of what is on his new site being on his old one - although there is a lot of new stuff here as well.

[merlin]

Ah, well.
I can't be right all the time, can I?

basiltherat -

[Deconstructor]

Most things on Englishdroid.com ring true because great many teachers are either pompous beyond belief or incompetent beyond belief, or both.

Most students, on their part, are:
A. Lazy and want things to happen really fast without much effort.

B. Work their butts off but only on grammar, are completely deaf to the teacher's advice who repeats like a parrot, "You can't master English this way".

C. Simply don't have the ability to learn any language and linger in English classes without an inch of progress.

D. Are pretty fluent and can do most anything in English, yet feel that there is something more to be learnt by being in class and expect this from the teacher who tells them to no avail, "You're done. Go home".

The teachers don't know how to teach and the students don't know how to learn. It is the blind leading the blind. No one really knows how languages are acquired, therefore taught. Most research is inconclusive. Haven't you noticed that those who master English, that is, develop a native like ability, never, ever achieved it in class? I call those who study languages in class FLATLINERS because as soon as they hit the intermediate levels they level off.

If teaching English were a truly reputable profession, there wouldn't be the mind boggling proliferation of language schools around the world and the one month scams like CELTA wouldn't be spawned.

[Twisting in the Wind]

I also read the original link. Hahahaha. Very true, but I also have had the best time teaching ESL/EFL. Yes, there are the lows, but I've also had great times playing games with the ss and seeing the ss's eyes light up when I explained something maybe no other teacher was able to explain to them, or when I held a student who was sobbing uncontrollably because she was homesick or his dog died and he was now all alone in a foreign land.

[Deconstructor]