Job Discussion Forums

[jasonconga]

now i've only been doing this for a little more than 2.5 years but it's enough to have some opinions...

BEST
1. you're a "good" foreigner
2. get to meet local people and form "relationships" with them
3. when a student tells you they had an experience where they had to speak english and they could do it
4. the pay (at least considering I'm a foreigner and there's 11% unemployment)
5. you get to speak your language all day in a foreign country

WORST
1. you can be fired at any time for any reason and you're not eligible for unemployment benefits
2. the present perfect tense
3. unmotivated, personality-less students
4. having to go across town for 90 minutes of teaching at your lowest-paid job
5. the disjointed, fractured nature of the English teachers as a group

[Mark Loyd]

Worst:

Pay
Conditions
Deadend job
Nutters as colleagues
Crap management

Best

You can always get a job
You can get drunk night after night and you still keep your job
holidays
easy to find a wife/girlfriend
Tax free salary

[Mark Loyd]

Worst:

Pay
Conditions
Deadend job
Nutters as colleagues
Crap management

Best

You can always get a job
You can get drunk night after night and you still keep your job
holidays
easy to find a wife/girlfriend
Tax free salary

[Justin Trullinger]

Worst:
Pay
Conditions
Living in foreign culture
the language
the students

Best:
Pay
Conditions
Living in foreign culture
the language
the students


It all depends on where you're working, and the kind of day you're having.


Justin

[ls650]

[Jizzo T. Clown]

In no particular order...

Worst

Uncertain future
People who use you to practice their English
Crap management (a.s.p.)
Food poisoning
Increased susceptibility to alcoholism

Best

Always an adventure
Meeting people from all over the world
Minimal responsibility
Travel
Availability of cheap beer

[John ELS]

[sheeba]

Worst - No health insurance .

When diagnosed with a serious condition you have to go back to England and join a waiting list on the NHS that is so long that your TEFL career suddenly comes to a halt or even an end.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Worst:

idiots who say things like "We think your country is minor. Please teach us Amerlika and ozaa countries" (I'm CDN)

idiots who say things like "Racism doesn't exist in Japan because there is really only one race in Japan" and then when it is pointed out that foreign language teachers are often from other countries counter with "They are not Japanese, so we don't think about them when talking about racism in Japan", and then getting the same answer when using ethnically Korean people who have been in Japan for generations as another example.

When these two idiots are the same person.

When you actually have to teach with this person on a daily basis.

When the colour of the flag on your passport trumps things like training and experience.



Best

(for the most part) the students.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

It's kind of hard to make general statements

that would apply equally everywhere,

but ... here in Bangkok:


the 5 worst


1. traffic & polution
2. unrelenting heat
3. mosquitos & ants
4. unreliable internet
5. people who walk slowly


the 5 best


1. great food
2. a low cost-of-living
3. never-ending summer (see #2 above)
4. friendly, fun-loving people
5. Chang Beer on ice

[Boy Wonder]

5 Best....

1.Arabic women
2.Polish women
3.Spanish women
4.Italian women
5.Greek women

5 worst.....

1.Over indulged, over opinionated Western female colleagues.
2.Backpacker TEFLers
3.Shyster bosses
4.Crap money except Far East/Arabia
5.TEFL geeks

[denise]

Worst:

"teachers" who use this job as an excuse to drink, party, make asses of themselves, and meet women abroad, without giving a rat's ass about doing a good job and representing their country/profession well

Best: everything else. (And yes, we opinionated, over-indulged western women can actually meet decent men, too! local boys and fellow foreigners!)

d

[Hector_Lector]

The Best - see Boy Wonder�s choice.

The Worst - you�ve read them. You�ve met them. You probably work with them. You might (I know the situation) even be involved with them.

[Gregor]

THE BEST:
1. Getting by in spite of an unfamiliar language (i don't know how I do it, but I do, and I am always so proud of myself!)
2. Learning (at least a bit of) that language eventually.
3. The job itself - I love teaching, and can't imagine having to deal with the bureaucracy of teaching in an American high school or something.
4. Outside of the West, I'm good-looking!
5. Never having to worry about not having money.

THE WORST:
1. Idiots/racists/etc. in this field who "...love China/Indonesia/Mexico/wherever, except that it's filled with Chinese/Indonesians/Mexicans/etc."
2. Unprofessional teachers (outside of 1. above) who think that they are doing whatever country a favor for being there.
3. Not being able to get Western goods/foods that i really miss.
4. Cultural differences (e.g. people spitting on the floor in a nice restaurant, Muslims closing down a favorite haunt because it's Ramadan)
5. Lack of legal freedom to make my adopted country my home (e.g. opening my own school; working/living wherever I want to)

[rossuh]

this is for china, but may apply to other places just as well...

the best:

the students
the culture
the ever-changing environment
the fact that no day is the same
the lifestyle

the worst:

trying to get things done/fixed
being treated like a foreign monkey and asked to dance/sing
foreigners who think they're the only/the coolest/the discoverer of the place and resent even saying hello
bad driving
short-termism