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Wolf
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 1245
Location: Middle Earth
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 Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:00 am Post subject: Places where we happened to have had bad/good experiences |
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| chinagirl, in the Best/Worst Nationalities to Teach thread, wrote: |
While I am aware that we all are entitled to our opinions, (and grateful that I have the right to express mine!) I have to say that I find this thread offensive.
I know that this will not be a popular setinment here, but hey, that's OK. Just had to toss this in the ol' meat grinder.  |
This is a valid point. Re-reading my post, I see that I spoke only from expereince, and said so much - and I didn't make a best/worst placeto teach list (whew.)
Perahps if we re-titled the thread "places where we just so happened to have had bad/good experiences" it might be more constructive.
Some teacher personalities just do not mix well with some student personalities. Some people have a tougher time adapting to cultures than others (both EFL teachers and ESL students.) There could be many a reason for such experiences, and perhaps it would be creative/useful to share them.
I'll add one more ancedote to illustrate.
It seemed to me that I taught most of my "worst" students during my first year in Japan. When I looked back at this during my second and third years as a teacher (different company but still in Japan), I realized that I was having the same difficulties with students that I had had in previous classes. A lot eminated from students not being used to a communicative enviornment and the "free booking system" that meant that meant students would come and go freely, and I could not design courses from beginning to end for them to attend. Over time, I became more patient/adept/used to/resigned to such a situation. The frustration I felt - and directed at my students - by degrees began to fade. Personal experience. |
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denise
Joined: 23 Apr 2003
Posts: 3419
Location: finally home-ish
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| Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:20 am Post subject: |
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I've had mostly good experiences so far--or at least good memories, when viewed retrospectively...
I assume that unmotivated/unresponsive/"difficult" students are as much a part of the package as are the good students, the "living abroad" experience, the learning a new language, improving as a teacher, etc.
Yeah, I do get royally pissed off at my students sometimes, but once I calm down I look back and try to figure out what went wrong. I more often than not end up viewing them very sympathetically, trying to understand their reasons for being, um, slugs/zombies. (Maybe you can see that I have not yet reached that post-pissed-off state yet!)
If all of our students were little angels all of the time, what would we learn? And our anecdotes would certainly not be as amusing!
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