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ATTICUS188
Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Posts: 9
Location: NY
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 Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:42 pm Post subject: bachelors degree |
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| I am eligable to get a life experience BFA from an accredited Uni. My degree will be in film and television. Does it matter the course of study in which my degree is in to get the best jobs? |
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mlomker
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:19 pm Post subject: Re: bachelors degree |
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| ATTICUS188 wrote: |
| Does it matter the course of study in which my degree is in to get the best jobs? |
Best where? The best jobs are for certified ESL teachers or those with an MA-TESOL. For most TEFL jobs, though, it doesn't matter. You could live fine with an accredited bachelors in anything. I'd strongly encourage it. |
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ATTICUS188
Joined: 24 Mar 2007
Posts: 9
Location: NY
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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| I am still in the midst of researching places that would be best for me to start my teaching career. I was just looking for a little assurance that a degree will put me in the best of positions. Have you or anyone heard of the life experience degree before because in some ways it sounds to good to be true. You can get an accredited Bachelors degree based on professional experience in your field. If anyone could give me any feedback on this it will be appreciated. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:19 am Post subject: |
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| ATTICUS188 wrote: |
| I am still in the midst of researching places that would be best for me to start my teaching career. I was just looking for a little assurance that a degree will put me in the best of positions. |
A real degree would definately put you in a better position than having no degree. Having that degree in a related area would be better. Having a related degree, a graduate certificae or MA in Appllied Linguistics/TESOL would put you in an even better position.
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Have you or anyone heard of the life experience degree before because in some ways it sounds to good to be true. |
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably (and in this case I think definately) is.
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| You can get an accredited Bachelors degree based on professional experience in your field. If anyone could give me any feedback on this it will be appreciated. |
In an earlier thread, you wrote:
| ATTICUS188 wrote: |
| I have been a freelance production coordinator in the independent film world in NY city for a year and a half now. I am looking to broaden my horizons..." |
A general theory on careers is that it isn't one unless you have three years experience in the field. Before then, it is still in the 'tying it out' phase (that's why it takes three years to go from junior to intermediate/senior XXXXX in many fields). 'Freelance' can and is used in media to refer to people who are trying to find a job and haven't, or to include long, long unemployed stints as employed in a resume (ie "I freelanced as a graphic artist for ten years" can mean the person was self employed and had continual employment directly int he area for ten years, or it can mean that the person had a single one-week job in 1993 and then another one the next year etc for a decade while their real job was at 7/11 as a cashier).
Degrees are full-time three or four year programmes in most places. You have done one and a half years worth of work experience (assuming zero gaps between freelance jobs, which from what I know of film/TV work is not likely to be the situation). In some programmes that would amount to three placements and nothing else. I'm sorry to be so negative, but do you honestly believe that your one and half years of freelance jobbing is equivalent to a Bachelor degree (BFA) in film? I know some people who worked their asses off for four years (during which some managed to get up to a years worth of work experience outside of their school responsibilities by doing it for three months a year during the summer breaks) who would be pretty pissed off at that suggestion.
A possible translation of you being 'without a degree' but with a year and a half freelance experience could be: "I never went to university, or dropped out/ got kicked out before the end. I have been trying to get work in film for the last year and a half and it isn't working out as well as I had hoped, so I want to try teaching English overseas. Although this film thing has really been a bit of a false starter, I want to be given a degree for it, so that that way it will feel more like a training period, and I'll have mangaged to get a degree in half the time ***at the most*** that everyone else takes and I'll have been paid for it, instead of paying out thousands of dollars."
If you are serious that you want to have a teaching career in English language (as opposed to doing it for a year or two to live somewhere exotic), then you will need to do the types of things that other people who are making careers out of it do:
1. Get a real degree- not a fake internet/ Khao San Road degree
2. Get training to teach ESL/EFL that includes a practicum working with real students with a supervising teacher who can tell you what went right and what went wrong
3. Get experience that is valuable: experience teaching immigrant classes (which does not really mean being a conversation partner for an exchange student) in your home country (US, in this case) is valuable; learning the local language is valuable if you don't want to hop from country to country (although some people do exactly that until they find a place that they really like); working your way up by teaching at various levels is valuable; continued research into teaching and theories etc is valuble even if it isn't done for a formal class |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:58 am Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
A possible translation of you being 'without a degree' but with a year and a half freelance experience could be: "I never went to university, or dropped out/ got kicked out before the end. I have been trying to get work in film for the last year and a half and it isn't working out as well as I had hoped, so I want to try teaching English overseas. Although this film thing has really been a bit of a false starter, I want to be given a degree for it, so that that way it will feel more like a training period, and I'll have mangaged to get a degree in half the time ***at the most*** that everyone else takes and I'll have been paid for it, instead of paying out thousands of dollars."
If you are serious that you want to have a teaching career in English language (as opposed to doing it for a year or two to live somewhere exotic), then you will need to do the types of things that other people who are making careers out of it do:
1. Get a real degree- not a fake internet/ Khao San Road degree
2. Get training to teach ESL/EFL that includes a practicum working with real students with a supervising teacher who can tell you what went right and what went wrong
3. Get experience that is valuable: experience teaching immigrant classes (which does not really mean being a conversation partner for an exchange student) in your home country (US, in this case) is valuable; learning the local language is valuable if you don't want to hop from country to country (although some people do exactly that until they find a place that they really like); working your way up by teaching at various levels is valuable; continued research into teaching and theories etc is valuble even if it isn't done for a formal class |
Quoted for agreement. ATTICUS188, you're best off looking for countries that will accept people without a degree. Good luck on getting a "life experience" degree.  |
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amity
Joined: 08 Mar 2007
Posts: 72
Location: central Texas
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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Atticus188, you would be so much better off getting a real degree. It would serve you all the rest of your life. I know several people who have started off working the jobs no one else wanted, very low level jobs, but at very reputable places of employment. They displayed such a fine work ethic that their employers offered to pay for a degree (a real one) in a couple of years so that they could be promoted. One of them now has a great management position with the Federal Reserve Board, probably making more in a year than I will make in 10. She started "taking out the trash" at a very low level job for the Federal Reserve Board about 10 years ago. She was a single mom raising two small boys while she did all this, too.
I admit I don't think wearing a suit to work for the Federal Reserve Board would be my cup of tea, but the point is, find some other way. Don't try to take shortcuts with your education. Buying a phony degree would be a waste of money that could be better spent. Getting a legit B.A. is a long slog and we all know it, but there ain't nothin' like the real thing. |
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TravellingAround
Joined: 12 Nov 2006
Posts: 423
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:44 pm Post subject: Re: bachelors degree |
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| ATTICUS188 wrote: |
| I am eligable to get a life experience BFA from an accredited Uni. My degree will be in film and television. |
I've never heard of any worthwhile accredited universities giving out these kind of things. Can you name this "accredited" university? How much are they charging? What made you eligible...replying to their advert and answering a few questions?
In fact I have only heard of it from diploma mills and they are worthless anywhere that actually has standards.
Then again in some places they might choose to believe it but no of course you will not be eligible for the "best" jobs. They tend to go to people who have actually studied for their qualifications and therefore deserve them. Life's a real bitch like that sometimes! 
There are places which don't necessarily require a degree...why not try them? If you work hard the lack of a degree doesn't have to stop you doing well. Be careful as in many countries trying to pass off one of these "lifetime degrees" as an actual accredited degree is illegal.
Here is more about "lifetime degrees"...quite simply they are a scam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_mill
Forget about a bogus degree and get yourself a TEFL/CELTA. They will actually help you if you want to teach abroad. |
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wildchild
Joined: 14 Nov 2005
Posts: 519
Location: Puebla 2009 - 2010
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:39 am Post subject: |
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MA TESOLs are for those who did their BA in something else.
Do your BA in Linguistics. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:28 am Post subject: |
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| wildchild wrote: |
MA TESOLs are for those who did their BA in something else.
Do your BA in Linguistics. |
Linguistics is definately the most applicable degree to teaching EFL, but doing a BA in Linguistics does not necessarily allow access to the course topics in MA TESOL programmes. Language teaching is a kind of applied linguistics (speech therapy is another example). Linguistics majors at many universities are studying theoretical linguistics. At the university where I did my teacher training, the TESL certificate (approximately the same thing as a terminal MA TESOL degree) programme could be taken concurrently by Linguistics majors (but also by at least some other majors) with the degree. Linguistics majors were obviously at an advantage because of overlapping course requirements and already knowing the kind of thinking about language reequired, but if they weren't enrolled in the TESL programme, then they wouldn't be able to take required courses in teaching English itself (and so even though they would have a degree in Linguistics there would be big holes in their knowledge of teaching English). That's why jobs that require an MA TESOL or an MA Applied Linguistics don't say either one of those MAs OR an undergraduate degree in linguistics.
If I could redo it, knowing upon entering university that I would want to teach EFL or ESL for my career, then I definately would have done my undergraduate degree in Linguistics. But I have used aspects of my degree (humanities double major- 1. history and theory of music and 2. English literature including courses in creative and non-fiction writing) in my jobs as an English teacher, as well as electives courses (in fact language electives helped me do the TESL programme, it would have been much, much harder if I hadn't taken other languages formally in university and high school). But then, most people don't know what they want to do for their career upon entering university, and most people don't use the subject material they studied in university every day in their job when they graduate. |
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mlomker
Joined: 24 Mar 2005
Posts: 378
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| But then, most people don't know what they want to do for their career upon entering university, and most people don't use the subject material they studied in university every day in their job when they graduate. |
I think for people from the States a B.Ed. in high school English would be the best choice. As you stated, though, few people have that degree of foresight.  |
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John Hall
Joined: 16 Mar 2004
Posts: 452
Location: San Jose, Costa Rica
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| GambateBingBangBOOM wrote: |
| definately |
Just a friendly reminder about your spelling, GambateBingBangBoom. You did it at least twice in this thread.
It happens to the best of us. |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Who's the degree accredited by? Sounds like a scam to me. Give us full details and we'll check it out. |
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11:59
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 632
Location: Hong Kong: The 'Pearl of the Orient'
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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| I think it must be accredited by that most stellar of institutions, the University of Peckham, as presided over by Del Boy Trotter. |
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FuzzX
Joined: 14 Oct 2004
Posts: 122
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| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| nah that shit ain�t right.... forget the degree... nothing is needed to get a job in esl... this is the best job for criminals, nut cases and anyone else looking to run from the west. Nothing is needed in most schools. I dun even need proper grammar.... my students dont care nuthin. |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 12:36 am Post subject: |
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| Thrifty, is that you? |
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