Job Discussion Forums

[tekirdag]

I was working at Interlang...then it became ET. For various reasons I decided the leave...leaving went well, no probs with management. But my students cried. Cried. Even some of the men! I wondered why, of course. (I am not fishing for compliments.) I ain't that wonderful.

Now I know why.

I have been getting a lot of desperate emails from the students, asking me to come back. Really. They say the replacement teacher isn't good, they can't understand, blah blah. Both groups are complaining.

I worried this would happen. And I figure the students knew, too. Now they have a backpacker type. They knew it's luck of the draw at ET. You may get a good teacher, you may get a bad one. What about consistency in quality of education? What about quality?!

I have students writing me saying they don't want to go back to the course but have already paid a lot of money. They say they have cried. I feel terrible and I won't keep my mouth shut about these schools anymore.

[tekirdag]

One email. I changed names, of course. And no, I don't think it's about teacher's personalities...

[thrifty]

I completely agree with you. I would rather be a mobile caterer.

[justme]

Don't go, Tekirdağ!! Just because you quit teaching is no reason to quit wasting time here. I should know!

[misterkodak]

Tekirdag said:

Now they have a backpacker type. They knew it's luck of the draw at ET. You may get a good teacher, you may get a bad one. What about consistency in quality of education? What about quality?!


ET does have a consistency in quality of education. It's generally CRAP! Everything that firm does or gets involved in eventually becomes garbage. Then again, look at the "edukators" it hires. I kid you not one day we had this long haired guy ("I used to be like a ski instructor eh!") walk into our branch with backpack, torn jeans and t-shirt from a backpacker's hostel in NZ. They hired him on the spot. Then again, as I told you before, qualifications and experience mean NOTHING there. So, why am I not surprised?
I do feel sorry for students the most. They are the ones who get screwed the hardest. A group of us long-times at the yellow misery tried to warn the powers that be about the dangers of changing the books and system too fast. I think most readers can guess the responses we got from the geriatrics and the "biznizmen" that were in power at the time. Now they'll pay for it. I suppose this is definitely an example of "what goes around comes around".

[yaramaz]

I'd like to know why students keep signing up at ET if things are that bad. Doesn't word get around? If Turks are unhappy with something they don't usually keep it to themselves. There should have at least been a march down Istiklal, accompanied by riot police, when the books came out...


But really, if it's so dire, why is it doing so well that it's constantly expanding?
I don't get it.

[thrifty]

I get it. Just because the TEFLer community is relatively small in Ist and the word gets around-the same does not apply to the hundreds of thousands that may want English lessons. They still get TEFLer newbies as they will still get punters. The lack of any real alternative, the low prices, crass marketing and 2 for 1 deals mean loads of punters and the revolving door syndrome. They know their customers.

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

[tekirdag]

I have dropped in again...this is the bonus sh*g after breaking up, I guess!!

I got this last night from a student. I feel just terrible for her. I think this is unjust.
________________________________________________________
"unfortunately, i paid for the lessons of intermediate. i mean it's
impossible quit the english time and also same for my friends. i talked
with
the management but they said that they can't pay-back. i told you yesterday that i think you're a good teacher.
i
think i'll learn nothing in that school and i quit imagining to learn
something in that school. you know that i've an other school
(university)
because of that i hinder studying in english even when you were there,
now
"hepten koptuk"(we say in turkish) i mean now you're not there and we
are
unhappy.
Stupid mehmet get round us like you. i'm so unhappy that i couldn't say
goodbye to you. i really love you. i add my msn your mail
addresse.
take care. i want you to chat with you."
___________________________________________________________
See what English Time does to people?
I am not a great teacher. There are posters on this board who could teach circles around me while blindfolded. I am somewhere in the middle, above the Celtas, below the DIPs. I haven't developed as a teacher at all in years, I am coasting.

If I was the better teacher in that ET branch, my god, WHAT does that say about the other teachers? What does that say about the school?

I shouldn't get emails like this...the emails should say "ah we miss you, we like you, new teacher is good though, we like her teaching..blah blah..."

It is, at least, time for a little less English Time expansion and a little more quality control. Schools have an ethical responsibility and need more than a new lick of yellow paint. Please ET, look at yourself.

[thrifty]

Haven't I been trying to warn you all?

[teacherdude]

Tekirdag,

if u are a good teacher, such emails and complaints are the normal at schools such as ET and Int.

I sometimes get complaints six months after: "I can't speak....I forgot how to speak.........we dont understand our teacher," ........etc.

If these students complain enough, they will eventually get teachers changed until they find one to their liking.

These kinds of complaints aren't the first of their kind and certainly won't be the last.

Let's hear what your students say when they using those wonderful ET Books :

TD

[jamessmart50]

Tekirdag

I reckon save your tears for something worthwhile. Students love sucking up to teachers past and present. You just know they're talking to the new teacher - that old teacher - he was just crap - nowhere near as fun as you hocam.. the truth is, most of them wouldn't know a good teacher if s/he killed them and jumped on their graves singing hallelujah.. you need to get over it dude.. and anyway, why does everyone slate the backpackers as if they weren't of them once upon a time?

As for the 'new books' (and when are we going to stop calling them new?) - they're obviously just a laughing stock. Do they still have 'Harlem is a Mecca for drug-dealing and prostitution' Pete the Pervert, Molly the husband-murderer, Fred the Flasher et al?

ps - it sounds like that student has a crush on you..

[Sheikh Inal Ovar]

[misterkodak]

jamessmart50 wrote:
.. you need to get over it dude.. and anyway, why does everyone slate the backpackers as if they weren't of them once upon a time?

I guess most of us hate backpackers because WE CARE ABOUT OUR JOBS, we do have qualifications (more or less)and actually have ties that keep us here. We aren't here to doss our way aroundthe world and think that we are the be all and end all of the ESL industry because we have a cool accent and we can speak english. The backpack dude who they hired on the spot actually left on the spot 3 months later stiffing the landlord of the place he was staying and others.
I suppose that I could qualify as a "backpacker" since I did carry a 50 pound ruck throughout my last phase of basic training and during military time often carried most of what I owned in a duffelbag. However, I was gainfully employed and did have a certain amount of responsibilities. Still I refuse to be thrown into the same group as most of the "eternal tourists".

[Golightly]