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[checkmate]

I have posted a number of responses and messages here over a time defending what I believed which was to make a difference.
It seems I have learned a single truth about education. It simply doesn't exist.
No one cares least of all the students particularly those from affluent families. They or at least their families believe that their wealth gives them impunity to responsible action and they can do what they want, to anyone at anytime.
Concepts such as Strength, Courage, Discipline and honour are foreign to them and have no meaning.
Economic prosperity has brought the dark side of capitalism to China. It has brough only greed, deceit, selfishness and arrogance.
English education mania that is sweeping the country is suffering the same symptoms and is being propergated by slick (or maybe not so slick) business people who have openly said they are in the business of making money but service and quality of education is not important.
These are affectionately called English training centers where students are misled, parents take information literally and no one is accountable.
Students both old and young are led to believe in their expectations (which is what they think they can do) rather then their ability ( what they can actually do) and when they fail it is never their fault. The teacher wasn't active enough, the teacher didnt play games, its too hot, its too cold, the lesson was boring, I didnt get enough time to talk and a myriad of other excuses except the ones that matter. did you study, no, did you do your homework no, do you speak english at home or at school or anywhere else except in the 80 - 120 minutes a week you have with 10 other students in this class and the answers is still NO.
Training centers are set up in high density residential areas with no play areas, outside activities, social skill programs, just small ill equipped classrooms with limited and usually rehashed material from other sources
definitely under qualified personnel in most administrative roles, over indulged spoilt children, arrogant and under educated parents, greedy owners and investors using slick advertising that promises a lot and gives nothing.
How do I know because ladies and gentleman coming up for your reading entertainment will be .... Confessions of A Branch Center Manager.
containing all you ever wanted to know about managing a training center. A behind the scenes look at all the tricks of the trade, From inflating your schools image, exaggerated advertising, the dancing monkeys, slight of hand, and the ever popular "Don't worry-trust me".
Coming soon to a message board near you

[lostinasia]

Under the proper circumstances you, the teacher, can make things right, if you do your job well - I can get most people to honestly learn - though it may not appear so to them.

The work environment is of issue. I teach only university; though I did some volunteer kindergarten and elementary school lessons on occasion. Anyone who puts up with this whole "dancing monkey" garbage should .... well shouldn't even be a teacher.

The teacher/profession needs to act properly and not put up with such insufficient standards... And to be blunt, such views of the "culture" of education should simply go home.

I enjoy my job and my students are far better for the experience - even the ones who have no brains, had the lowest entrance exam scores, and those who don't want to be there - I guarantee that they have learned useful information.

** insert pat on the back here ** haha

[william wallace]

Welcome to reality !!! Now, you leave and someone (actually about 500-1000) are arriving as I post, with your old attitude, and will try and try, and then find some physical or mental distraction for the 12-36 months stint in China ESL ,become enlightened, leave and new folks will arrive, accept less pay,more hours and gonna make a difference attitude all over again around it'll go again-The P.T. Barnum effect.

I've said (right ? You few rare fellow long-term ESL-ers) that I'm leaving for the past 3 years(here on Dave's, in reality 4-5) Why ?The simplest answer is when I try my best to help a student, I find I may be going against this society, the parents, the administration, other Fts, the foreign puppet management (DOS') and what have you....I do it, as that is my nature,but I am a fool-EVEN my wife thinks so. The only recourse I've found, as I gather myself to leave, is to only work within EAP, which is primarily focused on IELTS and iBT TOEFL, PET etc..

Fellow ESL-ers (that I respect)have told me to get B.Ed, PCGE, linguistic oriented degrees...but,being in an international school here would be too close to what I've seen here all these years. No I will get a degree in what I like and wash floors in Canada,if need be.
Congrats!

P.S. With all the salesmanship that I've used and needed,if that had been applied to being a used car salesman - "I'd be rich" BNL

[james s]

I have a question regarding the dancing monkey issue:

what would you do if you were working hard and had a ton of experience in esl and then one day, a kid fresh of the boat jumps into your school and sings and plays the guitar?

Nothing. Me neither.

Lets say that he cant spell AND earns the same $ as you with no formal education. NOW what would you do?

This frustrated me. How could I earn the same as a monkey? I tried. I honestly worked hard.

So many monkeys earned the same or similar to me.

[SnoopBot]

[upchuckles]

Hahahha.. I've said the same thing many times.. Especially for those folks who keep railing on the idea that those higher paid salaries should apply to everyone, newbies and veteran ESLrs alike..

[SnoopBot]

[william wallace]

As we (above folks I THINK would agree) it's not just a China thing, the West is doing it too, heck, maybe they're the cause.
Never ever here, was standard oral ESL good (it was novel in 93-98, and had some glamor,but only because it was new, pay was poor),but when the BC opened up IELTS we Examiners were treated as somewhat important, and the IELTS related industry acted accordingly.the the went from having 14 Examiners to 140.Training stopped, management exploded in numbers, and so did the commands from that huge management team.As it was piece work, the total income started to slide, as work wasn't as plentiful (14 workers to 140+ ,no wonder!).They started charging for the initial training(500 RMB, then 1000RMB, now ?), and the IELTS schools payment to us went from 400 RMB to what anyone else would get. My point is: In this case, it was a Western CHARITY( the British Council ) that started this particular ball rolling downhill.

[lostinasia]

[vikuk]

[william wallace]

The "real jobs" started vanishing back in the 1970's when the factories relocated, mines closed,computers replaced those mundane jobs. Now, we only call elite jobs the "real jobs"; do you honestly believe that a society can have a majority of elite jobs ? Doesn't the US of A have a surplus of lawyers?

2007 CIA World Factbook: Population below poverty line
#1 Zambia 86%
#6 Angola 70%
#13 Bolivia 65% (an ESL country)
#17 Nigeria 60% (lots of these folks doing ESL in China)
#22 Peru 54% (another ESL market)
#31 South Africa 50% ( Native English country,and hometown of "Roger")
#32 Kenya 50% ( lots of these folks teaching ESL here)
#50 Philippines 40% ( teach ESL, and work abroad by the loads)
#51 Mexico 40% (ESL market)
#92 India 25% (English call center haven)
#114 Indonesia 17.8% (former big ESL market)
#115 United Kingdom 17%
#116 Poland 17%
#117 Canada 15.9 %
#118 South Korea 15%( Canadian ESL homeland)
#120 Bulgaria 14.1%
#121 Slovenia 12.9 %
#122 United States 12%
#123 Syria 11.9%
#128 China 10%(but dubious)
#130 Thailand 10%
#135 France 6.2 %
#140 Belgium 4%
#141 Taiwan 0.9 %(huge ESL market)

THATS why ESL is growing, regardless of stagnant or falling salaries.

[Shan-Shan]

Was at a bus stop, displaying what I thought to be obvious "do not bother me" signs: wearing sunglasses which, according to a few people's assessments, transform me from "foreigner" to "a foreigner who looks like he wants to kill someone"; displaying a mild sneer; smoking and paying an unusual amount of attention to the clouds streaming from my mouth.

Yet still with all these prickly needles I attached to my self, a 40+ year old woman (who claimed to be 27 after pleading with me to guess her age) just had to ignore my subtle (obviously too subtle) pleas to not interrupt my "moment" with myself before the bus and all its bursting sweaty appendages arrived to take me home....

Her: (walking up to me at the bus stop) "Hi, I'm Mary. My school needs a new teacher. Are you a teacher?"

Me: (without the slightest bit of enthusiasm or willingness to display a modicum of friendliness): No.

Her: "Oh, well, that's okay. Do you like to teach English? I think you are a really good teacher!"

Me: (still with the same amount of disdain in my voice): No

Her: "Why? You can speak English! That's so wonderful. I've been studying English for eight years. I love English! You are a native speaker! Why don't you come to our school? Can you tell me your cell number?

Me: I lost my phone yesterday.

Her: "How about your home number"

Me: Don't got one

Her: "Now, how can I get in contact with you and invite you to teach at our school....



Just a flash of white skin and some places -- sure, the least savory of places, but still supposed "places of learning -- salivate, and will persist for some time if refused the chance to sprinkle a little Western seasoning on their students' mounds of mushy English slop.

"Mary" only went away after my bus arrived. In five minutes, she related tales about wanting to immigrate abroad, showed me the 20 cm long scar on her arm, asked if I could "introduce" her students to some US universities, and also questioned why I wasn't going to my girlfriend's home after I told her I was "going somewhere". I swear, it was the longest anyone has ever talked at me and my stony mien.

It is a strange sensation being objectified like this, of being "English" and "Teacher" only because of skin colour and nose measurements.

[william wallace]

Shan-Shan, been there, done that, but without having that attitude.
Thanks!!!

[Shan-Shan]

The "attitude" was very conscious, and contrived, and was adopted to see how persistent the person would be when up against sharp silence and a sneer.

And like many times before, times when I've intentionally acted the cracker bumpkin, the ludicrously polite, something less abnormal, the angry, the arrogant or the aloof (at various temperatures), the response from those wanting to "give" me a job or practice their English "at" me has always been the same: monologic yapping until some form of heaven-sent transportation, like a bus, arrived to whisk me away.

It's still amusing to tinker with their cogs and wheels. Sooner or later, though, I imagine that this distraction will lose its mild charm, and I'll have to accept death by slow asphyxiation on the usual chinesefoodlikechina?howlongwhycomeisadevelopingcountryharmonious fumes.

[jeffinflorida]