Job Discussion Forums

[Marcoregano]

It would be interesting to know which country spends the greatest/least per capita time on this forum, though the implications would be open to debate. The figures might indicate:

a. The country with the most/least work to do.

and / or

b. The country most/least isolated (ie. lacking other diversions, TEFLers resort to this forum)

[johnslat]

Dear Marcoregano

Or

c. the country with the most Daveaholics

d. all of the above

e. none of the above

Regards,
John

[chi-chi]

Korea!
They have their own seperate forum and since there is nothing to do there but go to internet cafes and drink, a lot of people post drunk in their free time (including Koreans.)
Even for the locals, the most popular pastime is to lay drunken in a pc room or sauna and cursing ajummas under their breath.
I have some friends over there and others, well, I think forgot to bring their meds from home and I worry about them sometimes.
Do not read the forum while you are at work, there are some lonely boys and girls over there so some of their pictures are kind of iffy.
Looking at the get-together pictures is good for giggles!
It is a riot. Stranger than Saudi, as my boyfriend says.
Chi-Chi

[lagerlout2006]

Certainly Korea is top. Some threads there hit 100 (sic) pages.. I have heard there are about 2500 efl teachers in Korea and 100 000 in China. I read these "somewhere" I don't really know if they are even in the ballpark. Assuming they are Japan with more than double the population of Korea should have lets say 50 000.

So why is the Korea board so massive?? A light workload cannot explain it. Internet access at work cannot explain it. In China teachers get an incredible amount of time off but still dont post alot.

OK let me just put forth my GD theory. Teachers go to Korea only for the salary and don't really want to be there. Generally they do not study the language or care about the culture such as it is. On the other hand people in China and Japan actually chose the country and are busy learning the language seeing the sights and so forth.

OK that is only 3 countries someone take over and explain the rest of the world...

[Snoopy]

When I was in Qatar, we had to remain on site long after all the work was done. After knocking off some crosswords on the computer in my office, what else was there to do but create some verbosity and take the floppy to an Internet Cafe, to inflict it on the rest of the world?

[Marcoregano]

As for Hong Kong, despite the fact that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of TEFLers here, I get the impression there are relatively few HK-resident teachers using this forum, though quite a few queries about HK are posted by teachers interested in coming here. My take on this is that most teachers here are fairly busy work-wise, plus there are plenty of other things to do here besides this.....

[Roger]

as for China, someone again claimed that it's home to perhaps "100'000 TEFLers".
That figure was put into the world by Chinatefl a year or two ago, but I believe it's massively exaggerated.
Where are they?
Why are there a mere 4000-odd eslcafe registered members if there are so many teachers in China?

If Korea has 2500, China at the most has 20'000 to 30'000!

[foster]

Also, many of the HK teachers have their own forums and webpages and e-groups to post on and most likely don't use Dave's.

As a NET in HK, I know that there is a yahoo group they have.

My work load is heavy 4 out of 6 days a cycle. The other days, I have time to play.

[naturegirl321]

[Gordon]

NET is the HK gov't English program for the school system. It's called the NET scheme. Surprised you hadn't heard of it, being in China.

[naturegirl321]

NOpe never heard of it. I thought that it might stand for Native English Teachers. I teach in a private kindergarten, so I don't know much about English programs for higher levels.

[dmb]