Job Discussion Forums

[sojourner]

Sherri,

Thanks for your reply.

Implicit in my original posting to this thread was the suggestion that there could be SOME decent,professionally-run language schools out there in ESL land.You,fortunately,have found one of them.Congratulations! But many,many others have had very unhappy experiences with that sector - for example,read today's posting by the teacher who worked for Inlingua,in Germany.

You mentioned that your students appear to be very enthusiastic,compared to those who attend universities.I've heard countless stories about the attititudes of Japanese tertiary students ! Having keen,enthusiastic students,to me,is far more important than things like salaries and vacations.

Incidently,do you work for a franchise chain of language schools ? If so, how much leeway are you given in your choice of teaching material,lessons,etc ? Also, is your school principal (manager ?) a trained and experienced teacher him/herself ? If your boss is not a professional teacher,does that person ever observe your lessons,suggest "improvements",etc ?Being treated with respect by one's boss is as important as having good,keen students.

Anyway,keep up with the good work.

Regards,

Peter

[Sherri]

Peter
Yes I am well aware of the conditions of some private language schools.

Incidently,do you work for a franchise chain of language schools?

I'm not working now, I am a fulltime mom of 2 under 3. But both of the schools I worked for over roughly a 10-year period were schools attached to companies which deal mainly in organizing international conferences and interpreting/translation services. The schools served the function of training future interpreters and translators and bilingual staff for conferences.

If so, how much leeway are you given in your choice of teaching material,lessons,etc

We had some leeway, but we also followed a set curriculum (content and skills-based) Most material was developed in-house using news videos and newspapers as source material.

Also, is your school principal (manager ?) a trained and experienced teacher him/herself ?

Well I was the DOS, so I would like to say "yes". The other adminstrative teachers there were also trained and experienced. My boss (Japanese) was a qualified school teacher in Japan and had a basic understanding of what teaching intailed (I don't think he had actually taught for any length of time) They did not interfere with academic matters. For example if a student was a lower level than the rest of the class, we had the right to move him/her. And if there wasn't a class available, then the student got her money back. We didn't automatically promote students either.

If your boss is not a professional teacher,does that person ever observe your lessons,suggest "improvements",etc ?Being treated with respect by one's boss is as important as having good,keen students.

Yes, I quite agree. That was not a problem.

Hope this helped
Sherri