Job Discussion Forums

theincredibleegg · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 224

Have you ever worked with guys like this one?
What's your opinion?
Except for the content of his story, is he living up to the expectations of a regular Chinese employer?

http://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/13961424-1248363250.html
http://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/13961085-1248363250.html
http://you.video.sina.com.cn/b/13960907-1248363250.html

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

this is a joke right? Smile

eating and talking about a night out in Class

hiptoclip · Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 15

I watched the guy's "class" from the first two videos. He's to young, has no life experience, basically no clue. The two clips reminded me of a bad Jim Carrey movie. The "teacher" does not even know that he's not teaching. Let's see. I am assuming this is an oral english class, yet the FT talks for a good 20 minutes. And his topics were amazing. He talked about going to bars with friends, and I believe other FT. Talked about bar hoping, playing poker, smoking marijuana. And ate an ice cream during his class.
Now it's easy for any of us to critique this "teacher', but it had me thinking about my first time teaching in another country. I think this video is a good example of the three types of teachers. 1) Backpacker ( the teacher in the first two videos). 2) The semi- serious teacher ( someone who teaches, finds out they enjoy it, then starts taking it seriously. 3) The professional teacher from another country. What do you think ...... ?

Sonnibarger · Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 320 Location: Wuhan

drugs, bars, poker, old perverts, kungfu chops to the neck... this lesson has it all... what a clown

foreignDevil · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 580

The young man's videos were painful to watch, and also raised my eyebrows a bit. At the end of the first video he is openly talking about people using marijuana. Does he know, or care, that drugs are illegal here?

Laurence · Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Posts: 401

yeah I worked with a guy like the guy in the first two videos.

The guy that I worked with was in his late 40s, but had exactly the same attitude.

One day he walked into class and wrote on the board:

- Riding my bike to school: I did it again! -

Then turned to face the students,
beaming,
trying to coax a response with

"huh? huh?"

That was his lesson plan for the first two periods before morning break. Usually after 10 minutes, the students began to occupy themselves however they saw fit.

I remember another guy too, who was asked to do some one on one classes with some adult students. He hadn't prepared anything and was a bit confused when the 'paid hour' started. He began with

"you want to pay, to hear me talk, right?"

Nice work if you can get it, I guess..

Shan-Shan · Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 1074 Location: electric pastures

Before he even stood up to begin imitating the "old guy" dancing, I knew the students would laugh on cue, and show appreciation for their well-paid, amateur performer.

Everyone appears enamoured, pleased that this particular slot of their day passes by with chuckling (as opposed to snoozing) and that no attempt is being made by the FT to turn a non-credit, and thus inconsequential, course into something more than it was designed to be, namely:

(non-credit) Cross-Cultural Dipstick Communication 100

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This introductory, non-credit course, prepares sheltered Chinese university students for the difficulties of interacting with runaway, bored and/or floundering foreign people who have somehow managed to secure a visa for China.

Each 45 minute lecture on "Life in China from a Foreign Perspective" will be full of smiles, mindless banter, posturing and a few embarassing anecdotes unintentionally designed to encourage students' self-esteem to rise while at the same time assuring them that long moments of schadenfreude -- engendered by watching the foreign visitor unwittingly rot his time away at the head of the classroom -- is not a shameful response to the antics of our foreign friends.

EVALUATION

Having your opinion of white people plummet: 60%
Attendance: 30%
Getting giddy when appropriate: 5%
Not appearing too bored: 4%
Posting lectures on-line: 1%

Maxximus · Joined: 12 Mar 2009 Posts: 19 Location: Windsor, Canada

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

Ah, you found my video resume! Thanks for the feedback guys.

"FT talks for a good 20 minutes."

Should I s l o w d o w n the way I talk a little and I could drag it out to 30 mins then?

"And his topics were amazing."

Thank you!

"He talked about going to bars with friends, and I believe other FT. Talked about bar hoping, playing poker, smoking marijuana. And ate an ice cream during his class."

I wasnt sure about this as a 'lesson plan'? Should I just concentrate on one subject per lesson maybe? Bars one week, poker then next, and so on? Maybe it was too much content for one lesson?

Anyway, thanks for tuning in...keep the comments coming, and add me to your favourites for the next series of videos!

DIPTESOL · Joined: 12 Oct 2007 Posts: 42

Obviously a joke and a video entitled "How not to teach"

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

I wonder if he knew he was being recorded.

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

theincredibleegg · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 224

PyRoT · Joined: 01 Jan 2008 Posts: 42

Wow! I can't beieve this is the type of teacher some of us have to compete with in China!

I am planning to go back and find it quite interesting. Comparing to my amateur lessons, he never really interacted with the students. No questions asked so they could answer, no exercises, no group work dialogues, no discussion or debates, presentations etc! And I could do 2 hour lessons with sometimes, just 10 minutes of prep! Plus I had never taught before! I did do this kind of thing for the first few minutes but it also included me asking a few students at random what they have been upto.

A teacher similar to this got fired at a company I worked in China and I thought he was the exception. I didn't quite understand why such people couldn't put even a few minutes of effort for preparation.

But please tell me why the students seem to approve? Is it just coz they don't mind doiing no work? I had adult students so they would even tell me if I had done a good/bad job. All in all though, it gives me hope that even people like this guy can get jobs haha.

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

Yeah, the guy is bad. Terrible really. Terrible for the kids too, because to be a decent backpacking teacher isnt actually hard. I added my little story just to say that not all backpacker teachers are the same.

Even in my early days I did at least model a conversation on a set topic, set the kids off in pairs to practice, and then get them actually using the target language in different situations and exercises. Putting together a lesson with some content is actually not that difficult.

Being a good, or even great, teacher does take time though!

This is a bad advert for the backpacker, and is evidence to stoke the fires of the professional teachers who moans about the quality of teacher in China. Unfortunately the backpacker and the professional are often (normally) bundled together as one and the same in China. Sometimes paid the same too!

They do have their place in the EFL world though. Perhaps not this guy ... but lets face it, the best lots of these students can hope for is a job in a hotel in Sanya that might have the odd English speaking visitor. The language exchange may not be more than simple pleasantries, and the Chinese worker will collect his 800 rmb a month and sleep soundly every night in his shared dormitory.

I left my middle school position mentioned earlier, and ended up working in a college for students aged between 16 - 22. Im back in the UK now, and some of the students I taught who have since graduated email me and tell me about their employment. Most of them seem to have fallen in with companies around GZ, trying to sell watches and clothing online to foreign customers. They earn shocking money, and dont seem to be doing so well.

By the time I got to teach these kids, the paths they would follow where pretty much set already. I was taking teaching a lot more serious by then, those backpacker days had gone ... But when I get the emails now, I kinda wish I had made their last year in college a bit more fun, rather than getting too wired about my teaching plans.

Mr Egg - I did find my employers dished out a lack of respect sometimes. Getting a teachers book was impossible...I can imagine the same with the CD set. Sometimes I think I took my role too serious towards the end though. Horses for courses and all that!