Job Discussion Forums

bulgogiboy · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 803

I don't know about you, but I found myself drinking far more than was healthy when I was doing ESL teaching. I also met a disproportionate number of ESL teachers with drink problems/excessive drinking habits.

What causes this? Is it the loneliness? The culture of the country you are living in? Or is it to do with the kinds of people who are attracted to ESL?

Sashadroogie · Posted: Thu Oct 21, 2010 6:08 pm Post subject:

I think it's more a matter of alcoholism causing EFL hic!

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

In my case, it's not the teaching - it's the management driving me to drink!

johntpartee · Joined: 02 Mar 2010 Posts: 3258

I think maybe a lot of the "teachers" were drunks already who got the boot from their jobs in their native land.

Perilla · Joined: 09 Jul 2010 Posts: 792 Location: Hong Kong

Yes, most of the teachers I know enjoy a drink, but then so do the people I know back home - and none of them are teachers!

johnslat · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:16 am Post subject:

Heck, I QUIT drinking when I was teaching EFL in Saudi. Life there was weird enough without booze; with booze it bordered on the totally bizarre.

Regards,
John

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 3:45 am Post subject:

'Drunk? Of course I'm drunk. You don't really expect me to teach this when I'm sober.'

A classic line, but from which film about a teacher? Surprisingly not an EFL teacher, though it should have been...hic!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Genetic predisposition, plus many years of being "on the toot". Unlike Johnslat I did not get sober in KSA. I dried out when I was back in my native Caledonia.

johntpartee · Joined: 02 Mar 2010 Posts: 3258

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:22 am Post subject:

Good man, Johntpartee. Well googled. Yes, turns in a powerful performance does old Michael. But imagine how much worse Dr Frank Bryant's alcoholism would have been if he had to teach 'learning styles' or 'critical thinking strategies' - or worst of all, TOEFL! At least he got to teach Yeats before succumbing to the demon drink...

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:29 am Post subject:

Great literature lessons - I mean high level stuff. Look at this excerpt before you grab a beer.

Rita: What does assonance mean?
Prof: What?
Rita: Don't laugh at me.
Prof: Er, no. Erm, assonance, it's a form of rhyme.
Rita: Erm, what's an example?
Prof: Do you know Yeats?
Rita: The wine lodge?
Prof: No, WB Yeats, the poet.
Rita: No.
Prof: Well, in his poem The Wild Swans At Coole, Yeats
rhymes the word "swan" with the word "stone". You
see? That's an example of assonance.
Rita: Ooh, yeah, means getting the rhyme wrong.
Prof: I've never thought of it like that.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

bulgogiboy · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 803

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Easy it was not. Still when I go there I am ASTOUNDED by the amount of booze shifted. Not by me now though !

bulgogiboy · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 803

Supposedly Uganda consumes the most amount of alcohol per head. I definitely would have thought Russia and South Korea were top for that, but apparently not.