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chryanvii
Joined: 19 Jul 2009
Posts: 125
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 Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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| mister_kot wrote: |
Although I normally go to class in slacks and a collared shirt, I did go to teach a couple of classes this week in shorts and flip flops as a kind of 'protest' because I was called in on my day off after having put 16 consecutive days.
Today when i came in for my regularly scheduled classes, I wore the usual slacks and a collared shirt. |
It sounds like you really need to learn how to stand your guard if this is a private training center. Just tell them you won't work more than 5 days at a time, and that is final. Tell them they need to find somebody else to work on your day off! They have a whole slew of Part-timers they can call.
Otherwise you can tell them they will be finding a new FT.
Don't let a private training center "work" you. You must "work" them. |
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JoeThePlumber
Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 90
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| Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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My Chinese students: Teacher, how come you do not know how to speak Chinese? You have been here two years!
Me: My job is to teach you English, not for me to learn Chinese.
Odd how they find that incredible. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 8:29 am Post subject: |
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At the risk of boring those who have read this story before..
I like to begin and end each class with a song. Being Oral English in some classes not every student gets the chance to speak.
I call it the �class song� and we learn and sing for about 4 weeks and then give something else a go.
Miss Student fronts me at end of class: �I don�t like that song, can we sing (mentions something in Chinese)?
Me: �Is that a Chinese pop song?�
Miss S: �Yes�
Me: �Why would we sing a Chinese pop song in English class?�
Miss S looks at me totally mystified and walks off to lunch. I am baffled to this day (it was maybe 18m ago) what is going on and wondering if I�m making any headway at all. |
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Fable105
Joined: 31 May 2011
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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| I have taught English in collared shirts and khaki pants. Students say my clothes are too formal. Now that I am teaching during the summer I am wearing shorts to class. No one cares. But I am teaching in July in boiling hot Guangdong in rooms without air conditioning. It would be inhuman to make us wear pants and long-sleeve shirts. |
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haller_79
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 145
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:03 am Post subject: |
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The overwhelming majority of Chinese people I interview start with the same statement; "I want a job where I can use (or improve) my English."
I tell them all the same thing. "No one is going to hire you to work for them if you say your goal is to learn English. That's not why companies pay people a salary."
So from foreigners I hear the flip side. "Yeah, I really want to work in China. I want to learn Mandarin plus I need a job that gives me time to travel and go out. WHAT?!!! You say 20 hours in the contract and you expect me to work 20 hours??? How do you expect me to have time to see the Terra Cotta Warriors or hit the bars and chase tail if you make me abide by the rules of the contract I signed?"
I've got nothing against people who want to go to a foreign country and learn a language while they work; it's a great way to combine work and life experience, but come on. How many people would get hired in (insert your country here) if they walked in and said something like this? Hearing 20-something newbies with no experience (and sometimes no degree) complain about having to actually work for a living is getting old. Try finding a job back home where you can get paid enough to live well while working 20 hours a week.
I'll stop before this becomes a rant. |
I was lured into ESL this way. If the recruiters didn't advertise the field in this way - full of adventure and the promise of a life you could never lead back home, then how many people would actually bother getting into the game? I mean, how many people sign up for ESL Asia world because they are intrinsically motivated to teach foreigners English? Would these same people voluntarily conduct English classes back home at their local community centre for recently arrived immigrants?
One of the biggest shocks that awaits the 20 something (who has just completed their mickey mouse ESL cert) when they arrive in Asia for the first time (even greater than the culture shock), is the shock that they are in fact in said country to do a job. At first it is all a big game, you are johnny foreigner telling the locals about yourself and your home country - all that time you worried about how you would teach (knowing that the ESL course taught you next to nothing) and it turns out all they ever wanted from you was your native language, a skill you acquired at 2 years of age. However as time goes on you grow tired of speaking in slow, simple sentences and being asked the same questions by a whole new set of faces after the other ones (the ones you actually cared about) have moved on. So you attempt to be a more 'serious' teacher and give proper lessons that are heavier on teaching and lighter on chit chat.
However at this point you are like the person who has learned to change a tyre suddenly thinking they can work as a mechanic. This is the come-uppance that may or may not befall the naive 20 something who signs up for an adventure only to realise it's a job. I know some who simply don't care - they know they can't teach, they know the job and school they work at are a joke and they're happy to go with it given the external perks, perks they could never get back homw - and I do not blame them, in fact I say good on them.
My point is this, if there are slobs working in English schools in China then the recruiters, TEFL cert providers, and even the schools are part of it too - the whole thing starts to make sense when you see the school director drive off in a red Ferrari.
Perhaps this will all change if the west continues to slide and Asia continues to grow, perhaps schools will become a lot choosier, however if they do then I can only say they'll need to lift their game in general and their working conditions. Until then ESL in Asia is what it is and I can't see the point in castigating or being self-righteous given ultimately it's a game won by recruiters and school owners. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:22 am Post subject: |
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A dismal but mostly true analysis Haller.
But, then you get a great group of students who know the deal is stacked against them and yet they try very hard.
They are not wealthy or well connected or pretty.
They just have attitude and ability.
Even if I feel crap about the situation and my position within it, I will go to the ends of the earth for those kids.
They know it and I know it and we will never mention it in so many words. But they and I know that's what we are doing. |
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Miles Smiles
Joined: 07 Jun 2010
Posts: 1294
Location: Heebee Jeebee
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:49 am Post subject: |
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| Non Sequitur wrote: |
"... But, then you get a great group of students who know the deal is stacked against them and yet they try very hard.
They are not wealthy or well connected or pretty.
They just have attitude and ability.
Even if I feel crap about the situation and my position within it, I will go to the ends of the earth for those kids.
They know it and I know it and we will never mention it in so many words. But they and I know that's what we are doing..." |
I have a class like that too. I feel the same way. |
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Fable105
Joined: 31 May 2011
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Non Sequitur wrote: |
A dismal but mostly true analysis Haller.
But, then you get a great group of students who know the deal is stacked against them and yet they try very hard.
They are not wealthy or well connected or pretty.
They just have attitude and ability.
Even if I feel crap about the situation and my position within it, I will go to the ends of the earth for those kids.
They know it and I know it and we will never mention it in so many words. But they and I know that's what we are doing. |
I have got one or two of those classes as well. I think those are the type of classes that convince us to stay another year. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks Fable and Miles Smiles.
As you say that's what keeps us in the game. |
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