Job Discussion Forums

Sudz · Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 438

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/3325192/The-slavery-of-teaching-English.html

Thoughts?

tttompatz · Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 4:44 am Post subject:

Ancient news and not relevant to anyone with a modicum of common sense but good eye opener for newbies with stars in their eyes and vague promises from TEFL certification schools. .

It ALWAYS amazes me how and why people put up with it when it is just as easy to move on. There is always a better job around the corner and as you gain experience the remuneration goes up as well (or don't take the job).

.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Love (eyes rolling in sarcasm here) the way the author ends this 7-year-old article with 2 paragraphs on a novel with an EFL teacher in it, a pathetic creature with whom readers of the article are supposed to believe is the stereotype of all English teachers abroad. Yeah, right.

I also love (more sarcasm) the fact that the author doesn't have one single solitary positive remark to make about teaching EFL, and how he only seems to dwell on language schools, as if they were the only means to teach abroad.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that the handful of people the author cites as coworkers are the only ones he has seemingly drawn information from, and that all but 2 (rare exceptions) are dead broke and living in squalor. Does that really fit the majority of us?

Take this article with a carload of salt, if you are really honestly seriously considering making TEFL a career. Many are successful at it, unlike poor Sebastian Cresswell-Turner.

GuestBob · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 270

Sounds like some of the guys who post in the China forums.

Of course, I mean, the unremittingly negative viewpoint rather than the bit about being shabby, disheveled and having no sex appeal.

sistercream · Joined: 18 Dec 2010 Posts: 497 Location: Pearl River Delta

Sudz · Joined: 09 Aug 2004 Posts: 438

The writer claims to be talking about the TEFL industry, when really he's only discussing working at language centers in Europe (in as negative a way as possible it seems).

igorG · Joined: 10 Aug 2010 Posts: 1473 Location: asia

dean_a_jones · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 1151 Location: Wuhan, China

It is an interesting, if patronising article. I have never taught in Europe, but I don't suspect it would be the best gig because of the salary and cost of living. The problem with the article is that, rather than being country or region specific, it seems to paint with one brush a whole industry which covers a vast amount of countries and different conditions.

Having said that, anyone who thinks that the problems identified don't exist is pretty naive. In the private sector at least, prospects, conditions and rights are generally pretty awful in an industry whose main objective is extracting cash from students on the promise of enhanced marketability. Some people are pretty jaded as a result.

ancient_dweller · Joined: 12 Aug 2010 Posts: 415 Location: Woodland Bench

hilarious! Very Happy

Not to bad for the boss though...

sharter · Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 878 Location: All over the place

Yeah, but no-one can seriously suggest that EFL is a good career move, unless you're independently wealthy of course or get into it late in life?

There's a lot of truth in this rather tongue in cheek article. Sadly for the vast majority of TEFLers, not me hee hee, the language school is their reality. Many of the language school practices outlined in the article are on or very near the money. While the article overdoes it, poverty is a real issue for anyone teaching in Europe; the wages are just pathetic. School owners ARE often cowboys/gals with no concern for anything except the bottom line. If I had a quid for every lie I'd ever been told by a private language school, I'd have more dosh than J K Rowling Smile

. I think he's also right about the lack of ambition as for most, it is a road to nowhere....a succession of sideways steps. Then there are the overinflated qualifications; saying you have an MA in Applied Linguistics is like saying you've got a square wheel-it's to most employers, it's just laughable. The author's disdain of the TEFL training industry is also understandable. Online certs with no teaching practice, ridiculous DELTAs and MAs that can have little to do with making you a better classroom teacher are all there to fleece you ,or usually your parents, of hard earned wonga. Being able to quote Krashen, Chomsky, Prabhu may help you in a posh pub quiz, but does it really enhance your ability to teach the passive voice? Can you really plan a lesson down to the minute with a classroom full of Arabs? Does knowing about 'Action Research' or 'NLP' help?Not really. TEFL speak is tosh but common in the Middle East and IH workshops. There's always the suggestion that somehow with more diplomas and usekess bits of paper life will get better. However, fully tooled up the best you can expect to get is a hallowed uni job, which is where it's at for the ultimate TEFL dosser. He's right about the TEFL stereotypes; the egomaniac, the drunk, the silent weirdo, the person with a dark past who's spent too much time in Thailand Smile

...it does attract failed somebody elses a lot of the time. Just looking around the staffroom right now there's an ex-air force guy, a failed writer, an ex-banker, a failed pensions salesman and one Irish guy who doesn't say much but has spent a lot of time in south-east Asia....always a bad sign.

I take my hat off to the author of this article.....on balance there's more truth than bullshit in what he says.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:36 am Post subject:

As I said on another thread about this piece, perhaps its title should be 'Don't take rubbish jobs in Rome' rather than the gross generalisation penned by yet another journalist who found TEFL didn't match his preconceptions...?

PattyFlipper · Joined: 14 Nov 2007 Posts: 572

sheikh radlinrol · Joined: 30 Jan 2007 Posts: 1222 Location: Spain

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

I posted the same article earlier this year (thread below). IMO it makes some perfectly valid points, and I imagine things have got worse in European language schools since it was written. Why would they have improved, given the ongoing financial meltdown?

Of course the article is somewhat overhyped (it's written for the Telegraph!), but those of us who have been around the TEFL scene awhile, certainly those of us who have inhabited the private academies sector, know that there's a good deal of truth in it. And for many such TEFLers there is no easy exit.

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=922191&highlight=#922191

rotemmay · Joined: 26 Apr 2011 Posts: 26 Location: US and Israel

"Signora Pazzi shifted her bulk in the leather armchair, adjusted the position of a chunky gold bracelet on a fat wrist..."

"our boss, who, sitting there dressed in a startling orange outfit and covered from head to toe in expensive gold jewellery, looked exactly like a large nesting hen."

"So while teaching English is... great for meeting pretty foreign girls..."

Hopefully I'm not the only one who found this guy to be highly sexist and discriminatory????? Note the spelling error in the second quote (and I copied and pasted that directly from the article) which might point towards what kind of TEFL teacher this guy is.

Wow... if being a TEFL teacher is such a miserable job, dude, then, by all means, get out of the profession... you might be surprised how much those "pretty foreign girls" will appreciate it...

Rotem