Job Discussion Forums

[ardabay]

I�ve been teaching English for 8 years now. I worked in a state school, a private school and two language schools ( I mean dersane ). I don�t want to overgeneralize but several Turkish English teachers, especially the ones teaching in state schools, tend to remain silent when it comes to speaking English. Don�t ask me why because it�s a loooong story : The whole education system in Turkey, Turkish way of thinking ( somewhere in the forum I saw sb saying that our brains work differently and that�s a fact !), lack of self confidence and our notorious inferiority complex. I have no intention of bragging about myself because I used to feel the same way. English is always going to be my second language but at least I try to improve myself as much as I can. This is what most of the others don�t do. We are all taught �not to do� that if you know what I mean. Dmb, do u know why the Turkish owner doesn�t allow you to hire Turkish teachers? I�m sure you do. I wish there were more people like your flatmate. And about your question whynotme; I learned English in Turkey but my teachers at high school were American and I stayed in the States for some time, if that�s what u r askin dude.

[whynotme]

When you overgeneralize it might hurt some other people...i am Turkish like you and have been teaching,teacher training for 10 years working many places including the High School you graduated (checked your web-site... really cool) now...the school i work as the principal at the moment is one of the most reputable schools in Istanbul with branches.... 70 %of the teachers working for us are Turkish... what i mean is there are some qualified Turkish English teachers in this country..... i also agree with what you say about the state schools.... mate everybody knows why some schools prefer un/non/dis/mis/qualified foreigners to Turkish English teachers....when you make your bussiness go up( i hope you will) , you will see the reality in TEFL in Turkey......MARKETING....

[crashartist1]

Has anyone had an experience like mine before, where you walk into a University, go to the foreign language department, meet a Turkish-English teacher, say, �Hello, how are you?� and they give you a blank stare like you are speaking Chinese? Have you ever met a Turkish English teacher where the conversation had to be translated to them because they can�t understand anything? At first I thought, maybe it�s my accent, I am American, so perhaps a non-British accent is harder for them to understand, but after a little while I came to understand, that they speak NO ENGLISH, and they are teaching Masters students how to be English Teachers! This is not an isolated incident; I have meet many, many instructors and graduate students in English departments in Universities who speak zero to hardly anything. Okay, if you are teaching primary school children English, you are strictly focusing on grammar, that�s fine, but when you are teaching colloquial English and writing in a University shouldn�t be expected to at least know the language?

[Otterman Ollie]

Well sooner or later the time is going to come when two fluent speakers of Turkish are going to engage in conversation in said language ,but ,they were born in the U.K or THE u.s SOUNDS UNBELİEVEABLE ,but its already happened .
Is this the end of the world as we know it ??