Job Discussion Forums

cmknight · Joined: 29 Apr 2004 Posts: 38

I took the Trinity CertTESOL in May 2008. I had to find my own accomodation in Tsim Tsa Shui (cost about HK700). If I can finid the website again, I'll post the info.

The entrance requirements ARE quite stringent. If English is not your L1, you will have to show that you can pass the Trinity GESE grade 10 exam.

If you go, You will have to do the Course handook beforehand, as well as order and read two books, "How to teach English", and " An A-Z of English grammar and Usage". The latter is now my grammar bible, and the former is a really good reference on classroom management and teaching the four parts of a language.

Frank and Maria are wonderful people who will help in whatever way they can. It's a fun course, but very gruelling. Prepare for very little sleep. I pulled quite a few all-nighters while I was there. Thank gawd for 24-hour McDonalds and super-strong coffee. After the first week, things go very, very quickly, and before you know it, it's all over with.

I had been teaching for four years before I took this course. One of my supervisors had her MA TESOL from Park Lane College Leeds and Leeds University. I thought I knew a lot before going on this course. Man was I wrong.

About the price ... all I can say is that you get what you pay for.

cave · Joined: 31 May 2009 Posts: 4 Location: Hong Kong

Marcoregano was unfairly banned from this forum. "Yes sir I can bogey" was the guy who caused all the trouble and reincarnated himself in another guise just to bait his/her dissenters into being banned. It was a pity since "Marcoregano" was the most useful contributor to this forum, over a prolonged period of time. Proof of his contributions have been seen in the diminished use of this forum over the last four months. YSICB may have been an interesting read at times but was far too confrontational. If I were Marcoregano I wouldn't come back to this forum. After all the useful advice he proffered only to be outdone by a showman with nothing tangible to offer in terms of advice just his"take" on various issues. Surely a lowly forum is not the realm for such a wordsmith.

A'Moo · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 2:01 pm Post subject:

cave · Joined: 31 May 2009 Posts: 4 Location: Hong Kong

Marco's advice would be useful to the majority of NET's seeking employment in Hong Kong, YSICB the minority (in number). I cant see how Marco's input could have been construed as less useful than YSICB's.
IMHO, forums are where you put forward your experiences or those of friends or colleagues. However, he would freely quote a range of other sources, as another poster mentioned, often innaccurately. My point being that once a regular poster starts using "other" sources to back up their points they are no longer offering advice from personal experience and are then straying from the informative spirit of the forum. Also, if you look back over his posts he clearly despised anyone who disagreed with him and would love nothing better than to quote little snippets from a post and then proceed to deride each statement and poster. Sometimes, just for his amusement, he would attack a first-time poster. Poking fun at their grammar and then stating reasons why they shouldn't bother posting again. No such thing as a humble opinion in his book and I don't think his style was meant to entertain forum members either, just himself.