Job Discussion Forums

[mortilap]

Hi all,

Curious to hear if anyone has had any really embarrassing moments. Only thing I've encountered was a hole near my crotch once...

[neverheardofem]

My TP for CELTA - all of it, but especially the moment I fell off a chair.

[Sashadroogie]

Embarrassing teaching moment? Not quite about me teaching. More about having placed new students in a class, explained to them how communicative methodology works, how our native English-speaking teachers are just fab, how much the class will help students achieve their goals, and then soon afterwards observing the same students with a clown of a teacher making a total hash of a simple learning point, and wanting the ground to swallow me up so as to escape the students' accusing scowls and recrimination.

[stinkytofu]

I was only in China two weeks when this happened.

Another teaching invited to KTV(karaoke), I didn't know there are different types of karaoke in China. The women pouring our drinks and singing with us were actually hookers, no one told me. I made the mistake of telling my adult class after which the students and Chinese staff stopped talking to me. It wasn't until 4 months later I found out what had happened. No, I did not go on a "date" with them. I just figured the hookers worked at the brothel down the street but that's not how it works in China.

Barbershops in China also employ hookers. I do not recommend telling your class you got a haircut.

[RussianWinter]

For whatever reason, I always tend to screw up in front of one particular class - drop my papers, tell them to turn to the wrong page, etc. It appears to be a curse of some kind. Well, today I wrote down my lesson based on what the co-teacher had done last time - do these pages in the textbook, cover this part of the exam book. I wrote the wrong page and planned a lesson around it! Twenty minutes in, the students asked me why they had to do it all over again. They'd done it last class! I apologized and immediately moved on to the next thing, and the rest of the lesson went okay, but my god, I looked like such a moron.

[John Kalani]

My students always ask me about grammar and I say it ain't important and I can teach by natural ear method. i always know whts right but i can't tell them.

[jaffa]

Farting.

[fluffyhamster]

The night before starting some corporate classes in Shanghai, I'd been cooked some snails as part of a dinner with a student's family. I guess they'd dredged them from Suzhou Creek or worse, as I was feeling pretty queasy by the time the taxi pulled up at Nike. I just about made it into their toilets before barfing into a sink then shall we say gassing out I mean freshening one of their cubicles. Upon limping out, breath a bit smelly (no gum or breath freshener or mouthwash or toothpaste on me - never made that mistake again!) and looking somewhat worse for wear, I bent down to pick up a huge box of newly-delivered textbooks and promptly ripped the seat of my (Chinese-bought, single-stitch) trousers wide open. After cackling with laughter with my colleagues for a good minute or two and showing them the split, I realized I'd luckily worn a cardigan and could tie the arms around my waist and cover up my exposed breezy rear. I spent that first class keeping my stinky distance from the students and making sure I didn't give them an eyeful or lungful or anything. So yeah, I think you could say that was my most embarrassing and uncomfortable lesson. To be sure, there have been quite a few others (anyone wants more, just ask lol), but that's the one that's stuck in my mind about the most.

[fat_chris]

[fat_chris]

[fluffyhamster]

What went wrong was that I had to teach English.

[Sashadroogie]

I think that will be the post that can't be topped. Good show, Fluffy!

[maxand]