Job Discussion Forums

[culfy]

am I doing this?




I finished my TESOL with grand ideas about travelling the world, seeing new sights and educating people. I passed my TESOL with a B, through teaching people who were willing to be taught and having plenty of lesson preparation time. I now find myself in a strange land, where I am basically a glorified baby sitter for teenagers who would rather be home playing on their playstations and don't give a flying **** about phrasal verbs. I am teaching adults who insist on teaching their native language during discussions and then complain I don't give them enough speaking practice. I am close to despair, have I made the right decision? I spent all day lesson planning, all evening teaching, I don't have any time to myself and when I do, there is nothing to do in this town except drink. I find no part of my current life enjoyable.
OK, I'm only in the third week of teaching, so to all you old hands out there, does it get any better than this?

[dmb]

welcome to EFL. Teaching can be most frustrating at times. It can also be most rewarding. stick it out.

[lagerlout2006]

Teaching ESL/EFL in the West compared to overseas is apples and oranges. Students there want and need you. Will it get better? Depends where you are willing to go.

Mostly they study for all the wrong reasons ..They are forced to---to get a promotion a spouse or some crazy idea.

That's all I have to say--I'm off to the liquor store.

[4nic8r]

Sounds like Korea...

stick it out.. you'll be fine..

just curious though.. is it your first time to live overseas?

[Glenski]

culfy,

It depends. Where are you?

P.S. I hope your dreams of teaching did not include too much in the way of "travelling the world, seeing the sights". The only reason I say this is that depending on where you work/live, you might have to work a full 40-hour week, and your weekends may not even be 2 consecutive days.

Hang in there and fill us in.

[Gordon]

Yes the first few weeks/months are really tough. You have such a steep learning curve and then adjust to a new way of life outside of work. Try and talk it over with your boss and/or co-workers. It does get easier.

[ChinaEFLteacher]

can only tell you about chinese uni., and that it does gets better. i agree the learning curve is steep, first weeks/months tough. tip: you'll learn how to get along with students, what works/doesn't, and then won't waste your time on lesson planning and can get out and do stuff.

[Will.]

I'll let you into a secret Culfy,

It'll get a lot worse before it gets better...if you let it.

"There's nothing to do in this town but drink"

Sounds like someone else talking there, probably someone who only knows how to live in a bar. Get out of the bar and look around.

What do the locals do? Do they drink all day and night?

I have heard the same story from old hands all over the world... the ones who are still in the bar wherever they go.
Be inventive, walk away from the bar and have a look around outside.
Anyone can drink. It takes a lot of effort not to. hey if there's nothing outside at least you had a look, made an effort to disprove the theory.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

You have to take the bad with the good.

Adults like to talk about things they know about. Like their own language (and, as others pointed out, often they are taking English for the wrong reasons anyway)

Regardless of the subject or how intested in it they are, teenagers would rather be playing video games or hanging out at the mall with their girlfirnd/boyfriend.

It's not just EFL. It's teaching.

Classes where people who are willing to be taught and having plenty of lesson preperation time is not always the norm.

[culfy]

Thanks for your messages of support guys. I guess the trouble is that, although I've had crap jobs before, this is the first job I've had where I've actually sought it out myself and deliberately chosen it as a career. Because I did well in the TESOL I expected to be able to just walk into the classroom and teach expertly from day one; and now I'm falling short of my own high expectations. I keep trying to tell myself this is only week 3.

Also, this is my first time overseas; I am aware from my support network of friends and family and my girlfriend, and this is really getting to me.

I deliberately haven't name the country or the school because I can't blame either, the fault lies with myself, however I find that the town I'm in genuinely doesn't offer much to do except to drink. There are sights about, but they take time to get to, and time is what I don't have. (I have two free days, Fri and Sun, and both of these are taken up with lesson planning).

Anyway, again thanks for your messages of support.

[Magoo]

Go to the forum concerning your country and see what complaints the teachers, there, have. Probably very similar to yours. I came to China with relatively little experience of teaching, but not a little of China itself. I couldn't believe the apathy, lack of imagination and sheer dullness of many of my students. Practically all lesson plans went out the window. I eventually found the right style for each class (from teaching etymology to 14 year-olds to talking about cultural concepts of beauty to beautiful college students), but it was a bit of a struggle. Don't blame yourself; posters from China to the ME to Kingdom Come have much in common.

[kev7161]

Let me share a little story with you, maybe you'll feel better:

Among my 10 classes, five of them are Senior One level (in China). Class 1, 2, and 3 (well, usually 3) are attentive, talkative (in English, that is), and most seem to enjoy participating in whatever we are doing at the time. Their test grades are great and it is a pleasure to teach them. We laugh and smile and have a great time in class. If they know they have been bad (like chatting too much), the students involved will apologize and genuinely try to do better next time.

Class 4 and 5 are . . . a different story. Without boring you with all the details, they are at the opposite end of the scale and I can't wring anything out of a majority of them. About 1/3 of the students in class four and about 1/3 in class five actually seem to want to learn (mostly girls) while the others want to talk or sleep for 45 minutes. If I could take all the decent students out of these two classes and put them together into one and then all the dolts into the other, then I could have 4 pretty good Senior One classes and one class I could babysit with DVDs all the time.

But today, I had to go get the director of the department to come to one of these "bad" classes so he could give them a good talking. He came to the class but refused to do so. Out in the hall he told me (through a translator) that my lessons are bad and the students are offended when I criticize them - - also, they can't understand me. If you've read my other posts, this is the same man who has not once stepped into my classroom (until today, for about 20 seconds)! I assume he is getting the reports about how bad my lessons are directly from those "superstar" students out of Class 4 and 5. Hmmm, I never seem to have troubles in the other two classes.

So, you see, it's not necessarily you. Of course there are bumps along the way and you will find out what works and what doesn't work, but you are definitely fighting an uphill battle. Will it get better? My theory is that the kids who are good and studious will always be good and studious. The bad kids rarely change their tactics (although there will be the occasional one here and there) and you just have to do the best that YOU can do.

[ChinaEFLteacher]

[vre]

Hi Culfy

I am presuming you are in Poland and perhaps you are British? Anyway, when I first started my job in Greece I was thrown into teh classroom and expected to be 'Swan' why can't we use this? Why is this gerund not infinitive? When do we use past perfect continuous as opposed to past perfect? etc.... Thus I felt like a failure (my grammar terminology consisted of verb, noun and adjective) and I phoned home in tears. I stuck at it. It was hard....

8 years later, I am in an excellent job, fantastic money, I pride myself on my creativity and spontaneity, very rarely relying on mega planning and teachers' books. Done my DELTA, started an MSc and feel rewarded for all those really hard times insode and outside the classroom. Other posters here have sound advice. Get involved in other stuff and try to wean yourself off planning as much as you can. As long as your objectives are met, play with your ideas in the classroom.

True it seems most young 'adults' up to 25! in some countries are really lacking in maturity and motivation and there is only so much a teacher can do to nourish these. Your next job could be with 'real' adults if you prefer. They are really wonderful to teach and you will get a lot of job satisfaction from it. Stick it out. It isn't easy.

[Ben Round de Bloc]