Job Discussion Forums

[Gawain]

As an American I am clueless why our students spend time and money learning English. Teachers have said students:
are forced by parents to take English,
are forced to take English to get college degree,
are encouraged by job to take English and employer pays tuition,
use English class to meet new friends.

Many said meeting friends is biggest reason.
If that is true, do any of you teach classes other than English?
How about Art, Music, Computers, History, Film, Culture, etc....
I can teach all that stuff. Big English chain schools don't seem interested in diversity, no more than McDonalds diversifying beyond hamburgers.
Is there money to be made teaching other stuff overseas?

[Zero Hero]

[tedkarma]

I've taught business courses - management, economics and accounting - but once at a school that primarily hired me as an EFL teacher (Saudi Arabia), and at a school that hired me half and half EFL and business (Bangkok). But then I have an MBA to go with my M.Ed.

Business is a lot more fun to teach - but I'd be starving if I relied on it - or I'd be stuck in just a couple countries. EFL has been the backbone of my overseas teaching career.

[Glenski]

[Glenski]

[Roger]

I am puzzled too as to what teaching English has to do with teaching "other stuff". I never taught "other stuff" but other subjects, and in doing so English was decidedly irrelevant. I taught other languages to students from Hong Kong.
Maybe the OP thinks English should be used as the medium of instruction in teaching other subjects - that, yes, happens occasionally. The students need very good English communications skills - which they normally don't exhibit at primary or secondary school levels in this part of the world; it is for students from elite circles whose parents can invest a lot of money in elitist mock education (buying the school leaving cert for their kid seems to be very high on their parents mind).
You can, of course, also try to teach any subject at an international school. But you need to show a mature outlook - one that doesn't refer to geography or culture as "stuff".

[merlin]

[moonraven]

I have taught the following:

Communication
Creative Writing
Technical Writing
Academic Writing
Expository Writing
Methods of Investigation
Speech
Native American History
EFL (all levels)
ESP
EAP
a mini-course in Statistics
a mini-course in Logic
Estrategias de Aprendizaje (developed and taught in Spanish)

I have taught at the junior high, high school and university levels, and have directed and taught at a language school.

In some cases, the way to get to teach other courses that are not EFL is to impress your boss with your teaching ability and then sell him/her on the students' need for other courses. That has worked for me.

[Lynn]

I've taught Japanese in the United States.

[deezy]

To Chinese students in Australia I've taught

Communication and documentation
Business Systems
Business Ethics (specifically computer ethics)
Management
Report Writing
Academic Writing
Research techniques

All students needed a good level of English to be in these courses, most didn't as the exam in China doesn't cover much listening and speaking. My EFL background was invaluable.

[sojourner]

At colleges and universities in China, apart from the usual Oral English, one may also be asked to teach other subjects , in particular : Business English, Western Culture, British and American Literature, and International Business.

Peter

[Deconstructor]

I teach French regularly. But then again, I'm in French Canada.

[Ben Round de Bloc]