Job Discussion Forums

[Shan-Shan]

One of the instructors at my workplace, a self-professed "native speaker" with a Masters in Education, and a Canadian passport, left a short student evaluation on the manager's desk. Of the six sentences, not one was without at least two grammatical and/or vocabulary errors.

IELTS or perhaps some other international English testing body ought to be invited to all provinces to examine all FTs prior to commencing employment. This would ensure that no one is writing sentences like "...The student speak, but only did it if I lead her", or is only doing so to provide an opportunity for students to repair statements riddled with problems.

The market would be much less saturated, and maybe, just maybe, salaries could become attractive in the absence of FTs forced to return from abroad to brush up on their English skills (much less teaching ability)


However, such a move would require a lot of time, money and organization. Much more likely is for this monkey circus to continue as is.

(But if all us FTs were 孙悟空s, it would be a worthwhile monkey show to attend!)

[Tezcatlipoca]

Whew...


I thought this thread was about me.

[Calories]

Was he from rural Quebec, a newfie, retarded, drunk, high or all of the above?

[Steppenwolf]

Fascinating! The president of the U.S. of A. has been noted for a long time for his command of English...
Apparently his Spanish is better ...

[cj750]

He is currently studying Iraqi...but I heard he is bombing out of class..

[Tezcatlipoca]

[A Token of My Extreme]

Spoon boy: Do not try and judge grammar. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no grammar.
Neo: There is no grammar?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see that it is not the grammar that you judge, it is only Your Extreme.

[tofuman]

A CELTA teacher at a school where I took training could not spell either. She did fine at teaching CELTA methodology, which obviously does not require spelling skills.

There are lots of dimensions to language learning and teaching.

[myesl]

Is it possible the FT was writing pidgin English for the sake of the Chinese person he knew was his audience? Most of the FTs I've known in China do this to one extent or another. They tend to laugh at me for writing things correctly

[Shan-Shan]

Why someone would want to write grammatically incorrect, convoluted English to ease reader comprehension seems counterintuitive to me. The FT in question is just incapable of writing error-free sentences.

The disturbing thing is that he refuses to admit this fact. Could be because of the ego-enhancement he received from a publishing house in China which invited him to edit and co-write an English language textbook. I reviewed his contributions to this "textbook" after it was brought to the office. Like the initial prose I perused, the English textbook he contributed to is likewise riddled with this FT's "creative" interpretation of the English sentence.

Some evidence for us all that here in China, "saying that you speak English very good is enough to land me teaching positions and can write stories for books students studying English!"

TESL is a joke in China. A real profession elsewhere perhaps, but a fraud in China.

[Outsida]

I agree with the above. You don't need to write pidgin English to a Chinese person. You can write CORRECTLY but SIMPLY. It's not difficult. Avoid millions of modals, modifiers, convoluted structures and you'll be fine. There's no need to mess up their English.

Obviously, this FT is just illiterate.

[Kurochan]

I also wonder if the person was from Quebec. Back when I was working in Shenzhen, my school hired two to teach English because they thought of Canada as a wholly English-speaking country. The teachers (one of whom was a nice guy, and the other of whom seemed to be schizophrenic, but that's another matter) talked like, "I am teach zee English at zee Chinese universitee!"

[dragon777]

All of us grammatical mistakes when speaking or writing. As long as we are aware of it. Wooooowwwww especially with those notes on the desk.

[crashartist1]

If you want to see the real deal in terms of bad english speakers, just come to saudi arabia. The teachers in the private language school sector are a nightmare and a joke. You will return to China and realize the 'bad teachers' aren't so bad at all.

crash

[A Token of My Extreme]