Job Discussion Forums

[xinpu]

So today another teacher calls in sick and yours truely is given the pleasure of teaching the business english class in the company upstairs.

Now I don't know why the company upstairs wants English classes but I suspect that a combination of a) their HR department wanting to look like they are doing something and b) our sales department wanting to get new business but not wanting to leave the building while doing it sealed the deal.

In my experience you will usually have the following three kinds of students.

A. The unwilling: Pressganged into it by their 'leader' this lot usually they haven't spoken English since University and are really really happy about spending their free time having to learn it from you...oh yes and they convey that joy by talking about you constantly in Chinese.

B. Fustrated English majors: Usually dowdy looking women in their late 20's, nylon socks essential. Like they told their foreign teacher at 'X Shi Da' they really wanted to become a translator, alas due to their dowdy appearance and lack of rich relatives it didn't work out so they are stuck working a dull job in a dull office. However the arrival of the foreigner teacher means a reminder of those blissful University days before staring work at 'X International Trade Appliance Co.' They will be the first in class with a range of pens and pencils. Sneered at by their (usually male) less motivated colleagues their initial enthusiasm will also wane quickly as they realize they have fogotten all their english and that you are not quite as 'funny / handsome or interesting' as the guitar playing playboy they had for one semester at college.

C. The leader / chick from HR: There to make sure everybody stays for the full lesson and no sneaking out.

Dragging them in on a sunny saturday for English class didn't help I guess, nor did giving intermediate students and entry level book. Anyhow I made the best of it but after an hour and a half we really had exhausted the will to speak a foreign language. Mumbles about when the class was supposed to finish became the topic of conversation as opposed to my carefully prepared 'What do you like to do?' activity (don't blame me blame 'bogglesworld').

So I took the bull by the horns and asked them....do you want to finish 30 mins early?

Unanimous: YES!

Cool, of I go to the shop for a hard earned gatorade (not wanting to stroll back into my own school 30 mins early). 5 Mins after the class ended...Ring Ring.

...it's the director

Him: 'we have a complaint from the company'
Me: 'uh huh'
Him: 'They say you finished the class early'
Me: 'Well we finished early but they wanted to'
Him: 'They said you stopped the class early but they wanted to continue'
Me: (shaking head) 'mmmmmmm'

Now I can just imagine the conversation upstairs after I had left

Student A: cool lesson finishes early
Student B: He he he...lets go back to trading shares online
HR Chick: Hey what are you doing? Class was until 3.00!
Student A / B: The foreigner made us stop class!!!
HR Chick (thinking...this makes me look bad..mmm): That's not allowed let me call the school, they promised a laowai for 2 HOURS!'

Moral: next time...tough shit they're getting the full 2 hours, straight from the textbook. wankers.

[james s]

...

[lychee]

OP
I can understand your frustration of having to be pulled into a class because a teacher is sick, I really think they should just cancel the class and have it another day.

Don't blame Bogglesworld, I love that website and have downloaded a lot of their material, laminated it, put it into coloured folders labeled the folders and use it with the textbook as an extra interactive exercise.

I have a class a bit one like the one you are describing, I took over from another teacher and was thinking to myself, I really don't want to do this.
I still really don't want to do this, the class is evey fortnight and they cancel a lot, usually at the last moment.

I really don't see the point of having the class. The only point is I get paid. The class is all women, the company does not hire men apparently.
There are some great English speakers though, very outspoken. I like that.
I would love to teach this class at least twice a week but once a fortnight or once a month. No

[william wallace]

Yeah, I sympathize with you. I really don't understand this business...it's mostly redundant; but that may be a level of reality we might want to deflect until we're out of ESL.

[erinyes]

oh yes, chinese will say anything to get out of trouble if someone isn't in the room, they can say anything! Dirty!!!!

I would have kept them there... perhaps taken a 5 minute break... and then the ones who really hated it could take off..... but it wouldn't have been your fault. then after some of them come back in or strike up a chat, just keep chatting, and try to involve the whole group.

[Steppenwolf]

Have you thought your case through, mate? I think you are answerable to a charge of dereliction of duty; I can't see how your situation can be described as foreigner being lambasted unfairly.

The company pays you for the full time, not for pleasing the "students"; you had no right to dismiss class half an hour early.

You wouldn't get away with this sort of behaviour even in a western training centre, right?

Having said this, I do sympathise with you. Just how you could have filled the remaining time with those lethargic charges I don't want to tell you - different people, different approaches, no guarantee for success!

I sympathise for the reason that even if your intention was the best and with the students' interest on your mind, they would come down hard on you. Happened to me once in a private training centre. I allowed the studentsw who actually gave answers to my questions to leave five to ten minutes early so as to encourage them to make that extra effort (for which they were sent to that training centre to take extracurricular English).
At the end of my class, I still had more than half of all students present, but the others were loitering in the corridors and caused some consternation. Parents were nbonplussed...
So my next class was a punishing "you can leave class on the dot of 60 minutes from now!" And all those sullen faces...made my day!

[xinpu]

normally I would have ground out the final 30 minutes...however as I'm leaving in a week I couldn't really care less and neither did they it seemed.

These classes are a waste of time, if the company needs to communicate with foreigners for business purposes hire a translator or get an English Major graduate to answer the phones (1,500 a month is probably less than what they are paying for the course).

The real issue is that the provision of these courses is purely an exercise in 'face'. How do I know this? No course design, no feedback, no assesment of the students prior to the class. It's a joke.

Re: Bogglesworld - I was being sarcastic, usually the worksheets are solid gold.

Re: Western Training Centre - don't think they would put up with such a sham operation.

[vikdk]