Job Discussion Forums

[once again]

In my class today, as the students did an exercise, I looked out of the window and watched a group of large mechanical digging machines worked by their operators. ( I would call them JCB's but I guess they are called different things around the world) As I watched one I noticed that not every time the operator put the bucket into the ground was he succesful. He tried the first time, then pulled back the bucket and went at the ground again. It struck me that this was the same as teaching. Not everytime we do something is it succsesful, but if we try again with a different angle we may just get the desired result. It then struck me that many of the other jobs I had done were not like this. There was a right way to do them, and a wrong way. Any thoughts on how teaching EFL differs or is the same as other jobs anyone?

[Roger]

You have a pyhilosophical vein, once again, and I appreciate this! Thank you for this lovely topic.
A brief answer: Yes, I do not always succeed in my endeavours. SOmetimes, the order simply is too tall; sometimes I am not up to scratch for the given task. Often, the students are ill-prepared for my teaching.
I think, teaching differs in one decisive way from most other jobs (but not all jobs), and that is that we are dealing not with lifeless, inanimate matter but with "clients", that is people; people have their own willpower and psychic conditions, and it is our duty to hit the right button to turn them on.
ALso, language is a kind of living organism, and we must treat it adequately. To treat both the student and the target language with proper care is what defines a successful teacher, to some extent anyway!

[Twisting in the Wind]

[Dr.J]

I think it makes a difference where you are coming from.

My sister recently moved from state-school teaching to TEFL, and she loves it. TEFL is my first and only real job, so I'm left thinking "Why don't I appreciate this more?" The grass is greener? I suppose after a few lawns you get a more objective eye for green-ness (greenity?).

I think what makes jobs different from each other is the amount of interaction with and influence by/on people, because people can screw things up better than machines.

[struelle]

[Glenski]

For what it's worth, let me tackle this from a different viewpoint.

Whether at my old eikaiwa or my current high school, I found that management was pretty much the same. There were always higher-ups that were clueless power-mongers. (Not always.) There were always people who would backstab or treat you right. The lower level employees always complained about management.

In my high school, there seems to be a lack of concerted effort (a surprise considering this is Japan) to organize certain simple systems of operation. So people constantly reinvent the wheel year after year.

Much of this was exactly like my old science job back in the States.

[Lynn]

I'd have to agree with another poster in a different thread that the difference is in TESL, we can't "turn it off". In the shower, in bed, while walking, I'm thinking of something to do for my class. I don't want to, but I know if I don't the class will be pretty bad. Many other jobs require people to plug in and plug out when leaving. We can't do that in this feild.

[Stephen Jones]

--"He tried the first time, then pulled back the bucket and went at the ground again. It struck me that this was the same as teaching."----

Yep, sometimes you're full of nothing and other times you're full of shit.

[dmb]

Speaking of buckets. Heard in the staff room today. Living in the middle East, you should have 2 buckets. One of them should be filled with money and the other should be filled with *beep* When one of them is full it is time to move on.

[denise]

[Will.]

Lawyers, barrister and solicitors get "thinking time" for any thoughts that occur to them outside the hours of work. This covers driving to work and mulling ovewr an idea in the car, on the train, in the bath al Archimedes. The sudden inspiration that hits you after the tenth pint of local brew. This is our difference we are not paid for this out of hours thinking.
How does it differ? Fill the gap. T
Teaching is a vocation and many of us klike it for this reason we will never be paid a decent wage therre are too many of us who want to, and like to, do it. The money, for many, is a secondary issue.
Would it not be nice to claim payment for thinking time down at the local boozer?

[fat_chris]

Will,

If I got paid for all of the "thinking time" that I did at my local in China, I would have been a gajillionaire.

That would have been a gajillion RMB, which I guess is still a lot of money somehow.