Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

This is addressed to the EFL/ESL "vets" who visit this forum, in the hope that your replies might assist some of those new to the field. If you could go back in time ( in your EFL/ESL career ), would you make any choices different from the ones you did?
Regards,
John

[Glenski]

Make more contacts while I was working in Japan.
Learn more Japanese, for my own benefit as well as for teaching, by learning what grammar points I taught my students concurrently.
Teach more private lessons.
Put more of my lessons on computer instead of lugging around heavy paper files (or losing them or having them clutter my apartment).

[ntropy]

FINISH writing that damn novel.

[Wolf]

What would I have done differently? Honestly, I think given the circumstances I would have done things more or less the same (go to Japan via NOVA, get a better job and my own apartment, work there for long enough to pay off student loan, take cushy if low paying job in China to ease burnout and start MA.)

I would have been more frustrated, probably, but I don't think I would have made a different decision given my cirucmstances.

[Capergirl]

1. I would not use a recruiter. Ever.
2. I would be choosier and would attempt to negotiate a much better contract than the ones I was offered (and accepted). Bottom line...no settling.
3. I would insist on talking to expat teachers at the school before I ever got on a plane.
4.I would save more of my hard-earned won/NT for "rainy days".
5. I would never agree to work on weekends, no matter how many times I heard the phrase "special favour". No 12-hour days on Saturdays. No spelling bees on Sundays. No speech contests. No promotions. Free time.
6. I wouldn't run green lights in Taiwan.

Yep...I have some regrets. As much as I love teaching EF/SL, the things that went wrong when I was in South Korea and Taiwan outnumbered the things that went right. I'd definitely be a little smarter about it the next go around.

[denise]

Get to know my students better outside of class. (i.e., be less shy)
Maybe not possible in all contexts--e.g., 50 screaming 5-year-olds--but very possible in my first teaching job--young-adult & adult students, small classes, lots of pub/cafe trips, etc.

Not date a co-worker.

Not think only day-to-day--have more long-term vision. Instead of planning individual lessons, look at the whole term--however many weeks--and try to envision a "master plan" for it.

No major regrets, though. I'm working on correcting the things that I think I did incorrectly before.

d

[Albulbul]

My regret is that I did not make a serious study of the "difficult" languages on offer at university. I could have taken Arabic and Turkish but had other interests back then. "So it goes," as Kilgore Trout would have said

[Lynn]

I would have taken a gap year, and then done 3 years on JET instead of one. I would have never ever worked at the "eikaiwa" (Eng.conversation school) I wouldn't have taken any teaching jobs in New York.

[Jeff Mohamed]

I think it was one of the Gabor sisters who said that you should never regret what you did but only what you didn't do. Looking back on 33+ years in TEFL, I feel much the same.
I don't regret taking a TEFL cert course, going to work for one of the more reputable language school groups (International House) or teaching for years in several different countries overseas.
I only have one significant reget: not taking a MA TESOL course after, say, 5-10 years in the field. Having a MA TESOL would have opened more employment doors when I finally decided to settle semi-permanently in an English-speaking country at the age of 45.

[Gordon]

None that I can think of. If I hadn`t made the mistakes I made I wouldn`t have learned from them. I`m glad I made the mistakes I did, fortunately they weren`t huge ones. I now know what to look for in a job, how to dissect a contract and how to negotiate.

[shenyanggerry]

jeff, you're not too old for an MA yet. I did a full academic year for my TESL Certificate after I retired.

[fat_chris]

Actually I wouldn't change a thing. Well, maybe I should have been less shy and dated more women, but that's not ESL-specific and I'll have plenty of chances with more women in the future.

I am sitting around doing very little at the moment and I think maybe I should have begun an MA in TESOL a few months ago. No matter, I am enjoying a bit of down time at the moment to catch my breath, figure things out, and then I'll jump headlong into an MA program in the Fall of 2004 and get back out on the open road in due time. It'll all work out.

[MindTraveller]

I regret that I returned to college at the age of 40 for a teaching certificate. I didn't want an MA in TESOL since most of the American schools were greedy with 2-year programs. I've only found out now how most UK MAs in TESOL are only one year. My masters is in creative writing, one of those 'related fields'. And that was a 2-year program, but it was 100% wonderful.

The 1.5 years spent for the teaching credential seems to have been a waste of time, but, perhaps in many ways, wasn't. Still, if I did it again, I'd have taken a MA in TESOL in the UK or an MPA - masters in public administration - as long as the program was only ONE year.

[J-Pop]

[struelle]