Job Discussion Forums

[basiltherat]

Sorry if this has been discussed before but a few of us have just been discussing this issue here and it really raised some eyebrows.


Of course there are several, especially for us lifers in this gig. They could be, good, bad and even ugly (or dare I say it, .... beautiful ?).

Pray tell. It could be interesting.

1. One which will stick in my memory was the 15 (or there abouts) year old girl who had 1-2-1 lessons with me in Indonesia - obviously paid for by her wealthy parents..

I had just come back from having a couple of beers during the lunch break and ...... she came into class wearing the most ridiculously short skirt.

She sat there quite seriously with her books, folded her legs and I just started giggling like an idiot. I just couldn't concentrate. I had to keep going out of the classroom to get water to either drink or wash my face so I would stop laughing but every time I went back in my fit of giggles just started up again. I just couldn't control it.

It was so bad, I had to call off the lesson early.

Obviously, I never drank again before her class for fear that she'd walk in with the same dress on. She never did, though.

2. Another was the guy who joined the oil company in which I was teaching in Syria in the oilfield itself. The day he joined the company, he went directly into English classes every day on his work rotation. We took him from Beginners all the way to Upper-Intermediate.

He was the most hard-working of any student / trainee I have ever had in my 30 odd years of doing this nonsense. He practiced, asked questions, did all (and I mean 'all' the exercises and tasks in the student book and workbook). He copied everything I ever wrote on the board. He was what one might call 'the ideal trainee' in every way. In fact, I got to know him as a friend in the end.

The day he finished his English training, he handed in his resignation and moved to Dubai. He never did one days work for the oil company despite being employed as a technician. Hats off to him, I guess.

Any memorable students you've had ?

best
basil

[lozwich]

The student who abused and ranted at me for hours on a weekly basis about how I wasn't teaching him anything, because we hadn't done enough grammar that week, and that he wanted to only look in his dictionary (which I could see was confusing the living daylights out of him) rather than try other methods of learning vocab. It got so bad that he'd spend entire lessons staring at me like Damien from The Omen, and I was scared to go to class because I thought he might just smuggle in a knife and stab me.

That was a great time.

[Justin Trullinger]

JOrdi, the cutest Catalan child in the world, who used to hide under the table AFTER class was over, wait for the next class to come in (he was 6, the next class was teens), wait until class started, then try to reach up the girls' skirts.




I break out laughing just remembering the little $%&#.


Best,
Justin

[Guy Courchesne]

Had a student years ago that worked for United Airlines ground crew in Mexico City. It was a 1 to 1 class at his apartment. He insistend we have half the class out on a nearby busy street corner with an immense amount of noise from traffic, in order to better simulate the work environment on the tarmac. Always came home from class a little hoarse.

He also gave me a wedding gift after I told him of my impending marriage...a handful of employee flight passes to get both myself and my fiancee to Canada and back at no charge.

...

I suppose I should also note the wife mentioned above, who was my second 1 to 1 student in Mexico (her brother being the very first). We're divorced now, but she would have been the most memorable student since I married her! Classes started out at her home, then quickly moved to restaurants, then turned into dates. No other student has affected me more as she ultimately charted the course of the rest of my life.

[basiltherat]

[Justin Trullinger]

THe first Catalan phrase I ever learned was:

"Jordi! qui fas soto la tavla."

(Jordi! What are you doing under the table.)

Please pardon if that's misspelled. I haven't spoken, let alone writen, Catal�n in half a decade.



Justin