Job Discussion Forums

[jimi1999uk]

Outside of Europe and the US.

I know that a McJob in a good country and a nice gig in a crappy one make a difference but I'm just curious about peoples overall good and bad experiences in the esl world. Thanks.

[mimi_intheworld]

Least challenging was adult business & conversation classes in Thailand. It was good times, lots of work preparing, but pretty easy actually presenting lessons. Most challenging was (even though you asked for outside Europe) secondary school in the UK. It was VERY rarely good times, and the prep/paperwork time was almost overwhelming when added to the actual act of teaching my hooligan classes. (The classes of Official Unteachable Hooligans were actually far better than the bog standard hooligans. But that's always the way.)

[sistercream]

Have to say that both extremes have been in Hong Kong:
the gorblimey - 50 hour week + outside prep time, teaching in a room so small I could stand in the middle and touch both side walls, teaching grossly age-inappropriate material to mixed ability classes, trying to cover 3 different courses for different children in the same class simeltaneously ... just as well I was already comfortable with culture and Cantonese so I didn't mind being stuck out in the boondocks, not seeing other non-Chinese for days on end.
The sublime - 5 days 7:30am 1:30pm with built-in prep time, beautifully equipped international school with the boss always begging me to order more materials and equipment to use up my budget, well-behaved students, lots of good company in the staff room, salary package to die for and 12 weeks paid leave ... by any standards I was some kind of idiot to leave that job, but at the time I was young and idealistic enough to think I needed new challenges