Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Barking Mad Lord Snapcase]

... and we probably deserve it too.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=www.eslcafe.com

[Troll_Bait]

Wow ... most of the reviews were so harsh, yet so much rang true while I read them.



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...the website is a recruitment, sales and PROMOTION website. It is NOT a community and the creator is not functioning as you being his concern.

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Perhaps equally as bad are just the plain wierd types that just 'hang out' alot ...

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... it's awful the webmaster doesn't clean it up not through further "regulations" as he so often does (silly things like swear word censoring, declaring

topics "unsafe"), but by using common sense and kicking off the goof balls no matter who they are.

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It's just a graffiti board. Hardly any penmanship, little individual, bright intelligence. The board is basically slander. Like a ghetto on the internet.

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... it's basically just about 15 couch potatoes that log in all day just to say "hi" or dog on each other, with about another 50 that join in the fracas to waste time.

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There is a large forum where ten regulars hang out. All the rest of the posts are basically..."come and see my site" and "help me with my grammar" on the students side.

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I'm actually grateful for this sorely-needed wake-up call, and I'm taking a long, hard look in the mirror right now ...

[VanIslander]

The review is of the main boards I think, which are quite different than the Korean boards.

That said, where else are ESL teachers to go instead? They're not boards for just anyone, they're for ESL teachers. So why jusge them by general criteria of boards in general?

If it isn't good enough, then LINK a couple of better places to post info, get answers and talk about things in general for ESL teachers.

[rapier]

Haha...wonder which posters they're refferring to ?
And..which disgruntled people wrote the reveiews??


Keep in mind -- it's a promotion site, NOT a community.,
1) Keep one thing in mind that you should NEVER forget -- the website is a recruitment, sales and PROMOTION website. It is NOT a community and the creator is not functioning as you being his concern. Cutesy avatars, controversial topics and the like are permissible as a way to attract YOUR posting and visiting activities -- countless visitors = higher income.

2) The other thing I want to say is the place is a bunch of liars. It's really true, I've seen guys go on there and literally lie right through their teeth. It amazes the mind as to why people would not only lie excessively about their said topic but do so undoubtedly with full knowledge they are lying. On the one hand there are the "protect my adoptive motherland anyway possible" types and their lies are blatant. Perhaps equally as bad are just the plain wierd types that just 'hang out' alot and lie not necessarily about things they are passionate about, but apparently because there's nothing else to do. Thirdly are the 'sick humor' types. I've seen users write "yes at the immigration office in xyz city, you CAN get these papers processed and done quickly too! I've done it 7 times already, as recently as last month!" Then 3 or 5 users will answer "but no I don't think so," but the guy will keep coming back and arguing "yes you can! I'm sure!!" Having no choice you decide to follow the advice and go to said office, and sure enough no matter how many requests you make, sure enough that office has NOTHING to do with the immigration (or other) papers you need to take care of. It's like these guys are so wierd they have nothing to do but lead people on a string. It's like these guys that have been in country a while get nothing out of life but to misinform a new traveller of even life's more important aspects. There are also guys on there they claim they are a "ladies man." Like the Korea forum, there's a guy whose user name refers to a certain nightlife district in Seoul. Think he's the beacon of light, talks endlessly about having 12 girlfriends, even has a buddy or two go online and 'back him up' (all online liars). How do I know? I've seen said guy and he literally gets most of his action either from hookers or women that work close to a prostitute type environment and he blows his money on that. Really, really sad bunch of people that post on the website, but it's awful the webmaster doesn't clean it up not through further "regulations" as he so often does (silly things like swear word censoring, declaring topics "unsafe"), but by using common sense and kicking off the goof balls no matter who they are. Apparently he doesn't have any -- so don't trust his site for any reliability.

Not of much interest,
Lots of ads and self promotion. Kind of stale. Very little of real worth. Check out sites like the British Council, BBC or World English for better content.

Pure grafitti ,
Basically just break out your spray paint cans. It's just a graffiti board. Hardly any penmanship, little individual, bright intelligence. The board is basically slander. Like a ghetto on the internet. A real shame that the website owner doesn't take more responsibility for his site's contents.

Particularly regarding the Korean Job Discussion forums, don't let this Alexa standing fool you, it's basically just about 15 couch potatoes that log in all day just to say "hi" or dog on each other, with about another 50 that join in the fracas to waste time. For a somewhat better discussion atmosphere, I would recommend EnglishSpectrum.com. Why? Because on their main forum, it's anonymous, so anything you post, while it may be at risk of attack, won't hurt your "image" and just as well, I've found on englishspectrum that actually about 50% of the replies you get will be somewhat helpful. On eslcafe it's much worse, particularly when you are writing about personal issues.

Eslcafe is a ghetto with graffiti, from what I've experienced.

was of no help to me,
Needed something for a class and was told by a colleague to try this site. Spend 20 minutes looking around in vain for something creative before giving up. There are materials on the site, but they are boring and repetitive. This site was created in the mid-nineties and has its mindset still ten years back. In the end, found english-zone.com, esl-lounge.com and other one called learnenglish.com or something similar....all had far better range of communicative resourses.

People need to visit Google,
if people think this is the number one site, they need to "get out a little more"!!

there are far better sites than this but people continue to return to the ones they know. Better the devil you know, as they say.

how disappointing!!

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[laogaiguk]

[Satori]

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[skconqueror]

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[khyber]

one thing that IS for sure is that the idea cookbook has GOT to get cleaned up.
If that section was organized better than simply this HUGE haphazard list of games/lessons/ideas with no organization or REAL guidance other than "speaking", "grammar", or "games" it may be worth it's spit.
Sadly it's simply a waste of time to go there right now.

Seriously dave. When I first visited the idea cookbook i thought, "wow... here is a great list of ideas!". Lucky for me, on that occasion i found what i needed almost straight away. But you can look on those lists for an hour and not and not find what you're looking for.

You REALLY need to do a real overhaul of that thing: Especially considering how much more traffic you COULD get. When I search for content specific ideas on the internet, eslcafe links ALWAYS come up but i ALWAYS ignore them cause i don't want to deal with that stupid page.
<perhaps also have a seperate sections for LESSON PLANS, games, ideas, and worsheets.

If you're taking advertising money for the forum and job postings, why not also taking advertising money for ads in the idea cookbook.

Some of the posters in that link have a chip on their shoulder and it's obvious cause they go on and on about seemingly (obviously?) trivial stories.
But some people raise some pretty salient points. If i were an ESL teacher back in Canada, i wouldn't even CONSIDER visiting this site or anything.

[Teufelswacht]

I found the 2 comments by "skytip" hilarious. But I guess I'm just twisted. "Skytip" posted 2 times. The first on October 30, 2004 and again on May 21, 2005. For a guy who doesn't like the site he/she/it sure seems to spend time cruising the site. "Skytip" strikes me as a current or former member of the board.

I must admit I got a laugh when I read the following from his/her/its 2005 "review"

[little mixed girl]

that post that rapier quoted is friggin hilarious

[Bo Peabody]

[BigBlackEquus]