Teaching English Abroad

[upsidedownwalrus]

, which is entirely free of generalisations...

Sebastian Cresswell-Turner. A whining toff on the lam, probably disinherited for something unspeakable.

I agree, it's a load of bollocks, it thinks only of the European TEFL market. The image of people living hand-to-mouth it portrays is not at all accurate of TEFL here in China. I save about 500 quid a month. Would never be in a position to save that much, whilst renting a nice 2 bed flat, back home.

 

[fela fan]

British Council jobs require either a 1st in an MA, or a substantial amount of experience.

Not really true. They want teachers to have the cert plus a good two or three years experience as a minimum. They would like teachers who also have the diploma.

It varies from school to school from country to country from this time to that time as to whether with less than this you can get a job. Right now for example they are having great problems filling posts in bangkok with appropriately experienced teachers.

You're very unlikely to get any teaching job at the bc anywhere without a certificate. No, it's impossible.

Degrees will not come into it if one is well experienced with the cert. If you have the diploma you will get a job with them pretty much anywhere.

But getting a dip is bloody hard.

 

[fela fan]

Incidentally, teaching english is one of the hardest jobs in the world to do well. For those inclined it will be very rewarding, but you can never stop learning how to do it better. And before you get a year or four's experience, there will be many panic times when you have a class starting in 10 minutes, and you still don't know what you're going to teach.

And with 10 or 30 students eagerly awaiting their lesson, if only they knew that the teacher has no idea what it's going to be...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I agree with Fela. My friend had a B.A - CELTA - a couple of years teaching at dodgy language colleges in London - a year or so in Moscow - and then she got the job at the BC in Bangkok. Pays about 850 quid a month which is bloody good for Thailand

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Incidentally, teaching english is one of the hardest jobs in the world to do well. For those inclined it will be very rewarding, but you can never stop learning how to do it better. And before you get a year or four's experience, there will be many panic times when you have a class starting in 10 minutes, and you still don't know what you're going to teach.

And with 10 or 30 students eagerly awaiting their lesson, if only they knew that the teacher has no idea what it's going to be...

Agreed. It's a shame that so many ESL teachers are chancers and dossers, as IMO it's a job that requires as much skill as being a 'real' teacher, if not more. Some of our real teachers at school just sat at the front and rambled on in a monotone voice (and that was at a supposed 'good schoool'). To be a good ESL teacher you have to do soooooooooooooo much more than that!

 

[Rock Bottom]

(re: British Council) Not really true. They want teachers to have the cert plus a good two or three years experience as a minimum. They would like teachers who also have the diploma.

My mistake. I meant you need a BA or experience. I applied to BC in the past, and was rejected on account of my BSc, despite having the TESOL and experience. This, however, was for Spain, where teachers are much more in supply.

.....Incidentally, teaching english is one of the hardest jobs in the world to do well. For those inclined it will be very rewarding, but you can never stop learning how to do it better. And before you get a year or four's experience, there will be many panic times when you have a class starting in 10 minutes, and you still don't know what you're going to teach..........
........It's a shame that so many ESL teachers are chancers and dossers, as IMO it's a job that requires as much skill as being a 'real' teacher, if not more. Some of our real teachers at school just sat at the front and rambled on in a monotone voice......... To be a good ESL teacher you have to do soooooooooooooo much more than that!

Agreed. It's damned hard work sometimes, and it is a pity that ESL teachers will often be looked down upon as being in some sort of second rate profession.

On top of the actual teaching, one needs to be culturally aware enough to deal with a variety of issues that crop up. This not only applies to the residents of the country you happen to be teaching, but to the global community. For example, at my workplace, there have been Burmese, Uzbeks, Phillipinos, Ghanaians, Cameroonians, Mexicans, Egyptians, and Nepalese on the staff. Private teaching also brings you into contact with different nationalities.

 

[Rock Bottom]

this article may put off the not-sure.

Oh, one more thing....... a degree of humility goes a long way. This guy sounds like a lot of tossers I have met, who carry visions of Grandier around with them, and who will never cut it in this side of the world. For example : "Several people on the course were barely literate"
or
"I rang up International House in London and said I had a degree in French and Russian from Oxford and wanted to do their TEFL course, they sniffily told me that they might perhaps "consider" my application . . . later. The admissions tutor for the Harvard MBA programme could hardly have sounded grander".

....and I am only half-way through the article.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Yeah he sounds like some of the tossers who infest the ESL Cafe... Remember that guy Ludwig?

 

[purves grundy]

Not really true. They want teachers to have the cert plus a good two or three years experience as a minimum. They would like teachers who also have the diploma.

Pretty much true. I work for the BC and had 6 years experience when I joined. They like you to have an interest in gaining the Dip, but there are a few teachers here who don't have or who gained it while working for the BC (for which they pay half of the costs.) They don't recognise my PGCE, which pisses me off because I'm using very subject-specific knowledge in a lot of my classes now which I gained on the PGCE. Plus, they like me to do training on issues such as special needs which the CELTA and DELTA say nothing about.

Salary's v good though.

 

[t0bytoo]

Anyone here teach english in Barcelona?

I've just been to an interview, and another one tomorrow. Both schools are offering part time work, and seem like they're okay places.

I've love to hear form someone who knows the local scene.

 

[story]

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[machine cat]

Agreed. It's a shame that so many ESL teachers are chancers and dossers, as IMO it's a job that requires as much skill as being a 'real' teacher, if not more. Some of our real teachers at school just sat at the front and rambled on in a monotone voice (and that was at a supposed 'good schoool'). To be a good ESL teacher you have to do soooooooooooooo much more than that!

The amount of times i've heard my colleagues say that they never make lesson plans is unbelievable. How can you go into a classroom without even a basic idea of what you want to do on paper? These are people who have been in the job and the country for only a few months and are leaving after Christmas. They haven't learnt anything useful about teaching in China. Except the fact that you can be anyone with a white face and get a job.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I don't understand how they do it. I would shit myself going to a lesson if I hadn't done a reasonable amount of preparation. I plan all my lessons to the minute...

 

[fela fan]

Agreed. It's a shame that so many ESL teachers are chancers and dossers, as IMO it's a job that requires as much skill as being a 'real' teacher, if not more.

It requires much more skill than any other subject to teach. Learning another language for an adult is as difficult a skill as anything in life. It stands to reason therefore that it is difficult to teach well too.

I find it funny when i come across misinformed people who think it's not a real teaching job. The irony is that they're right. It's much more difficult than that.

But, the rewards are massive too, for those that find the job to their liking when they embark on english teaching.

 

[fela fan]

I don't understand how they do it. I would shit myself going to a lesson if I hadn't done a reasonable amount of preparation. I plan all my lessons to the minute...

Do you allow lessons to stray from your plan if they go off on a tangent that proves to be popular with the class?

Funny enough i went through a period, either side of doing my diploma where i'd spend 3-4 hours planning a three hour lesson. I did this for a good three years. The result is that i can go into a class now without a lesson plan (not that i do this often), with just a starting point in my head, and then i can let the class go in the direction it naturally goes! I think if you put in enough effort down the years, you get to a point where you can deliver better lessons with minimal planning.

 

[fela fan]

For example, at my workplace, there have been Burmese, Uzbeks, Phillipinos, Ghanaians, Cameroonians, Mexicans, Egyptians, and Nepalese on the staff. Private teaching also brings you into contact with different nationalities.

This of course is one of the many benefits of the job. You get to meet people from loads of different countries. You cut through the bullshit and division of the political and media worlds, and instead have a lot of fun with people of various backgrounds and countries. Humans around the world have so much more in common than not. Yet you'd never believe that from the media.

I don't reckon there's a job out there to match being an english teacher. It hardly ever feels like work. Just fun.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Do you allow lessons to stray from your plan if they go off on a tangent that proves to be popular with the class?

Funny enough i went through a period, either side of doing my diploma where i'd spend 3-4 hours planning a three hour lesson. I did this for a good three years. The result is that i can go into a class now without a lesson plan (not that i do this often), with just a starting point in my head, and then i can let the class go in the direction it naturally goes! I think if you put in enough effort down the years, you get to a point where you can deliver better lessons with minimal planning.

Agreed, and I certainly planned way more when I first arrived. And of course there is an extent to which you can overplan.

But I would never go to a lesson without any idea of what I was going to teach in that lesson, as drcarnage mentioned on the previous page.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I don't reckon there's a job out there to match being an english teacher. It hardly ever feels like work. Just fun.

Agreed, I was in an office job before, the weeks just used to pass by soooooooo slowly. Here every week just goes past like the click of a finger.

 

[purves grundy]

Agreed, I was in an office job before, the weeks just used to pass by soooooooo slowly. Here every week just goes past like the click of a finger.

Think seriously before you go for that PGCE, then. After some years in energetic, creative EFL schools where I met some of the best teaching minds in the world, going into 'proper schools' was a massive let down. The morbidity of those staff rooms - ugh

 

[kakuma]

agree as well

 

[machine cat]

Agreed here too. I'm just about to leave the house, collect my pay, go to class (only two 40 minute periods) then head back home. The past semester has flown by. I can't believe my students are the same shy things I met in September.

Although I have 6 hours of Superkids tomorrow starting at eight. So it's not all hunky dory.

 

[machine cat]

I don't understand how they do it. I would shit myself going to a lesson if I hadn't done a reasonable amount of preparation. I plan all my lessons to the minute...

Well, one of the people I mentioned recently ask me if I could "borrow" him my Star Wars box set. I really wonder how he manages to teach English at all.

 

[kakuma]

teaching is all about acting. if you can get the kids to believe your bullshit then you're halfway there

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Agreed here too. I'm just about to leave the house, collect my pay, go to class (only two 40 minute periods) then head back home. The past semester has flown by. I can't believe my students are the same shy things I met in September.

Although I have 6 hours of Superkids tomorrow starting at eight. So it's not all hunky dory.

Superkids

Hahahahahahahahaha!

*laughs at dr carnage*

(To all those who are unaware, superkids is an awful book in which Chinese people speak in the most ludicrous fake american accents ever, in screechy cartoon voices and everyone is called things like Chip and Donny)

Although I think the way it teaches letters and sounds in book 1 is quite good. Muh-muh em etc.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Think seriously before you go for that PGCE, then. After some years in energetic, creative EFL schools where I met some of the best teaching minds in the world, going into 'proper schools' was a massive let down. The morbidity of those staff rooms - ugh

Hmmm... food for thought, I guess. But I do really fancy the idea of teaching stuff like English literature though.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Well, one of the people I mentioned recently ask me if I could "borrow" him my Star Wars box set. I really wonder how he manages to teach English at all.

Good grief...

 

[machine cat]

You forgot about Mojo the mouse and the aliens Pluto and Jupiter!

 

[chooch]

Well, one of the people I mentioned recently ask me if I could "borrow" him my Star Wars box set.

Common usage in some parts. Heard it in Yorkshire, Wales, elsewhere.

 

[Red Horse]

Although I have 6 hours of Superkids tomorrow starting at eight. So it's not all hunky dory.

Ive not come across Superkids yet but it sounds shite, i really feel for these poor sods here sometimes, they spend so long trying to learn so much stuff which is essentially shit, stuff like calling people "fellow" and finding out what a "fish maw" is.
I do fucking hate that 'side by side' book though, you're teaching little kids the basics like "Jim walked down the road and met a little boy" then it throws in "the boy was very obnoxious" so then you've got all these little kids walking round dropping obnoxious into every sentence

 

[machine cat]

Common usage in some parts. Heard it in Yorkshire, Wales, elsewhere.

The person I mentioned is from the US, and loves to talk about how 'British' English is inferior to American English.

In Yorkshire it is also considered bad use of language... at least by me.