The easiest way to deal w/ this and many other problems caused by lazy assed mothers who can’t do anything but speak their own language is to shoot the lot of them …
Sweet! I have one in mind, are you packing heat?
HG
Do you think the day will come when English teachers will be milling around on street corners waiting for a cattle truck to pull up and take them of to a buxiban for the day? I’m not trying to piss off people but it seems the credibility of the industry keeps getting worse. There’s still is a demand for it and foreigners keep piling in for the quick buck. I’m thinking we’re not too far off from it becoming a reality.
Too right, it is.
If you are less qualified or want to work in a developing country, Taiwan is a good bet. From what I can gather, there are a number of shady employers in Taiwan but not nearly on the scale that they exist in Korea.
The English teachers in Taiwan also tend to be scummy, but Taiwan is
livelier and more open to foreigners than Korea and there is plenty of opportunity to save some cash.
seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~jonb/dont_ … korea.html
What do you expect? As far as I know there are no required qualifications to teach English in Taiwan, or elsewhere in Asia, except having come from an English-speaking country and graduated from Uni, and the latter is not really required. In other words, a few hundred million people with no relevant education, experience, training or prior interest in “teaching” are qualified to teach English in Asia.
Moreover, most of the positions available barely require “teaching” anyway, but only call for a native-English speaker to chat with the students and organize them into small groups to chat with each other.
While many who teach here are highly qualified, with degrees in English, TOEFL, TOESL, teaching credentials and the like, that’s definitely not required (nor should it be, as the demand for native English speakers greatly exceeds the supply) and deserve recognition for their fine work, those are the exception.
I don’t blame teachers with no qualifications and don’t mean offense to them at all: it’s an interesting experience living in Asia, the jobs are out there, the pay’s decent, the hours are easy, why not earn a living chatting with pretty young girls (and guys), while studying Chinese, hitting the bars and having a good time. Nothing wrong with that. But those teachers are not providing highly-skilled professional services, so it’s only reasonable they would be seen as young goof-offs, having a good time and cruising through an easy job (which most are) due to the global mania about learning English and the pure good luck that these goof balls were born in the US/UK/Canada/Aus.
So, how are you going to change that perception? I don’t think you can. You can do a good job and try to impress those who know you; as for those who don’t, there’s no way you can possibly change their prejudices, so it’s best to just not worry about it. Let them think what they will, you can continue enjoying the good life, hitting on young students, and dropping E in the clubs. 
Yeah I agree. The underlying tone is to ‘be careful’ not ‘refrain’. I guess some people don’t learn from the unfortunate mistakes of others, so there will be more of this sort of news on it’s way I presume…
A pretty unfortunate thing to put into print, I would have thought.
Yeah, really. strange thing to say, but I’m guessing he was talking to a foreign journalist, hasn’t had much experience of talking with journalists and just shot his mouth off, or, more likely, was misquoted.
Thanks for that link.
HG
I didn’t find that a strange thing. The guy has been caught and has admitted to certain things. The articles stance is clearly that ‘soft’ drugs which are acceptable in one country are unacceptable in another and that young adults often under-estimate how serious it is to break a drug law in Asia, despite the seemingly Western appearance of the bars etc. Matty was such a person, as were his friends. The article also alluded to the threat of Taiwanese mafia and that Matty had admitted to more than was reasonable. Glenn’s comments clarified that Matty was supplying to friends rather than dealing randomly, and that Matty was neither the originator of the drugs nor had he instigated addiction in others. Glenn’s comments seemed designed to place Matty on the ladder and to show that Matty isn’t the demon that some people have imagined him to be.
The article also commented on the fears that Matty would be made ‘an example of’ and mentioned the death penalty. Glenn is described as a friend of Matty’s and so naturally he would be worried about his friend.
So, no, I didn’t think it was that weird, and saw it as one persons attempt to vindicate another.
Or maybe you can try methods used by someone else dealing with large numbers of young people overseas.But it still seems a few bad apples ruin the bunch.
“…community relations programs include, but are not limited to, such activities as liaison and cooperation with associations and organizations and their local affiliates at all levels…
…people-to-people and humanitarian acts; cooperation with government officials and community leaders…
…encouragement to participate in activities of local schools, churches, fraternal, social, and civic organizations, sports, and recreation programs, and other aspects of community life…”
U.S. Military community relations program:
[url]http://usmilitary.about.com/od/glossarytermsc/g/comrelprog.htm
.
But Tom, saying this:
“Keyboard commandos, I call them,” he says. “They sit behind their modems and espouse opinions that are hateful. A segment of these people, including the owner of one site, were calling for Matty’s death. It was like: Well, he knows the law of the land and he should be put to death. Make an example of him.”
…is certainly not nice at all. I’m sure there is a case here for some civil lawsuit by the owners of this site should they have the inclination to do so. Stuart GLEN certainly has a bee in his bonnet regarding this site and also with what he can and can’t do legally in Taiwan. Someone should point out to him that this isn’t Canada.
[quote=“Dangermouse”]But Tom, saying this:
“Keyboard commandos, I call them,” he says. “They sit behind their modems and espouse opinions that are hateful. A segment of these people, including the owner of one site, were calling for Matty’s death. It was like: Well, he knows the law of the land and he should be put to death. Make an example of him.”
…is certainly not nice at all. I’m sure there is a case here for some civil lawsuit by the owners of this site should they have the inclination to do so. Stuart GLEN certainly has a bee in his bonnet regarding this site and also with what he can and can’t do legally in Taiwan. Someone should point out to him that this isn’t Canada.[/quote]
DM, that is a seperate issue. I am saying that given the context of the article, the sentence we were discussing didn’t seem that weird to me.
About your point: Let’s not go down that road. You know where it ends, and none of us want to be there.
I’ve been of the opinion for quite some time that they should have stricter laws regulating who can and who cannot teach in Taiwan. Obviously these laws would be equally useless if they weren’t strictly enforced, and if the schools didn’t play ball to aid in the process.
Personally I think an older and more mature professional should be encouraged to come here. Whether that be over 23 or 25 or whatever, would be open to interpretation. Furthermore, it would be better if teachers hired were actual teachers. That is to say, having a teaching certificate, diploma or degree and preference given to teachers with a year or two experience. However, at this stage this is just pissing into the wind and day dreaming as there definitely is more demand than supply and the status quo will continue as is for the foreseeable future.
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Well, we could do our little bit from here and restrict access to the Open Forum. All kinds of teacher trash in there.
HG[/quote]
Not sure if this is just sarcasm, or if the comment is directed at teachers whom you consider to be “trash” and/or less than genuine, but I think it’s a little uncalled for.
There are a dedicated few here who are qualified professional teachers who take pride in their work.
But on days like this, I sometimes wonder if it wouldn’t be better to call my “Asia experience” a day and go back home to teach there again.
And that’s exactly the point, isn’t it? How many people feel that way? Isn’t that exactly what Trebuchet is getting at? Teaching is supposed to be a noble profession. A profession one can be proud of. But with alot of the examples running around here I would be hard pressed to blame anyone from harbouring such sentiments.
One immediate thing that could be done to improve the image of expats in Taiwan- and therefore maybe trickle down to include expat English teachers, is to destroy forever the ‘100,000 child prostitutes in Taiwan’ thread in the Open Forum which has currently had 8000+ hits. Having said this, however, I am against taking it down since, as I have posted, the expats who give everyone a bad name are in the minority. However, we need to be clear that there are indeed ‘bad apples’ out there.
Remove it because we wouldn’t want outsiders to think we are grown-ups who enjoy thinking for ourselves and engaging in stimulating discussion on various subjects, or because we wouldn’t want them to think we are close-minded prudes who are trying to dictate the personal behavior of others based on our own subjective moral beliefs?
Never mind, your post is :offtopic: and there’s already another thread on the subject.
The poster wants to know how one can elevate the reputation of a motley assortment of people interested in teaching, in earning money with the least effort possible, in learning Chinese, in having a good time in a different culture, in hitting the bars and picking up girls (or boys), and all the other types of people who teach here, so that people won’t believe it’s such a motley assortment but is actually a unified gang of highly-trained, professional educators. Not gonna happen. The demand for English teachers in Asia is so great that they can’t limit jobs to just the highly qualified; all types of people want to come and take advantage of the opportunities; so the “profession” will remain a motley assortment of people; and the biggest news story will never be the dry, boring professional teacher, it will always be the crazy, drug-taking, sex fiend lunatic (from Canada ).
One of the big problems is the use of the word, “Teacher”…I think if the term were changed to Language Conversation Coach, Language Conversation Tutor, or just English Conversationalist, this would give a much lower expectation to live up to then the image that most Asians expect from real teachers. Although then they would be considered much more overpaid then they are now.
Let’s face it, most of the time when I ask someone what they do they kind of hmmm and haaaw, shuffle their feet and shamefully murmur…“I’m an English teacher”, so even they apparently know this title is not realistic. I often pat them on the back and say, “That’s ok man, I used to do that also”. 
I like Bismarck’s suggestion of a minimum age requirement. Having a requirement that teachers need to be older than 25 or so, gives all the new uni graduates a few years to gain some life experience, and move beyond the 24/7 party life. Not that people over 25 don’t go out and indulge, but some sense of responsibility and emotional maturity usually starts to take effect by then. 
Another possibility would be contract length. While it’s not that hard for someone to take a year to teach in Asia (especially for a new grad), making the minimum contract, say, 2 years would probably limit the number of people coming here for quick bucks, beers and girls. It’s much harder to explain away a 2 year gap in a resume to a prospective future employer (assuming that teaching is not one’s career choice), than the current 1 year.
Some kind of mentoring program may benefit as well. By that I mean a group of older, more long-term, settled teachers here are available to the FOBs to let them know what’s what in Taiwan. How to choose the mentors would be tough though.
To really improve the image of teachers though, you’d need to involve the long-term teachers already here, schools and the MOE, CLA etc. And get some kind of consensus. And then somehow enforce it. And that’s only for Taiwan. To improve the image of teachers Asia wide (and as an offshoot, improve the education of students), you’d need all countries in the region to work together.
:roflmao:
Somehow, I don’t think that’s likely.
Remove it because we wouldn’t want outsiders to think we are grown-ups who enjoy thinking for ourselves and engaging in stimulating discussion on various subjects, or because we wouldn’t want them to think we are close-minded prudes who are trying to dictate the personal behavior of others based on our own subjective moral beliefs?
Never mind, your post is :offtopic: and there’s already another thread on the subject.
The poster wants to know how one can elevate the reputation of a motley assortment of people interested in teaching, in earning money with the least effort possible, in learning Chinese, in having a good time in a different culture, in hitting the bars and picking up girls (or boys), and all the other types of people who teach here, so that people won’t believe it’s such a motley assortment but is actually a unified gang of highly-trained, professional educators. Not gonna happen. The demand for English teachers in Asia is so great that they can’t limit jobs to just the highly qualified; all types of people want to come and take advantage of the opportunities; so the “profession” will remain a motley assortment of people; and the biggest news story will never be the dry, boring professional teacher, it will always be the crazy, drug-taking, sex fiend lunatic (from Canada ).[/quote]
A more pertinent question is what to do with highly suspect New Jersey kindergarten teachers?
HG
To answer the OP.
Ban Canadians. Surely that will improve the image, right? 