And now the good news

Student in class 1: My friend told me he got laid off.
Me: Poor guy, what’s he going to do?
Student: Take English classes.

Student in class 2: Our company is asking staff to take unpaid leave.
Me: What will you do with the free time?
Student: Upgrade my skills. Take more English classes.

Student in class 3: I will graduate soon, but don’t think I will find a job.
Me: So what are you going to do?
Student: I need to improve my English to get a good job.

Some people feel that there are too many teachers, too many schools, chasing too few students and the economy is going down the shitter. I’m getting the feeling that there could be a mini-boom on the horizon.

Imagine, being in a booming market where most (but not all) of your competitors are wankers. What a great time to be alive!

Or am I dreaming again?

Wakey, wakey! It’s time to get up. You don’t want to be late for class. Oh look, you’ve drooled all over your pillow again - you must have been dreaming about having interesting students.

While I’m happy to hear that people want to learn English, I wonder how many will be doing it the cheap way (i.e. at home with their computer).

[quote=“Loretta”]Student in class 1: My friend told me he got laid off.
Me: Poor guy, what’s he going to do?
Student: Take English classes.

Student in class 2: Our company is asking staff to take unpaid leave.
Me: What will you do with the free time?
Student: Upgrade my skills. Take more English classes.

Student in class 3: I will graduate soon, but don’t think I will find a job.
Me: So what are you going to do?
Student: I need to improve my English to get a good job.

Some people feel that there are too many teachers, too many schools, chasing too few students and the economy is going down the shitter. I’m getting the feeling that there could be a mini-boom on the horizon.

Imagine, being in a booming market where most (but not all) of your competitors are wankers. What a great time to be alive!

Or am I dreaming again?[/quote]

I don’t teach English, but my workload is booming now for similar reasons.

“I was laid off, so I’ve decided to study abroad.”
“I can’t find a job, so I’ve decided to study abroad.”
“My company has decreed it will only retain those with MBAs. I think I’ll study abroad.”

Loretta

I found your article interesting, especially the part where you describe the competition as ‘wankers’. Would you care to explain what criteria tecahers in Taiwan must meet to qualify for this definition?

I seem to remember a message from you dated 4 October asking for sources of podcasts – a message a number of us were kind enough to reply to. It is possible some of these replies were from ‘wankers’ who are providing easy competion for you.

Perhaps in future I may think twice about answering any of your requests.

Charlie Warth
opilec@yahoo.co.uk

L, I think you may be right and would be backed up in my office; in International EFL, a boom is predicted, but in schoolbook spending, a crunch.

Other poster; that was ages ago. I too answer Loretta’s nonsense, sometimes even with the intention of helping yet I am most definitely a wanker, or the female equiv. Funny how you can’t really use that insult with wimmin, regardless of the extent and frequency of their self loving activities. Hmm. It doesn’t sound insulting, just a bit odd. Anyway, ON TOPIC!

Well, being unable to spell ‘teachers’ would be possibly be one. But honestly, everyone makes the occasional mistake and I did make a point of saying that not all foreign teachers in Taiwan are wankers. It’s quite possible that you are a decent, intelligent, professional guy quite undeserving of the epithet ‘wanker’ and if so I apologise for implying otherwise.

But no matter how wonderful you and I may be, there are an awful lot of wankers out there. Many of them are not foreigners, and not teachers. They just happen to run businesses (I use the term loosely) masquerading as schools. This forum is full of people complaining about them.

Actually, I do have some very interesting students. Keep away from the early-20’s “strawberries” and start focusing on the mature adults with life experiences and reasonably informed opinions about stuff, and life becomes a lot more enjoyable. For the former, the state of the economy is a convenient excuse to waste your time in a classroom or coffee shop. For the latter, hard questions about what they (or you) are doing wrong are welcomed and finding solutions is a challenging and rewarding activity for both of you. I’m serious.

Off to class now. Happy happy.

Funny, I’ve been receiving a few more calls for private lessons lately than usual.

I’m getting stopped on the street by people asking me to tutor them/their kids. That had not happened in a long, long, long, loooong time…

Loretta might be on to something.

I just got a student who, after 19 years with multinational company, got laid off. The company’s business has tanked and they downsized. She’s a bright, hardworking, dedicated person. Her resume is outstanding. The economy is what it is, though. So what did she decide to do? Take an intensive English program. We meet 3 times a week for 2 hours each. That, and she decided to take up yoga. Sometimes adversity such as this can really open new doors for people.

Aiyo, but. Classes full of the economically expendable …

I don’t get your point.

For fuck’s sake, BC.

Sometimes people get laid off because they have the good fortune to work for people who don’t know how to run a business properly. Or in companies they had no interest in joining but were pushed into by overbearing parents. To describe people in this way is really not fair to them, and doesn’t recognise that they may have talents and abilities beyond what you might deduce from a simplistic interpretation of their new circumstances.

And even if they are economically expendable, that doesn’t mean that there is anything terrible about having them as your students. I happen to quite like most of the people in my classes. They may not always be following my agenda, but we can usually find some way that they can get something useful from the time and money they invest without my having to sacrifice my pride, integrity, sanity, happiness or self-respect.

I’ve been a lot happier - and more successful - in my work since I started accepting my students for what they are and working with them rather than against them. And it’s a lot easier to bring them round to my way of thinking if we start from a position of respect and understanding for who they are and what their lives are about. They’re good people in difficult circumstances, and the opportunity before us right now is to provide a little leadership and expertise in exchange for a fair amount of cash. I’d rather enjoy it than bitch about it, figure out what I need to do to be successful rather than blame people for needing help.

EVERYONE is ‘economically expendable’. There isn’t a person without which the economy, or a business, couldn’t survive. Good people are getting laid off. Hardworking, quality employees are losing their jobs.

That’s why Buttercup’s comment is truly pointless.

It’s not pointless, but, erm, never mind. Carry on!

I’d second this. Based upon the fairly small sample I have to go on, the older people are much more interesting and absolutely hilarious because they’ve gained the confidence over time to not only talk, but to say the most outrageously inappropriate things about everybody, including themselves. If I could, I’d only ever teach the middle-aged and older. I’m definitely going to be hitting more of these up for private lessons.

I think it just shows how Taiwanese don’t have any hobbies, they suddenly have oodles of time and think, hhmm I should study English. Well one of the reasons, good for you guys I guess.

Getting back on topic, can we expect massive waves of Americans, Canadians, Brits, etc., coming into Taiwan to teach English after they are unable to find work in their own countries? Quite a few students are graduating soon in this bleak economy.