I don’t think I was a very good English teacher. I did it for about two years and it was a huge test of my patience. I prefer sitting in a quiet library searching through old volumes of Chinese history or classical literary exegesis. So, I got out of the teaching field, and while editing/translating still isn’t my dream job, I prefer it much more to teaching. I just couldn’t get excited about teaching English, not like I get excited talking about Chinese literature … so I know where I need to be headed. I have a lot of respect for good teachers … there was a fabulous South African woman who taught at my old kindergarten a couple years back. She was very, VERY good. Unfortunately, I’ve found that most teachers aren’t like her, and just try to “get by” (like I did).
Back then there was a bunch of engineers that wanted English lessons. So they called the company I worked for and requested a young pretty female teacher. They got me. That’s two strikes right off the bat. I worked really hard to make the class interesting. One class was all about how to tell if someone is a witch. On the last day of class, they took me to Hooters.
Yiou must have done something right Richard. I have had people study with me for years without ever offering up a bloody thing. And this after giving them loads of extra time, lending them movies… One of my students gave me USD200 for CNY this year though so things are looking up.
I taught a couple of summers and I was a terrible teacher. I can’t believe how many kids I made cry. I’ve been sacked from Joy and Kid Castle, while GTE and Jordan seemed to really like me. Being sacked from Joy was the funnest, because I got in a total pissing match with the stupid boss and made her cry. I even have the ultimate longtimer war scar–a victorious run-in with the dreaded Jenny.
Adults were a little better, but after a few lessons it becomes obvious that a lot of these businessman types have some real psychological problems (but then again I might have been teaching a low crowd). It wasn’t until years later that I found my real calling–helping Canadian and South African newbies who are being screwed over by their bushibans (aka Operation Sweet Success), especially when their bosses take their passports. The greatest feather in my cap was calling one bitch in Chiayi on the way she treated her teachers so many times that she finally closed her school.
Which 2 strikes? Are you not
a) young
b) pretty
c) female
d) teacher
???
Sorry to fool around. Good topic. I just like to tease.
They have been taught to compete but not cooperate. It makes them defensive, uncoperative, and mildly hostile all at once. The best thing you can do is screw up all over the place and not show the slightest bit of embarrassment over it. Sooner or later they catch on, relax a bit, and then you can get to work on the seriously complicated task of improving their English.
Ergo the reason why I want nothing to do with teaching Business English. Give me kids any day.
“I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson.” - The Analects VII viii
I was just curious if Confucius would have cut it as an ESL teacher with such a philosophy. 