Job Stress: Teaching English

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

I’m planning on moving to Taiwan to teach English, and I started thinking… Would teaching be stressfull? What would be some of the root causes of the stress involved in the job? Every job has some amount of stress, but would you say teaching is a “low stress” occupation?
Getting little tykes in Kindy to sit down and be quiet is not stress, I would consider that to be manageable.

The customer service involved at my job now is like trying to juggle while logrolling(lumberjack style…that analogy came to mind for some reason)

On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being stress free, and 10 being unbearable, what would you give teaching English?
-Mike :wink:

2

It all depends on the job. It’s not the kiddies that give you stress - it’s the management.

Brian

3

I find teaching English in Taiwan relatively stress-free. Getting to work is more stressful because of the ridiculous traffic behaviour.
That said, it is by no means an easy ride. You need to be able to commit yourself to teaching if you want to benefit personally from it and more importantly, want your students to benefit.

It also depends on what line of teaching you decide to follow. I teach only adults because I hate little scallywags - it’s a personal thing but I find teaching kids more stressful, less exciting and repetative.

Mmmm…you are obvioulsy new to teaching.

Compared to answering phones all day, typing up invoices, running around the office like a headless chicken, teaching English here is very realxed.

3 hours a day teaching in Taiwan for a livable wage? Not stressful.

4

:laughing: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! :laughing:

You’ve obviously never tried to do this when there were 21 of them.

Under the age of five.

The smiles, laughter, and love definitely make up for it, but don’t kid yourself into thinking they can handle sitting down and being completely quiet for much longer than 15 secs. All it takes is one kid to turn circle time into chaos.

5

[quote=“Underwriter”]
Getting little tykes in Kindy to sit down and be quiet is not stress, I would consider that to be manageable.

On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being stress free, and 10 being unbearable, what would you give teaching English?
-Mike :wink:[/quote]

I’m guessing that you’ve never actually tried to get the ‘little tykes’ to sit down. It can be stressful.

On a scale of 1-10 I’d give teaching English a 3. It goes up to 7 if the parents are in the classroom and it goes up even higher if you are the owner of a school. Overall, it’s a pretty stress free job, if you are an easy going character. If you’re hard-charging and expect perfection you’ll lose your mind. I like teaching English and I take the stress–however great or small–as part of the job.

6

And as the boy scouts say: be prepared.

7

The most stressful aspect of teaching English in Taiwan is that it’s so inconsistent. At most schools I’ve worked for the schedule changes almost weekly - classes cancelled and rearranged at different times and new classes added. And the worst part is that management never tells you anything until the last minute. “Oh, we forgot to tell you, today is a national holiday, no school!” I don’t know if it’s a Taiwanese cultural thing or what.

8

You’ll be stressed if the job doesn’t suit you. Do some language study and volunteer with kids for a while to see if it is your cup of tea.

9

The most stressful thing I found with teaching was the sitting around waiting to go to work at 5pm. I suffered from a form of stage fright. I was almost paralysed with not so much fear but stress. I couldn’t do anything in the day time because I was always thinking about my imminent arrival on stage (sorry in the classroom) in the evening. Once I got in the classroom I was fine. On a scale of 1 - 10 I found this about an 8

I cured this by becoming a full time preschool teacher. I didn’t have time to think about it too much in the morning at I was in the class by 9 and finished by 4. Oh and no Saturdays. This stress level came in as a 1.

Also preschoolers might be a pain to organise and get them to do things but the fun and love you get back is very rewarding. I highly recommend immersion preschool teaching. The hours are so much better too.

10

This is one of the things I don’t like about Taiwan. Teaching English to kids basically by playing games should be a low-stress job, but I didn’t find it so. The problem wasn’t the children; nor was it the time I spent in the classroom. I even liked my boss and the other foreign teachers. The problem was the school, the management, the secretaries (all idiots), the Taiwanese teaching assistants, and the Taiwanese teachers.
To me, this seemed typically Asian - take a basically easy, non-stressful situation, and make it stressful. It’s like they just can’t accept that work could be fairly pleasant, and so go out of their way to make it a living hell.
Why couldn’t they just enjoy the situation they were in? We were having fun in the classroom; the kids were enjoying themselves, and learning English. The parents were willingly forking over their dough for the kids to have lessons. There were no problems, except those seemingly deliberately created by the Taiwanese staff. Are their lives so devoid of interest and meaning that they have to create strife at work in order to give themselves an interesting experience?

11

My experience was more to do with management in head office. I was the first teacher working at a new preschool. Basically all the Chinese staff and the first foreign teachers were all in the same boat. Head office open a new school, wonderfully decorated with hard wood floors and padded walls, in a brand new very expensive building. However they neglected to give anybody training and forgot to give us any resources for THREE MONTHS!!

The official from head office that came to see us every couple of weeks got the brunt of our anger and frustation. However I don’t believe she was responsible for the screw ups. In true Chinese style this person was sent too bear the brunt because all the real managers were too chicken shit to deal with it. And would rather have a minnion lose face.

The head office management’s attitude was basically “well, thats what we pay you for, deal with it”.

On the plus side it brought foreign teachers and Chinese staff much closer together, kind of working together in the face of adversity.

I generally find that Chinese don’t trust anyone under them to do the job right. They may deligate but then at some point they come along and tell the person they’re are doing it wrong just to make themselves look big and maintain their position in the hierarchy.

12

Like everyone said, it’s management and Taiwnaese work culture that will give you stress.

If you can get used to this or avoid it, ask yourself how stressful is this:

My schedule:
8AM wakeup, get out of bed, SSS, have breakfast
8:35AM leave the house
8:37AM arrive at kindy job

8:40AM start teaching
11:40AM finish work, go get lunch

11:50AM get home and laze about for an hour and a half
1:15PM Leave house for afternoon job

1:20PM clock in
1:30PM start teaching class of 5 kids
4:20PM finsih work

4:25PM get home

Stressful? you decide.

Brian

13

Here are the times my stress level goes up:

  • Teaching a new lesson at a higher level for the first time.
  • Last minute change where my prep time is only a few minutes.
  • I have one particular class (about 8 students, age 6-7-8) where there are about 4 who have an “attitude”. It’s like teaching in a field of land mines! LOL Any one of them will either do the super pout, the big showstopping crying fit, or just cry because they “want to”. There are some days this class is a piece of cake - really enjoyable. BUT, the other days - AIEEEA!.
  • Whenever I work with a new, inexperienced CT, my stress level goes up a bit. There is nothing like a good CT to make your teaching experience much, much less stressful. Work hard to develop a good working relationship with your CT.
  • The most stress I felt came in my first 2-3 months as I’ve never taught before coming here. Once I got firmly into my 3th month, it got a lot easier quite quickly.

Every job has it’s stress and teaching is no different. But hold on tight during the learning curve, then the stress becomes more isolated and situational. It does get easier over time… heck you might even enjoy it like me.

As another poster sez - good daily prep will lower your stress big time.

Good luck!

Martin in LuChou

14

The first time you are in front of a classroom and know nothing about teaching, as I expect is the case, yes, there is a bit of stress.
After that it is all downhill. It’s a total blowout – have fun.
By the way, “teaching” is hardly the word for working in a kindy. The word is “babysitting.” Unless you have the patience of Job and a mother-to-the-world attitude, steer clear of this. Acclimatiing babies to your Western face and showing them how to say colors and junk is a sort of purgatory for most.

15

Well, if you’re babysitting them, then it’s babysitting, but if you’re actually teaching them, that is to say, getting them to learn stuff, then “teaching” is definitely the right word. That’s what I do. Of course there are plenty of situations where ‘teachers’ are babysitting or entertaining, but that’s just because the teacher’s not up to it, or the school’s not organised enough to provide the right knid of support necessary.

Brian

16

Also the thought that it’s babysitting is basically thinking that you are impassive in what they do and just there to make sure they don’t get hurt and follow a routine. If you are teaching them, though, sitting down to play with them is a form of teaching. The problem with the attitude that teaching kindy is babysitting is that people don’t realize that teaching doesn’t mean they sit in a chair and you instruct them. You teach them in all sorts of ways whether it’s making up rhymes with their names while you line up, pretending to be the customer in their kitchen play, or intervening in a conflict over a toy.
It’s why you have to be aware of the fact that they pick up a lot from you and what you do. It’s also why I wouldn’t recommend Joe Blow, trying to make as much money and party as much as he can before he moves on, to teach such a young age group as the under-6’s.

17

I tried teaching young 'uns once. Stress. Stress. Stress. I guess if ‘getting them to sit down and be quiet’ were all that was required then I could do it, but that’s not teaching.

Hats off to those that can do it, you obviously have more patience than me.

18

Kids can learn from their babysitter.
Having a native English speaker “teach” preschoolers is a scam to make parents pay money thinking that they are really helping their kids learn English (or not be afraid of the big, hairy apes). They should save their money until the kids can really absorb material in a step-by-step way, not just learn phrases and scattered words.
But stress…nah…frustration? Sure. Boredom? Yes. Greater anticipation of happy hours? Yep.

19

I don’t know, wolf. I had one boy I began teaching three years ago who had absolutely no English. He had no English support at home and had never been exposed to the language. He began with understanding simple commands and vocabulary. After half a year he was producing phrases and scattered words. He just graduated from kindergarten this year more or less fluent in English, able to spend the entire day using only English to communicate with his friends and teachers, as well as to read and write.
Even though he still has a ways to go before he comes close to near-native proficiency, this was all without formal English instruction…just being in an English-immersion environment with other children of varying English abilities and a native English speaker. I know that after 3 years of French instruction, I was far from being able to have a conversation, let alone able to function in French, but even without being taught how to speak English he learned. I’m sure you spoke Mandarin with phrases and scattered words when you first started learning. It’s a common stage of language acquisition.
Children do not learn their first language by sitting down and being instructed by a teacher so why would this be the only effective way of learning their second or third languages?

20

Just in case anyone’s having a bad day:

Monday - leave home at 9:40, swing by 7-11, and then spend a couple of hours with a lovely young lady in the comfort of her bedroom. Future tenses today so we discuss career plans, work in general, and consult our diaries to plan mutually convenient future dates.

All this stress makes me hungry so I stop for a curry on the way home, have a nap, and spend the rest of the afternoon playing with the dog. Pay all my bills (at 7-11) and go do some admin stuff related to renewing my ARC. Ooh ooh, the worry and strain!

Round the evening off with an hour in a top-class hotel level-testing candidates for an executive training course, leave with an envelope containing an unfeasibly large amount of money. Home by 9.

Tuesday - this is an extra-stressful week for me as I have a lot of one-off jobs to do. Today it’s meet an agent to sign contracts on my lush new apartment with a balcony overlooking unspoiled countryside. More dog-walking, and by 4:30 I’m overworked so head for the pool to cool off.

From there to ‘work’. 3 hrs with a highly-motivated bunch of adults, no books. It’s a substitute class, so I take a bunch of material I’ve taught a zillion times already. Exeunt feeling fully energised by all that enthusiasm and laughter.

My supervisor needs my assistance proofreading some material, so she takes me to Friday’s and we do it over cocktails at her expense. Stagger home, stressed out, just after 12.

Today - slow starting, so I call my student to let her know I’ll be late. No problem. After class she notes my bank details because I feel like a whore having her count so much money into my hand after I spend two hours in her bedroom. Oh the stress!

Three hours for lunch, naps, etc. and this afternoon I’ll spend a couple of hours with a sweet 11-yr old who tries hard and seems to really like me. This evening I have to prepare a presentation for Friday, and meet the music truck. Will I buckle under the pressure?

Tomorrow - I have a meeting scheduled with a school that is currently re-organising some classes to fit in with my ‘schedule’. After that I’ll go to the beach with the dog, and in the late afternoon I’m meeting someone to do the paperwork on my new car. (Another one-off that adds to my workload!)

Thursday night is my regular adults class, loads of fun for three hours. I’ve known some of them for a year or so and the only stress comes when they catch me lying about my love life.

Friday I’m teaching execs all day. They send a car to pick me up and give me lunch, so it’s as stress-free as possible. In the evening I have a 1-1 with an investment fund manager who is practising his conversation skills. I interject something every 10 minutes, and he talks non-stop the rest of the time. The stress nearly puts me to sleep.

Nothing doing on Saturday. No plans at this time.

Sunday morning I have a three-hour conversation class with adults. It’s a new gig and shaping up well. In the afternoon I’ll go sit on Bob’s verandah and drink Bacardi and Coke until I run out of money.

Yeah, I don’t know how I cope. Life here is hard.