Well,
I’ve given it six months or so. Im really getting sick of being an English teacher. What a joke the whole thing is. Even if I was the best teacher in the world it would be completely lost on these kids. They really don’t care to learn they are ok if all you want to do is repeat English words after the teacher like a parrot. Its getting tiresome going into class and just babysitting a bunch of poorly behaved and immature kids. Some of the kids are allright if they are in more advanced classes and are actually trying to learn something. Good thing my job is so easy in general otherwise I would just ditch it…
What do you guys really think about teaching English in Taiwan?
Nope. If you were the best teacher in the world, they’d be listening. If you had more training and experience, it’d be easier and better.
Your choices are to get better and do it right, or do something else and learn how to do that well instead. And prepare for that to suck as well, when you’ve been doing it for six months. I was a shit teacher after I’d been doing it for six months. Then I went back to my country and was a shit book editor after six months, then I was a shit translator after six months.
Pick something you are interested in. You’ll be shit at it for 3–10 years while you learn how to do it. It’ll be an annoying, boring pain in the arse: all paid work is unless you are preternaturally easily amused. Don’t worry about it, as long as you are trying your best and training as much as you can.
Well, I have a job where I have to travel to many different branches and I get new kids almost everytime so I don’t get the opportunity to develop a relationship with the kids. I am Given a few pages from a book and told to teach this for two hours off the top of my head. I seem to figure out how to occupy two hours but is that the normal practice in Taiwan?
How do you expect ‘off the top of your head’ to fly, if you don’t have much experience? Not saying at all that it’s your fault, just that that’s the way it is. Everyone involved is untrained and in it because it’s ‘easy money’. Except it’s not that easy and there isn’t much money.
The way out is learn how to do it better or do something else which will also be hard, initially. Your choice. What else can you do that will make you money? Just pick something and work hard at it and eventually, it’ll get easier and more fun.
[quote=“sean_samten1”]
What do you guys really think about teaching English in Taiwan?[/quote]
I enjoy it a lot. The pay is a downside, but everything else is great. I don’t teach young learners anymore, although I wouldn’t be completely averse to teaching them again.
If it’s any consolation I was also on a bit of a downer after 6 months or so in Taiwan, but things gradually improved. Try to think about what your goals are before each lesson and then think afterwards about whether the students achieved them. If they didn’t - why not? Try to learn to ignore external factors such as managers or textbooks. Just concentrate on teaching well in every lesson, or reflecting on why things didn’t go well.
However, if you’re still young then my advice would be to find a profession that pays well.
Are you new to Taiwan also? You may be a bit tired and culture shocky. Make sure you’re looking after yourself.
And take a step back. Did you really write ‘immature kids’? The definition of ‘kid’ is a little person who is emotionally, cognitively and physically immature. This sounds weird but you need to have concurrently high expectations and low expectations. They’re doing foreign language classes after a kabillion hour day in hot weather and they don’t give a shit about what some guy jabbering in a language they don’t understand is saying? Um, don’t be surprised by that. How would that fly wherever you went to school?
SWOT analyse it and accept the weaknesses, then work on the good stuff. Make sure they go away with a couple of positive memories every class, not necessarily linguistic stuff. You need to be firm, repetitive, structured and the language may well happen, but any education is not as teacher-centred as common sense tells you. It’s not a transmission of knowledge from you to them, it’s a dialogue and something that is created through interplay of factors that you don’t fully control. By simultaneously controlling your classes more and letting go of that wider control, it’ll be a lot more positive.
If you want to do it, hang in there and tom’s advice about reflecting on your classes is useful. If you don’t, as tom says, cut your losses as quickly as you can and go and learn a different trade.
I came to Taiwan last December and landed the job last March. So I have been working since then. I guess I’m kind of lucky with the job in that it isn’t too demanding and they don’t ask much of me. Just show up, teach, and go home. No preparation or grading. No extra time. But it bothers me sometimes how disorganized some of the branches are. Its like they are always just preparing for the next thing two minutes before it happens. So often I am expected to just come in, get the assignment, and teach a class for two hours.
I understand what you are saying about the kids coming to these cram schools after an already long day of school no wonder they don’t want to be there. I can sympathize with that. I am trying to do the best I can. I really don’t know how I am as a teacher. Probably not so good, sometimes better than others depending on the course material and the reception of the students.
I have a serious girlfriend in Taiwan now so I am a little unsure about changing the job. It would be nice to be doing something I love that’s for sure. Im interested in languages so maybe becoming a translator could be an option. I just have a Bachelors degree from a decent U.S. university. I am 30 years old now. People say I look young though lol… Anyway I don’t really know what career I would get into to make a decent living especially here in Taiwan or elsewhere in Asia.
There are a lot of problems with teaching English in Taiwan but the problems that you are specifically having are related to a shitty job that you currently have. Start looking for a job that offers 20+ hours at one location. You have a one year contract but it’s legal to break it simply by providing sufficient notice.
I am a little concerned that you basically don’t give a shit about your end of the job and instead blame the kids. Why the hell should the kids do anything for you if you just show up and plan on going thru two pages? Contrary to what everyone wants you shouldn’t just show up and teach 2 pages and go home. Even if you are subbing you should be able to plan out how to present the material so that the kids are engaged in classes. I actually find it a lot of fun to sub a class because the kids haven’t done a 10 minute activity like the one I do with them.
That’s not true. I do try my best. Only some branches provide 4 pages and they don’t give me any information before hand. That is not really my fault. Other classes have a lot of information and worksheets for the kids to do. I throw in some games and things go pretty well. If they are advanced and attentive students I can teach a lot of things that they seem to enjoy and find useful. I don’t just teach two pages. If two pages are given to me then I usually fill with games/activities/ whatever I can come up with and have them do some writing practice on blank paper. That is if I can get my hands on any blank paper.
One of the branches I went to was a construction site. There was drilling so loud I could barely hear myself talk. Outside the door was a mess of boards and nails. I couldn’t believe they insisted on having class in that. I wonder if I should have walked out. In fact I am headed back to that branch today.
[quote=“sean_samten1”]That’s not true. I do try my best. Only some branches provide 4 pages and they don’t give me any information before hand. That is not really my fault. Other classes have a lot of information and worksheets for the kids to do. I throw in some games and things go pretty well. If they are advanced and attentive students I can teach a lot of things that they seem to enjoy and find useful. I don’t just teach two pages. If two pages are given to me then I usually fill with games/activities/ whatever I can come up with and have them do some writing practice on blank paper. That is if I can get my hands on any blank paper.
One of the branches I went to was a construction site. There was drilling so loud I could barely hear myself talk. Outside the door was a mess of boards and nails. I couldn’t believe they insisted on having class in that. I wonder if I should have walked out. In fact I am headed back to that branch today.[/quote]
I apologize for being a little harsh earlier but I have very little tolerance when teachers start blaming kids and also scapegoating the kids’ immaturity. wtf do you expect from 7-10 yr olds? they are only there because their parents basically force them.
Perhaps I also misread this. It sounded to me that you were not doing much outside of class because your school didn’t require it. When I was subbing a couple of years ago I usually had an idea of the material that I was going to teach OR I showed 20-30 minutes early to take a look at it.
But my first advice still stands. You should be looking for a different school with 20+ block hours at one location. I think some these issues that you have specifically mentioned would be very different if you were teaching the same classes for a year or two. There are plenty of issues with ESL but none of the ones that you mentioned have to be issues.
This sums it up nicely. The best strategy that I’ve ever employed has involved recognizing that increased freedom from my constant supervision, commensurate with progress, is the best reward children can hope to get from me. External motivators are only effective in the short term and among the very young. Intrinsic motivation is what matters in the long term, and for many, young and old alike, that simply isn’t present. The promise of free time is somewhere in between, depending on the youth, I’ve found.
The question is this: Can people even provide intrinsic motivation to other people? Adults who pay out of pocket have an intrinsic motivation to get the most bang for their buck. They have personal goals and desires, and they have stressors and motivators that simply don’t exist among children.
I’ve been teaching languages for something like eight years now, and only recently have I really gotten to what I view (now) is the ideal model for presentations of languages. But who knows what I’ll think about it even one year from now?
Oh, and find a job (or obsessive interest) where you’re forced to make your own teaching materials. You’ll learn pretty quickly how much you suck and where, OP, once you start going down that road.
except that isn’t really a good thing. what benefits are you going to get out of having such a slack life further down the road? lots of hobbys? i am sure you know that what we get out of life is what we put into it. the reality is that teaching/babysitting is a free ride job that you can get because you were born a native english speaker and look white. so there is a lot of hassle that goes a long with that free ride job… you have to expect it.
it is pretty suitible if you are travelling but if you want a more fruitful future you might want to start thinking about a more serious career. there are quite a few posts on here about older dudes who have made a career out of english teaching/babysitting, and seem pretty regretful about the lack of money and skills they have later in life. this is what awaits. i am not putting down english teaching in general, i have heard good things about people teaching more qualified jobs here. but that will requires some more serious work that just being a native speaker/having white skin.
They guy hates his job because his job sucks. Is he dumb enough to come back here for another ‘constructive’ beat down? To listen to more piss about getting a job in one school with 20+ hours? Or how he should work harder? Or that he should care about a bunch of nameless shitbags who don’t care themselves?
Probably/Hopefully he has sense enough to take what advice was given here and wipe his butt with it.
[quote=“superking”]They guy hates his job because his job sucks. Is he dumb enough to come back here for another ‘constructive’ beat down? To listen to more piss about getting a job in one school with 20+ hours? Or how he should work harder? Or that he should care about a bunch of nameless shitbags who don’t care themselves?
Probably/Hopefully he has sense enough to take what advice was given here and wipe his butt with it.[/quote]
If he wants to do it, he’s going to have to try harder or it won’t get easier: winging it is difficult and stressful if you’re a newbie. Ideally, he would stop it and go and train to do something else, but maybe he’s not ready to let go of something he presumably wanted to do at some point? Maybe he wants to vent, maybe he wants help.
They’re kids, not ‘nameless shitbags’: don’t be a dick.
[quote=“superking”]They guy hates his job because his job sucks. Is he dumb enough to come back here for another ‘constructive’ beat down? To listen to more piss about getting a job in one school with 20+ hours? Or how he should work harder? Or that he should care about a bunch of nameless shitbags who don’t care themselves?
Probably/Hopefully he has sense enough to take what advice was given here and wipe his butt with it.[/quote]
I thought the advice I provided was quite helpful. If not…
[quote=“tomthorne”][quote=“superking”]They guy hates his job because his job sucks. Is he dumb enough to come back here for another ‘constructive’ beat down? To listen to more piss about getting a job in one school with 20+ hours? Or how he should work harder? Or that he should care about a bunch of nameless shitbags who don’t care themselves?
Probably/Hopefully he has sense enough to take what advice was given here and wipe his butt with it.[/quote]
I thought the advice I provided was quite helpful. If not…
Ermintrude: I think it is quite acceptable to think of kids you’ll never see more than once in your life as nameless shitbags. Plus, kids can be little twats way beyond their basic design specification.
This sounds weird but you need to have concurrently high expectations and low expectations. They’re doing foreign language classes after a kabillion hour day in hot weather and they don’t give a shit about what some guy jabbering in a language they don’t understand is saying? Um, don’t be surprised by that. How would that fly wherever you went to school?