Archive for the ‘Job security’ Category

Seems that there is an interesting TEFL strike story going on right on my doorstep that I hadn’t even heard about, including loads of juicy controversy. You can see the recent open letter by the leader of the Berlitz strike here, and the article in Metropolis she was replying to here.

Hat tip to the David English House newsletter for teachers, part of the ETJ (English Teachers in Japan) empire of niceness (in endless opposition to the JALT empire of evil). If you are in Japan, don’t miss the upcoming ETJ Expos in October and November.

45. ”Our incompetent teachers will make you feel better about yourself”
46. ”Certificate of achievement for all students who are actually still around at the end of the course”
47. ”Guaranteed students who are a much higher level in each class to explain anything the teacher can’t”
48. ”To guarantee an English-only class, we only employ teachers who have been here for years without learning a word of the language”
49. ”Guaranteed smaller class sizes by the end of term 1″ (more…)

1. “Officially the blondest teachers of any school in Japan/ China/ Taiwan etc”
2. “We’ve never changed because we are perfect”
3. “Come and see the new batch of teachers, fresh off the plane”
4. “The youth of our teachers makes up for the age of our building/ methodology/ technology/ wallpaper/ receptionists etc” (more…)

I must be the least likely blogger of all time, being neither technically savvy nor generally interested in online content- I’d never read a blog before I started this one, and I still reckon most of the best stuff is still in books. Anything from Zoltan available on the web? I thought not.

Once in a while though, I do stumble upon some good stuff. As that gives me even more stuff I want to read, I usually don’t find time to even mention it here, so here goes while I still feel a little recharged from my summer hols:

The Linguist Blogger

Some very thought provoking stuff, and perhaps a lesson to me that blogging less frequently produces greater quality… Two recent ones that particularly took my fancy:

Building Nations with the Cunning Use of Foreign Languages

Language Learning and Weight Lifting

Back in the world of TEFL, the other Dave is going through some highlights from his articles and he has chosen well, particularly:

In Search of a Word: Can Ambition Survive in TEFL?

When is it too late to get out of TEFL?

If like me you were stimulated by the ELT World articles but irritated by having to have a Google ID to comment, feel free to leave your comments here instead:

While I’m on the subject and have to make the most of Favourites on this PC (it’s staying in Japan when I go to Korea), here is a list of TEFL, linguistics and Japan related sites I most often end up at, in approximate order:

1. Dave’s ESL Cafe international job forums (the pointless bitching makes it more memorable somehow, maybe it’s the Dynasty of TEFL sites)

2. The TESall.com TEFL news ticker (including links to the forum discussions that are actually worthwhile)

3. The TEFL tradesman (as foul-mouthed and crusading as we’d all like to be)

4. The TEFL Blacklist (does exactly what it says in the title)

5. EL Gazette digital (a real TEFL newspaper. Click on the link on the main page to subscribe for free)

6. An Englishman in Osaka (just very funny, and so beats all the much more informative Japan blogs, of which there are many, in competing for my online time…)

7. Guardian TEFL (some real journalism would be nice- see EL Gazette for that- but a good way of keeping up with TEFL press releases anyway)

8. The Life of Mike (some odd changes of direction, but some thought provoking and entertaining posts)

9. Notes from the TEFL graveyard (hits the funny yet practical, cynical yet enjoying the life balance that I struggle with on my blog)

10. Teacher in Development (would probably be around number 2 if there were more posts)

11. Metatesol (pithy, to the point and almost inactive- this one would also be higher if this little bit of prompting results in more posts)

If I was a better person the list would probably be different, and Rave’s ESL Au Lait wouldn’t even be in the list let alone at the top and Insights into TEFL , Humanising Language Teaching  and Developing Teachers would be in there, but like my irrational desire to eat cheap gyudon, that is where I really end up. End of confession- how many Hail Mario’s for absolution?

“Our profession is notorious for exploiting its most valuable asset – language teachers – for financial gain. I remember a teacher recalling taking a summer job where he and his fellow teachers struggled to teach competently in a school with sub-standard facilities and scant resources. He had a vivid memory of the owner arriving in a Rolls Royce and announcing that further cost-cutting measures were necessary. I think that says it all.”

Sounds like TEFLtrade is back on the case… (more…)

Number one: cosplay

Only joking- I mean of course that the status of English teachers is not so obviously low that when I met the love of my life and asked her to marry me she actually agreed!

You won’t hear a lot about it on the TEFL forums, but there are actually a lot of other advantages to choosing Japan to teach in: (more…)

I seem to be preaching to the converted here (unless the people who disagree with me are so infuriated that their fingers have tensed up and they temporarily can’t use a keyboard), but I’d already started writing part two before I got the comments below, so here goes anyway…

As the comments I’ve heard from unappreciated and underpaid teaching pros over the years seem to suggest that their schools are idiots for not paying a premium to get decent teachers, let’s see if that’s true shall we?

(more…)

It seems International House has found a way out of the severe worldwide competition with Bell, the British Council and Central School of English for the cream of the TEFL teaching crop by signing up children who have shown their precocious grammar explanation and elicitation skills on youtube to be trained until they reach legal TEFL teacher age in their youth academy in Belgium. They are already calling this one “the new Scott Thornbury”. You can read the full story here:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/03/sports/soccer.php

Any regular readers who know my juvenile taste for extended football= TEFL teaching metaphors probably knew not to even bother clicking above. As usual, though, I do have a serious reason for my university-magazine-level jesting (i.e. please keep on reading. Please! Please! Pretty please!)

The point is: why are schools not competing for our signatures? Why instead are they offering worse and worse conditions that would suggest all TEFL teachers are the same? Are the few extra pounds they would need to get a TEFL professional not worth their while? Maybe they have done the maths and realised that 20% of their teachers losing them students costs them less than a 10% pay rise all round. It’s possible, especially seeing as most students leave sooner or later anyway. Anyone who has done the Diploma in EFL management know the magic mathmatical formula that means it makes business sense to treat your teachers like something you need to scrape off your shoe?

According to Garrison Keillor, “92% [of young people] want a ‘flexible work schedule’, 96% want a job that ‘requires creativity’, and 97% want a job that ‘allows me to have an impact on the world’”.

And for my reaction I can do no more than quote Mr Keillor too:

“All I can say is, Wow. Good luck. And now you know why we need illegal immigrants to do the inflexible uncreative stuff that simply needs doing right now”

So, how does TEFL stack up as a job for Generation Y? If flexible schedule equals split shifts and having to work all over the city- check. If creativity includes trying to make a textbook listening with the guy who set up amazon.co.uk (no, not Amazon.com, they couldn’t afford him) interesting or thinking up a new way to keep all 29 teenagers awake for a whole 90 minutes- check. And for those who manage to have their debate on Japanese war crimes- check for “world impact” too.

So, if TEFL is the perfect job why isn’t the world even more swamped with TEFL teachers? And more to the point, why are so many of the teachers so unhappy in their jobs?

To start with, to Generation Y ”flexible schedule” obviously does not mean your boss making you finish 10 pm one night and then start teaching at 8 am the following morning. It means you wake up any time you like and then walk to your computer down the hall in your pajamas to telecommute. Quite what a company has to gain from offering someone a job like that is beside the point, it is of course young people’s birth right to be offered flexibility while not being forced to be flexible themselves…

Saddest of all, this self-indulgent attitude is even reaching Japan. Young people are refusing to take jobs until they are offered jobs for life, then refusing to buckle under to the demands that a Japanese permanent contract has always demanded and quitting after 2 years. Please ignore everything you have ever read about this Japanese generation being more individualistic and creative, that was the last generation- they just gave their dreams up for the sake of their children. This is the molly-coddled generation. God help us all, and sell all your shares in Japanese companies now!