Comments on: Six things to do as soon as you finish your TEFL course

By: List #66 « Six Things

List #66 « Six Things — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 08:32:27 +0000

[...] this whole blogging thing, Six Things has made a few guest appearances. I wrote a piece called Six Things to do as soon as you finish your CELTA on Alex Case’s blog. The infamous TEFL Tradesman, Sandy McManus, convinced me to do an [...]

By: jim

jim — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:08:23 +0000

Of course David V is the owner and profiteer of eltworld.net. No wonder he is dissing Daves and promoting his own Turkish shite.

By: jim

jim — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:01:18 +0000

The Higher Colleges are only one employer and the UAE is only 1 country. I never said that I only had a cert and Julian Edge did mark 1 of my assignments-I did his foundation module when he taught at Aston. I realise that the UAE is full of MA holders and many that claim they have an MA.

By: TEFLista

TEFLista — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:01:01 +0000

I completely agree with you, David.

By: David V.

David V. — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:27:06 +0000

Whatever you do folks, don’t go job hunting at Dave’s ESL Cafe. I can’t stress the importance of this enough.

Also, never assume that you’ll be able to get any worthwhile info from the ESL Cafe forums.

Alex, as ever you and your readers are welcome to report warnings about all these bounders on the ELT World forums…

http://eltworld.net/forums/index.php

Thanks to Lindsay for this excellent list.

By: TEFLista

TEFLista — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:55:33 +0000

P.S. Yes, Dave’s ESL often lists a lot crap jobs. So? That doesn’t mean that aren’t any decent ones — t just means that those employers are willing to pay him to list their positions.

By: TEFLista

TEFLista — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:34:36 +0000

I find it hard to believe that Julian Edge marked one of your assignments, yet you seem to be claiming that you only have a TEFL Cert. Is that the case? Do you have a higher qualification? You really didn’t answer the question. Yes, there is the odd language school and private high school, but they are by far the minority as far as English teachers are concerned. The whole language school culture is nothing like it is in Asia. The Higher Colleges pays what I stated above, and has been for at least four years, at least for MA holders (something of which there is no shortage of in the UAE). They do accept teachers with a BA and the RSA Dip, but the majority have an MAs.

By: jim

jim — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:27:42 +0000

Wrong-they don’t hire without an MA-complete rubbish. Take a look at the ME jobs on tefl.com and Dave’s-no MA needed for almost all of them. Examples of employers in ME who don’t require MAs: BAE, Bell, SDT, STA, Higher Colleges, industrial and community colleges, lang schools etc. Where are the jobs that pay 50 nk a year-that is what 35 000 pounds.

WRONG

By: Teflista

Teflista — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:34:40 +0000

Okay, Jim. But based on the info you mentioned in the other thread, sounds to me like you’ve taught in the Middle East and they don’t hire there without an MA. If I had to guess, I would say that you have an MA in TESOL, at least 10 years of experience (if not 20), work at a Uni or a college, make at least 50K US per year (tax free), have a free 2-3 bedroom apartment, round-trip air fare back to your home country, free medical insurance and high school tuition paid for for your kids, if you have any. Am I right? Is the glass half full or half empty here? Come clean.

By: jim

jim — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:35:49 +0000

lawyer what planet are you on -I am too old and skint as I am a tefler with a family to support

By: jim

jim — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 08:34:46 +0000

Sorry, I was really tired as I had been running from crappy class to apalling private lessons

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 03:09:53 +0000

Jim, if you read the whole post you would see that all of the top 7 things you probably didn’t know about me were jokes. In fact, I was assuming most people would realise that those 7 things were jokes even without needing to read that far…

By: Teflista

Teflista — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:00:28 +0000

Sorry that you feel that way about TEFL. Well, then, I wish you the best in your career as a lawyer:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/115257/how_lawyers_make_for_good_alcoholics.html?cat=7

http://www.lawcrossing.com/article/2583/Attorneys-Kick-Addictions-with-Help-from-The-Other-Bar/

By: jim

jim — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:12:19 +0000

7th thing to do when you become a 4 weeker:

say I’ve been had. Those courses-the trainers take em seriously I suppose it is all a front. They treat you like crap and run it like a boot camp=I suppose they fall around laughing afterwards when they have pocketed your cash.

By: jim

jim — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:09:49 +0000

What I do now is I email job ads with crap money and ask em if they have made a mistake. The crappily named Robert language “college” in cemetrey by the sea is offering 13-15000 a year for teflers-a pub cleaner gets more than that and a crappy Moscow school is offering 750 dollars a month for ESP teachers. What a joke?

By: jim

jim — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:49:57 +0000

If its what you make of it why is it full of dead end drunks. Even good ol Alex openly publishes the names of two tefl heroes and the aclies anonymous yes anonymous meetings they went to. Losers incorporated.

Top surgeon or lawyer-bottom lawyer or surgeon, tree surgeon anything is better

By: jim

jim — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:07:13 +0000

care about tefl you some kind of tefl nazi-one day you will wake up and realise your a tefl loser

By: Teflista

Teflista — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 11:45:19 +0000

Jim:

If that’s really the way that you feel, then I think that you are wasting your time reading these posts – this is a blog for people who actually care about TEFL. That said, I do understand your comment and know why you might feel that way. Things in life are neither easy nor free and this applies to TEFL, too. It’s what you make of it.

By: Andy Mallory

Andy Mallory — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:53:34 +0000

The life we’ve chosen…

Come on guys. Nobody held a gun to my head and told me to embark on a TEFL ‘career’. It was a choice I made and one I have generally never regretted. Many people have few better options than EFL and others simply cannot conform to the corporate routine.

I think it’s fair to warn people about where TEFL leads – that there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It has other benefits though and many a ‘career’ in the UK/US has recently gone down the toilet and left people in a mess.

TEFL is a dead end trap for many, but not all. If you want a way to live abroad and drink every weekday night then that’s an option, but it won’t generally lead to anything else.

If you get good at the job, behave responsibly and either schmooze your way into a management role, become a name and publish stuff, or find some other niche it can be OK. Sure – better to be a leading surgeon or top lawyer …. but those were never options for me anyway.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:49:42 +0000

Career-what career? TEFL isn’t a career-it is a dead-end trap. Wait till your in your late fifties, unemployable and with no pension worth talking about let alone a house-then see if you want any of your momentoes.