Comments on: Has the TEFL blogging zeitgeist changed?

By: Karenne Sylvester

Karenne Sylvester — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:21:56 +0000

Actually Alex, you guys moaning (in the best possible way) is kind of what prompting to get on with blogging.

I love, love, love teaching English – as I’ve mentioned on your blog before for me the life of TEFL is perfect and I can’t think of another job where I can see the world and do my thang at the same time.

And I’ve been at it for over 15 years. So even though you had me in stitches most of the time, (Sandy just confused me most of the time – xx Sandy if you’re reading this) just as hanging out in the staffroom back when I was part of one … complaining…. I just wanted to present another angle, one of the joy of getting up in the morning and going to teach.

To be honest, you’re not much of a moaner though – more a piss-taker ;-) which is why your blog is such fun.

I really do believe in this profession and do want to champion a rise in our salaries and conditions but I figured just being annoyed about it was never going to get anywhere – hence the switch to ESP teaching, ze website and ze blogs.

BTW, yes your guest-piece is in my intray of things to do, I’m flat out busy at the moment, just popped on over because I need my bi/tri-weekly dose of Alex keeping me on the solid ground ;-).

Will you do guest-piece for me too?

Pretty please with ice-cream on top. For the She-in-ELT series?? xxx

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:18:35 +0000

Or am I just nostalgic for a time when most TEFL bloggers were male and British? Can’t imagine why that would be…

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:32:39 +0000

Maybe why I’m interested (unlike most others, it seems!) is because I’ve always seen my role as being between the two camps (hence the sarcastic but actually also surprisingly genuine name TEFLtastic). If the two camps no longer exist, where does that leave me??

By: Alex Case

Alex Case — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:10:49 +0000

You’ve already left Korea, so after you Jason!

By: Jason Renshaw

Jason Renshaw — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:57:09 +0000

I was thinking the same thing, Alex (in some ways), and would particularly like to see more blogs from teachers facing the rough and tumble of new teaching experiences and shifty schools.

There might be a reason for the lack of the latter, though. One of my ex-bosses in S.Korea recently emailed me in horror wailing about how one of his newer teachers had written a negative blog post about working at his school. I told him it was all part of the new webesphere, and to talk to the teacher about the problems (thinking if they could be resolved, then the blog would update on the situation in a positive way). The blog post disappeared, and not long after, so did the teacher (from that particular school). In essence, I think some teachers are afraid of ramifications from blurting too honestly on their blogs.

Which reminds me – weren’t YOU teaching kids in Korea (either now or very recently)? If so, I’ve really been wondering why I haven’t seen any juicy posts from you about working in that context, which should really comprise enough bizarre and dodgy experiences to sate even the Alexian taste…

~ Jason