The best TEFL anecdote of the century
Re-reading my little story on weeping housewives (or not) who hadn’t done their homework, I must admit that it does really cut it as an anecdote- never been a talent of mine, as I find my own life incredibly dull and so hardly worth telling anyone about. To make up for it, here’s the one anecdote from other teachers I have heard over the last 13 years that has made me laugh more than any other.
Our hero starts with a fairly typical set of difficult TEFLing circumstances, he’s got the Headway textbook and teacher’s book but no tape. Not worried so far, he is slightly put off by the fact that the lesson that is coming up is the part of Headway with the song “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton. Luckily, he finds a solution.
Yes, that’s right, he sang the song acapella. To his one to one student. His female student. In a tiny Eikaiwa classroom. With accompanying gestures.
Classic! These are the kind of improvisational skills you need to teach in Japan, for better or worse…
Any other candidates for best anecdote anyone?
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Actually, I do have one of my own,I’ve just remembered. On the way to the interview to get on my CTEFLA course, a bird shat on me. This is the point at which I should say “and that was the perfect metaphor for the rest of my TEFL career”, but the story is messed up a little by the fact that TEFL has actually been much better than my (admittedly very low) expectations for teaching or indeed having to go to work everyday. It occurs to me that I really am not bitter enough to be a great TEFL blogger…
May 25th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Keep trying, Alex, keep trying. Eventually, time will provide you with all the ‘bitter and twisted’ that you need!
May 28th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I must say, Sandy, that I don’t understand why you’d be bitter about your TEFLing experience. You’ve got yourself a wife and kid, you live in a country you’ve been recommending to others (under another alias), you must be earning a fair bit of cash, you get the summers off. Although, as the song goes, “(TEFL) cunts are still ruling the world”, I think you could take it a bit less personally if you wanted to…
August 28th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
My favourite anectode: I had subbed occasionally in an intermediate class and one Russian lady had mentioned her husband to me. A year or so later I was subbing in that class again, and this Russian lady (we’ll call her Svetlana) arrived a bit late, but I thought nothing of it. Later in the lesson, a student asked the meaning of the word “propose” used in the context of marriage. So to dramatize the definition, I took off my wedding ring, held it out in the palm of my two hands, and knelt in front of Svetlana. I acted out a dramatic proposal, saying, “Svetlana, I love you. Will you marry me?” The students giggled, and I stood up saying, “That’s a proposal. I chose you, Svetlana, because I know you’re already married, so it’s safe.”
Svetlana burst out, “No! Just today I was late because I came from the lawyer. I was getting divorced. Today I can say YES!!” The class roared!
Epilogue: Later that day, I had to give a definition of the word “Sheepish”…..
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:19 am
Ok – here’s my entry…it comes under the ‘funny things students say’ sub category.
I was trying to get a rather mixed level group of Korean adults to ask and answer some questions about each others lives – ostensibly for me to eavesdrop and note down errors.
Anyway – I was drifting off when one student came out with a sentence that made me jump up and take notice. He had meant to say – “I wonder very your life”. Not too bad use of his limited vocab and grammar. However, pronunciation really mangled this and I heard – ” I want to bury you alive.”
Still makes me smile after all this time.