TEFL Teaching Life
Read about day to day life outside the TEFL classroom for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language
I Wanted Air-Con, Not Amoebic Dystentery
These are not my words but those of Jeff, former EFL teacher and author of Pigs In The Toilet, describing his outlook in Delhi, India. His preference for relative comfort distanced him from a majority of other travelers, who were ostensibly searching for a more “authentic” experience. I don’t think anyone wants amoebic dysentery, really, but I mostly agree that the desire for a rough-around-the-edges experience peaks in the earlier stages of a trip or stint abroad, especially when someone has travel health insurance and thinks it will all be fine. The longer I TEFL, the more apt I am to favor comfort and convenience over local adventure.
As I mentioned in Are You On A TEFL Diet?, it occurs to me that locals don’t eat their traditional food every day…so doing so is actually not so authentic. Similarly, I’d guess that locals in Delhi would also take the air-con over the dysentery.
One related and sometimes neglected area is that of the street vendor, which seems to have both the danger of dysentery contraction (or something) and the quality of being “authentic”.
I don’t currently live in a place with active street vendors, but I think there is a science to selecting street vendors, and that science is observing whether locals go there or not.
On one hand, traveling and living abroad has raised my level of sensitivity and also strengthened my stomach lining.
Date: July 22nd, 2007 |
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OneStopEnglish.com’s Methodology Debates: Teacher Burnout
If you find yourself cutting corners on lesson plans, getting annoyed with students, feeling exhausted or wondering what you are even doing teaching English…you maybe suffering from teacher burnout.
Lindsay Clandfield explains what burnout is, why it happens, and what you can do about it in the latest OneStopEnlish.com’s Methodology Debate.
Younger teachers and those going into the job with highly idealistic motives are more likely to suffer from burnout than their “opposites”, and burnout is, as you would probably expect, also related to issues like difficult working conditions and classroom problems like lack of recognition or not seeing the possibility for change.
There’s good news though: there are some remedies for burnout!
What can you do?
Reduce your working hours (the author admits this can be a challenge);
Try out new approaches;
Develop yourself professionally however you can - this could include observing others and asking them to observe you, or reading up on an facet of teaching that interests you;
Adopt healthier living habits.
Date: July 11th, 2007 |
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TEFL International Cooking: Felafel
I developed a love for felafel in Budapest, of all places, where there are little felafel stands throughout the city. If my memory serves me correctly, they are not even always run by people who appear to hail from countries where falafel is a mainstay (this could explain what I’ve always considered an inappropriate emphasis on cabbage and pickles in the Budapest felafel sandwich). But – it’s still good. I also got a cooking lesson specifically on felafel from, um, a Bihari chef in Varanassi, India, so I like to think of myself not so much as a true felafal connoisseur, but as an educated appreciater of this food in all its fine forms.
I’ve also found felafel surprisingly easy to make abroad while TEFLing. It’s perfect for that moment when you craving for something “international”. You need:
Chickpeas, aka Garbanzo beans (ideally already hydrated or whatever in a can; dry ones require an inordinate amount of soaking and then cooking time), blended or mashed with a fork well;
Finely diced onions and garlic;
A bit of oil;
Spice; be creative – salt, pepper, chili pepper, parsley, be reasonable but whatever you’ve got on hand should be okay.
Date: July 10th, 2007 |
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Paying Local Bills When You Are Teaching English Overseas
If you’re lucky, your school will pay your local utility bills as part of your job package. If you need to pay them yourself when you teach English overseas…what do you do?
In the Eastern European countries where I’ve worked, bills get paid at the post office. The most complicated thing, aside from figuring out which line to stand it once you get there, is just figuring out the most opportune time to go. If you know you can slide by with paying a few days late – as I have found I can – it makes sense to wait for all the bills to come before you head off and wait in line. It also pays to have an idea what is going on with your bills; I recently received an accordion-like one which appeared to be asking for about 4€ for garbage pick up. After I had unfolded it, separated the multitude of papers as the postal worker told me to, and pushed them over the counter, it transpired that I was in fact paying for six months. Still not a huge amount, but one that my landlord probably should have gotten; I didn’t mind shelling out 4 € .. 24€ was another story. But it was too late. (Life goes on, I know.)
Here’s something else to look out for: the common charge. What’s that?
Date: July 8th, 2007 |
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Correction Using Hand Signals Gets A Thumbs Down From Me
This is one technique which I just can’t use with a straight face. I’m not saying hand signals are bad, but I worry that students won’t get them and furthermore will find them patronizing, Also, it just seems silly.
In theory, the idea of using a gesture to indicate a mistake – and how it can be corrected - is a good one. The teacher isn’t repeating the mistake or correcting the student – the student is correcting him- or herself relatively independently. But I think a great amount of time can be wasted trying to get students to guess what you’re getting at and shushing the ones who just jump in with the right correction. One solution is to come up with a couple of hand signals for routine types of errors, which you then use regularly. I guess I do sometimes use simple and intuitive ones (well, I think they are intuitive), like a gesture to show two words are reversed: computer laptop…but people don’t really reverse words like this often.
Date: July 7th, 2007 |
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The “Big Shop”
I had a very rewarding experience today: I did the big grocery shop. The one that goes on the debit card. The one where you pull out all the stops and buy the glass bottle of Heinz 57 and the good feta cheese. But also the one where you buy “dry goods” that will last a while. You can confirm you’ve done well after you’ve spend a lot of money and get home to say, “There’s nothing for lunch!” because everything you’ve bought needs to be cooked). Despite being settled in, I find it more challenging to do the big shop successfully abroad than at home.
I spent about double the usual, and got things like long-grain rice, red lentils and couscous, not to mention a selection of canned goods. I had an especially nice moment when I convinced the deli man to come out from behind the deli counter to help me reach what I believed to be the very last bag of red lentils. Someone had hidden away on top of the barrier between two back-to-back shelves. (Personally, I suspect the vegetarians as they are always up to something sneaky.)
Date: July 12th, 2007 |
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A Notable Day For Bosnia
I’ve taught in a couple different countries, but my longest time teaching and many of my best experiences were in Bosnia, such as my little old landlady, my long-time businessman student and the student who brought me a red rose on the first anniversary of September 11. There are also other, smaller stories which I’ve just shared in posts with other topics. Sarajevo is the place in Europe in which I feel the most at home.
Today is a significant day in Bosnia: it’s 12 years from the day when the UN-declared “safe area” of Srebrenica …
Date: July 11th, 2007 |
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Paying Bills At Home While You Teach English Overseas
Electronic banking is a good thing, and not a bad way to pay bills at home when you teach English overseas.
You can try to have bills mailed to your foreign address, and send off checks yourself, but receiving statements in the mail can get tricky. Especially when you are dealing with bills that can result in late fees or damage to your credit rating if you pay late (which, in the US, seems to include most bills), I think it makes sense to avoid relying on local mail delivery.
Your school should help you set up a local bank account; if you’ve been hired as someone who doesn’t speak the local language (and likely hired in part specifically because of that) and they are going through the proper channels to get work authorization for you, I think bank account help is more or less an obligation on the school’s part – even if it is as basic as telling you what forms to ask for and helping you fill them out if necessary.
Date: July 8th, 2007 |
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Ouch! Getting Into A Fix Abroad
Reading a recent installment of Pigs In The Toilet, where Jeff survives a haircut with a razor which sounds more like a medieval torture device, I started thinking about about all the “fixes” you can get into abroad.
Just taking care of everyday things can be an adventure, even when there’s no great risk of bodily harm. Figuring out which line to stand in at the post office when you go there to pay bills. Realizing that by opening, perforating along the lines, and submitting that accordian-like paper, you are committing yourself to pay for six months of garbage pickup, and there is no going back once you’ve passed it over the counter. Ordering a diva coffee and also, in Eastern Europe at least, ordering your groceries in a closet-sized shop with a line of people waiting behind you.
There’s also that niggling sense of politeness that prevents you from walking away from situations that actually do present some danger.
Date: July 7th, 2007 |
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Interview With Nick, First Year Teacher In China
Nick - who recently shared his top 5 tips for new teachers - chose China because of his interest in Taoism, and says “I did expect China to be rich in cultural history as well as a place for contemplation and Tai Chi….ha ha, this was very wrong…”
Still, he seems to have loved it and plans to return in September. He calls China “very challenging for travel and the traveller” but believes that while simple tasks like eating out can be hard, “this is part of the adventure of China too!” [I haven’t been to China but I do think Pigs In The Toilet author Jeff would agree].
Nick started out on a 3-month volunteer program with a company called Realgap; the first month consisted of orientation and training.
“The first comment is Realgap are a profit making organisation, so this type of program isn’t cheap! However, what it does give you is a placement and some stability. You invariably arrive with other volunteers so you have company, people to share an experience with, and they also provide a guide to look out for you and help you around when you first arrive.”
He was placed in a middle school and lived in shared dorm accommodation with two others, teaching twelve “oral English” lessons of 40 minutes each per week.
As for the training and orientation, Nick says “many parts of the training program were hit or miss”, but points out that the group did actually get some of the fee refunded because of this. He also didn’t feel that the Mandarin lessons were suitable for the group’s level.
In spite of this, his overall verdict is a thumbs up: “For me at least, it was the ideal path toward TEFLing. I would not have had the confidence to arrive with zero or minimal experience, on my own, in a country like China. It also gave me a chance to test the water before making a longer term commitment. For someone who is less confident or has little to no experience, I would recommend it as a safe introduction to China, even though it is a little costly.”
Date: July 6th, 2007 |
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