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Teaching English in Asia |OT| We're back!

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Fuzzery

Member
To update since I was ranting while drunk before. Got a job at a very nice elementary school. They actually asked me to work for them twice, because I turned it down the first time. Turns out that an Agent was low-balling what they actually pay, and after he was out of the way they "sweetened the pot".

Now I earn 400rmb/hour (60$US) teaching 1st-2nd grade, and they just offered to pay for me to go to Thailand to take a TEFL course for next term.

My point is: Don't get discouraged! There are people that get paid to take advantage of us (foreign teachers), don't give in to it, no matter how hard up you are! It only makes it worse for all of us in the long run.

60 an hour? Is this normal pay for teachers in asia? Do you get paid 8 hours a day?
 

GoutPatrol

Forgotten in his cell
Got the worst schedule this year. 22 hours of class, which isn't too bad, but they gave me Health to teach for some reason (I'm not even a PE coach, I'm an English/Humanities teacher). And six of my classes now only meet for 50 minutes each week. At an IB school. So I have to somehow cram inquiry learning into less than an hour of class time a week. They also took one of my twice-a-week Humanities classes and put both periods on one day: one period from 9-9:50 am, then again from 2-2:50 pm, so my kids won't have any time between lessons to make projects or do research. It's like whoever did the schedule was just like, "fuck we need someone to watch these kids at these times, let's just put the foreigner's classes there. Nailed it."

I remember you saying you were in Taiwan. Are you still there? What city?
 

Jintor

Member

MGrant

Member
I remember you saying you were in Taiwan. Are you still there? What city?

Kaohsiung. Great place, great kids I'm teaching, but man the administration just isn't playing ball this year. I don't know how the other four IB schools in the city are doing, but here on my side it's pretty tough to get local teachers on board with what the overseas teachers are doing, and vice-versa. How about you?
 

GoutPatrol

Forgotten in his cell
Kaohsiung. Great place, great kids I'm teaching, but man the administration just isn't playing ball this year. I don't know how the other four IB schools in the city are doing, but here on my side it's pretty tough to get local teachers on board with what the overseas teachers are doing, and vice-versa. How about you?

I'm going through the exact same thing in Taichung. Been at a school for 3 years teaching social studies. The program is 10 years old and this is the first year starting IB. Starting 7-9 in MYP classes and then following them up into DP, while the older grades continue the old system. Because we still need to have certain MOE guidelines and classes there classes are around 75/25 IB/old style. The began remodeling the floors the school was on on campus, asked us for all the suggestions, and then when the remodel was done nothing we asked for was in it. And they STILL had Engrish signs.

The biggest positive change has been an all-English attendance and grading system. We're using Managebac for everything now and it will make it so much easier for us to do grades. Before everything was in the Chinese system that is 20 years old and incredibly archaic UI-wise, with the kid's Chinese names, which are never used in school.
 

MGrant

Member
I'm going through the exact same thing in Taichung. Been at a school for 3 years teaching social studies. The program is 10 years old and this is the first year starting IB. Starting 7-9 in MYP classes and then following them up into DP, while the older grades continue the old system. Because we still need to have certain MOE guidelines and classes there classes are around 75/25 IB/old style. The began remodeling the floors the school was on on campus, asked us for all the suggestions, and then when the remodel was done nothing we asked for was in it. And they STILL had Engrish signs.

The biggest positive change has been an all-English attendance and grading system. We're using Managebac for everything now and it will make it so much easier for us to do grades. Before everything was in the Chinese system that is 20 years old and incredibly archaic UI-wise, with the kid's Chinese names, which are never used in school.

Oh man, almost exactly the same situation here. I'm only in my second year here, though. I wonder if international school admins have been getting together throughout Taiwan to tackle this thing at the same time, haha. Managebac is a godsend for unit planning and grade keeping, but good luck having many of the local teachers collaborating on there. I lucked out and got a great local co-teacher this year who unified his units with me, so we get twice the amount of work done on the same unit. The first time I'm aware of that this grade has done full MYP English with both teachers. But one of my colleagues is having a hell of a time getting his co-teacher to abandon mock exams and textbook lesson plans.

It's parent freakouts that are the problem, really. We started with PYP a few years back, added DP and MYP a couple years ago, and the parents just weren't believing that the kids would have any success on MOE exams without taking at least 9 mock tests every year. The DP stood up to them, the kids did fine, and so the higher grade levels have a lot more freedom, but middle school parents are a different story. You gotta have a director who's willing to put themselves on the line and run the department the way they know it should be run, but that's a tall order with all the pressure coming from parents.
 
One of my schools is going to be hosting a class of kids from Singapore for a day... oh man the wake up call that is about to hit these people haha.

Should be fun though, going to start prepping the kids so they don't just sit there or at worse talk about them like they can't understand them... Though when I just overheard one of the teachers asking what language will they speak... and the JTE saying "I don't know what language they speak there" I cringed a bit...

Power points on singapore for all!
 

Darksol

Member
One of my schools is going to be hosting a class of kids from Singapore for a day... oh man the wake up call that is about to hit these people haha.

Should be fun though, going to start prepping the kids so they don't just sit there or at worse talk about them like they can't understand them... Though when I just overheard one of the teachers asking what language will they speak... and the JTE saying "I don't know what language they speak there" I cringed a bit...

Power points on singapore for all!

Those Singaporeans are going to kick some お尻.
 

FrigidEh

Member
So I've been accepted for next August through a recruiter and I am currently trying to decide to go through EPIK or go for a private school. I would really prefer to work in Seoul and would go through the private school to make this happen. However, I would prefer going to a public school, but what are the odds of being placed in Seoul if I get my documents in now?
 
So I've been accepted for next August through a recruiter and I am currently trying to decide to go through EPIK or go for a private school. I would really prefer to work in Seoul and would go through the private school to make this happen. However, I would prefer going to a public school, but what are the odds of being placed in Seoul if I get my documents in now?

What do you mean you have been accepted through a recruiter for next August? If you have your documenta in order now then tou can start applying for jobs now. Public school positions start in March and Sep if you go through the official process.

Also, make sure you send your resume to as many recruiters as you can. Don't just rely on one.

Not sure about your chances of grtting a Seoul job, I think it is SOME that handles Seoul. Also better to apply to Gepik as at least you can get a job in Gyeongido, which a lot of areas are just satelite towns of Seoul.

I have only worked in private hagwons. Earn more money, but less vacation time.
 

Horan19

Neo Member
Hi guys!

I've been thinking for a while about teaching English (or at least in English) in China or Korea in the future, and while I'd previously looked into all the requirements, I've ended up in a slightly unusual situation. A few months ago I responded to an ad and got hired as an English teacher at what is essentially a Canadian franchise of a Korean Hagweon. I teach students K-12 everything from phonics and reading to literary interpretation, and will soon be doing some group novel studies classes. So far it's been fantastic, and once I graduate I could definitely see myself doing more of it.

Unfortunately, all this hands on experience is going to my head; I've started to wonder whether, with what will likely end up being around two years of experience by the time I finish my degree and my teaching qualifications, a TEFL/CELTA certificate is something I absolutely need to shell out for, and if not, whether it will be a big enough benefit to be worthwhile anyways.

In case it helps, in addition to my degree and experience I will also be able to list an impressive sounding Provincial writing prize and, if all goes well over the next month or two, a short piece of published academic-ish history.

Additionally, while I haven't decided on China or Korea yet, my boss, the owner of the franchise, and the receptionist are all native Korean speakers, and generally give me glowing reviews. Provided they still feel the same way after a few more years of dealing with me, how much leverage would that be likely to give me if I pick Korea?
 
Hi guys!

I've been thinking for a while about teaching English (or at least in English) in China or Korea in the future, and while I'd previously looked into all the requirements, I've ended up in a slightly unusual situation. A few months ago I responded to an ad and got hired as an English teacher at what is essentially a Canadian franchise of a Korean Hagweon. I teach students K-12 everything from phonics and reading to literary interpretation, and will soon be doing some group novel studies classes. So far it's been fantastic, and once I graduate I could definitely see myself doing more of it.

Unfortunately, all this hands on experience is going to my head; I've started to wonder whether, with what will likely end up being around two years of experience by the time I finish my degree and my teaching qualifications, a TEFL/CELTA certificate is something I absolutely need to shell out for, and if not, whether it will be a big enough benefit to be worthwhile anyways.

In case it helps, in addition to my degree and experience I will also be able to list an impressive sounding Provincial writing prize and, if all goes well over the next month or two, a short piece of published academic-ish history.

Additionally, while I haven't decided on China or Korea yet, my boss, the owner of the franchise, and the receptionist are all native Korean speakers, and generally give me glowing reviews. Provided they still feel the same way after a few more years of dealing with me, how much leverage would that be likely to give me if I pick Korea?

Those certificates are worthless. When I look over a candidates qualifications that is the last thing I am interested in. I would rather see actual work experience.

What do you mean by leverage? Pay?

If you are looking for a bigger starting salary then it might get you 100 extra a month, but most likely you are only looking at the basic for your first salary until you can prove you can handle Korea.

I would have no idea if you are worth the extra investment, until you have done a year and adapted to life in Korea.

If you just meant leverage to get a job, then yes. If it is between you and someone with no experience or only a certificate then I would go with you.
 

D_prOdigy

Member
Does anybody have any experience/advice negotiating salary? Moving from Beijing down to Guangdong, and whilst I know the average salary is lower outside the Jing, I'm reluctant to drop down to the 8000 ballpark. But I don't wanna shoot myself in the foot if I try to ask for more from the outset. What's the etiquette here?
 

F!ReW!Re

Member
Does anybody have any experience/advice negotiating salary? Moving from Beijing down to Guangdong, and whilst I know the average salary is lower outside the Jing, I'm reluctant to drop down to the 8000 ballpark. But I don't wanna shoot myself in the foot if I try to ask for more from the outset. What's the etiquette here?

May I ask what kind of job it is? Because 8000 seems very low. It's getting near the area of what our CT's are getting paid here in Shanghai...
 

D_prOdigy

Member
May I ask what kind of job it is? Because 8000 seems very low. It's getting near the area of what our CT's are getting paid here in Shanghai...

I'm still fishing through a few, this 8000 one is teaching in a GZ university. But I've seen a few others around that area. Had an interview for Zhong Shan Uni's ESL teacher program a while back that was also about 8000. I guess because they include accommodation, but still. I'm on 11,000 (after accommodation) in BJ, so it's a bit of a psychological drop
 

numble

Member
I'm still fishing through a few, this 8000 one is teaching in a GZ university. But I've seen a few others around that area. Had an interview for Zhong Shan Uni's ESL teacher program a while back that was also about 8000. I guess because they include accommodation, but still. I'm on 11,000 (after accommodation) in BJ, so it's a bit of a psychological drop

Is there a reason why you are thinking of moving to GZ? I know someone who left GZ to go to BJ and they like BJ much better in terms of things to do and people. Dropping 36,000/year in pay sounds bad.
 
8000?

Sounds like those scummy language schools (or Universities, Renmin Daxue once offered me about 7000 for a german teaching position).
Normal salary with a working visa for a good english language school (EF, XDF ec.) should be around 18.000-22.0000 no matter where you live.

If you can speak chinese its also quite easy to find 1to1 students which will pay you directly instead of going through a school where they pay the school 350RMB, but you somehow only get 100 out of that.
Since my wife worked for XDF for some years, I know how much the parents pay for a course. 8000 is a joke and honestly even 18000 would be, considering how much the parents actually pay the school even if you deduct the rent of the rooms.
 

D_prOdigy

Member
Is there a reason why you are thinking of moving to GZ? I know someone who left GZ to go to BJ and they like BJ much better in terms of things to do and people. Dropping 36,000/year in pay sounds bad.

Love Beijing a lot, but the plan was always to relocate down south after a year because that's where my girlfriend is. I've been down several times and love GZ, Foshan, Shenzhen, etc, so the enjoyment aspect isn't an issue.


Money isn't a huge motivation at this stage of my life, tbh. 11k in Beijing was relatively low and I struggled to spend it all even in the expensive months. As I say, it's more about the drop, which is why I asked if anybody had any experience of trying to negotiate salary.
 

Jaffaboy

Member
Those certificates are worthless. When I look over a candidates qualifications that is the last thing I am interested in. I would rather see actual work experience.

What do you mean by leverage? Pay?

If you are looking for a bigger starting salary then it might get you 100 extra a month, but most likely you are only looking at the basic for your first salary until you can prove you can handle Korea.

I would have no idea if you are worth the extra investment, until you have done a year and adapted to life in Korea.

If you just meant leverage to get a job, then yes. If it is between you and someone with no experience or only a certificate then I would go with you.

I wouldn't say the certificates are worthless at all, there's an incredible amount of benefit to having even just an online TEFL. No doubt experience is valuable, but it'd be foolish to completely dismiss these certs, especially a CELTA. It's an internationally recognised qualification, and having taken the course myself, I found it was incredibly beneficial to my teaching practice and knowledge, regardless of having a certificate to show off at the end of it or not. It even has teaching practice in the course itself, whilst not extensive, it's enough to get a feel of what it's like to teach a room of people, with extensive feedback given after every session.

I went onto working for a large eikaiwa in Japan not long after doing my CELTA, and the vast difference in the poor quality of teaching I was expected to do there, compared to the standard that the CELTA set for me was huge. It was probably the biggest reason I quit after a year as the job just wasn't satisfying me or challenging me enough.

What you're saying is you'd rather have a shitty teacher that happens to have experience from some random language school over someone who knows their shit and is excited and prepared to embark on their first journey with the strong foundation of knowledge and experience gained from a CELTA?
 
What you're saying is you'd rather have a shitty teacher that happens to have experience from some random language school over someone who knows their shit and is excited and prepared to embark on their first journey with the strong foundation of knowledge and experience gained from a CELTA?

Your making a lot of of assumptions there, I would rather hire a quality teacher with experience who I know has staying power then an unproven quantity. I see dozens of CVs a year. I only try and hire teachers who have experience for more than a year at a single school.

Those certificates might give people confidence that they can teach and that is good.

However, from my own personal experiences in Korea, those certificates as a bargaining cheap are worthless. You are not gonna get more money out of it.

Thus, I feel for the poster who asked, it is pointless him looking to get any certificate when he has two years experience, which is valued a lot higher.
 

Jaffaboy

Member
Your making a lot of of assumptions there, I would rather hire a quality teacher with experience who I know has staying power then an unproven quantity. I see dozens of CVs a year. I only try and hire teachers who have experience for more than a year at a single school.

Those certificates might give people confidence that they can teach and that is good.

However, from my own personal experiences in Korea, those certificates as a bargaining cheap are worthless. You are not gonna get more money out of it.

Thus, I feel for the poster who asked, it is pointless him looking to get any certificate when he has two years experience, which is valued a lot higher.

I couldn't disagree with you more. You literally said that the certificates are worthless if you've already got experience, and that's just plain wrong. In fact, a TEFL cert of 120 hours is a minimum requirement to work for EPIK nowadays, and it's been that way for at least two years. If you want to work for an international school such as the British Council, you must have two years experience after gaining a CELTA. Gain a CELTA before a two year stint in Korea? Boom! Job with the BC became a whole lot easier.

You also said you'd hire someone with experience over someone who just had the cert. I'm not gonna tell you how to do your job, but I'm just making the point that experience is not the be all end all of a quality teacher, especially when their only experience could be at a school where the expectations of teachers is very poor. Having some classroom experience is important, but we all know there's some absolutely shockingly bad teachers out there that can hold down a job in a shit language school for a couple of years by downloading all their lessons off waygook.org and come out of it thinking they're God's gift to the world of teaching. You've gotta have an insight into subject knowledge, teaching practice, sensitivity to learners etc. A CELTA gives you a strong foundation in this. You might gain some of this over time working in a school, sure, but you're gonna be heading in the right direction once gaining the cert.

Again, you can do whatever you want, but I'm just trying to shed some light on the value of having a cert. Even if it's 'worthless' to an employer such as yourself, it's FAR from worthless for your own personal development, and to other employers out there.
 
I'm interested in pursuing this, maybe not necessarily Asia but definitely teaching english abroad. I'm planning on taking a 120-hour TEFL course. However, I have NOT yet started a career in teaching, and would rather do it in the foreign country I go to... Is this realistic? From what I've read in Asia, you'll need a bachelor's degree in teaching. But other countries, such as Russia, you won't.

Is it best to study in my hometown for 4 years, and then start teaching abroad? Or would it be possible to study abroad while teaching.
 
Getting real fed up with the teacher for the first years at one of my schools. Lady is pretty freaking bad at her job/teaching English.

Not only does she randomly come up 20 minutes before a class and ALWAYS ask "do you have some plan or something?" but then when I tell her I have a review or activity shes like "oh maybe its too hard or I want to do some game"... like lady get out of here with this shit. Her understanding of English is pretty awful, shes full blown just teaching them katakana compared to the other two teachers who if given the students for a few more years could probably make their kids freaking fluent.

Today shes like "oh could you not just use anime characters in the examples?" Ok, firstly, the characters used are clearly not the fucking point, and only used as a base example that they would easily understand instantly ala Doremon instead of generic clip art guy "Tom". But she is like "use historic characters or something" LOL ok lady. I'll do that. I mean you should clearly be the one to do that since... you know I'm not from Japan, nor have I ever been to their history class to know what people they know at this age, but sure I'll be the one to do it, since I'm clearly the only one who does anything for these classes.

Just frustrated how this person kept their job. Literally have to watch her stand in front of the class reading the book in silence while shes trying to understand what the page says since she did not look at it even once before hand... Among everything else.

Pretty sure I've learned more Japanese in her class than all the studying ive done.
 

Darksol

Member
I'm interested in pursuing this, maybe not necessarily Asia but definitely teaching english abroad. I'm planning on taking a 120-hour TEFL course. However, I have NOT yet started a career in teaching, and would rather do it in the foreign country I go to... Is this realistic? From what I've read in Asia, you'll need a bachelor's degree in teaching. But other countries, such as Russia, you won't.

Is it best to study in my hometown for 4 years, and then start teaching abroad? Or would it be possible to study abroad while teaching.

Plenty of people start teaching in Asia without prior experience. That being said, if you can get some experience before coming over, it will certainly help.

My girlfriend was teaching English while getting her BA in Tokyo. It's possible, although I wouldn't recommend it.

Getting real fed up with the teacher for the first years at one of my schools. Lady is pretty freaking bad at her job/teaching English.

Not only does she randomly come up 20 minutes before a class and ALWAYS ask "do you have some plan or something?" but then when I tell her I have a review or activity shes like "oh maybe its too hard or I want to do some game"... like lady get out of here with this shit. Her understanding of English is pretty awful, shes full blown just teaching them katakana compared to the other two teachers who if given the students for a few more years could probably make their kids freaking fluent.

Today shes like "oh could you not just use anime characters in the examples?" Ok, firstly, the characters used are clearly not the fucking point, and only used as a base example that they would easily understand instantly ala Doremon instead of generic clip art guy "Tom". But she is like "use historic characters or something" LOL ok lady. I'll do that. I mean you should clearly be the one to do that since... you know I'm not from Japan, nor have I ever been to their history class to know what people they know at this age, but sure I'll be the one to do it, since I'm clearly the only one who does anything for these classes.

Just frustrated how this person kept their job. Literally have to watch her stand in front of the class reading the book in silence while shes trying to understand what the page says since she did not look at it even once before hand... Among everything else.

Pretty sure I've learned more Japanese in her class than all the studying ive done.

Are you me? Sounds near identical to someone I know.

That being said, most of the other teachers I've worked with are highly professional and quite knowledgable. But just a couple of weeks ago I had a class where the students had to do a short presentation about their summer vacation. The whole point of the activity was to work on their pronunciation and speech production. However, the teacher encouraged the students to phonetically sound out their English speech ahead of time by writing it in katakana. So I got to listen to 30 students read マイサマーべケーション

イット ワッズ ナット ぐード
 

MGrant

Member
gotta meet those quotas man or the parents yell at you

Last year I tried doing literature assignments myself by rewriting harder text into second- or third-grade English. It went like this with parents:

"Why are students not reading more books at home?"
"They are reading books. I rewrite each chapter at their level, with translation guides and writing prompts, and give it to them for homework every night."
"Those aren't books!"
"They are books, but I don't have a book-binding machine, so they are broken up into two-to-five-page sections."
"I want the students to have books!"
 
Plenty of people start teaching in Asia without prior experience. That being said, if you can get some experience before coming over, it will certainly help.

My girlfriend was teaching English while getting her BA in Tokyo. It's possible, although I wouldn't recommend it.

Well I don't mean job experience, but rather schools needing you to have a bachelor's degree before being able to consider you for the job.

Why do you not recommend studying in the foreign country? Time constraints? Language barrier?
 

Darksol

Member
Well I don't mean job experience, but rather schools needing you to have a bachelor's degree before being able to consider you for the job.

Why do you not recommend studying in the foreign country? Time constraints? Language barrier?

Depends where you go. It's an employer by employer basis, and the hiring standards of schools and eikaiwas can differ greatly. Some schools hire people without university, most will hire anyone with a BA, some will hire someone working on their BA, some require CELTA, some don't, some require experience, some don't -- it really all depends. I know people who apply to all of these.

As for studying, I only meant that full time schooling plus a full time job can be extremely tiring.
 
gotta meet those quotas man or the parents yell at you

This so much. It's even worse because at the start of the year they were told "please teach them English, we want them to learn and speak it well".... "WELP" unless they held their kids back a year for when the current third year teacher is back in 1st years, their English is gonna be pretty bad.

Can even see it in their spelling which is worse. They are spelling phonetically but their teachers pronunciation is awful. She also never corrects them for the small mistakes so they just keep making them. Even when I correct it she says it wrong again (for consistency...) Either way, was glad to see in my last visit yesterday, they had a small test and of course they were all messing up listening to her, but one girl at the front was completely ignoring her and getting all the answers right.

Was so damn proud.
 

Kuro Madoushi

Unconfirmed Member
Plenty of people start teaching in Asia without prior experience. That being said, if you can get some experience before coming over, it will certainly help.

My girlfriend was teaching English while getting her BA in Tokyo. It's possible, although I wouldn't recommend it.



Are you me? Sounds near identical to someone I know.

That being said, most of the other teachers I've worked with are highly professional and quite knowledgable. But just a couple of weeks ago I had a class where the students had to do a short presentation about their summer vacation. The whole point of the activity was to work on their pronunciation and speech production. However, the teacher encouraged the students to phonetically sound out their English speech ahead of time by writing it in katakana. So I got to listen to 30 students read マイサマーべケーション

イット ワッズ ナット ぐード
Lololololol

Notto diso shitto agen
 
So here I am again, about to graduate in Spring 2017 (May 2017) and I just noticed that applications for JET is due by next month, might as well get started right, if only just for the application process experience.

While I'm applying for JET, does anyone have any advice/information that can help with JET or even in other programs (I plan to also do Interac and Aeon, perhaps more if I find other opporunities).

In the process of doing the online part for the JET application I've come to realize my work experience is pretty much shit as I only do part-time crap with no internships. Academic too is lacking as my major (Computer Information Systems) doesn't really relate to language teaching with the exception of a Japanese professor I had (took Japanese couple years ago) who I doubt remembers me, plus I generally keep to myself and peers and don't really frequent with the professors/faculty enough to have a semi-decent relationship with.

Honestly, I'm really betting on my informal experience here as leverage which concerns me living in Japan for ~5 years as a kid on a military base and the more recent experience of my family hosting Chinese middle school exchange students for a couple weeks/one month a couple of times throughout this year. With that said, I'm not sure if this informal experience would be enough to punch through the application process, but again gonna try and see if it helps (I could also do vacations I've been on in multiple countries, but I'm not sure if that really relevant for multicultural experience beyond food and asking for directions haha).

But yeah any information regarding applications processes to these organizations would be most welcome!
 
Would say your fine for something like JET, sounds like you are working with similar, or heck a bit more than my application to it.

Just try to make your lack of experiences and what not sound more interesting than it really is in your application and your golden. That's what I did. No real work experience outside part time, so-so grades, not really super friendly with the professors and so forth.

But can write a good essay when I need too, fill out paperwork correctly and thoroughly and most important do it on time. You really can't think about it too much in terms of being qualified, and just go for it.
 
Would say your fine for something like JET, sounds like you are working with similar, or heck a bit more than my application to it.

Just try to make your lack of experiences and what not sound more interesting than it really is in your application and your golden. That's what I did. No real work experience outside part time, so-so grades, not really super friendly with the professors and so forth.

But can write a good essay when I need too, fill out paperwork correctly and thoroughly and most important do it on time. You really can't think about it too much in terms of being qualified, and just go for it.

Haha thanks for your input, this is somewhat reassuring and I've no problems in writing essays despite being a STEM major (I did the major for the money). I would definitely like to know what you used for references, just random professors, managers from part-time jobs?
 
I used professors for mine since I left school recently before applying and did not know/have a decent manager to call. Used my Geography class prof who was pretty young and awesome, traveled the world and was more than happy to write me a recommendation. Second was my Japanese history teacher, guy from China who specialized in Asia history, culture, and relations.

Just be sure to ask nicely since they gotta take time out of their day to write these things. Also mine in particular asked for a sample of my work to reference (final projects in this case) Though I would be on most simply writing it and being done.
 
So I was so focused on applying for JET I absolutely forgot about Interac and apparently they have a long application process as well as they called me up about my unfinished application and now I have a phone interview with them next week on Tuesday with an all-day seminar they want me to attend that following weekend.

Should I continue the application process for Interac or should I solely focus on one organization? Kind of new to this so I'm not sure when I should decline one or the other.

Edit: I've decided I'm going to turn down Interac due to not being able to afford travel costs to Japan on my own (which JET, on the other hand, pays for). Unfortunate but atleast I can focus back on one organization and put all my efforts into there.
 

Wvrs

Member
I have to express gratitude for this thread, it's really changed my life. I graduate next summer with an English Language & Linguistics degree and was unsure about what to do after, the plan had been to just go into post-grad and I was unsure about whether that's what I wanted.

Since I first saw this thread over the summer, my plans have completely changed. I've found myself a part-time job as an English tutor to get teaching experience, I'm taking a class next semester which focuses on translating my skills as a Linguist into a EFL teaching setting, I've found a certification centre and been accepted for a course in June, and I've made plans to move to France next July (I speak French fairly well and love the country so want to spend a year teaching there before a bigger move to somewhere in Asia, think I'll apply for the JET in 2018).

For a long time, and especially since Brexit, I've had a massive desire to leave the UK and get out into the wider world, and so this is all a dream come true for me. Could anyone recommend what I should do between now and graduation to prepare myself best for the job?
 
Well after a bit of effort and drama I sent my application for JET to DC and got the confirmation that they've received it. All I'm really needing now is my references to finish up their letter but other than that, gotta wait 2-3ish months haha.

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Grats on finishing, and hope the wait doesn't kill you lol. Sucks you had to turn down Interac as well but your reasoning for doing so was sound. GL getting the interview in winter though!

On my end we just had one of our people suddenly have to leave. Turns out his illness from this summer was a fair bit more serious than we, him, or the doctors thought. He fainted in one of his schools teacher rooms during the summer, most assumed it was heat exhaustion. They cleared him a few hours later at the hospital and he went back the following Monday. Fainted again @.@ Since then he had not been feeling 100% but was trucking through it, all of a sudden about 3 weeks ago he said he was going back to Ireland because of his health.

No idea what was wrong but it was a reminder to stay healthy guys while we are abroad. Will be getting a replacement this month I believe or maybe early December. No idea who we will be getting but hopefully they are as cool as he was.
 

Porcile

Member
Anybody have a few games for elementary esl learners?

I have to make a list and I am running out of ideas.

Simple variation of Simon says or whatever for body parts. Pretty fun warm up game!

Round 1: Tell everyone to stand up. Then do the whole "touch your head" "touch your ears" etc. Do the actions for each body part you want a couple times. Of course you can change the speed and all that.

Round 2: Do the whole "touch your ...." thing but don't do the action. A lot of the kids will now just start looking around and copying everyone else.

Round 3: Tell them to "close their eyes". Obviously make sure everyone's eyes are closed 'cause their gonna try and cheat. Just do one action like "touch your head". Tell them to open their eyes. See who is not doing it right. The new challenge is established!

Round 4: Same thing with the eyes closed, but the final rule is whoever touches the right body gets to sit down and anyone who doesn't touch the right part has to stay standing. Rinse and repeat till everyone's sat down.

It's pretty fun, I made this one up because I don't like Simon Says, but it's probably been done before. Nothing special.
 

Sarcasm

Member
That works..though I guess I need to be specific. They aren't early language learners and need something more difficult. I am doing a specific topic teaching lesson on Korea. I got my vocab and sentence patterns chosen, just trying to get games and see how a small section of the students deal with them.
 

Porcile

Member
That works..though I guess I need to be specific. They aren't early language learners and need something more difficult. I am doing a specific topic teaching lesson on Korea. I got my vocab and sentence patterns chosen, just trying to get games and see how a small section of the students deal with them.

Ah I see. I'm used to Japanese ES and 1st grade JHS student not knowing anything at all. Sounds like a good class, but hard to give you ideas without knowing your lesson plan.
 
Hey guys, I have a phone interview with Interac next week!

I'm gonna start applying to a few of these, but Interac noticed I began my application and want to speak to me next week. Anyone have any tips on how to succeed in the phone interview?
 

Porcile

Member
Hey guys, I have a phone interview with Interac next week!

I'm gonna start applying to a few of these, but Interac noticed I began my application and want to speak to me next week. Anyone have any tips on how to succeed in the phone interview?

It's about as standard as it gets. The people interviewing you are just old ALTs.
 
Just played tennis for my first period with special needs kids, some grounds keeper staff, and parents in a mini tournament/secret santa prize lotto. Now going to dance to k-pop and j-pop with second grade. This last week of school is super fun, love this job sometimes.
 

Porcile

Member
My school have been so damn slow getting through the textbook, so I was teaching infinitives for my last 3rd grade lessons of the year. Merry Christmas, kids.
 
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