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When you signed up to be a teacher in China, you most likely were not signing up to be an entertainer. If you had wanted to be a clown, you could have signed up to work in a circus. No, you just wanted to be an ESL teacher plain and simple, bringing the gift of [...]
Your first days as an ESL teacher in China are important for a few reasons. First, they give you a chance to introduce yourself to the teachers and students. You may not remember even 1% of the names that you hear but you can be sure that your students and colleagues will remember your name. Second, your first days [...]
I have many students who have obtained an amazing vocabulary and whose grammar is the envy of other students. It is just too bad that no one can understand what they are saying. As an ESL teacher, your first priority is to help your students develop their pronunciation skills. Without proper pronunciation, other aspects of English such [...]
Most foreign teachers in China have to participate in some form of an ESL social talking class at least once a week. Some schools may refer to this class as an ‘English Corner’,’English Salon’, ‘Free Topic Discussion Time’, or ‘conversation class.’ In my experience, this class can be exhilirating, exhausting, and downright frustrating at times. As [...]
I need to make a confession. It is time to humble myself. Sometimes I am not a good ESL teacher. Why? Quite simply, I am often lazy. I do not want to prepare for my class. After all, I am teaching my own language. I should be able to make something up on the spot, [...]
The first few weeks of teaching English are usually fun and exciting. Students will stand up and clap as you enter their classroom and give you gifts as you leave. Teachers will shake your hands and administrators will take you out to fancy dinners. It will seem that the students and staff are transfixed by [...]
In the distance there was a great brown wall that grew bigger with every passing moment. The wall seemed to touch the sky and there were no ends on either side. The quiet desert wind was replaced with a howling gale as the wall grew closer and closer. The nomads tried to cover themselves with blankets and baskets but there was [...]
The title of this short blog should really be “What can’t I Teach about in Class?” After all, if you are teaching oral English, the sky is the limit when it comes to what you can discuss in class. That’s why conversationalists love teaching in China. A teacher can choose a topic and run with [...]
I have rarely had to give demo classes in my “long and illustrious” career as an ESL teacher in Asia. In China, most schools don’t require teachers to give demo lessons. Or least that is how it was in the past when schools were simply happy to get anyone that they could find. These days, [...]
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