The Complete Guide To Teaching English In Taiwan

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http://www.teachenglishtaiwan.net/blog-updates/bad-days-as-an-english-teacher/

Those Bad Days as an English Teacher…
MARCH 30, 2011

One thing you just have to remember some days is that you really need patience to be a teacher. I guess for anyone reading this who has already taught for some time doesn’t need to be told the obvious, but if you’re considering a jumping into the world of teaching English as a foreign language then you definitely need to remember to always keep your cool. However, you are only human and sometimes you have those days where everything goes wrong and you just lose your cool for no reason.

If you’re teaching kids then I think you need to always remember that they are exactly that, just kids. This means that sometimes, despite what you may think, they really don’t mean what they say or do. They are really just little people who are growing up and learning about the world. It would be nice if they always behaved and did what they were told to do, but we all know that’s not always going to happen. Sometimes I have a kid and the class who is always a pain and never does what he’s told, so all I can do is smile and try my best to get along with him or her. Every job has its ups and downs and teaching really is no exception, but it does make it easier if you remind yourself that the kids in your English class are only kids and don’t take what they say or do too seriously.

I wish the same can be said for teaching adults. Adults are a completely different matter altogether because they aren’t little people, they’re actually fully grown ones who have their own opinion and views on everything. This means that sometimes you have to be careful about what you may say to them in English, because many times they won’t get your joke or they will misconstrue what you said and think that you meant something completely different. The best way to sum this up is lost in translation. It really is true and I’m sure that if you have taught adults then you have had those days where someone completely misunderstood your joke and thought that you were being serious.

As I said above teaching is like any other job and you have a good days and bad days. This isn’t made any easier if you are teaching in a country where English is a foreign language and there’s a good chance that they have a completely different way of life and culture than what you’re used to. What this means is that your jokes might come out sounding not like jokes and you accidentally offend a few people. If you find yourself in this boat often, then I guess you might want to try scaling back a little to see if it makes the job any easier.