teaching English in china

Hi friends so today I am coming at you with the video that I’ve been meaning to make for a while now because I know some people were interested in knowing about my experience teaching in China what to say on this topic so I’m not going to be addressing by everything in the city came to which is you apply to the program give them a list of preferences of location and age group that you’d like to teach and a place you with an agency in China which then places you into a public school is a public school that the benefits of using a program like this are you going to be working in a public school so you’ll generally have much hours and somebody who’s working in a private school you get reimbursed for your round trip ticket to China so you get reimbursed going there and coming back at the end of the year you’ll also get a rent free apartment so you have to pay utilities but you do not have to pay obviously you don’t get to choose the apartment yourself but the apartment that we were given my roommates and I was very nice and very big and I know this because she is like a smaller city in China and we were in an area that was very far from the city centre so we had a very nice apparently I wouldn’t say that the wages paid is be high but it’s definitely a livable wage especially when you consider that you’re not paying rent on your apartment you can definitely live comfortably with the teaching salary and still put away money if you so please you can also spend it all classes were generally an average of 40 children and I thought grade one now my preference was to teach high schoolers but I thought you’d agreed one that we saw B&Q is an average age of 7 years old it is their first year in school I just not really that used to like being students you know what I mean when we first started my agency called a meeting for another contact teachers and administrators of Oliver skulls basically making sure that we were on the same page and during that meeting or agency told our schools you need to give the teachers for teaching grade 1 a teaching assistant in every grade 1 class and you cannot take that teaching assistant away because these kids are just too young it’s just not going to work if you’re there is no teaching assistant in the classroom to my school from that meeting my contact teacher turned to me and said can we try for the first week having a teaching assistant and maybe you know maybe it’s because they know invited her out on field trips and they just all sound really nice and one day one day they were so they got a bit but they were teaching assistants in her classes so they were able to help me whenever they got to Audi A8 Wandsworth the students which was weird because that’s what happened at my school I would he wanted like other faculty and at the end of the day or contact me kiwis that was really sweet the 15-minutes before not knowing this I cannot ignore the thinking it was a mistake and I ended up being 10 minutes late for my class teachers at my school were very aggressive very aggressive the way they made should respect them was first year which is not something that I personally agree with and since the children do not fear me they do not respect me in the same way the respected respected their Chinese teachers and it’s also a huge reason why I had so much trouble keeping them in there were couple classes that I had where the teacher would occasionally sit in the back in grade papers and whatever they were present in the room the students were very well behaved that I would run out of things to teach them because so much of my time was spent trying to keep its students under control for the one downfall of having one in particular at the back of the class was that she also denied mainly there to teach conversational English and it’s really hard to teach conversational English when your students don’t have even like a baseline knowledge english you know I had TEFL training agency gave us in China was geared towards people who are teaching High School there was no information on how to teach students as young and inexperienced as my students were something that was really weird to me that china dolls when you have to miss school for a day or a few days they make up the days on the weekends say that you have Thursday and Friday off one week the following week you’re coming for an extra day on Saturday or Sunday to make it up which I found really bizarre and having a few times and it’s just a normal thing in China and I don’t think that you if you are going to be a foreign teacher is that your agency or school or someone is probably going to try and get to the same this time with great fondness and I do intend on going back to teach so it really did not scare me I don’t hold any real negative feelings towards my school or at work send you the teachers that I work with like I said I actually feel really lucky to have a job experience depending on what school you teach at the lowdown on my experience working at my school and teaching the children like I said if you’re interested in a video about the application process arrival my early experience teaching experience living in China email one of the really good idea because without them is very difficult in the language which unfortunately is let’s move on to Spain where we are English for three years anywhere between 700 to €1,000 hours of work a week is that is on the side around Europe visa to live in Europe which is very difficult for EU citizens after 3 years you can apply for residency in Spain and video about our experience program that the cost of living in she is a little bit more expensive than other countries so is the quality of life but it’s probably worth it is India tropical work to Indonesia a country of 18000 islands incredible scenery from especially for people from the Philippines where English is widely it is always used and it sounds very American actually in the Philippines news countries where English is very very widely used as that is what the situation is in the teaching English industry around the world are going to pay you to be an English teacher they are trying to give their customers with their clients with the students what does people want and that means there’s a little bit of a preference for certain countries as well as racism because in the Minds of people who are learning English around the world world what does an English speaker look like they often think about the thing about popular culture and people who speak English in popular culture movies music things like that and so the people who hire English teachers are trying to please those people were using their teaching services whether that be a private Academy or public school program so that’s why there is a lot of frustration or round the industry from non-native English speakers stigma attached lemon because of perceived racism nonetheless I’m going to give you some advice on how to overcome them but check out the link below for more information on this and other countries that do and don’t have restrict what expectations you should have the timing always good things that we want our teachers to school would be a you to show me that you can teach me that you can teach if you don’t have a demonstration class video already for example if your new teacher and you’ve never talked before in your life you can just create a very simple demonstration teaching video with the link that I provided via the article below that be very powerful and it shows that you have committed that you have knowledge of basic teaching techniques that explains that you can anybody can do it no experience include those three things are going to help as he or she is english language learning and teaching there is an obsession with the native speaker and recently spoke with someone who explains exactly why that has to stop matic Hitchcock back from TEFL equity advocates this interview is essential viewing for anybody learning English especially for non-native I hope you enjoy it the job for native speakers and the very very common in English language teaching and lots of us have seen them as well language schools advertising themselves that they have made in response to that you know I started this campaign to promote professionalism in English language teaching that you know it’s not your mother song that makes you a good teacher or your nationality is your skills experience and training that makes a good teacher so the website now has a has a Blog there are training courses learn how to boost chances of getting high from from there are resources for teachers would like to promote equality and also practical resources to use in the classroom for for teachers and weekly blog do you think that the majority of this problem comes from do you think that it comes from the students who wants native speaking teachers or is it from the employers who only want a high mega speaker features do you have any idea maybe where’s the root of this problem is I don’t think there is a single root of the problem because if you look at something very similar let’s say sexism right to the idea that women are for example not suited for certain jobs because we think of them as week for example it’s very difficult identify what’s the root cause of that but there is just one of many factors I think that involved in perpetuating this idea that native language models better teachers definitely at the way schools advertise themselves right because if you are around your base in Spain right I believe you go round any Spanish city and look at how long will it be between you and me people have been disappointed with how little they have learnt in public schools right so people studying English for 7 years in public schools and they come out and they still can’t speak English and you know that but there’s all sorts of people who are proficient in English but they don’t they don’t know how to teach your rights and another point to have to make is that it also depends who you want to communicate with and I can understand that is too maybe go and live in Sydney right and and moved and completely integrated into that Society you probably need a teacher it was very familiar with the way people use English Insignia speaker from and non-native speakers is very familiar with that most of you and most people in the world use English for international communication when you’re in Spain from England made some Americans as well as plenty of Polish people jammers Belgian French people Italians coming to Spain and they will be speaking English to you because not everybody knows Spanish right in that case actually knowing some colloquialisms of some specific expressions from a native speaking country that only the speaker will know it’s actually a disadvantage because if you use them you’ll likely to confuse people just as confused as me because they use specific expressions from a specific region in Spain and I just don’t know that my family my wife giving them at least that’s what you need to have some sort of Central certification salsa Belter Trinity sad advantages as a teacher what can you bring to the table because we’ve been talking so much about why native speakers are supposedly better teachers right and all the language schools market themselves like that as well but I think you know the amazing English students to give you one example the fact that you have learnt English to the highest possible level is combined with with your qualifications and experience as a language teacher because you know that process of learning and allow you to better understand your students and the struggle that they’re going through you’ve also struggled with learning the present the same as students but you’ve managed to overcome this problem and surely you’ve developed Solutions practical Solutions that are not based on something that you read some of these Solutions Bisson something you’ve done yourself right and I think that’s really really powerful you know when you have for example students that for example rights developed countries such as Spain below be as an English teacher so many free resources available to you and I mean on the other hand that say is maybe language and they also told me that they are all starting to change the the hiring policy standards a while back some are doing it now and they haven’t really seen any drop in plants a lot of initial and some of them were understandably worried when they started doing it 15 years ago you know in small cities for example in Spain while having a British flag to be sold your your school life but what it involves is is changing everything everything about how you market your school so at the schools that have talked to and it’s you know it’s over 100 employers they removed any reference to native and non-native from their promotional materials from different countries so I think so I think I think that that might happen and you know in from a business perspective I honestly think that if you focus on hiring qualified experienced professional skills language teachers regardless of where they from you looking at yourself just especially in the ear you need teachers working in the Britain and Ireland basically very very nice of you can just imagine how you open yourself up to all the teachers from the EU if you’re a language school owner in in Spain before you’ve been missing out on some incredible language teachers that you just even have a look at the TV because they were non-native speakers with more highly qualified staff and I think so I think first class I’m going to do something a little bit different is an absolutely fantastic way to learn vocabulary and to absorb all of those those grammatical structures of them to observe them being used in a natural way and ethical and about how to be better people and they made music soft grass for a the gossip 4 hrs but Bertha and Briggs whenever contents on money and Riches there two minds were Bennett there was so many wonderful things they would do only then would they really be happy they knew they set off for the town the noise of the traffic alarms the two peaks but perfectly entitled to the but the cause of the trouble just could not be found the Long As He struggled the matter he got a spare parts they wanted to do everyday it’s like a story about something you know you think that you will be happy if you have money and things you know and then you get those things and you realise that doesn’t make you happy that you just want the simple things right moan and complain I wish I had my vocabulary is based in onomatopoeia where pigs live look at the two parts call Mum for what do you think if you are from probably when you when you were apparent very good friends exactly the type of person that you would tell his gossip to buy so when you’re talking to them when you’re doing all this gossiping with people who are close to you with your godparents he is bent I am bent on becoming the best English teacher in the world kelvin with the end of his snout snout have different names for the butt my favourite thing is how because he is another route and that gives us so much for February so here we go and clutching the trust they set off for the town the noise of the traffic alarmed the two pigs and Bertha plum tights to the Trotter of look at this week so the clean and then we have clutch similar thing animal because you windows 4 hours games in Italian which was which mariah Carey Glitter watching sorry Mariah exactly it’s a cat on the floor I will give you some cash if you will find this Simple Rules when you pay you see because this is full of jewels it’s not related to Joy shopping spree help me if your friends help me here so so is 7 years ago quite well what is the difference between the lowest point on the wave and the highest flight so the showrooms was not very far but they hurried to buy an expensive new car this model is the latest the car salesman said in the head please good writers break the rules they use language in unexpected ways it’s not about being safe tornado in a day it’s just not probably really they went to bring some pictures of houses just pigs the house with most charm I think the mafia is going to hunt you down my friend don’t talk about that bailey and very good behaviour which means he did nothing in particular like looking around she is cleaning the house so both called dinner and red he made some phone calls and they watch tv in there now feeling breathless with nothing to do with busy preparing a stew the very important thing in in in Spanish in French in French and I mean a hot bath if you go to Turkey with all of the Steam turkish man a type of ingredients made the vegetables in a pot with water and boil 4 hours lock is is the name for a group of sheep maybe you know this word from the word which means I care and repair with the comparative adjective and then the further the worse the pain electronic or mechanical devices that that we don’t know and this comes from Sainsbury’s so there is a word in French which is a part of a lock stand anymore grabbed yes the vegetable garden gates for a role in the markets in the mud the toothpicks couldn’t wait to be careless and free and to run play was all they wanted to do everyday that night as they lay gazing up at the sky again gazing with love enjoyed enjoyed reading a book in a hallway hello everybody and welcome to another English class today as you can see here at my desk and explain why early because I wondered if I wondered if any of you had any questions about yesterday’s class about about the vocabulary class that we were talking about that’s why I started a few minutes early so that I can hopefully answer any questions you have about some vocabulary hello to everybody here there’s some students here who’s been who’s been here for a long time today I would got a letter with gods crab and salmon words what motivates teachers and and how teachers can survive doing such a difficult job on the answer is the answer is whiskey what about the passion the same as yesterday the same as yesterday at the end of this class I’m going to be talking to some students via Skype so if you have Skype install telephone or on your computer and find me the search for me ok is my email address info at kangaroo english.com search for me and you find me and hopefully later on hopefully later on we can chat yes absolutely has any questions about about yesterday’s class so that’s good so let’s get started there was there was a guy who proposed something called the noticing hypothesis and he said that I’m noticing as one of the most important things that you can do in language learning but unfortunately his his hypothesis has never been proved and and one of the reasons is probably because it’s a very difficult to test something like that notice and what exactly is noticing what is it how do we test if it works is it conscious or subconscious noticing it’s a very difficult thing to test but we do have we do have some other science which what does tell us about the importance of noticing and actually actually I’m going to talk about this this is the name of the paper fortune favours the bold and the italicised effects of this fluency on education and this was published in cognition if you watched any of my previous life glasses then you know that my my handwriting is really bad it might be the worst handwriting in the world maybe but what was interesting is that this research proves that my terrible handwriting actually helps you to learn English so I’ve been looking for an excuse for i’ve been looking for an excuse for my terrible handwriting and I think that today I have it right so so let me let me tell you a little bit more about about this paper this paper what they did was they talk text I took some different text and they had the text in a kind of normal a normal easy to read fonts like maybe like Arial or something like this and then they took the same text and they put it in another fonts like comic sans comic Sans and and what else are which which are fonts which are very well you can see a couple of examples here in the in the title of this paper you can see the for example this is a very unusual front here and this is also unusual and and what was that when the students read text with a kind of difficult to read font difficult to read font they remembered more of the text and we need to ask why that is ok now they do explain you know why in this paper but I want to I want to ask you the question so who here which one of you who has a theory as to why you would remember more if it was difficult to read any any ideas and ideas about this why is better if the font is difficult to read why would a difficult to read text better so basically is actually broken so you’re flowing with the text and then boom your your your phone is broken and and and according to them the reason that that it makes the text easier to remember is actually because it reduces your confidence so I think about that so it reduces your confidence you feel less sure about what you’re reading so your brain goes ok so my terrible handwriting and this is evidence write my terrible handwriting helps you to focus and helps you to learn and the reason I’m sitting at my desk today is because we are going to to cut a butt by using our powers of concentration I want to show you how you can study Alone by yourself and really you know really am really learning a deep way so I’m going to simulate you in your house Reading some text now yesterday yesterday I asked about what people were interested in because as as I showed yesterday ok when when we talk about things in class that that students are interested in then you know that that just engages you a lot of people yesterday said they were interested in history so I I just happened I just have them to have I think this was my old school book from history from Australia a profile of modern history now personally I hate history I couldn’t think of anything more uninteresting in history but my job is to teach what you were interested in you know a good teacher doesn’t focus on being in the front of class and talking about what they want to talk about a good teacher is focused on what the student wants that’s actually what is so I chose a random a random paragraph from this book and the chapter the chapter is the second idea they are the chapter is the second World War II World War my goal is to show you how one little paragraph about history can really tell you an incredible amount of things about the English language and you can also be actually really interesting and if I think that history can be interesting then I promise you that anybody can find the history interesting ok so the first thing I want to do is I want to read this paragraph second world war was fought not by throwing repeated human waves against the enemy but by men and shapes submarines and to a lesser extent aircraft and tanks used in the first world war but in the second world war battles were decided by tanks motorised troops heavy artillery anti submarine aircraft and aircraft carriers both widened the front of battle and gave warfare a new mobility using a supported Shipbourne invasions Japan extended its way over a vast area of the Pacific in 1940 exploiting the speed of the tank and motorized Infantry Hitler’s generals knocked France out of the war achieving in 6-weeks the cost of 27000 lives what had eluded the German army during 4 years of bloody trench fighting after 1940 paragraph in the world ok let’s go and let’s be entertained by this cos there’s plenty to be entertained by so let’s engage our noticing hypothesis rather than rather than read this of the first the first time you know we read this text we read this text we absorb the message now let’s let’s let’s notice notice so I have a question the very first sentence that was very bad Christian so you should be carefully i’m going to try and put some pressure on you can anyone tell me which verbal tense the sentence is in so no no let’s have a look at it easily identify the passive because the passive is always the same structure ok the passive is always to be plus the Verve in the card is support that is that is the passive it’s always the same so you can see here we have the verb to be was and then we have the verb forms in the participants now that’s that’s not particularly interesting so my question is because this is a question why is it in the passive why not use the active or maybe have used the passive voice again because the door is not important ok and because the action is done by people ok then we don’t talk about the subject and it says that someone is telling the story so again watch out for that is not a history it’s a story and we don’t know who made it or maybe the right I didn’t want to say it exactly books about Style and say the same thing they say you should never use the passive voice if you can use the active voice and and you know one of those books for example is the elements of Style by strunk and white which is the most assigned textbook in the United States basically if you go to school in the United States then you have read that book the problem with that book is it’s full of terrible prescriptivist old-fashioned thank you but instead of the active why because because of the exact reason that the altimeter and other people have said because there’s this idea there’s this idea that the passive voice is for cowards you know what that means for chickens for people who are weak and pathetic and afraid because because when we use the passive we don’t put any responsibility on the subject right so here if we look at the text right the second world war was fought now the question is who did the fighting well you could say you could say for example the Americans the British the Germans the French that fought the second world war we could do that or we could say you know people thought the Second World War it’s not it’s not because there’s too many different subjects in this case is not thing with noticed one little thing everything is