Employing foreign English teachers is a really bad idea. Let me clarify; it’s not always a bad idea, just most of the time. If the students know enough English that they can converse with the teacher, it’s not such a bad idea. It gives them an opportunity to get used to hearing native English speaking, and hopefully pick up on the nuances that make it sound more natural. It’s also a chance to have someone help correct common mistakes before they become too deeply embedded to be fixed. Unfortunately these ideal students aren’t what most teachers end up with. When I found out I would be teaching at a college, I hoped I would be teaching these kinds of students. Unfortunately, some of my classes are so bad I almost feel like I’m teaching primary kids again. The biggest problem is that the students aren’t separated by skill level; so in one class I have students that speak excellent English and students that can’t speak any English. I know when I call on a student that just stands up and fidgets it’s going to be a long painful process to get anything out of them. 90% of the time these students are males. I don’t know what it is about the guys in my classes, but they are usually my worst students. They only represent a very small portion of my students though; each class has one or two token males.
My question for these bad students is why did they decide to take my class? They can’t understand very basic questions, and some of them can’t even repeat after me. What did they expect to get out of my class? Unless they were forced to take my class, the only reason I can come up with is because they wanted a chance to see a real live laowai. When I first began teaching all of my students wanted to snap a picture of me. I put up with it because I could pretend that they wanted a picture of their teacher, not just a picture of the white guy. Two months later I still have students trying to sneak pictures of me, or blatantly running up to my desk and snapping a photo during the class break. It’s really very irritating, especially when they think they’re so clever to hide their camera behind a book. Come on, you’re not fooling anybody. My only consolation is that they usually use their cell phone cameras, so the pictures are probably so blurry and grainy that they don’t even look like anything. I’ve started to fight back by whipping out my camera and taking pictures of them every time they try to get one of me. Not so fun once the tables have turned, now is it!?
