June 16, 2009

What's Your Ideal International Job?

Is there a particular place you'd like to live? Is there some specific attribute that you'd like to experience - or share....

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March 29, 2009

Who Is The Real Foreigner?

So who's the real foreigner?

Have you ever noticed that in just about any ESL context, someone is the foreigner?

Whether the teacher or the student, someone....

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January 25, 2009

Finding Your Voice

Colleagues,

Most students of other languages lack confidence in public speaking of the new language. Shyness is a major barrier to making a language your own.

In essence, the main principle is practice, practice, practice.

But what is a safe and practical way to to do this?

Thanks to the internet there are . . .

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December 11, 2005

Teaching ESL WITHOUT An Employer

ESL at Joes.jpg

"Early to bed, early to rise. Work like hell and advertise." ~Ted Turner

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December 09, 2005

Workplace Issues - The Problem with Private ESL Classes

"They're called lessons because they lessen from day to day." ~Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

How are your private lessons going this semester? I hope that they’re not anything like mine! Speaking of which, the topic of this entry is private ESL classes. I have talked to many ESL teachers about this topic, and it’s surprising to see how quickly the conversation can become heated. It seems that everyone has a strong opinion about whether or not a teacher can make a decent living giving them.

In the places I've taught ESL, salaries aren’t necessarily known to be top rate. After trying to live on the school’s salary, I eventually decided . . .

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December 01, 2005

Workplace Issues - What Do You Do About Missed ESL Classes?

"The joys of meeting pay the pags of absence / Else who could bear it?" ~ Nicholas Rowe

Dear Readers,

Private lesson no-shows

Has this ever happened to you? You spent an hour preparing for a private class, then rush to get to it on time. You set up your props or whatever you will be using, then sit back and wait for your students to arrive. Ten minutes later, you're still waiting, but you have faith. After all, they've been late before. Twenty minutes later, you begin to get that "feeling," but decide to stick it out. Forty minutes later, which is exactly twenty minutes before the class is scheduled to end, you begin to pack up to go home.

If you work in a school, you may be silently cheering your luck. (Extra time to goof off!) But if this happens in a private class, you have . . .

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