Comments on: The TEFL ‘Catch 22′ and how we can escape it (part one) http://www.eltworld.net/2009/10/tefl-catch-22-and-how-we-can-escape-it-1/ Your local friendly TEFL blog Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:41:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: david http://www.eltworld.net/2009/10/tefl-catch-22-and-how-we-can-escape-it-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1296 david Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:21:31 +0000 http://www.eltworld.net/?p=927#comment-1296 Great observation, bobs12. Thanks. Great observation, bobs12. Thanks.

]]> By: bobs12 http://www.eltworld.net/2009/10/tefl-catch-22-and-how-we-can-escape-it-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1291 bobs12 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:10:49 +0000 http://www.eltworld.net/?p=927#comment-1291 Nice thoughts. A lot of what you've written here really can really work in practice, especially if you make a concerted effort and focus it in the right direction. The EFL industry and the Web are inseparable, so a decent Anti-PR campaign can easily be orchestrated, but it takes time and persistence. Which is easy if you're obsessive about disgracing one particular school. Another way to weed out the backpacker teachers, maybe slightly counter-intuitive, is to make everyone coming to your country demand higher wages (I did a pretty good job of that, but then discovered I couldn't hire teachers myself 'cause I'd made such a fuss about wages that I couldn't afford 'em!). The result should be that the schools won't pay the backpackers the inflated wages they expect and they (the backpackers, not the schools) move on. Ideally you need people with groups and websites and blogs and all the rest at micro-local level. There are so many general, global ESL sites that you can't get the message down to teachers plugging away in Almaty or Cherepovets (if there are any there :D ) unless you address them directly. I had a pretty good site for my area, it was up for about 5 or 6 years, then a comedy of errors plus my disinterest (I quit teaching for a while) killed it. Starting afresh now though :) Nice thoughts. A lot of what you’ve written here really can really work in practice, especially if you make a concerted effort and focus it in the right direction. The EFL industry and the Web are inseparable, so a decent Anti-PR campaign can easily be orchestrated, but it takes time and persistence. Which is easy if you’re obsessive about disgracing one particular school.

Another way to weed out the backpacker teachers, maybe slightly counter-intuitive, is to make everyone coming to your country demand higher wages (I did a pretty good job of that, but then discovered I couldn’t hire teachers myself ’cause I’d made such a fuss about wages that I couldn’t afford ‘em!). The result should be that the schools won’t pay the backpackers the inflated wages they expect and they (the backpackers, not the schools) move on.

Ideally you need people with groups and websites and blogs and all the rest at micro-local level. There are so many general, global ESL sites that you can’t get the message down to teachers plugging away in Almaty or Cherepovets (if there are any there :D ) unless you address them directly.

I had a pretty good site for my area, it was up for about 5 or 6 years, then a comedy of errors plus my disinterest (I quit teaching for a while) killed it. Starting afresh now though :)

]]> By: david http://www.eltworld.net/2009/10/tefl-catch-22-and-how-we-can-escape-it-1/comment-page-1/#comment-727 david Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:40:00 +0000 http://www.eltworld.net/?p=927#comment-727 Hope you didn't find the 'input' too pessimistic! Like I said, there is a way forward for us all. Hope you didn’t find the ‘input’ too pessimistic! Like I said, there is a way forward for us all.

]]> By: Alex Case http://www.eltworld.net/2009/10/tefl-catch-22-and-how-we-can-escape-it-1/comment-page-1/#comment-726 Alex Case Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:18:26 +0000 http://www.eltworld.net/?p=927#comment-726 That was always my dream of how my blog would work- I would do a quick 10 minute brainstorm and then others would do all the serious thinking for me! Good work and can't wait to read the others, esp. the light at the end of the Marianas Trench That was always my dream of how my blog would work- I would do a quick 10 minute brainstorm and then others would do all the serious thinking for me! Good work and can’t wait to read the others, esp. the light at the end of the Marianas Trench

]]>