I don’t like to teach. I’m only here for the money.

This is where our community discusses almost anything! While we're mainly a Cambodia expat discussion forum and talk about expat life here, we debate about almost everything. Even if you're a tourist passing through Southeast Asia and want to connect with expatriates living and working in Cambodia, this is the first section of our site that you should check out. Our members start their own discussions or post links to other blogs and/or news articles they find interesting and want to chat about. So join in the fun and start new topics, or feel free to comment on anything our community members have already started! We also have some Khmer members here as well, but English is the main language used on CEO. You're welcome to have a look around, and if you decide you want to participate, you can become a part our international expat community by signing up for a free account.
Electric Earth
Expatriate
Posts: 386
Joined: Sun Jan 26, 2020 3:44 pm
Reputation: 234
United States of America

Re: I don’t like to teach. I’m only here for the money.

Post by Electric Earth »

Yeah, cursive is useless and I'm glad it's dying. I think everyone's experience is the same with it. You're forced to learn it in the early school years. Most people's cursive is difficult to read. Most people will never use it again. I'm pretty sure it's been the same for the past 50+ years. I'm so glad schools are cutting it from programs.
Do you think the parents of baby boomers whined so much when the boomers started changing society? And yet the whiney ones like to call young people "snowflakes." Hmm...
User avatar
Bitte_Kein_Lexus
Expatriate
Posts: 4421
Joined: Sun May 18, 2014 7:32 pm
Reputation: 1325

Re: I don’t like to teach. I’m only here for the money.

Post by Bitte_Kein_Lexus »

For some reason, cursive is big in France and other European countries. I'm not sure why it's seen as redundant in most English speaking countries. There's no way someone writing in block letters can write as fast as someone writing cursive. My handwriting is shit and I rarely use cursive now, but we used it almost exclusively through high school and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't useful. It also generally looks better/neater. I'm always surprised when I meet Americans that can barely read it. I'll ask my mom if it's still widely used.

Ex Bitteeinbit/LexusSchmexus
Anchor Moy
Expatriate
Posts: 13458
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 11:37 pm
Reputation: 3974
Tokelau

Re: I don’t like to teach. I’m only here for the money.

Post by Anchor Moy »

Thanks for the lesson everyone here. I had to look up the word "cursive " on wikipedia :oops:
( For other people who don't know what this means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cursive)

I think we used to call it "writing" as opposed to "printing" when I was at school. I have some old letters written by older relatives in "cursive" and they are REALLY difficult to read if you don't know the individual hand-writing style. There is a certain beauty to this style of writing, but it's not very practical. Good-looking hand-writing used to be a useful social skill, but now that most letters and messages are written on a keyboard, that's probably a thing of the past.
Not saying that it's not important for kids to learn to write by hand, but the way technology is going, good-looking hand-writing will be less important to get on in the world, get a job etc.
User avatar
michael.stewart1
Expatriate
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu Jul 19, 2018 1:51 am
Reputation: 31
Russia

Re: I don’t like to teach. I’m only here for the money.

Post by michael.stewart1 »

Electric Earth wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2020 8:32 pm
michael.stewart1 wrote: Sat Apr 11, 2020 10:14 amTeaching English is basically a white monkey job. I am not there to teach. I am just there because parents want to see their children in front of a white person. It is like this everywhere. In Brazil, there are plenty of Brazilians who could teach English but all Brazilians want to see that white people because they think that I can teach them English better than Brazilians can. If you are teaching get the idea that you are a teacher out of your head. You are simply an actor who is being paid to look like they are teaching. If there is any solace keep in mind that you get paid 6x what the native teacher does and you do 70% less work then they do. In China, I basically get paid 3000USD to present lessons that my co-teachers could be presenting. Many times they will present it for me and I am simply standing in front of the class singing and dancing. I have no problem acting like a teacher while being able to hang around hot Chinese women all day.
Wow. What a shithead you are. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that I've heard that in China specifically, you are indeed supposed to just be there for pronunciation, etc. I've never taught in China, so I can't comment. But China is different than other places.

Teaching here in Cambodia(and most places in the world to my understanding), I'm the only one in the classroom, I plan the lessons, and I teach people how to speak English. That's on me. And I do have a job just because I'm white, and I do get paid more because of that. I've also worked with some very smart, well educated Khmer teachers who are more qualified than me. I also take that responsibility more seriously because of it. I still speak English better than them, understand the differences of why my English is better, and have better pronunciation than even the very good local speakers. Those are the benefits of a native speaking teacher. I teach them the grammar, vocabulary, work with them on proper pronunciation, try to make lessons interesting so that people actually learn rather than zone out or fall asleep, etc. If you go teach outside of China where you're expected to actually teach, not just be a monkey to repeat things, Please try to actually teach, not just take poor people's hard earned money. Most of them are hard working parents who are sending their children to learn English in order to hopefully have better future opportunities.
And just to clarify, it is just your personal attitude. I've known people who have taught all over the world. Some of them were shitty teachers. Some of them were great teachers. The shitty ones have the same attitude you do about teaching in Cambodia, and their students pay the price. They don't plan lessons, they don't put in the effort to engage students, etc. Their students don't learn. One of the good teachers I met has taught in China and told a different story than you, though as I said, I have heard that many schools in China just want you there for pronunciation. In any case, it is what you make it.
/rant
The schools pay me to do a job and I do exactly what they are paying me to do. I worked in Cambodia as a teacher and I wrote out quizzes for the students which I would give to them once a month and regardless of what they got in my class the school would pass them. When I was in China one of my classes was on recycling so I suggested that I bring in the trash so the students can have practice recycling. I also suggested that i take the students around the neighborhood and pick up cans and bottles and bring it to the recycling center across the street. For some reason the school told me they gave me a curriculum and I should do exactly what it says. After that, I decided not to suggest anything anymore.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot], Khmu Nation, Semrush [Bot] and 1270 guests