So, Bucko … now that you're once again relaxed at a table at your favorite Starbucks facing a tall Venti café, you can again begin to think. Ah, yes, I KNOW! Has it all been WORTH it … this ESLing, I mean? Christ! Look where it has taken you already: Brazil, Japan, China – places you’d otherwise only dream of visiting during your lifetime. And imagine, all they want is to learn English while affording you an opportunity to give their culture and domicile the once-over, not to mention earning a few bucks in the process. It seems like a definite advantage to me: to sample other lifestyles ... to make new and interesting foreign friendships ... to personally learn a new lingua (or two) ... to taste new and exotic foods ... to experience often breathtaking scenery ... to absorb new cultures through art and music … to generally make yourself a more knowledgeable and worldly individual. What a dream come true! BUT, like everything else in this life, there is always a downside to consider ... the ESL industry hardly being an exception to the rule. The first pitfall, generally speaking, refers to the question of organization, or, shall I say lack of same. This problem is particularly evident in private learning centers (not affiliated with universities or colleges) throughout the USA and Asia which, for the most part, are owned by staunch business types. It is commendable, however, that most have the good sense to hire language experts to run the show for them. However, pedagogues, like any other skilled workers, must be subject to a reasonable number of preset guidelines, if not principles, if proper rules and regulations are to be effectively and fairly administered. In absence of such guidelines, each supervisor and each teacher would enact his/her own interpretation of school policy, that is, other than those procedures dictated by national or state educational regulatory commissions.

As for foreign positions, I need not mention the increasing number of major complaints being placed on the discussion boards of all the online ESL teachers’ forums. Even I was personally subjected to cruel and unjust treatment at the hands of a school in China, with a resulting financial loss from which, after more than two years, I am still attempting to fully recuperate. And, there have been so many others who have likewise suffered as a result of lies and deception at the hands of agencies and schools alike. Transpacific traffic seems to be fast and furious these days with the comings and goings of ESL teachers, especially in the cases of China and Korea. Granted there are many complaints stemming from individuals who have been rightfully tagged as whiners. On the other hand, there have been more than enough confirmed grievances in recent times to prove there is more than just a mere iota of legitimacy to them.

Then we have the high and mighty, can-do-no-wrong attitudes of many ESL administrators on both the national and international scenes. Along with this highly unwelcome phenomenon, we often note extreme bias -- and much resultant error -- particularly in school hiring practices. Inclusive in my critique is, unhappily, the question of age discrimination in the hiring of teaching staffs. I have shockingly witnessed this in the instance of Asian school owners desperately wishing to satisfy the needs of their young female students by furnishing youthful, movie-star-like 'glamour boys' to teach them grammar! (Grammar with Glamour?) Of course, at the same time, those very same schools may have ignored other truly qualified teachers in their 50s and 60s offering oodles of training and experience in favor of those newly graduated, highly inexperienced 'male pinups.' Believe me when I tell you that I was once employed at a school which had a remarkable sign ever so conspicuously posted above the enrollment desk in the front office:

Our students are the REAL managers of our school!

WOW! Was that ever a potent mouthful! Excellent salesmanship, to be sure, but clearly a case of mistaken values. Naturally, the overall welfare of the students must be taken into consideration, but as they are the students, they must be aware of the principles and rules governing the operation of any learning center. It’s so sad to note whenever students arrive at the point of feeling equal to both the management and teaching staff of the school they attend, and worse yet when that attitude is encouraged by the school itself. It simply exemplifies poor management – in this case failure to have created a distinct separation of church from state.

The Arrogant One