In response to (Message Deleted by Poster) (Brent Mosey)

I received a message saying that Silverboy posted a reply, but it doesn't show the message on the site. However, I believe the reason is that I made some changes to the original post and it got lost, so I'll post it here.

From Silverboy

"You may or may not be telling the truth. I do not know about BSK, so I will not pass judgement on it yet. However, just because you have a degree and have taught in a few countries does not make you a "professional" teacher. If you have so much experience then why are you working for a training centre? There are plenty of universities in Shanghai where you could work. One other point I would like to make: most TC's expect their teachers to follow a specific method or formula. And in my experience, these teaching methods are usually ineffective. If teachers at BSK follow a specific formula, it means they are not creative or serious teachers as far as I am concerned. A decent school will give a teacher lots of flexibility in regard to how they construct their lesson plans.

That is one thing I really like about the uni I am currently employed at, the fact that I can develop lesson plans in accordance with the real and actual needs of my different classes of students. This is in contrast to the ridiculous , "one size fits all" mentality that that training centres follow. The TC is all about quantity, not quality. I will wait to hear from others who have have worked at this place before I form an opinion about it. "

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My Reply

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Silverboy

First of all, you sound like a very competent teacher, and I thank you for the reply.

I think I need to revise. I am a child educator. I believe that if I was asked to teach a university class, it would be the same as asking me to teach French. I know the basics, but I don't believe I would be able to do a quality job.

BSK focuses on primary students. The goal is to offer a supplement (or alternative) to the Chinese method of teaching an introduction to English.

We are not a training centre, nor a placement agency. We simply offer parents a supplemental English course for their children. Our attempt is to teach Chinese children the aquisition of English, rather than the standard memorization of English.

By all means, I could be telling the truth or lying about my statement "I am a professional teacher". However, it is, for the most part, redundant to what I was posting. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have even commented on that.

I was simply being defensive to the fact that he claimed "real teachers don't work for BSK".

The other thing I wanted to mention was money. As terrible as this sounds, it is a factor in where I decide to work. I know that most universities don't pay very well.

Lastly. We're not a training centre, as I stated. But don't completely discount the training centres. Wall Street English is a training centre in business for 35 years. And they are wonderful, in my opinion. I was fortunate enough to be given a tour at one time, and was quite impressed.

We all have our specialities, and we all provide benefits to the Chinese students. I certainly appreciate what any university teacher is doing, as I know how difficult that job can be. I have to admit, I don't believe I am qualified to teach university, especially as I have a hard time relating to adults as students.

To each their own.

My message was simply to put an end to the fiction that has been posted by people that simply can't handle teaching and can't handle China... and in some cases, by people that just can't handle life in general.

Here's an example. One of our coordinators asked a teacher how to pronounce tomato. Is it "Ay" or "Aw". The teacher was from North America, so he said "Ay". She asked why she had heard "Aw" before, and he explained that it was British english. This confused our coordinator (their job is simply to translate and mediate between the school and the teacher when necessary, scheduling, and making sure the teacher knows where the school is).

That was it, that was the conversation. Next thing, I read on the internet about "some stupid TA told me... ME! A native English Speaker that I am pronouncing English words wrong!"

Some people are just unable to deal with life. Making mountains out of molehills.

Anyways, I'm not trying to discredit anyone here, or anywhere. If you were to ask me what the biggest problem with BSK is, it would be the hiring program. We tend to get a small percentage of people who are simply volatile and unable to cope with China, teaching, or just being away from home. But how can you fix that? Most of the time, those are the people with the flashiest portfolio.

Good luck, and thanks for the response.