New English 'teacher' in Poland (I have no qualifications).

Mafketis pitching in with a top-notch commentary. Nice one lad. I've watched teachers who are bi-lingual non-Poles. They really got the respect of their students. Depending on the teacher, it can sometimes be like an Us Vs Them scenario with normal monolingual natives (non-Poles). The students are relieved to know that their teacher speaks Polish but won't use it. It's a comfort zone and they feel that they will be understood better.

Also, it allows the students to use Polish after lessons when they are tired. Out drinking for example. My staff are happy as they can conduct meetings in Polish with me. I respect their efforts in English and they respect mine in Polish.

In sport: There are many trainers who have never achieved fame, but whose students have achieved greatness.

An understanding of teaching is key. Not waffling in some language you half understand.

Keep in mind that I'm on the side of the OP. I do have a hint of Polish in my vocabulary.


This is most important. The client will appreciate it more, if they know that you have the answer at hand, but will only tell them when it gets difficult.

I had the best possible opportunity to test out the theory during my observations in Japan. This time, I was the observed. I could only use English and I had to teach vocab related to colours. I asked them for white things to tease out what they knew. When they didn't know, I suggested something like sugar. Even this can cause complications as you have to make sure, unambiguously, that they know you are referring to the sugar in your making a cup of coffee gesture. I believe that straight translations work as the nuance is not different. I often just said satou (sugar) or shio (salt) to make it clear and save time. They paid a lot for lessons.

Where you can trip yourself up, as you correctly mentioned Wrocław, is in where you half understand something. You just don't venture into forbidden territory, you stick with what you know or can safely conjecture. I don't even delve into the intricacies of Polish grammar for that reason. Also, they learned that stuff elsewhere, at school usually.

Yes, yes. For this reason also.


And who hasn’t encountered someone working customer service whose personality and attitude were clearly not cut out for working with the public?

Everyone can learn a language. It's only a question of motivation. The teacher might not have the time or opportunity to spend on learning a language. Whats important is that they can inspire / assist their students in learning the language themselves, not their own ability with L2, although admittedly it will make their job easier if they are bilingual as they will be more aware of the students' problems.

I'd suggest a grammar book like Murphy or, even better Heinneman for the explanations of the grammar.

It's pretty common to find yourself trying to explain a structure using the very structure you're trying to explain. "We use the present continuous when we are doing something".

Keep some pictures handy (postcards, things from magazines etc). You can ask the student to speak about them, compare them etc and use it as a basis for vocabulary/adjectives/prepositions etc. You can also use it as the starting point for a conversation etc.

Write a list of interview questions to ask the student. It'll give you some idea of their level and where they need attention.

Murphy is a fantastic book, I've lost count of the amount of times when it's proven to be invaluable, even for just testing purposes.

But I think that part of the problem in Poland is that many people seem to think that native speakers should be teaching grammar. There's a school of thought in my school that we (well, I) shouldn't be teaching them - so we've developed a system where the initial teaching is done by a Polish teacher, but I expand on it. It seems to work.

One thing I'd certainly suggest is learning a specialist English topic. Even if it's just about working in a bar - then you should be able to teach someone comprehensively about this, even about the more arcane differences (such as what a Vodka Martini is and why it'll differ in America to Europe). For instance, my personal expertise is Business English - but I teach them the nonsense they can expect from English speakers. They know it's nonsense, I know it's nonsense - and I usually get questions along the lines of 'Do people really speak like this?'.

What is Business English, aside from some specialized vocabulary? It's all about knowing how to communicate, and yes, I also teach business english. My background is 25 years in sales and sales management, so I have a little experience in the field.

I agree about using Polish in the classroom. I avoid it whenever I can, but sometimes it's the quickest way to explain something.

One example. We spent about 30 minutes talking about Fat Thursday/Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Ash Wednesday, etc. Poland's a Catholic country so everyone knew about fasting, but they called it "post". Of course they all know "fast", as in "my car will go 300 kph. It's fast.", but they didn't know that fast can also be a noun and a verb. So, post is fast, and Wielki Post is Lent. I love to hear "aha" when they get it. It's so Polish, and it means something a little different than it does in English. I like the Polish version better.

I sometimes feel awkward doing a class with business directors, managers etc using a book such as "Market Leader" (classic book) and explaining the ideas of business philosophy to someone who earns more in an hour than I do in a day.


Do you ever get that amazed reaction of realisation when you tell them that to stop fasting is to "break fast"?

I think it's simply explaining many of the corporate bullshit terms that are thrown around freely - stuff like 'let's knock this out of the park' and so on. At least, this is what I teach - I'm not going to insult their intelligence by teaching them *about* business when they evidently know much more than me.

Agreed. It could be argued that in a good business English class you're only teaching them to express their ideas in English. The problem is that a lot of specialist language has some 'cultural' content which also needs to be presented, especially when dealing with legal texts....

Than again, most Business English isn't worth much. Publishers like to produce books that appeal to as many people as possible and 'Business English' is little more than lyceum English for grownups - English with a suit on if you will. As it's so broad, I'd guess that well over 75% of the content of a typical Business English course is irrelevant to the student, as I'm sure you're aware!

use esl cafe for ideas on how to keep your pupils entertained and active, or school them into proper socialistic cadres by teaching them about glory of North Korean Democratic Peoples Republic, this is the way

Very cool. I'll use that tomorrow. Never thought about it before, but now it seems so obvious. Thanks.

I'm not intimidated by teaching upper management, because I was once there. They're just people who put their pants (trousers) on one leg at a time.

And I really agree about some of the expressions in the books. They often sound so stilted and I seldom heard them during my business career. Usually the conversations were a lot earthier, but I'm not sure I want to go there in my lessons.

If living in Poland doesn't motivate a teacher to learn Polish then they suck.

I learned more Polish in Glasgow than in Poland. I actually don't get that much of a chance to use it (everyone insists on practising their bloody English!) but am pleasantly surprised when I realise how much I can use it.

Mind you, in Mazury it is a waste of time trying. As soon as they hear the foreign accent they either talk German or English!


You're welcome.

If the teacher is living in Poland they have both the time and opportunity.

Now if a teacher comes to Poland knowing ahead of time it's for a limited time I can understand them not learning much but teaching English in Poland is not the most time intensive job on the planet and I've never known a teacher who didn't have enough spare time enough to learn.

I told you I'd use it today, and I did. I loved the expressions on their faces and the "ahas" that I heard. I love that. It's so much more meaningful in Polish than in English. Thanks again.

Nice to know. You're welcome.

Lost

If you need a hand with anything in Wroclaw let me know.

David

Not necessarily. Students and staff want to speak English, who else is there? People in the street?

Altho once one has come for 'just nine month' then come back to do 'just one more academic year' and then 'this really is the last academic year and then I'm off' and spent three years in Poland not speaking the language, that teacher has probably got used to not speaking the language and so doesn't see the need to bother.


Depends on how much one works and how much one prepares. Perhaps you don't do enough of one, the other or both.


Frankly, not being able to speak to the people I meet in the street is more often an advantage than a disadvantage.

You live at your job? How do you get through the rest of your life in Poland?


This sounds more like a British thing (IME Americans have a much better track record with learning Polish than do Brits). I think it comes from different expectations about social lives, Brits seem to do okay knowing just three people while Americans like to know lots of people (for which you generally need Polish in Poland).


Depnds on how much you need to work and prepare. The teachers I've known with the heaviest work loads did speak Polish.


Do as I say, not as I do?

More or less. But then again everyone has language - the teacher is hired to help someone improve theirs, nothing more. It sounds to me that you have some desire to prove yourself more capable then the student for some reason. This is common amoungst graduates with basic insecurites about their role.

Indeed. A teacher's job is not to be a learner of what they teach: a teacher's job is to teach and to learn about how they teach.

Well generally a teacher should know more than the students about the subject being taught.

In a foreign language class part of what's being taught (in a meta context) is how to deal with a foreign language. Having everybody speak your language (while you're in their country) is certainly one way of dealing with it, but probably not one that inspires confidence.

And if the English teacher is an English native, is this not suitable?


Use of jargon is another way the teacher feels more secure.

Depends of they actually understand about things like grammar and can actually speak Standard English. I'm not being snobby here. My first ELT job was in Macedonia. I was a graduate but knew nothing about grammar etc. The problem was that students would ask things like "Can you tell me about modal auxiliaries?" and I didn't have a clue. The other thing was that my own speech was so full of non-standard phrases and vocab that even the good students had trouble understanding me... and I wasn't even aware that I was so non-standard.

I don't agree that a teacher has to be grat in a forign language but it doesn't hurt to know something, if only to understand why the student might find it difficult (like no continuous in Polish, no articles etc).

quote=MrBubbles]
Use of jargon is another way the teacher feels more secure.[/quote]

The students too, occasionally. How many students have you lost because you didn't teach with a grammar chart and use all the terminology!

On the subject of using the L2, I've grown tired of being in pubs where I ask the barstaff for a beer and they insist on speaking English, even when I continue in Polish. In Mikolajki they jsut insisted on speaking German, even when they could hear we weren't German and I was speaking Polish (kind of pre-conditioned to talk German to foreigners, I suppose).[

Let's clarify a bit. My position is that anybody living in Poland needs to learn and speak Polish (during the time they live here) and I'm not terribly interested in excuses about why they don't. There are no good reasons for not learning and "But I'm an _ENGLISH_ teacher!!!!" is among the lamest.

I will mention that (to me) Poland in Polish is approximately 754 times more interesting than Poland in English. But at the end of the day, either you understand the folly of living in a country and not knowing the language (being at the mercy of people's willingness to treat you like a child) or you don't. If you don't, then by all means, have fun and remain ignorant of how you're inconveniencing those around you.

just come into this ... responding to first post, erm, are you joking? you can't bloody take money off people when you have absolutely no skill whatsoever to offer them. do you think that just speaking english qualifies you to teach it?!!

sorry ... you can advertise for giving conversation sessions, but not english lessons.

eg, answer me this:

what is the difference between 'I made the coffee' and 'I've made the coffee' and 'I've been making the coffee' and 'the coffee will have been having been made' ... tell me. Oh, and by the way - I don't speak much English. But explain it to me, please.