Category: Teaching ESL In China

Do You Feel Like an ESL Loser?

5/23/2015

Have you had one of those days when you just felt like the biggest loser in the world?

That sucks, and when you’re an ESL teacher, you might think like that from time to time. I thought like that quite a bit when I was a teacher.

You’re in a foreign country and the language isn’t always easy, so getting around and doing stuff isn’t always easy.

You’re working at a job that doesn’t pay that much and a lot of the time it seems like you’re getting no respect and what you do seems like it has no value.

You’re wondering why you decided to travel half way around the world so you could do…this.

Yeah, you’re an ESL teacher. The good news is that you won’t be forever.

No one is an ESL teacher forever. Even people that stay in the ESL industry for 30 years only work as a teacher for a certain amount of time. After that they move up into management and do more sitting in a desk than yelling at, er…teaching students.

Everyone else teaches for a year or so and then heads home to do…God knows what. If someone asked me, I’d say that just 10% to 20% of ESL teachers teach for more than a year…it just doesn’t happen that often. Teaching ESL is seen as a year off, a learning experience, a way to find yourself. After that, many go home and continue with their education or get a ‘real’ job…whatever that means.

I will tell you this – by teaching ESL, you’re really going to be ahead of many of your peers when you get back to America or Canada or Europe or Australia or…wherever.

You’re going to be able to think on your feet, act quickly, and come up with new ideas when everyone else is staring at their feet.

You’re going to be great at communicating, and standing in front of a room of people won’t bother you that much.

You’re going to be super at striking up conversations, reading body language, and ‘figuring out’ what people are trying to say.

These are all things that you get when you’re an ESL teacher. On top of it, you’ll have a perspective on your home country that few of your fellows will have. Really, probably the same 10% to 20% of people actually live abroad for an extended period, and now you’re one.

Wow, isn’t it amazing how much of a boost you get by being an ESL teacher? In just a single year of teaching, you build up a wide range of skills and abilities that others just don’t have.

Golly, come to think of it…you’re awesome!

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5 Quick Thoughts on Teaching at EF English First in China

2/8/2015

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Are you working at English First? I worked there for three years, in their China operation. Specifically, I worked in Shenzhen, at SZ3, which is located by the Coastal City shopping center in the Nanshan district.

Anyways, I know what you’re going through. You’re going through hell.

Oh, you can argue that the pay is good and you have materials and you have a set schedule and all the rest of it. But gosh darn, getting those kids to talk is a pain, isn’t it?

I’m going to be frank with you in this article, and I hope you’ll forgive me, or at least not hold it against me.

Here we go.

Thought #1: Students Expect Confidence

I know you’re not used to being assertive or pushing yourself forward or really having an idea on what you want to do with your life. Great…that means you’re just like your students and they’ll view you that way.

You’re their friend, and because you’re their friend they’re going to walk all over you. Yes, they will make your life a living hell.

How can you fix this? Be assertive, be authoritative, be a boss. You are the teacher, and you are setting an agenda. That agenda is your two-hour lesson plan and they will stick to it, they will adhere to it, and God damn it, and deviation from that will not be tolerated.

You are the boss – act like it!

Thought #2: Do What You Want

You know how EF gives you all those materials, like books and PDFs and worksheets and game ideas and flashcards and pre-made lesson plans? Isn’t that great?

No, it sucks. It sucks because you’ve got to take this system and learn it, and then every time you want to do something you have to plan it all out. You have to figure out the grammar for that unit, figure out the materials you need, figure out the tests and homework.

Shit, that sucks.

Why not just go in with the book and your teacher materials? Do your lesson, play the audio, and watch the videos. Go in short blocks of time. Get it done. But don’t sit there and plan, plan, plan.

Thought #3: Entertain

Kids at EF want to be entertained. Their parents want them to learn English.

You only have to deal with parents a little bit. You have to deal with students a lot. Who are you going to listen to…especially when results aren’t really expected at EF? Yeah, as long as those kids keep paying, everyone’s happy. And guess what, nothing’s going to keep them paying more than a lack of improvement.

Thought #4: Be Honest

When you get in a room one-on-one with a student that’s younger than you and doesn’t know about life and is not confident, I know it might feel like you’re looking in a mirror to the past, so gosh, why not tell them that?

Be honest with people one-on-one and you can sell them anything. Be confident, because you know more than they. And just keep things moving, because no one likes dicking about with lots of ‘ums’ and ‘ugh…now what’s.’

Thought #5: Find an Exit

What are you going to do when your contract with EF English First is finished? Are you going to sign another contract because it snuck up on you and you have no idea what else to do?

Err! Wrong answer!

Figure out what you want to do in life. Chances are it’s not listening to screaming kids for 9 hours on Saturday and another 9 on Sunday.

Enjoy your two days off this week and good luck next weekend...and please, think about these things!

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Escape Shenzhen – Your End of the World ESL Adventure

12/11/2014

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Ever wonder what would happen if the city you lived in just went BOOM and was gone tomorrow?

Maybe it’s global warming, perhaps a nuke strike. It could be some crazed terrorist or maybe just a whole lot of bad tacos.

Either way, it’s an interesting idea.

What would your ESL students do, the ones that could survive on their own, that is?

Would there be anything left that you could use?

Where on earth would you go after everything was destroyed?

I thought about that a lot back in 2012 when the Mayan calendar was coming to an end and the movie 2012 came out.

See, in China that movie was a big hit, and all my students were talking about it. It only made sense to make an ESL PowerPoint game along the same lines.

So I did so, and created Escape Shenzhen…a game that quickly got away from me.

This image montage floats into place slowly with PowerPoint custom animations. Just click!

I won’t say it got away from me, really, but it did get really large...and difficult for other teachers I worked with to understand. That’s why I just used it myself.

Oh, and the fact that it’s best for higher-level students…and as anyone who teaches ESL knows, those students are few and far between. Here’s what a slide looks like:

This ESL PowerPoint game follows my usual template, where you have a compass map and go in directions. That makes this a 90-slide PowerPoint

There’s that map there, and you’re moving around that city. You can go the directions of the compass, and along the way you meet interesting and unique characters that will help you, and give you fun items:

I had these cards printed out and laminated and used them for many different games. Students really have fun with the ideas you can have.

Those are all cards you can print out and give to students. The food is fun, and you can make the game go longer as students roll dice, trying to figure out how much food they get each day.

The weapons are a lot of fun, and so are some of the other items. Really, for this game it’s letting students try new things. You could get to a dead-end in the game, but if a student wants to break down a door with his sword, why not use your imagination, let them explore, and maybe find something fun?

Escape Shenzhen is a role-playing game, in that regard, and you’re the game master, giving directions on where to go, like this place:

Take your students up the tall buildings of Shenzhen

There are three large buildings in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, and each of them is a possible ending point for this game. Sound difficult? It can be, and that’s why I explain it all with this teacher’s guide for the game:

This teacher's guide is included with the game, and is a handy thing to have when you're clicking to the next slide. This is really an our to 2-hour ESL game.

Mainly, you need to figure out how to get to the top of those buildings. Think the elevator is the best way? Maybe you should think again:

Most of these buttons go nowhere, but students don't know that, and you always get a fun reaction when they see this.

If you do make it to the top, you have to contend with a killer tidal wave coming in. It’s enough to make you want to just give up and jump:

There's slide animation here that causes that other image to float across the screen. Student always like that.

Escape Shenzhen is a fun, unique and exciting game that will have your students thinking and talking long after class is done. Download your copy today, and let some real ESL classroom magic take place!

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Problems You’ll Run into with Lesson Planning

12/2/2014

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Note: This is an excerpt from my book Keeping Sane.

Lesson planning sucks.

First, it takes a lot of time;

Next, that’s time you could be doing something else;

Finally, a lot of the times the lessons you plan don’t work!

Boy, all three of those things are frustrating, and that’s why I want to talk about lesson planning as an ESL teacher.

When you first start out you’re going to plan a lot, I mean like two hours for a one hour lesson. You’ll sit in that teacher’s office staring into the student book and teacher companion book like they hold the secrets of the universe.

They don’t, and most of the time you won’t get very many good ideas from them. Eventually you’ll have to come up with those ideas yourself, and the good news is that when you use your original ideas you really cut down on lesson planning.

I spent about ten to fifteen minutes planning a two-hour lesson by the time I finished teaching ESL. Most of the time that was a long time, as I routinely saved my old lessons and used them again. In those cases lesson planning took all of a minute as I went back into my old files and found it.

You’re going to teach the same thing over and over when you’re an ESL teacher. Either it’ll be the exact same class – maybe Chapter 3 on Household Items or Unit 4B on Asking for Directions – or you’ll have the same class but will now teach the same thing, just with a little bit harder grammar and vocabulary – Chapter 7 on Shopping for Household Items or Unit 7A on Reading a Map.

After awhile you’ll just know how to do that…and don’t make the biggest mistake I saw so many new teaches make time and time again – they forgot they knew English!

You don’t need to look up simple answers in the book. You don’t need to open Google to look up some grammar point. Your students don’t know! Wing it and you’ll get it right and move one. Don’t lose those students’ attention, letting the less-interested drag the class down into chaos.

You have to keep your class moving, at the cost of everything else, even little Sally’s poor pronunciation on ‘sh.’ If you don’t do this you’ll lose them. Sometimes in war you have to make sacrifices, and that ‘sh’ will have to go for now so you can get her to make a complete sentence. And make no mistake, ESL is a war, and you’ll fight many battles like this one.

To help you fight those battles you need weapons. These weapons aren’t high-powered assault rifles or even concealed knifes – no, they’re hidden-away fun worksheets and thumb-drives full of PowerPoints.

The point is, these are just one more little weapon in your arsenal, one more trick in your ESL back of tricks, and one more thing you can have printed out and ready to go when that time hits – and it inevitably will – when you have absolutely nothing to do in class because:

A: The students hate everything you prepared and think it’s boring as hell;

B: You thought you’d planned enough stuff but moved through it too quickly and now are high and dry with nothing;

C: You don’t plan and just go into class with what you have and wing it, hoping everything works out.

Now, we’re getting more advanced here…more into the stages you’ll go through as an ESL teacher.

For instance, I really tried to plan a lot when I was a new teacher, but it resulted in ‘A’ up there, with me having lots of boring lessons.

After awhile I had good stuff but we just moved through it too quickly and then I had to twiddle my thumbs for the last twenty minutes of class, just like ‘B’ up there.

Finally, during my last year or two of teaching, I really just gave up…which is kind of when you come up with the best ideas because you play everything by ear, shoot from the hip, and let magic happen.

Some teachers don’t like that, and to them it looks like you’re doing nothing, but $10 says few of the teachers I worked with are still teaching or dispensing ESL advice, while I’m doing so each day (have you joined my Google+ ESL group yet?).

In conclusion, take the free stuff on my website and use it for as long as you can. When you run out, hopefully you’ll have come up with some original ideas or reached the end of your contract. What am I saying, you know you can!

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Another National Day in China

10/1/2014

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I’ve been posting to this ESL blog for 2 years now, ever since the beginning of October, 2012.

I started around National Day, which is the holiday they have in China to celebrate Mao Zedong riding into Beijing, brining victory to the Communists and defeat to the Nationalist’s led by Chang Kai-Shek.

Maybe that wasn’t such a good thing. It’s clear to anyone that knows anything about the history of China that Mao Zedong was an idiot and pedophile. Chinese consider 30% of what he did to be “bad.”

The guy was a fucking nutcase!

Thank God Deng Xiaoping came along in the late 70s – after several exiles – to get that country in order. If it wasn’t for that man most of the people there would still be mucking in the fields.

You won’t hear that from a Chinese person however – they’re incredibly ignorant about their history, mainly because it’s not taught. (They do all have quite a bit of knowledge of propaganda, however).

Anyways, I am so damn happy to be out of that God-forsaken country. The noise, the pollution, the people everywhere! How did I put up with that shit for 5 years?

Many of you are just now experiencing your first National Day, seeing those red lanterns hanging from the street lights, and watching Chinese spend the week-long holiday the way they do best – with lots of high carbohydrate snacks and plenty of TV.

By now you’ve probably asked yourself ‘how did Chinese people ever survive without cellphones and TV?’

I have no idea, and I don’t think they do either.

Hey, it’s National Day – as an American, there’s no better day to poke fun at China than on its big day. The country’s got tons of problems and right now is subverting the agreement they signed with Britain in 1997 that was supposed to last until 2047 – I have no respect for that country or the idiots in charge (that’s you Xi Jingping – you’re an idiot).

Hopefully some of those young students you teach will be able to escape some of the nationalistic, jingoistic, and “communist” fervor their countrymen subject them to on a daily basis. Maybe they’ll be able to think for themselves and figure out how to come up with products instead of just making those the West did.

But I’m not holding my breath. There’s Hong Kong, that bastion of democracy and ideas, and they want to shutter it. Say goodbye to that economic engine of growth, folks!

But what do I know? I mean, I’ve never poured millions of tons of pollution into the air, I’ve never dirtied countless thousands of my own rivers, I’ve never dammed rivers so untold numbers dry up, and I’ve never told my people what they can or can’t do with their minds or their bodies.

That’s why I left China, and I hope you leave China some day too – there’s no future there (why do you think all the rich folks want to send their kids to America?).

Oh, maybe things will change, but not with the level of corruption they have. Maybe you’ve seen some already – cops being paid off, corporations bribing officials, your boss bribing the tax man, your school not doing what it said it would.

Transportation costs might be one reason so many businesses are moving back to the US, but most businessmen I talked to told me they were sick of dealing with the Chinese and their way of business.

Can the country just dry up and blow away? Yes, and it’s real estate bubble makes that clear. How long can a country last when most of its middle and upper-class have invested all of their savings into apartments in empty cities that no one wants? We’ll see, but I’d hate to be living there when that all comes tumbling down.

But again, what do I know? A better question might be, ‘what do you know?’ After all, you’re living there – is this BS, or does it smack of truth?

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Mid-Month ESL Thoughts for China Teachers

9/18/2014

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Sorry I haven’t been posting a whole lot of new content on this site. Sorry there’s no interesting new blog posts or even a new ESL book for you to check out.

Mainly I’ve been busy with other things, which for the past month has been my fourth volume of Montana history.

I started writing the first book just a few months before I left China. They don’t sell that well, but I have a feeling one day they will.

I’d urge you to find something to do with your free time when you’re in China…or wherever it is that you’re teaching ESL.

If you’re anything like I was when I first started teaching ESL in 2008, you’re probably drinking a lot of cheap beer each night and watching internet movies or some such. Teaching is a real headache – even when you’re not hung over!

Computer games are a great way to kill time without spending a lot or messing up your body or mind. Books in foreign countries are expensive, and if you’re anything like I was my first year, you might spend a lot buying English versions wherever you are. Be careful – it might be better to do an eReader (a novelty when I started) or get used copies sent to you. $50 for a box of books from your mom is a good investment, in my opinion.

Or start writing some stuff. Try things like this:

Use Google Books to find all kinds of great reference material.

Key into your local state’s historical society website and see what you can find.

Begin poking around your state government website and learn about policy and politics.

Go in-depth into an education or university website and figure out how they tick.

Overall, use your time constructively so that when you do transition out of ESL teaching you’ll have some skills or knowledge of what you want to do next.

I mean, who are we kidding, you probably started teaching ESL because you didn’t know what else to do. Now would be a good time to step out of the world, if you will, and figure out some niche or area of interest that works for you.

Most ESL teachers last one year, maybe two. What are you going to do after that time? I write about these ideas and concepts in my ESL books a lot, and you can check some out, especially Teaching Abroad, which is all about transitioning back into the non-ESL world. Trust me – most people have no idea what ESL is.

But you do – you know what it is each day. You’re in the trenches, pal, and it’s tough. But you’ve got some time yet – it’s only the third week of September and that means you have 38 weeks until June 15…or when many of your CTLC contracts end.

The rest of you sorry folks will probably go 40 more weeks until summer kicks in wherever you are, and some of you poor bastards – like I was for three summers – will ramp up your schedule for training center work.

If it makes you feel any better, most people in the U.S. only get 2 weeks of holiday or vacation time a year, although if you’re in Congress you get 8.5 months of holiday time.

In China you’ve got National Day coming up in less than 2 weeks. That’ll give you a week off. There’s some smaller stuff after that, you’ll have some test days free, and you can skip out on a sick day here or there if you’re intrepid.

But overall, you’re doing the ‘9 to 5’ gig – or pretty close to it – until mid-January when Spring Festival rolls around.

That sucks. But what can you do? Drink beer each night and watch internet movies or some such? You can do better than that.

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Asking for Directions ESL PowerPoint

8/17/2014

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If you’re an ESL teacher in China I’ve got a great PowerPoint for you on Asking for Directions.

If you’re not a teacher in China you can still get some use out of this, and let me tell you why:

First, it’s free;

Next, it’s got 30 slides, killing a possible 30 minutes of class;

Then, it’s got tons of great ‘asking for directions’ vocabulary words;

Finally, you can take this Asking for Directions ESL PowerPoint and adapt it, add pictures, and really make it a fun time in your class.

I really couldn’t tell you when I made this PPT, or if I even used it. I found it in my old ESL files today, and I have a feeling I made it when I was teaching in public schools in 2009.

Either way, it can work for you, especially if you’re in China, as you can see from this slide:

I’ve got the Chinese characters right up there for your students, and down below some examples of how to use them in a sentence. Some teachers frown on using the First Language (or L1) in the classroom, but I don’t.

Here’s another one that I think would be great with some pictures of the places listed:

If you could go out with your camera and take a picture of a 7/11 then this PPT would really work. I know if you’re in Shenzhen you’ve got one on every corner.

Here’s a good slide that shows how this Asking for Directions ESL PowerPoint can help all teachers, even those teaching ESL to adults:

You’ll get some simple language and words that your students can use. Of course this is all building up to the end of the PPT, and this slide is actually #17. You’re trying to get your students comfortable with this language so they can make a dialogue or just write a few sentences about where they live.

And remember, you can always do the same lesson again, or at least parts of it in a recap lesson. Students might have zero interest, but it sure reinforces the material.

When it comes to that material you might want to use visuals, and maps are perfect for that. Try to lay out vocabulary and even add in your own pictures.

Consider doing a map of your school, having students describe or draw how they get from the main gate to the classroom. This slide has some helpful language for that:

As you can see, there’s lots of different ideas and combinations you can do with this simple ESL Asking for Directions Powerpoint.

It’s very basic with no animations or pictures...really one of my early ESL PPTs. That's why it's free, but I know you can spruce it up. Have fun!

Download the free ESL Asking for Directions PowerPoint!

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Thank God August is Here!

8/1/2014

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If you’re teaching at EF right now then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

If you’re not teaching at EF – known as English First in China – then let me enlighten you.

When you choose to work at an English training center in China during the summer you’ll have a very busy schedule. While most teachers around the world get summers off, those working in private settings typically have to work. After all, students aren’t in school so have more free time. And that free time equals money for those training centers.

Of course you won’t be getting paid anymore, but you will be expected to forgo one of your days off each week while seeing your workload double, or at least go up by 10 hours.

This is what EF teachers have to put up with for June and July, and maybe a week or so into August.

After that summer schedules end. And believe me, when that summer teaching schedule ends you go out and get crazy!

So what did my summer EF teaching schedule in China look like? Something like this:

9-12 – Small Stars class
12-1:30 – Lunch
1:30 – 5:00 – Trailblazers class

That’s the schedule you’d have everyday except Wednesday (your day off) and the weekend. Small Stars are what they call kindergarten kids and Trailblazers would be teens or sometimes younger kids.

You might have to do some 1-hour Small Stars classes in the evenings on some of those days depending on your school. On the weekends you’ll have your regular schedule, which is three 2-hour blocks of classes from 9 to 6:30.

Did I mention you don’t get paid any extra for that? You are supposed to stay under 40 hours a week, which is in your contract. But trust me…you’re going to be burned-out big time!

That’s why it’s so good that many teachers in China aren’t going to have to do this schedule anymore now that it’s August. In Russia the EF schools don’t do summer classes as…go figure…students don’t have school in summer, it’s just not in their culture.

Guess I picked the wrong country to do my ESL career in, huh?

So if you’re an EF teacher…congratulations! I made it through three summers with them, and boy was it a lot of work and a boatload of headaches. Enjoy your next few weeks and trust me, your regular schedule will now be a cakewalk.

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English Rocks! Your Go-To ESL Classroom Teaching Book

7/26/2014

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You’re not going to find a better ESL classroom resource than English Rocks! 101 ESL Games, Activities, and Lesson Plans.

This book will help any teacher that’s struggling in an ESL classroom. And if you’re an old hand at teaching, well, I bet you can get a few new ideas as well.

The book has 101 ideas, and each of them has its own page or stretches over multiple pages. In fact, there are 211 pages with this eBook and 271 pages with the print book.

Yes, that’s right…English Rocks! is now available in print format!

Both versions have 112 pictures to explain the ideas that are discussed, and you’ll pick up a lot just from looking at those. With over 35,000 words, this isn’t some dinky manual either. This is a real book, with real solutions to your classroom problems.

It’s written in an easy-to-read style that won’t have you scratching your head wondering what’s being discussed. You can easily flip through the different lessons with the table of contents, so finding just the thing you need to get your class going now is no problem.

Real Solutions to Your ESL Problems

I taught English in China for 5 years. I’ve seen little 3-year olds who cry and cry and older teenagers who mope and mope. Most students don’t want to talk. You can try to make them, but that doesn’t work out well for you or them. It’s much better to make them want to talk.

So how do you do that? You give them something they like. Give them games, give them activities, and give them excitement. When students are excited and having fun, speech naturally spills forth.

Public school classes in China are large

If you’re teaching ESL, games and activities are your best friends. These things don’t detract from learning, they add to it. All of the games and activities in English Rocks! have been tried and perfected by me in dozens of classes over the years. The last thing I want is a horrible lesson, and I’m not going to give that to you.

Anyone who’s scrolled through the posts on this website knows that I provide quality. If you’ve taken advantage of the free downloads, you know they work. This book will give you the ideas, and this site will give you the files…FOR FREE!

The free files you get with this book

Those are all the free files you’ll get when you buy the book. There are 50…which is an incredible deal. Some of those, such as Deserted Island Adventure and Mountain Plane Crash Adventure, you’d have to pay for otherwise. They’re both free with the purchase of this book.

Some of these games and activities are up on this site now for free. You can find the following articles from more than a year ago:

If you buy this book you’ll get all those ideas and more. Your students will love you and your time as an ESL teacher will finally be headache-free. So toss out that textbook and burn those boring grammar sheets and use something that works!

English Games are Key

My students loved playing games in my ESL classes and they’ll love playing game in yours when you try out some of the ideas in English Rocks! But when you want to get down to the nitty-gritty of English, there’ll be plenty of activities, warm-ups, and lesson plans to effectively target the vocabulary and grammar that you’re using in class on a daily basis.

ESL class in China in Winter (Notice coats? No heat in the South)

I’ve put my five years of teaching knowledge into this book, and my biggest hope is that it will help other teachers out there. The book’s got things that will really save you in class. I wish I had something like this when I started teaching – it would have saved me headaches!

The good news is that you can now pull this book out right in class. It’s in print format, which means you can buy it and keep it in your bag. Of course you can bring it to class on your iPad, or even print out the PDF version if you get it on Smashwords. Hey, might as well get all the free use you can out of those school computers, right?

The point is, use this book any way you can to keep your sanity. I know if you’re teaching ESL right now you know what I’m talking about. For all of you thinking about it or perhaps just waiting to do so, however, I want you to know that even a dozen kids yelling and shouting in class will wear on you after a time. Even when you’re having fun things get loud and just…well, it’s overwhelming at times.

Books like this and other quality ESL teaching books will help you handle this. I wish you luck, but I know with English Rocks! you won’t need it.

You can get this ESL eBook for any format you’d like: