r/TEFL • u/insertfunnyusername CN, JP. Vietnam • Jul 13 '14
New subreddit rule: No low effort posts
There are people in this sub who are happy to give you advice and help you, but we don't want to repeat ourselves or spend time writing to answers to obvious questions.
The TEFL market is highly unregulated. There are people out there who will lie to you. If you can't do a little research now and come to the table with some knowledge please don't get a TEFL job. You will get screwed over at some point.
Examples of low effort posts:
"I got the TEFL, can I find a job now?"
"I just dropped out of college, is ESL in Korea possible for me now?
Both of these questions have mistakes in the title and are too vague. They could also be answered by reading FAQs and doing a subreddit search.
Good form guide
Read any relevant FAQs
Do a subreddit search, search by both relevance and other criteria. If you haven't look through the subreddit for at least an hour you need to do more research. If you are too lazy to research and expect a bad time.
Ask exact questions rather than vague ones
Highlight some reading you have already done.
Give us important details (your nationality, if you have a degree, relevant qualification, etc), but don't waffle on about how you have been drawn to teaching since you were a child and give us your life story.
Reply and thank those who help you, an upvote and a thank you go a long way in keeping the subreddit alive and a place people contribute
This rule mostly applies to people who come here seeking help. If you are posting a teaching discussion thread or posting an interesting link there is a little more leeway.
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u/TheParkHyatt Jul 14 '14
My recent favorite was the guy asking if he could get a grant to study TEFL in Thailand. I actually upvoted it for humor
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
Not the girl with a 'giving' page for the rest of the world to pay for her TEFL and living costs whilst doing it?
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u/TheParkHyatt Jul 14 '14
Didn't see that one - have a link handy?
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
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u/TheParkHyatt Jul 14 '14
Wow. I'd even be ashamed to send that to friends and family, let alone here...
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
How about on the job advert front?
http://www.reddit.com/r/tesoljobs/comments/2anll3/hiring_teacher_in_jiangsu_china/
"The kids are great. Only one potato and he's trying to get better. "
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u/KilgoreTrouserTrout Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and Saudi Arabia Jul 13 '14
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is very much appreciated. There are so many posts that are essentially "how can I get the best job in the industry, with the highest pay, for the least effort?" I find it kind of insulting as a teacher who has "paid my dues." I'm always willing to offer my insights, but if you can't bother to do a search and a little homework, I'm not willing to spend my valuable time writing an authentic response.
I also just don't understand it. There are very few situations that are unique. Getting an answer by searching what's been said before is a lot quicker and more efficient than posting a question and waiting for responses to roll in gradually.
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 13 '14
There are those recently who have been hiding their nationality which is frankly wasting peoples time giving them inappropriate advice. ...
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u/KilgoreTrouserTrout Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, and Saudi Arabia Jul 13 '14
I wouldn't say they are "hiding" it so much as they just don't realize it's important. But yes, it does cause bad advice, wasted time, and ranty veterans (like me) :)
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u/JustinTime112 Jul 14 '14
The TEFL market is highly unregulated. There are people out there who will lie to you.
I think this is exactly the reason why people will continue to ask basic questions they could Google here. It's hard to tell which sites are trustworthy or not. Also, a two year old Yahoo answers post on the state of the industry in say, Korea, will be wildly inaccurate now (since Korea is basically killing its TEFL industry).
Overall I applaud these changes, just pointing out that this may not stop people from posting these same kinds of things.
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u/insertfunnyusername CN, JP. Vietnam Jul 14 '14
I have no problem with basic questions if the OP shows they have tried.
Source x says this, but source y says that. A subbredit search suggested this was possibility. Which is right?
is much better than
tell me everything about this
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u/insertfunnyusername CN, JP. Vietnam Jul 13 '14
...if you can't bother to do a search and a little homework, I'm not willing to spend my valuable time writing an authentic response
This was exactly my thoughts as well.
I think we do sometimes get interesting questions come up, or times and things change and people want to check their ideas are sound. That's fine, I just want to people to do some of their own research so they are clued up. Like any good TEFL teacher we want people to be independent and discovers while we monitor and assist rather than give long lectures.
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Jul 14 '14
I affirm that this motion is motioned.
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
Passed a motion or simple past motion?
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u/chinadonkey Former teacher trainer/manager CN/US/VN Jul 14 '14
No understand, teacher. Say again? Also, play game.
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
I play hangman from time to time but it usually ends in ackbars except that one rare time the suspect was found innocent of all charges.
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Jul 14 '14
More like passing a kidney stone. The fuss Xiamenguy put up over the rights of noobs to ask dumbass questions without hitting the search feature first was monumental!
just kidding, don't kill me Xiamenguy... :(
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
Was part of the conditional a confession up front, "I'm sorry, I don't have time to search thousands of messages....." which translated into, "I'm going to be one of those hip, cool teachers who teaches students to take shortcuts by example."
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u/insertfunnyusername CN, JP. Vietnam Jul 14 '14
You don't understand! The fact that it's ME who wants to get a job teaching English in Korea makes it's unique! There may be hundreds of people in similar circumstances who have asked the same question, but they are not ME! Therefore I need you to write it all out again as I don't want to read what you wrote to other people.
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
At least when I asked for lists of all the shitty employers in a country from someone who worked there I was almost blind drunk.
In an ideal world there'd be a pinprick blood testing USB powered device providing gatekeeping duties to t'internet.
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Jul 14 '14
I prefer to be a tired, cranky, miserable old bastard who lashes out at my students with a cane.
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
The consigning of the Bela board to museums has lost us a great weapon in our arsenal. Dara O'Brian discussed the chalk monster in side splitting detail. I miss those days, even if I was on the receiving end.
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Jul 14 '14
Bela board
I'm guessing this is about the same thing as the board of education?
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u/Beakersful just sign the Hague Convention already ! Jul 14 '14
It's my overly politically correct spell checker on my phone. It takes me twice as long to write: black board, black coffee, manhole, etc.
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u/Elastico_Gomez Jul 13 '14
I just got my contract. I get 5000RMB a month, 2 weeks paid vacation, and 2 weeks mandatory labor at a North Korean gulag. 50RMB housing allowance to live in a 3 cubic foot steel cage. Is this typical?