Some people (myself included) claim Australia is a part of Asia. I nearly raised a debate about this once before on this forum, but felt a little detached from Australia's issues with ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations) while living in Korea. The debate surrounding Australia's membership of ASEAN has politicised the question of whether Australia is in fact a part of Asia. To be more specific about the nature of the geo-political debate, Malaysia does not want Australia to be recognised as part of ASEAN because Australia claimed it would launch pre-emptive activity in South-East Asian countries if it thought it would lessen the likelihood of terrorist attacks, such as the one in Bali on October 12 2002. Australia claims it is part of Asia and should be recognised as such. There is an uneasy relationship between Australia and its neighbours which is highly unfortunate.
I'm now teaching TESOL in Australia. I got offered a few emergency shifts upon my return to Melbourne, which have now turned into a full-time role. I'm teaching Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Chinese. The ages range from late teens to 30 or so. It's fun! A little more difficult than teaching English to elementary school children in Korea, however. I am totally exhausted right now. I actually started working there less than a week after returning to Melbourne from Korea.
Pay is not bad, but the bureaucratic issues make Korea seem like heaven. Nobody can tell me which class I am teaching (I teach different classes every day), where the class is, or what the topic should be. Computer labs are double booked, administrators send me on wild-goose chases to get signatures on my time-sheet, every different room I use seems to be on a different floor.
I am also discovering tonnes and tonnes of Korean stores, restaurants and churches all over Melbourne. I went into one yesterday in the CBD and was greeted with 'Oso oshipshiyo," to which I replied, "Annyeong haseyo," causing the girl to giggle and say "Hello" to me. I felt like I was in Korea. I bought some kimchi and a squid and came home and freaked my partner out with the squid.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Teaching ESL in Australia
Glad to hear you are still alive and kicking.
Does this mean you have switched from an EFL to and ESL teacher? What are some differences with your classes in Australia and the ones in Korea? Are you still going to try and go to Canada?
About the squid, I was actually able to clear a bus on a DMZ tour for foreigners...
Hey I! Yeah I was having
Hey I! Yeah I was having a really good time in my last few months in Korea and wasn't so much into writing blogs. Just occasional snarky posts on Daves.
The differences between Korean students and Subcontinent students are quite big. My class is elementary, however any student in it would win a scholarship if they were studying in Korea. I thought I would teach my remedial class about verb tenses. I had to consult my notes to make sure I was getting it right (I'm not so hot on grammar) but my students were providing the correct answer before I could even look at my notes. I'm having a really good time getting to know my students but I haven't managed to diagnose the problems in their speech yet! My partner thinks that all they need to learn is the accent (he just told me that, reading over my shoulder).
Yeah, we're going to Canada in March. All booked.
How's China?
Hmm
I'm starting to settle into my role here now. It's interesting to note that the level of organisation here is extremely low. Frequently I don't know what room my classes will be held in, whether facilities have been booked properly or have been double-booked, or even which class I am teaching. To provide an example of the disorganisation manifest in this institute, an emergency teacher was called in to cover my regular class, while I covered another class as an emergency teacher. I had to repeatedly question my colleagues and the decision-makers about why the emergency teacher hadn't been called in to cover the class they'd asked me to cover, leaving me to take my regular class. The decision-makers then turned around to me at the end of the day and asked why I hadn't suggested the emergency teacher cover the other class in the first place. Well, it isn't up to me to point out the flaws in the logic of decisions that are made by my superiors, but I had been trying all day to communicate with them. When they gave me instructions in the morning, they rattled them off to me so quickly I could barely understand what they wanted, then asked me to introduce the emergency teacher to my class (which was shameful, I had said good-morning to them only five minutes prior and given them instructions, so why should I suddenly introduce another teacher to them?). Also, I had to request payment of wages twice and had a pay request invoice bounced back to me with no explanation of why it wasn't acceptable. The administrator had looked at it when the receptionist gave it to her and asked "What's this?", according to the receptionist. I was gob-smacked when told the story and just spat out "It's a pay-sheet," and asked the receptionist to forward it again. Another administrator even wrote the words 'pay immediately' with a signature on it, but it was over a week later that I finally received my pay, after having submitted my second claim for it, with a disgruntled note written on it. The staff try to evade any claim for time and a half. I offered to teach two classes at once to help out a timetable clash, on the understanding that I would receive time and a half for my efforts. However, after being thanked profusely by the administrators, I was then told I would have to 'claim' time and a half and there was no guarantee I would get it. I haven't yet received payment for that part of my work so I'm not sure whether I received time and a half or not. In Australian culture, if you tell them you won't do the work unless you get reimbursed adequately, you're regarded as a shirker. However, our industrial reform laws make it imperative for us to compete and negotiate for wages. That's another story, but put in a nutshell: Australia's workplaces are far from perfect and make Korea's look a lot less imperfect.