How would you describe your work!?

[Jialin]

Can buxiban work be described more as helping children review English than directly teaching it? I've heard buxiban work described as "baby sitting" before too...Just trying to get a sense of what a day at work really looks like and if it's fair to say I'm "teaching after school review English." Cheers!

[bababa]

Depends. In many buxibans, there are two teachers per class: one Taiwanese and one foreign. It sometimes seems (especially to the local teacher) that the Taiwanese teacher actually teaches about English, and the foreign teacher just plays games. Now of course the games are supposed to be games that practice English, but ....
However, I've taught complete beginner classes, where we really were teaching them the basics - they hadn't learned it in school yet.
Older kids who have studied English in school may know quite a lot, and your classes may sometimes be a way for them to review, but usually buxiban students are much better at English than the average student who has only learned English at their 'real' school.

[bigduke6]

Depends. In many buxibans, there are two teachers per class: one Taiwanese and one local. It sometimes seems (especially to the local teacher) that the Taiwanese teacher actually teaches about English, and the foreign teacher just plays games. Now of course the games are supposed to be games that practice English, but ....
However, I've taught complete beginner classes, where we really were teaching them the basics - they hadn't learned it in school yet.
Older kids who have studied English in school may know quite a lot, and your classes may sometimes be a way for them to review, but usually buxiban students are much better at English than the average student who has only learned English at their 'real' school.

Correct. Some are glorified baby sitters, others you have to teach. In the schools I work at you really do have to to teach as opposed to review. The Chinese teacher will only get involved when something needs further explanation.

[Jialin]

Depends. In many buxibans, there are two teachers per class: one Taiwanese and one local. It sometimes seems (especially to the local teacher) that the Taiwanese teacher actually teaches about English, and the foreign teacher just plays games. Now of course the games are supposed to be games that practice English, but ....
However, I've taught complete beginner classes, where we really were teaching them the basics - they hadn't learned it in school yet.
Older kids who have studied English in school may know quite a lot, and your classes may sometimes be a way for them to review, but usually buxiban students are much better at English than the average student who has only learned English at their 'real' school.

Correct. Some are glorified baby sitters, others you have to teach. In the schools I work at you really do have to to teach as opposed to review. The Chinese teacher will only get involved when something needs further explanation.

What percentage of buxiban classes have the Taiwanese teacher present? I'd prefer for there not to be another teacher sitting there judging and helping discipline unless it was a truly collaborative thing. I've had teachers present while teaching kids before (In china, and not English...) and it made me really uncomfortable.

[Battery9]

No idea. I think every class should have one teacher, but mine has to deal with 3 classes at the same time, so she hasn't helped at all in the past year. Even if you end up reviewing, you always teach kids new things:)

[GuyInTaiwan]

How would I describe my work? I usually tell people that I sell illegal arms to conflict zones that regularly conscript child soldiers, sell other children into prostitution, and produce drugs for the illegal drug trade. It generally garners more respect than telling people I'm an English teacher.

Seriously though, at elementary school, I'm largely wasting my time. In theory, I'm teaching kids English. In practice, I get very little done because I'm really dealing with behavioural problems that no one seems willing to address. At junior high school, it's better, but still an issue. I wouldn't say I'm reviewing what other people have done. The kids who come to me at junior high school have supposedly done four years of English already, but I pretty much have to start completely from scratch with most of them. I'm not sure what they do with their Taiwanese English teachers at elementary school (I've seen some worksheet and tests, as well as some kk on the board and cloze test type activities), but it evidently doesn't involve English because I just can't believe people could try to teach/learn anything for four years and know so little at the end of it. Seriously, I don't think it's even incompetency. I think you have to actively try to get such poor results from your students, as the local elementary teachers do.

[sandman]

I LOVE buxiban teachers! No, REALLY! I do! Now that's out of the way: Do you guys have to fill out contact books every day? The place Sandy Wee goes, they send back a daily report. Sure, he's only three, but it has stuff like: He took his nap today; he didn't nap, but he tucked the other kids into their sleeping bags,so he got a jigsaw puzzle; he puked; he told a story to the other kids; etc, etc. We havfe to sign this thing every day to show that we've read it. The onus is very definitely on US to make sure he's "getting it." We like this. Are other places not like this?

[Battery9]

how many kids are in his class? In my school the CTs write it every day, but the ET writes it once a week.

[Icon]

Mine:

[sandman]

how many kids are in his class? In my school the CTs write it every day, but the ET writes it once a week.

In his class? God only knows. A bunch. Maybe 10? They write it every day and we get shit if we forget to sign it. There's no English teacher. Well, not a foreign one. There's Penny, who is not foreign but speaks FAR better English than I do (which is not hard).
Lovely to see you on Sunday, by the way. Sorry I didn't have time to speak more to you.