This post was mentioned on Twitter by tamaslorincz: Irony, self-mocking humour, and the familiar issues make @banadu’s TEFL story on @barbsaka’s blog a pleasure to read. http://is.gd/4rEBR...

@Annie I agree that the ideal EFL teacher for young learners is one who is qualified to teach English to children AND understands the school system in that country AND understands the home culture of his or her students. That isn’t always the same as a distinction between foreign and local teachers. I would love to hear from some of the teachers passed up for the jobs Troy and others got. Do you know any who would be willing to share their stories?

@Karenne First, thank you for encouraging me to ask Troy to write for me. His voice is vital if I hope to develop any sort of true picture. But, his reality is just one of the realities in our profession. Another, equally pervasive myth (IMO) is that “guest” or foreign teachers can only teach conversation. In secondary school contexts (at least in Asia) teachers like Steven and Dayle would teach oral language while a Japanese or Korean teacher handles the hard stuff–reading, writing, and grammar–often in Korean or Japanese. In some schools, it’s true team planning and teaching. In other cases, the foreign teacher is seen as a glorified pronunciation model

Neither myth is terribly helpful for our students or teachers.

@Patrick I have no idea where to find these kinds of statistics. If anyone does know, I hope he or she will contact me to add to this series! I assume that ministries of education know how many certified teachers are working in their various countries, and I assume that there are records of teachers who are in each country on teaching visas, but that wouldn’t help identify teachers who aren’t on a teaching visa or are certified but in another subject, or otherwise under the radar. I do have some teacher trainers who have agreed to share their stories in the future, so hopefully their contributions will help us develop a better understanding of this EFL elephant. If all we have are anecdotes, at least I can try to collect as many anecdotes as possible!

It all boils down to qualifications. Would someone without any qualifications be permitted to teach kids in the U.K, Canada, Australia? Doubt it…

If someone is going to teach people under 16 (maybe 14?) the equivalent of a PGSE, QTS or even a YLCelta should be required.

Adults can choose their teachers while kids generally have them imposed on them.

As teachers who take the jobs in the first place, we could be blamed for some of this (and admittedly do share quite a bit of it really), but how ‘professional’ do academies and schools come off when they knowingly stick people with no clue in front of kids?

No matter who’s at fault (teachers for talking the gig or even parents for sending their kids there), in my opinion it’s the schools that have to adopt some kind of code of conduct. The rest should then fall into place.

Surprising really that Cambridge hasn’t jumped on board insisting on this, then flogging their YLCelta courses?

Does anyone know where one would go to find actual statistics on the industry in various countries i.e. who is teaching what age groups and with what qualifications. Everyone seems to agree that this is a problem. Maybe it’s time to do something about it.

I sympathized: some of my first classes, ever – pre-certificate, were teaching kids in HK and yes, Troy & Barbara I too have had my leg bitten and juggled children in either arm while bending over to get another to draw within the lines of the apple on his sheet.

Did he really learn the letter “A”? I will never know.

Eventually things did settle down, I got some good books, found a rhythm to it and then promptly got out, got certified and moved on to teaching slightly older kids and finally, ended up teaching adults.

But should I have been in that classroom back then: unqualified, inexperienced but with the right appearance and passport?

I enjoyed your honesty very much and hearing more about your experiences traveling the world. Thanks for this and I also hope stories like this go some way to ending the myths that abound… and also prompt for a more professional take to our profession.

Karenne