I have no faith in how English is being taught

[Ivo]

And now for a free treat for you to laugh at: English as she is spoke! Please enjoy it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke

That is amazing!

Thanks!

Ivo.

[D.D.D.]

I have an earned certification for teaching ESL, over five years experience, and am one semester away from being a licensed school teacher.

What ESL program did you take?

[jfrost]

And now for a free treat for you to laugh at: English as she is spoke! Please enjoy it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke

That is amazing!

Thanks!

Ivo.

You know, the title, directly translated, doesn't even make sense in Portuguese.

[jfrost]

I used to teach in an English school in Brazil. Early levels aren't too bad, but later ones are pretty dreadful. I guess grammatically they are fine, but when it comes to expressions...

The problem is compounded by the fact that the school was founded by a Mormon who shoehorned bullshit about spirituality and, well, entrepreneurship (!) in all books. It was kind of painful having to make students talk about subjects so uninteresting and useless to them when learning a language.

It's sometimes frustrating to try and teach something and have no control whatsoever over how it is taught. My palm would often find my face and I would wonder if it wouldn't be better to just strap to the students' heads a gadget like the one Dexter used to learn French and ended up being able to say only "omelette du fromage" for a whole day. Could be more productive to them.

[Breetai]

I have an earned certification for teaching ESL, over five years experience, and am one semester away from being a licensed school teacher.

What ESL program did you take?

Global TESOL in 2004. To be honest, I don't even think it's recognized in North America. It just looks a bit better on the resume for Asian countries. If you are looking into one, I think Trinity TESOL is recognized in N.America. You'd be even better with a CELTA and then a DELTA, but those can get quite expensive. Are you looking to teach ESL somewhere?

[Specineff]

Can means saber in some contexts.

Ie: The Ramones cant play guitar (wich wasnt true) : Los Ramones no saben tocar la guitarra.

And thats because literal translation is impossible in between languages with different roots

Sorry, that is a bit incorrect.

Ramones no saben tocar la guitarra= The Ramones don't KNOW how to play the guitar.

Ramones no pueden tocar la guitarra= The Ramones Cannot play the guitar.

One implies lack of knowledge on how to do it. The other, an impossibility that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with such knowledge. (Like a broken hand or strings)

Granted, you can imply in context that they can't play it because they don't know. But one may also know how to do it, and still be unable to.

[Erik_Twice]

^Exactly

That in some contexts "know to play the guitar" and "can play the guitar" mean the same thing doesn't mean you can translate one for the other.

[D.D.D.]

I have an earned certification for teaching ESL, over five years experience, and am one semester away from being a licensed school teacher.

What ESL program did you take?

Global TESOL in 2004. To be honest, I don't even think it's recognized in North America. It just looks a bit better on the resume for Asian countries. If you are looking into one, I think Trinity TESOL is recognized in N.America. You'd be even better with a CELTA and then a DELTA, but those can get quite expensive. Are you looking to teach ESL somewhere?

Frankly I'm not really sure. I'm just looking into options at this point. I've been teaching elementary school for 5+ years now and I'm considering moving home at one point. I figured since I am essentially teaching English as a Second Language, why not think about doing it back in the states. Any advice on that??

[Breetai]

Frankly I'm not really sure. I'm just looking into options at this point. I've been teaching elementary school for 5+ years now and I'm considering moving home at one point. I figured since I am essentially teaching English as a Second Language, why not think about doing it back in the states. Any advice on that??

ESL jobs in the States, as far as I know, pay absolutely crap wages. Plus the job conditions are usually shit with no/few benefits. I wouldn't waste my time with it in North America.

Do you have a teacher certification from your home state? You would be much better off getting a "real" job teaching in an elementary school. International schools in many countries pay very decent wages as well, if you have a teaching cert. from your home. Go that route and don't waste too much time in the cowboy ESL industry. That is my advice.

[flamepanther]

ESL jobs in the States, as far as I know, pay absolutely crap wages. Plus the job conditions are usually shit with no/few benefits. I wouldn't waste my time with it in North America.

That's a real shame, too. I'd much rather see effort and resources spent on acclimating non-native speakers to English, than put toward making everything multi-lingual, which is where things are going.