Not the game – Just questions I ask (asked) myself
I knew everything when I first started teaching. Mwaaahahahaha.
I’ll say that again… Mwaaahahahaha.
No need to ask questions about what I was doing in the classroom. It was easy – you just stood at the front of the class and explained for one hour what the present progressive was and then asked if there were any questions. :-0
That was in 1989 and I was a cowboy teacher in Bangkok. I loved it because I had just quit my job as an accountant in England. It was the first job I’d had that left me with a smile on my face when I went home every evening. I did that Bangkok job to earn some cash to save up money for the flight to Australia so I could continue backpacking. I worked every day for 11 weeks and decided I wanted to be a TEFL teacher.
After 2 1/2 years of living in cheap guest houses, tents and sleeping underneath buildings, I went back to England. I wanted my CELTA to continue my travels. I went to Izmir, Turkey to do my CELTA. And then the questions started coming. Thousands of them. The first one was – Just what was I doing in Thailand with a 99.3% teacher talking time?
More followed:
First peer-observation questions (Izmir):
1. Why isn’t the floor opening up so I can make my escape?
2. Why are my lips quivering uncontrollably.
3. Why do my peers have to stare at me like that?
4. Why aren’t all students answering all of my questions using the form I’ve just presented?
5. Why did that 28-minute role play take 28 seconds? What now?
Post CELTA questions (On the plane from Turkey to Japan):
6. How in the name of all methodologies and dangling participles can I teach English?
7. How does one become a butler?
8. What happens if they ask me to explain the difference between phrasal verbs constituted by a verb + particle + object(s) + wh-clauses, and those taking a transitive verb + preposition + pronoun + wh-clause. …….. What’s a phrasal verb?
9. Will they sell Jeremy Harmer books in Japan?
10. How many TEFL teachers drive BMWs?
First job interview questions (Osaka, Japan)
11. Why a question on how to teach the passive? He knows I just finished my CELTA. Grrrrrrrrr….
12. Will my 11 weeks of experience be enough to get this job?
13. Am I really being interviewed for a job in one of Japan’s biggest schools?
14. Will I have enough money left to survive to the next interview if I don’t get this job?
15. Why doesn’t he know what a CELTA is?
First lesson questions (Japanese conversation school, Japan)
16. Why aren’t they laughing at my really very hilarious jokes?
17. What’s “Are you having a good time?” in Japanese?
18. Why do they all nod when I ask them “Do you understand?” and then look confused when I say “OK, go.”?
19. Should I go for sushi after this lesson and then do karaoke and then go back to England?
20. Ahh… wait… someone answered… could there be a career in this for me?
Well, they weren’t the 20 questions I had in mind at all when I started this post. They suddenly appeared from nowhere. The 20 questions I had thought about and written down will come in the next two posts.
Tags: 20 questions, questions
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Hi Sean,
So glad you didn’t lose heart ( and mind ) and become a butler !
So many questions that so many new teachers ask themselves along the way – as ever you speak out for us all.
So many teachers begin like you. Not everyone does, but it doesn’t matter – the questions are still the same.
So sad new teachers still have little proper support with questions like these. Luckily that’s changing for the better with our worldwide teaching networks, blogs and so on.
So delighted you posted this on behalf of all newly qualified teachers and non!
Chris
I know exactly what you mean Sean when you say “cowboy teaching”. So many of us started this job so naive and unprepared but stayed because we still find it exciting to play Simon says and sing at the top of our voices “head and shoulders, knees and toes…” And if it is any consolation I’m not sure I can answer question no 8!
Hi Chris – Thanks for your comment and kind words. It’s an interesting profession – so much “in at the deep end” stuff starting from the very beginning, so much uncertainty. I love it
Hello Anna,
Thank you for visiting
I’m still pondering #8 myself. Could be the subject of a future post 
I agree – teaching beats so many other jobs hands down – there are so many good things about it.
Hello Sean,
I think I can answer question 18, if you’re speaking about Japanese people. One of them once explained to me that when I ask “do you understand”, unless everyone nods at the same time, I would get no reaction because a) if you are the only one to say you understood, you could appear very presomptuous to the other students, and b) if you say you don’t understand it could imply that the teacher (you) hasn’t explained well!! Hence the complete silence after such question. So, from then on, I never asked this question again.
Turkey and Thailand were my first two countries too, though in the other order. Also spent a long time in Japan.
This is where I add something relevant to the post. Can’t think of anything though…
Hi, Sean..
I’ve recently stumbled across your amazing sites and decided to pick up the ‘1000 ideas and activities’ book while I was at it. Truly inspirational stuff! I spent the last year teaching English in Korea which I found to be really rewarding at times. At other times, pure hell. A great experience none the less though! considering furthering this chapter of life and resuming the adventure in some other yet to be decided location. Keep up the great work!
Hi Alex – I think the same order as me – My first classroom was in Thailand in 1989, followed by Turkey in 1993.
All relevant enough
Hi Ashley
Thank you for your lovely comment. I hope your future teaching adventures are fun-filled – wherever you end up.
Best wishes,
Sean