An ex-colleague and now friend recently did a job interview in English. As soon as she was out the door she called me, gabbling “Sam, I told them about
The Incident… I had to. They asked if I’ve ever overcome ‘professional hurdles.’”

Teaching English Can Be As Tricky As Learning English

I’ve been teaching for nearly twenty years and have heard of a few nightmarish stories but nothing comes close to The Incident experienced by my friend.

Sure, there are classic pitfalls that even the most perfect teachers fall into when they start out: speaking too quickly, they’re too fun, they’re too strict, they forget that students are individuals and apply a one-size-fits-all teaching technique (something I abhor), or they simply ignore their students’ goals (something else I can’t abide). These are all common mistakes that teachers make when they are inexperienced or simply don’t care about their job.

Precision Limits Confusion And Maximizes Efficiency

When studying to be a teacher, my professor held up a red pencil, a blue mug, and a yellow book. As he held each one up, he said just the colour. He then asked whether that was good teaching. Most mumbled yes but a few of us smarter ones thought it wasn’t. If you hold up a blue mug and say the word “blue” in a beginners’ class, the students will probably interpret the word “blue” to mean “mug” and not the colour. The key to successful teaching, I’ve always believed, is precision. For example, the teacher should hold up a red pencil, a blue pencil, and a yellow pencil. The students would then identify the colour because that would be the only distinguishing feature. Communicating precisely limits confusion and maximizes efficiency.

But the above examples are all little hiccups (small mistakes) in comparison to The Incident. The Incident was more like instant death to the class.

My friend was teaching conditionals. She asked, “if you could have one thing, what would it be?” The class had students from all over the world and everybody came up with the usual wish list: a million dollars, a fast car, etc. However, nothing could have prepared my friend for the Kurdish student’s answer: “If I could have one thing, it would be borders.”

Turkey refuses to give its Kurdish population independence and sitting on the other side of the classroom was a Turkish student. Feeling provoked, he went off on a political rant. To make matters worse, the French student in the class wasn´t actually French by birth. She was Turkish but her family had sought refuge in France because they claimed her communist father had been tortured by the Turkish government. Needless to say, she sided with the Kurdish student. Chaos ensued, punches thrown, and the class grinded to a halt.

English Conversation Classes

I’m very pleased to say that my Members-only conversation classes are never like that. I predetermine the topic of conversation, make a nice cup of coffee for everybody, and get a polite and friendly conversation rolling. Membership is just $35 a month and gives you access to three conversation classes a week and much more. Become a Member here.