Originally posted by HPEAK13 part of teaching is also presenting the material in a way they can learn it. it's more than popping in a cd and hitting play. Most of the students here don't show up, don't reschedule, never call, don't study, don't care and will never ever speak English and that's the teacher's fault. i have no idea where you got this from

I got this from my own experience. You cannot teach a language. The student himself will have to invest a lot of time and energy in it. The teacher only helps him.

How come that Brazil is a country with the highest concentration of English schools and hardly anybody speaks English?
Why are there almost no English schools in Europe and everybody speaks English? How come a lot of young people from India, Japan, China, Singapore, Indonesia speak English? Because they work hard for it. Brazilians think they can learn to speak English by visiting an English school only twice a week. When they realize they can't learn it because they are too lazy they will blame the methodology, the schools, the teachers, anything but themselves.

Advanced students like Spongebos mentioned are a peace of cake.
Young beginning students who have the money to sign up at the franchised expensive schools come from rich families in which people aren't used to work hard for their money.

Students are lazy. I don't think thats specific to Brasil. I was lazy as hell in HS but I still managed a full ride somewhere.

As native speakers, we have the advantage of standing out. More students come to my extra conversation classes, more novice students (from other classes) make the effort of stumbling through the pleasantries with me...We have their attention. The job of a good teacher is to keep it.

How many of you other teachers keep in constant contact w/your students via email or facebook? I think it helps to touch base once a week with the more problematic(i.e.--the students that are lazy as f**k) and further encourages those who have the desire.

Edited by FloripaRawb - 27 April 2012 at 16:45

I thought most destinations are spain, south korea and mexico. But man, I would love to go back to brasil. Right now, currently in the U.S.

Originally posted by Ferguson21 Originally posted by HPEAK13 i hope you are exaggerating about taking that long to have a student understand how/who are you. if not, mybe try a different approach because obviosly what you are doing isnt working Off course I exaggerate a little. So obviously what I'm doing is not working?? I don't have to do anything, the student has to work, train and sweat, not me. I just give them the tools and train very little (2-3 hours a week). The rest they must do at home. You can't learn English by studying 2 hours a week. Good students hardly need teachers. I've seen good Brazilian English teachers who never took a class. They learned English watching movies, surfing the net and playing video games. Most of the students here don't show up, don't reschedule, never call, don't study, don't care and will never ever speak English and that's the teacher's fault.

I won't lie and say that all of that students that I have are dedicated and hard-working students, but they almost always show up on time to class, hardly ever cancel, and all are definitely improving on a daily basis.  And now, some of them are even asking me to teach private lessons for them.

Originally posted by MikeAguilar Originally posted by Ferguson21 Originally posted by HPEAK13 i hope you are exaggerating about taking that long to have a student understand how/who are you. if not, mybe try a different approach because obviosly what you are doing isnt working Off course I exaggerate a little. So obviously what I'm doing is not working?? I don't have to do anything, the student has to work, train and sweat, not me. I just give them the tools and train very little (2-3 hours a week). The rest they must do at home. You can't learn English by studying 2 hours a week. Good students hardly need teachers. I've seen good Brazilian English teachers who never took a class. They learned English watching movies, surfing the net and playing video games. Most of the students here don't show up, don't reschedule, never call, don't study, don't care and will never ever speak English and that's the teacher's fault. I won't lie and say that all of that students that I have are dedicated and hard-working students, but they almost always show up on time to class, hardly ever cancel, and all are definitely improving on a daily basis.  And now, some of them are even asking me to teach private lessons for them.

What areas do you students work in or want to work in?