How To Tell If You Have Been Teaching For Too Long

[Thaiboxer]

How do you know if you've been in this profession too long?

Here are a few signs

When a student says, "I go to shopping.", you want to strangle them!

You have dreams that you're teaching.

The idea of buying a new car in the lower price bracket can be called "wishful thinking".

You have managed to memorize large portions of the textbooks.

*Feel free to add your own!*

[PeaceBlondie]

You no longer correct or mark down such horrendous mistakes as "I go to shopping" because you say them to your Thai partner.

You have mastered terms such as "Pakakorn, stop torturing Masapacha" and have realized it does no good to tell him, even if tiy pronounce it in Swahili.

You no longer say "whilst" or "amongst" even when discussing London with Nigel.

[Tywais]

You know you've been teaching too long when you faint in shock because a student volunteered an answer.

[wileycoyote]

You know you have been teaching too long when:

The quietest English speaker who doesn't speak ,gets 400% more than the rest of the class in written exercises.

Your Head of Departmemt starts bringing in "How to Murder and Get away with it" in to the staff room and measures the Headmaster with a pencil.

The worst pupil in the year boasts ,he is going to leave and get a job as a Lorry Driver,not realising there is written exam to get a driving licence ,and he can only write his name in MiXed CasE.

Sorry

Wiley Coyote

[sensei]

You know you have been teaching too long when

-you are already teaching English grammar in Thai because you think it's a lot easier done that way.

-the following doesn't sound like fingernails on the chalkboard anymore - SAwimming, SAport, and the rest of the poor words that starts with S

Edited October 23, 2007 by sensei

[stevemiddie]

The uni gals no longer look HOT .

[Loaded]

The uni gals no longer look HOT .

When it gets as serious as this take a holiday back to your home country. When you return after 2 weeks of whale watching the eyes will glisten again.

[Thaiboxer]

I have found that when it comes to teaching adults, it's easier to break them of those awful "I go to shopping" and "sAport" habits at the lower levels. Another plus to teaching lower levels is that it's easier to forgive them for these mistakes. At the higher levels, I just want to scream sometimes

[Asiacat]

You know what an apositive noun is.

You have B3000 to last you the five days till payday and you think your doing well financially.

You've got B500 left when it comes to payday and you think your doing well financially.

Some of the girls you taught in that first kids class are now bringing their daughters to be taught by you.

A bar girl say I see you tomorrow and you correct her saying "No. I WILL see you tomorrow."

You have a favourite EFL author.

You look forward to EFL book releases.

You find tthe differences between past simple and present perfect fascinating.

You go to work for ECC for a second spell.

You know the title of every chapter of Murphy's Essentail Grammar in Use by heart.

You think B50 is expensive for a meal.

You have sex once a month on payday.

You can actually read phonemic symbols.

[Ijustwannateach]

You REALLY have been teaching too long when you begin to teach the children of former students....

[Thaiboxer]

Ijustwannateach, have you been on the job that long? I'd be counting the gray hairs around the temples!

My first job was teaching high school kids...did it for one year although I felt I had aged about ten years.

[Rumpole]

You have a favourite EFL author.

You look forward to EFL book releases.

You find tthe differences between past simple and present perfect fascinating.

You go to work for ECC for a second spell.

Somebody please shoot me!

[Ski_Goong]

The uni gals no longer look HOT .

I hope this never happens to me.....

[nidge]

You have sex once a month on payday.

I knew i should have become a teacher instead of getting married!

[PeaceBlondie]

That reminds me of a sign on the wall of Miguel's Mexican Foods in Chiang Mai: "Marriage: the end to a good sex life."

[fennielyn]

You find yourself amused by a sentence that contains a dangling participle.

Your friends no longer dare say "I wait you downstairs" or "I care you" or "where you go" for fear of the scorching death-rays ear-burning nagging sent their way.

When you're reading the papers or any written article for that matter, your mind automatically comes up with ways *it* thinks certain sentences could have been re-worked to sound/fit prettier.

You find it grating when someone's first language is English yet is incapable of proper grammar; you then get pissed at yourself for being such a tightass.

[Scott]

When the bad habits you ignored in the G. 1 students are now being repeated to you in the G. 12 students! (This has already happened to me).

When you were the first teacher a student ever had and you've taught them every level of language available and now they have graduated from University!

[stevemiddie]

The uni gals no longer look HOT .

I hope this never happens to me.....

I,m ok now. They are looking HOT again.

[Canada]

The uni gals no longer look HOT .

When it gets as serious as this take a holiday back to your home country. When you return after 2 weeks of whale watching the eyes will glisten again.

Now that's funny