Quote Originally Posted by Bucko View Post
That's exactly true, and it's the point that I was getting at. If you want to learn a language properly then going to one or two classes a week is not going to do anything for you.
Not necessarily an accurate assessment, IMO. You do realize that eikaiwa students (adult ones) have already had 6 years or more of English education, so they are not starting from scratch to learn grammar, don't you? Eikaiwa means "English conversation", so these types of schools capitalize on people's perceived needs to get some spoken language skills because they don't usually get any in HS. Two classes a week is actually a bare minimum I would recommend anyone to take for such a course. You get out of it what you put into it. Some don't look at the book or any other materials between classes, while others study hard on their own. Pretty obvious who improves.

So when they complain about their lack of English, and how English is "too difficult", I want to tell them that their way of learning is flawed, and they shouldn't really expect too much. If all they want to do is have it as a hobby, then fine, but for those students who say "I wanting to use English at jobu" then they might want to reconsider.
Precisely my point above.

Re: Iron Chef's assessment.
Yes, there are good and bad teachers. There are also mediocre ones. Not all teachers who are less than serious are bad teachers. Not all teachers who enjoy the work are good ones, either. And, it's not always the case that some come here because they can't find anything else to do in life; they may actually be seeking a change or some excitement. Of that crowd, some are good at teaching, some suck, and some are in between.

I came with no aspirations of staying here more than a couple of years as a teacher, and along the way I felt I would be able to land a different sort of job. Was I a crappy teacher back then? No. Did I prepare 2 minutes before each class? No, far longer. I took (and still take) my lessons seriously and have done quite well after almost 9 years. I haven't found that other sort of job, but I've taken my teaching seriously all the time. I've moved from eikaiwa to part-time HS job + private lessons to full-time HS to FT university work. I also have a side business of scientific proofreading.

But I think I can see what Chef might have been getting at.
1) the less than serious types
2) the serious types
"Serious" meaning people who care about how they teach and put an effort into it, whether they are talented enough, mediocre, or horrible at it.