A foreign language teacher in Taiwan has to be three things, a teacher, facilitator, and an entertainer. The first two are self explanatory, but the last one is equally as important. Whether it's teaching kids after they've been in two different schools all day for over ten hours, or teaching adults after a long day of work, you better be able to keep things fun. This is extra important because unlike a normal school, the student has a choice to go to your language school or not and they are giving up their free time to do it.
This doesn't mean that you can just be a goof and not be a good teacher. You still have to be serious and sometimes strict, to make sure the students are getting what they need to achieve their goals. Students are also going to be unhappy if they feel like the class is a waste of their time. So it's a tough balancing act between being light and fun, but still getting the material across in a serious manner.
I like to think that I'm good at doing this. One thing I pride myself on is being able to have people learn new vocab and grammar and actually use it in class, all without them actually knowing they are learning it. I spend hours preparing for classes, designing my own material which incorporates the target vocab, grammar, etc, but hides them within (hopefully) entertaining activities. All with a goal of students reading and using some new or reviewed target words or grammar, without them even noticing they are doing it. I must admit when somebody uses some advanced way to express their idea without even thinking about it, just because it was repeated in the material i prepared over the past few classes, it's a glorious feeling.
The unfortunate thing about needing to be all these roles, is that not everybody can be a good teacher. It is kind of a shame that Taiwan imports so many westerners to teach English, even though being a native speaker does not make you a good teacher. It's not just about teaching skill, but also about having the right personality. When having to hire somebody, I usually know within the first few minutes if they could do the job well or not, just based on their personality. But of course it's not all just personality, you have to be able to actually teach and explain things clearly. This is a very rare talent. Another big issue is "language grading" which means being able to adjust yourself so you are using the right vocab and grammar for the level you are teaching at that time. This doesn't mean you just use words that they know, but it means the harder words you use are ones that are useful to them or they will learn soon. When it comes down to straight teaching, being able to explain things clearly and proper language grading are what separate a good teacher from the rest.
Of course there are other requirements for being a good teacher, like being patient, and being able to put your students needs before your own teaching needs or ego. But I don't want to make this a list of everything needed for a great teacher, especially since that list is always expanding. But all this means that a good teacher is a rare thing, you have to be talented at teaching, and you have to have the right personality. Unfortunately this means that a lot of schools in Taiwan are getting over on people, because they just hire any foreigner who has graduated from college. I have seen hundreds of teachers in Taiwan teach, and out of all of them, only a handful would I say are good teachers. That's not to say the rest are bad people or that they don't work hard, it's just to be a good teacher requires a lot things. Even for me as a chinese student, many friends are so kind to help me out with my learning, but for most of them explaining something, correcting, using the right level words, etc. is quite difficult. Doesn't mean they are bad people or lazy, because they are so kind to help me and they work hard at it, and i appreciate them greatly.
To not end on such a downer, the picture above is of "Pinky." To lighten the mood at school, it was a running joke that the mug I used to drink water was named Pinky. It was pretty useful to get people to relax, especially new students. It was always nice to hear a long time student show a new student around and talk about me and my buddy Pinky. Perhaps it's a bit zany, but it's nice to have a first class with a student who has a smile on their face and is curious to see how that special teacher teaches, rather than them going in terrified of having to use English and afraid of being embarrassed.
Oh and the other cup is "Baby Bluey" another teacher commented on how much the students seem to enjoy Pinky, so he named his cup as well. When he left Taiwan, he bequeathed Baby Bluey to me. It is now my guest mug, as Pinky is retired.
