Sometimes, our students make us laugh, sometimes they make us cry!
But one frustrated teacher went so far as to write:
It reads:
Description: I charge 1000nt per hour, and I am only available from 8 to 10 am on a Wednesday or Friday. You should have some actual kind of desire to learn and improve your English. I am not looking for a student who intends to not study, or who signs on a whim, or to use me as childcare, to cancel lessons when they are busy, or who just wants to argue with a foreigner. You must sign up for the whole year. Any cancelled lessons on your behalf will be charged at double rate. Any children you bring with you to the lesson cost 2000nt extra. We study exclusively in your home, where I will expect a fried breakfast. Sausages are best for the English. …To read the rest.
Adult students can be a real challenge if you find them. They are easy to motivate in some ways, but very difficult to direct. They have definite ideas about what they want teachers to do for them, even though they don’t necessarily want to take that advice.
One of my students claimed to be a really conscientious guy. He was a businessman who seemed to have an awful lot of free time. He always wanted me to correct his grammar and help him on his speaking. As a cooperative teacher, I provided that and more. In the end, he was unwilling to follow through on improvements he wanted to make, uncooperative on my own suggestions, and didn’t like my providing him with reading matter, feedback or activities. In the end, this rude fellow texted me with a message saying he didn’t want to continue class after he was ill-mannered enough to leave me waiting for him for an hour or more.
However, there are many great adult students… if you’re careful enough to select them, demanding enough to make sure they show progress, and charge enough to ward off the time-wasters…
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