(Eszter Baumann, the demon who was my CELTA trainer. She’s much scarier in real life.)
Quote from an asshole in this forum:
“I am so glad that I didn´t read any of the negative feedbacks prior to taking my CELTA course. Fortunately I passed the course but had I read these comments before taking the course I would be scared to death and probably fail due to the unneccessary stress and pressure. Granted it was a very diffuclt one month and I spent many sleapless nights preparing TP´s and LP¨s and I had zero teaching experience but to those who are about to take their CELTA, do yourself the favor and dont get disscuraged by these feedbacks. Just keep in mind that it is only for one month and take one day at a time. Dont worry about the next LP. Just concentrate on the one you have a head and be present. What made it easier on me was that I made sure to get help from the other students in my group and got their opinion and had them proofread my papers before turning them in. Because ones you have turned them in it is to late to make any changes. Also if you are like I was and are scared or get very nervous to speak infront of people, talk with your doctor about prescribing you a medicine for it. I was taking Inderal 10mg (2 sometimes 3 pills)about 2 hours prior to my 45 minutes LP and it helped me to be concentrated and focuse on the lesson which I was giving.
I attended in July 2010 a extremely good school and with extremely good and qualified tutors which were very helpful and encouraging and we all always felt “safe” with them. Robin and Elif which were our two tutors at Britishside in Istanbul, Turkey are two of the finest tutors you can ever have and we were lucky to have them. Sure they were harsh on giving us negative feedbacks but in the end they always encoureaged us to do better and that I connect to their dedication and love for their job. Trust me it helps to take the negative feedbacks if you know that the intention of your tutor is only good and they want your best. I advice you to attend the Britishside in Istanbul, Turkey if you want to get a good experience while taking your CELTA. Good luck!
from one happy girl that passed
My response:
Quoting from Rose ( post #133).
"I am so glad that I didn´t read any of the negative feedbacks prior to taking my CELTA course."
You can't read "feedbacks," because there's no such word. It's a noncount noun. You don't fully understand nouns, noun phrases, punctuation, aspect, and tense. And you spell like shit! Your writing is a linguistic atrocity. Your trainers at the center in Istanbul should be arrested for impersonating teachers. The jokers at Cambridge ESOL (who know this nonsense goes on) should be arrested for certifying that you can teach English. It’s like certifying a butcher to be a surgeon.
Most of the people in my CELTA class in Budapest knew English about as well as you do, Rose. The trainers didn't understand English too well either. They all got away with murdering the English language. Even the native speakers got away with murder. When my classmates made egregious errors during their teaching practice, which were dutifully reproduced by the victims who paid for these lessons, did the trainers at IH Budapest tell these paying students at any point that they had been given incorrect information? Of course not. The trainers never corrected grammatical and stylistic errors committed by CELTA candidates, but if a candidate dared to deviate in any way from the CELTA formula, which CELTA trainers believe was handed down to Moses by God on Mount Sinai, he or she felt the oppressive heat of hellfire.
It is so easy to fail a CELTA course. You can be passing the first half, and then be given a trainer for the second half who doesn't like you. It is so easy for this trainer to sabotage you by forcing you to use overly complicated test questions and overly complicated lessons. If you appeal to Cambridge, these low-life scum will blame you for using the "rather complicated material" that was forced upon you by your saboteur, even if you have hard evidence that this material, which you are blamed for, was assigned to you.
They can do whatever the hell they please at Cambridge, because they're Cambridge. It's not about education. It’s not about excellence. It's about not rocking the boat and burying the mistakes made by trainers and assessors. I am willing to gamble that a CELTA candidate has never had a successful appeal of a grade. You can't win against Cambridge. Don't even try. And there is nothing on earth that can be done to change the system, because Cambridge doesn't care what you think, and employers don't care, because they're interested in nice cheap warm bodies who know the CELTA teaching formula. Don’t be so happy you passed, happy girl. You have no business teaching English.
And don’t bother taking drugs to get you through your teaching practice, as Rose suggests. You could be hooked up to an IV attached to bag of heroin during a teaching practice, and it wouldn’t make the slightest dent if you are faced with a trainer who doesn’t like you and is actively trying to subvert your efforts to pass the course. If a trainer wants you to go down, you’re going down, hard! If your trainers like you, you’ll pass, no matter how badly you fuck up. You don’t need drugs! Your trainer will even make you feel at home and use your (non-English) native language to talk to you during class if she likes you.
The CELTA is not a teacher training program. It is an illiteracy factory run by poorly educated staff members who are abusive and drunk with power.
2 comments:
Hi - I'm a CELTA trainer. I just wanted to correct some statements you've made. You are never forced to use any material on the CELTA course. You are given materials as a starting point and it is your job as the teacher to decide how to adapt them so they are appropriate for your learning group. This is part of the Cambridge criteria as it is something that is expected of most teachers around the world. It is not surprising Cambridge would not be convinced to appeal your grade if this is the primary reason you failed - not using appropriate materials for your learner group.
Secondly, the world of English as a lingua franca is hugely diverse. It is not necessary to be a native speaker to be an effective English teacher. In fact, there are some benefits to be a non native speaker as it gives the teacher more empathy and awareness for what their students are experiencing. Yes, we want to see accuracy in assignments and lesson plans and in the classroom - this is also a Cambridge criteria (providing accurate & appropriate models of language). However, somebody will not fail the course simply for making a few language errors.
You are entitled to your opinion, of course, and most CELTA trainers will admit that the course has its flaws. But please do not spread inaccurate information for those who might be considering the course as a way to begin their ESL career.
You want to question my ability to teach English, and you want to do so using bad English. It is just not going to go down like that. You have an agreement error in your comment. “[T]hey” is a plural pronoun. It doesn’t agree with the singular noun “teacher.” Also, your punctuation is atrocious. You obviously have a lack of understanding of clauses and sentence structure. I could write at least a page about your bad punctuation, but you are not worth it.
You come to this four year old blog post and start saying this absolutely ludicrous bullshit. It is purest form of bullshit, because you have absolutely no evidence for what you are saying about me. You are also implying that I made statements that I never actually made. I’m not a lawyer, but it sure feels like defamation. Your comment would only make some type of bizarre sense to other scam artists working in the CELTA industry. I am not going to validate it by addressing it, and I will not be allowing you to post another comment unless you fully identify yourself.
This person who made the previous comment earns slightly more than a McDonald’s worker, but it’s probably okay for her, because being a CELTA trainer gives her an exaggerated sense of her own importance. In actuality, she has no importance. She is a poorly educated cog in a big fucking scam devised by a department at Cambridge. No one ever questions the integrity of Cambridge, because it is Cambridge. Many people do not realize that the people working for this department at Cambridge do not understand English:
http://bastarduniverse.blogspot.com/2013/02/this-is-how-they-fail-you-at-cambridge.html
https://sites.google.com/site/celtaexposed/complaint-form
The CELTA is a scam. Ignore the previous comment.
Post a Comment