Rules are Rules
Every home has its own rules that people who live there have to follow. So do companies.
When I was a newbie teacher at school, I was overwhelmed with a lot of rules that they mentioned during the orientation. There were many Do's and Don'ts which I basically thought were O.A. Too much. Toxic. I even wondered if I could abide by them. "Anyway, I'm not planning to teach here for a long time, so it doesn't matter." That's what I thought.
In this blog, I will share some unforgettable experiences I had regarding ESL rules.
Writer's note: All the information that you will read is just according to what I know/ remember.
Free Talking class.
If you are an ESL teacher, you definitely are familiar with it. Who wouldn't like it? But actually, in our institution, FREE-TALKING CLASS is not allowed because we had to follow the books. However, there were some students who asked questions out of the blue that would bring you both to some certain topics until you realized that your 50-min-class was finished. Well, when I was a new teacher, I liked a class with students without a topic. Why? Of course! I didn't have to prepare, specially if our topic was Relative Clause in Grammar class which was my struggle then. I will never forget the time I was complained by a japanese student naming Wataru.( It was just my 4th term being an ESL Teacher then.). First and foremost, he was actually an O.M.G. student and I was surprised that our Assistant Head Teacher (AHT) at that time who made the schedule put him on my timetable So,, you know what happened?
We started in UNIT 92 in Grammar Intermediate, which I wasn't familiar with at that time: That Relative Clause. Since I didn't know the topic well, I explained the lesson slowly, and after 30 minutes, we already finished it, but I wasn't familiar with the next lesson, so what I did was that I asked him questions while waiting for the remaining 20 minutes to finish. So after 20 minutes, he politely said goodbye and the day after that, I received a complain from the AHT.
"My Grammar teacher does not know the lesson." That was what he said.
I was sooooo disappointed with myself because.. yes. He's right. I didn't know how to teach that Relative Clause. He didn't attend my class for the whole term (1month) anymore after that.
(But this made me motivated to study more. I spent a lot of time studying Grammar and asking questions to my older colleagues, until I finally understood all the rules. Just to let you know, I am a Psychology Major, not an English Major.)
Curfew time
Many of my students used to complain to me why the school had curfew time, specially those party goers who like to paint the town red. I always answered, "Go to the office and tell the owner." You could not explain the fear and disgust on their faces after that.haha.
A familiar scene when we went out at dinner time from Sunday to Thursday:
Checking the time if it was already 9:30pm. If it was, it meant we had to go back to the campus because the gate would close at 10pm.
Friday: Party time! but if it's 11:50pm, automatically, all the students would go back to the campus. If they didn't, they had to sleep somewhere.
I had a lot of experience about curfew time, but I would just share the last one I had before leaving the school. There was a Parokya Ni Edgar concert in town that Friday night. So I thought even if I broke the rule, I would watch the concert. Of course! It's Parokya ni Edgar!-The legends. It's my favorite filipino band. Like hello! It's one of a lifetime concert, dude. I even joined a Guardianship program at that time, but I said, I didn't care. "No matter what happens, I'll go."
It was a good thing that I had a roommate who had the same thoughts as me, "so whatever happens, atleast I am not the only one to receive a punishment". (I thought..haha)
So we asked our supervisor if we could go back very late, and she said we could tell the guard out.. but of course secretly, so we did. I still remember what I said to manong guard then.
"Manong guard. Manonood kami ng concert ng Parokya ni Edgar. Once in a lifetime lang yun."
Trying to sound pitiful and desperate, together with my roommate's charisma must have been the reasons why he agreed. He told us just to knock quietly when we came back.
So, My roommate, and our other two co-teachers went out at 9pm, . It was surreal. It was my first time to see Parokya ni Edgar performed and Chito was really a talker, so the concert finished at 2am, so it was almost 2:30am when we came back. As what manong guard said, we knocked quietly and he opened the gate. We chose to walk in the dark, so that no-one could notice. However, we hadn't step into the faculty room yet when we saw the President walking at the pathway and looked as if he was checking for something.
Note: The owner of the school is Korean. (he's scary), but the President, who is a filipino,is more scary😜
Luckily, we saw him first, so we had time to hide. We crawled from the door of the faculty room until we reached our room. If he had caught us, it could have been our last day as stay-in teachers. We just laughed to our content quietly when we reached our room.
Dating Students
In any schools, this is not allowed, and perhaps this is the most forbidden in ESL schools. Well, if it is one sided-love, then it's okay..haha. I mean, if that someone would motivate you to go to class everyday, or even if you had a bad day, their smile and existence would be enough to make you calm down, then that's okay. No problem.
However, when it comes to teacher-student romantic relationship, then that is a big NO as it destroys the reputations of the institution and it is considered degrading to teachers part (specially for female teachers). However, there are many situations at school where teachers were involved into a romantic relationship with their students. Some of them ended up with each other (like the case of my friend who got married to our Japanese student). Yet, some would typically break up months after students went back to their country because of LDR (Long Distance Relationship). There were some cases as well when teachers involved themselves romantically with their students as a stepping stone to go to their country. (NOTE: This is NOT GOOD. DON'T DO THIS.)
For almost seven years working at the institution, I was never involved into any romantic relationship because I knew that it wasn't good, and I have a belief that whoever doesn't love my God is not someone He has prepared for me. Though, frankly, there were some who really tried to pursue me. (wow! haba ng hair?!..haha).
Note: Should I continue writing this?😆
There was a University student from Korea who was cute, funny and smart. He was super nice. The first time I met him, I already thought that we would click. My class with him was bubbly, and the atmosphere was comfortable. Our class was Writing, but since he loved talking, he always talked in the class. You remember the feeling when you were in high school that even if a joke was corny, if it was said by someone you like, it was still funny.😆 One day, one of his teachers told me that he always talked about me during their class. In his other group class, he said that I was his girlfriend. (haha). I never took him seriously though because he's crazy.
I did not know when it started, but just one day, I realized that whenever he came to class, he would always bring a simple thing for me like snacks or even toiletries which I found weird. The weirder was that he never gave anything to his other teachers. One day I asked him, "Why do you always give me things?" and he answered, "My day is not complete without giving you anything." (haha).
I will never forget the soap stick he gave me and said, "that will be useful when you use the public toilet."😂 I was already a stay-in teacher at that time, so at night, they (he and his friend) often called me out the faculty at night and asked any random questions as an excuse to talk to somebody.
On his last day, he gave me a very loooooong letter and told me that I was the only one he wrote the letter to because writing was too hassle for him. However.... I loved the letter so much. It was a four-page letter with crazy and sweet thoughts which I knew I would never receive again.
I was busy with TESOL course before he left, so I could not say goodbye properly. We could not stay in contact too when he went back to Korea since he joined the Army right after coming back. It's been years, but sometimes I wonder what he is doing.
And there was this student of mine from Special Grammar course. He was naturally funny, cute, kind, loud, persistent and crazy which was little bit opposite to me for being quiet and serious.
(BTW: He is Marquee's (from blog #6) friend)
I thought it was only me who could feel the special treatment from him, but even my co-teachers also noticed it. He was very vocal in telling his teachers and friends about his feelings towards me.
It became his habit to visit my classroom whenever he finished the day and asked how my day was.. and this made me happy. However, a big dating issue at school was leaked which caused a teacher to get fired for dating a student. After that, he just became friendly to me and just for one week, he got a girlfriend.
I got hurt... quite a bit.. but it was okay. I got rid of the feelings fast because I didn't really expect it, though I considered the possibility. (Haha.. I don't know, but I found it funny now.)
Drinking inside the School Facility
While it's common for students to attend their classes despite suffering from hangover, there is never a rule that they can drink inside the campus. That is why there are some restaurants near school where they have freedom to drink.
Please note: the next thing you will read is confidential and perhaps you can only read it on my blog.
There was an instance before where almost all korean students were violated a rule and their punishment was 1 week campus arrest where they were not allowed to go out for a week. Perhaps, being party-goers and drunkers, they could not stop their desire to drink, so they did DRINK ALCOHOL secretly in one bahay-kubo. The Korean Manager was even the one who bought the alcohol. Unfortunately, a school guard caught them in the act and informed the management about it. The ending: All of them involved were kicked out, even the korean manager was replaced. This situation affected the institution as the numbers of students who were from Korea decreased after this. The school site was even hacked. Well, many students were alarmed about this issue as well. Then one day one manang revealed while talking to us casually that for her many years working as a manang, it was rather common for her to see bottles of alcohol in the students room whenever she cleaned them. Even so, she didn't bother to say anything because she would also feel bad if something happened to the involved. Would you do the same in her situation?
Rules are rules, but sometimes they are meant to be broken when you do not have any choice. But before doing so, you must ask yourself first; "Is it worth it?" because if it is not, then better not do it.
Often times, RULES are set so that NOT everything is permissible. Just think of a country without any laws. It would be a mess. So would be a company without any rules.
While I was growing to be a better teacher, through those rules, I also learned how to be a better person.
A person who knows how to follow rules and....
when to break them.
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