Educational Counselling

One of my former students who's pretty qualified and is certainly a post graduate and has an excellent CV emailed me a week ago. S/he came to my house and we discussed his/her future career plans. So, s/he's going to study further, which is fine. The interesting bit was when s/he emailed me and asked me if s/he could also teach as a guest faculty at few places, where s/he has seen other students teach. And s/he knows, and I know too, that those other students who are teaching at various places weren't as competent or qualified as him/her.

That's exactly why it took me a week or so to write this post. I didn't have the heart to email him/her right away.

Let me explain in an off-tangential manner. In 2001, we had a new course at the University. It started at our Department and this was Certificate in Italian. We had this teacher from the Italian Cultural Centre, Carlo Buldrini, a very senior and an exceptionally competent person. I had been working since 1995 in various adjunct capacities and in 2001, I still didn't have full time tenure. When the course began, I had already been to Italy for the First ProZ.com Annual Conference, where I presented a paper on literary translation.

And Carlo was also the former cultural counsellor. He was also the person who had co-authored the book that was used to teach Italian at the Italian Cultural Centre in New Delhi. So, I would discuss with Carlo, or rather crib a bit, about how one has to wait a long time to get full time tenure in India. I would often tell him that I had spent six years in an adjunct position. To which, Carlo said, "The situation is so much better here. In Italy, it is worse. You have to wait till you are forty or forty five to get full time tenure."

I found his words pretty comforting. And then in 2002, I did get my full time tenure. Carlo also said that back home, he knew of students who would run after their supervisors...and give them a lot of importance to find a job. Now, I had never done that and who knows that might have been one of the reasons for the delay. But when I looked at what he told me, it did seem quite comforting to realize that I had been an adjunct faculty a mere six years.

Coming back to my former student, I didn't have the heart to tell him/her that s/he probably would need to run around some 'senior' [read 'the people who mattered'] professors, if s/he really wanted to get an adjunct position. Another alternative [if like me, s/he doesn't like running after people and has a strong sense of self-esteem] is to put in 'cold CVs'. But as every marketer should know, 'cold CVs' always have a lower chance of being successful. And they take a long time to bear fruit. And then in most hierarchical and feudal systems which are prevalent at so many places in India, it would be foolhardy to think in terms of 'cold CVs'.

I would suggest that my former student should use both approaches--the running around one as also the 'cold CV' one. If s/he wants, I am always there for expert advice and I am also there to form career strategies for my students.

Educational Resource: BBC Learning English

This is yet another article in my Educational Resource series on my blog. The last post, which was posted here http://roomynaqvy.blogspot.com/2008/08/educational-resource-nyt-learning.html and this is yet another learning resource that is available online.

My endeavour is to give you an excellent collection of such learning and educational resources online so that you won't need to go anywhere else and you would feel really good about my blog. This is also in consonance with my objective to mentor young people. Moreover, most young people that I know are not even aware of which resources to access and how to access them. So, if I am able to do something for them, it would be a good contribution.

The BBC Learning English website can be accessed at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ and I believe that this is yet another excellent resource. If you use it properly and extensively, it should be able to make a substantial difference (read improvement) in your English language skills.

There are also certain links on the BBC Hindi website where you can also watch videos that teach you English. Not bad, isn't it?

Let us now go back to the BBC Learning English website. There is a section on English pronunciation which is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/ and you can even download files from there, including an introductory video, which is available at http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/pronunciation/mp4/pron_main_intro.mp4

They even have a section on grammar, where you can also learn about various phrasal verbs and believe me, I know this from my experience as an English teacher, most people, especially, those that I teach here in India, are really deficient in using phrasal verbs. This is the link to the phrasal verbs section on the BBC site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/

Enjoy and be so fluent in the English language that you might marvel at your own skills.

Educational Resource: NYT Learning Network

I learned about the New York Times Learning Network some time ago and forgot to mention it here. This is one of premier educational resources online and you learn a lot from it. It is good for both students and teachers.

You also have a link to Education Life, which is an educational supplement from the NYT. You can access it here: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/edlife/index.html

And you also have Campus Weblines, which will help students in putting their campus newspapers online. You can look it up here: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/specials/weblines/

The best thing about the New York Times Learning Network is the fact that it is a rich repository. It hosts lesson plans and news summaries. These documents can easily be modified for an English teaching course. In fact, they can be used quite efficiently for second language learners.