ESL students teaching ESL

Tomorrow I teach a new class for people that want to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) in other countries. As I look over the class list tonight I see there are two Korean women that come from Korea that are taking my class. Since my class is 7 people, that means almost thirty percent of my class are ESL students that want to teach ESL. Sometimes that works, but usually it doesn't work so well. The class is next to Stanford University so often that means the wives of Stanford students want to do something so they take my class. Sometimes it works because the women realize their limitations and want to teach their own kids, or teach in a Kindergarten not as a native speaker but as a Korean speaker that speaks very good English. We will see what happens. I have done this before and I think I have helped my students in the past that were from other countries learn how to teach English in some form to others. I am excited to meet my students and see how I can help them. I never sleep well the night before a new class because I want the day to hurry. I know the students have been looking forward to the class to begin for a long time and they just hope they can pass the class.

My students wonder who the teacher will be, they wonder how long the class will be each day, they wonder if the class will be boring and they will just sit and take notes, they wonder if they are wasting their money and if they will actually be able to teach ESL after the class. I always wear a tie to the first day of class. I need my students to see that I look like a professional, and know, just by looking at me, that I am the best and very good at my profession. OK ... now I am excited to start class tomorrow!!!