FIRED, CANNED, TOSSED ASIDE!

OK. I now know why I lost my job. I received a message as I was walking to the bus stop this morning/afternoon telling me that they're cancelling 2 of the 3 business classes. Well, nice to get notice, ain't it!

Now, I teach at UAH (University of Alcala) in the mornings, and for a company in the afternoons. I have a Beginners class, an Intermediate class and an Advanced class for both these institutions. At the University, I adore my Beginners. They started 2 months ago, and know more English than the Beginners at the company who've been learning for a year. This is possibly because they hardly ever turn up. Also, there's one student in there who should be an intermediate and I can have a conversation with him. The others cannot answer a simple question even after being taught it for an hour. Slight variance of ability (YOU GETTING MY IRONIC ENGLISH TONE???). The more advanced student grasps the lesson and proceeds to translate it into Spanish, thereby completely making me redundant and undoing any learning. Translating does not teach a new language. The same happens with the Intermediate group. There is one with a higher level who gets what I'm teaching and then translates to the others. They therefore learn nothing.

The problem is that they were taught for over a year by another teacher who taught them in Spanish and English. The problem is, this is illegal in what I do. The fundamental thing is to teach purely in English. This is not a problem for my University classes - Beginners, Intermediates or Advanced. It is a supremely more effective way of learning a new language. If I didn't have my other classes to go on I would be worried (that's a 2nd conditional sentence by the way), but I do so I have sufficient confidence not to take this personally (and all my friends and colleagues tell me so too, bless 'em.)

The classes in this company however, do not like it. They want me to translate everything. It means they won't learn anything, but that's what they want. They reach for the bilingual dictionary and stuntly refuse to actively learn. They want a teacher who can translate into Spanish.

SO THEY FIRED ME. FOR SPEAKING ENGLISH. WHICH IS MY JOB.

Being the humanitarians that they are, however (and I remind you, I had an hour's notice for this) they have said that the Advanced class love me and wish to continue. Fortunately, I also love them, or I might be inclined to tell 'em where to shove it.

This is Madrid. There is an enormous shortage for English teachers with an RP accent (Received pronounciation - 'classic' English, think Hugh Grant. No don't, you may be ill.) I've had to turn away work as a regular chore. And they've sacked me, because I'm speaking English and it's too much work for them for me not to translate. When SO many people want exactly that. How stupid are they???

An English TEFL teacher. Sacked for only speaking English. Which is the point of TEFL. If I'd have translated during my training I would have failed the course!

Good job then that all of my other classes are a success. The company was keen to say that it's not because I'm a bad teacher. They just want someone who will teach in both English and Spanish. Because they're lazy.

Well it's OK. I can fortunately manage. I'm only here for another 6 weeks and I can live very cheaply and enjoy my free afternoons. It's a blessing. It's ludicrous, but it's a blessing.

I stood on a street corner with my friend earlier and laughed in pure disbelief for about half an hour.