suntaoran

Despite not having a lot of time recently, I make sure regularly check this board to see if Switzerland has sent out decisions. The watched pot never boils?

Didn't the ETA formally disband or something like that? So you're all good!

Oh my god, so much like. Swiss democracy at work.

There's no way to find out what your chances are, but alternates DO get bumped up. They are getting bumped up as we speak! I was promoted from alternate status, along with at least one other Germany ETA, about a week after the deadline to accept the grant for those accepted. I'm assuming a few people rejected the grant once the deadline came and it took them a week to process the paperwork. The other stories around the board seem to involve individual countries getting more funding. And Brazil recently added 90 new ETAships, for which both Brazil alternates and other western hemisphere alternates are eligible to apply. Beyond all that, there's also a chance that at some random point, someone will drop out for whatever reason. But sadly, it's still pretty much a crapshoot. If I were you, I'd stay on the alternate list and try to make other plans.

I secretly wanted to, haha. Drinking culture in China is the opposite to what I'm accustomed to in the States. The drinking age in China is 18 but kids just... don't really drink. Not a lot of them. Definitely not any parties on the college campus where I was, beyond the occasional "let's hang out on the quad and eat snacks and drink soda" kind of party. When I did see people drinking, they were adults, and more often than not elderly. But even that wasn't super widespread. But then, a couple times of year, my workplace (a university) had banquets where all the administrators and teachers got together. Some of the most formal people I've ever met. And they all just got trashed. Most of the time, Chinese people drink by taking shots, no matter the alcohol. Traditionally it's hard liquor called "bai jiu," infamously translated as "white wine," even though it's actually 55% grain liquor that tastes like death. But they also take shots of beer. I was lucky because my school was trying to "westernize," which meant in addition to the death liquor, people were also taking shots of expensive red wine, which is a lot more manageable. But I would still get the president of college and chairman of the board of trustees walking up to me several times during these banquets and toasting me with bai jiu. And in turn, I'd sneak up on the table where all the higher ups are sitting and toast all of them. On Chinese New Year, after one such banquet, I was invited by one of the administrators to go sing karaoke with all the higher ups. They brought more bai jiu and some pretty expensive bottles of whiskey. We sang Backstreet Boys and some traditional Chinese music. By 10 o' clock, the official photographer had passed out on the couch, so... and I hesitate to mention this, I'm so embarrassed .. my friends and I took his camera and took pictures of me sitting next to him pretending like I was licking his face. While this was happening, I heard this high pitched giggle coming from next to me, and I turned and it was my immediate supervisor, a dour 50-year old Chinese woman in charge of the international office. And she was laughing so hard she was crying. When I woke up the next morning, I was certain I was going to be fired. Deported. I'd never been more embarrassed in my life. But I went into the office and everything was fine and no one ever made mention of that night again. I later learned that in China, being drunk is an acceptable excuse, for the most part, for inappropriate behavior. If you do something that offends someone, you can say "Oh sorry, I was drunk" and that's fine. So strange. When I had two beers at a bar on a Friday night, I'd have students walk up to me and ask "are you okay? why are you drinking so much?" But then apparently getting blackout drunk with your boss at an official function is okay. Sorry for clogging the board with stories of China. Congratulations to moregraceful (and hopefully other Vietnam alternates?) for getting the grant!

Oh goodness, don't even get me started, lol

I wouldn't worry about it too much. It was a problem for me because I was already a smoker and I had recently quit. I'm also a pushover. It's not going to be a huge face-losing endeavor if you insist that you don't smoke, especially if you actually speak Mandarin, which I didn't. The main problem is that rejecting an offer of a gift is the normal way to respond to hospitality in China, rather than an actual indication that you don't want it. But it's meant to be a friendly gesture, so if you make it clear that you don't want it, they're not going to think you're rude. Their whole goal in the first place is to make you feel comfortable. Worst case scenario, they'll give you cigarettes to smoke later and you can just toss them or give them to a friend. I wouldn't advise an electronic cigarette though. I never saw one in China and it will probably just attract tons of attention, which you'll be getting plenty of already. One piece of advice though about drinking: if you're not willing to get very (VERY) drunk, don't drink at all (at least in professional contexts). If you just say from the get go that you don't drink, no harm done. But if you drink some of the time, or in moderation, then you WILL lose face when you turn down offers of toasts, especially as a man.

Ahh, the joys of international travel! I started smoking again when I was in China, because it was one of the main forms of hospitality offered to me by... everyone. I knew enough Chinese to say I don't smoke, but not enough to say "No, seriously. I'm not saying that because I'm being polite. I'm saying that because I don't smoke."

Hey guys, didn't think I'd end up back on this thread, but... I GOT THE FULBRIGHT ETA FOR GERMANY!! I was upgraded from alternate status. Aaaand I matriculated at a master's program last week. Not sure what's gonna happen next, but for right now, WOOOOOO!

Alternate status for Germany ETA... *sigh* I have to commit to one of the other things I have planned for next year within the next week, so it looks like I'm not going. Congratulations to everyone that was accepted!

p.s. Shandong is tres cool, especially the food (holy crap scallops)! Qingdao is neat and so is Qufu. Although I've heard mixed things about Jinan. I never made it to Taishan though, unfortunately. Nothing wrong with the north of China, either, dust aside. Tall, beautiful people and great noodles. Although Shandong doesn't strike me as the northiest (coining that word) of places...

As someone who has worked at a Chinese university, the phrase "Chinese undergrads have all the fun" makes me giggle.

Damn it.

Now that I don't have the wrong Bundesland in my head, why Niedersachsen?

Oops, that was embarrassing.

I have a feeling German ETA decisions aren't coming today. Srsly Fulbright?? Also, my three choices were Hamburg, Nordrhein-Westfalen, and Baden-Württemberg. I'm a bit surprised to see others picking BW. I thought I could accrue some hipster cred by living in Schwarzwald. "Oh yeah, I lived in this small town in Southwest Germany. You've probably never heard of it." It's also cool to see someone picking Niedersachsen (I forget who, I'm on my phone) as their first choice! I had a friend who lived near Dresden and developed a strong connection to former DDR culture.

Soooo maybe I missed this... but is there a chance that Germany applicants also receive a salary in addition to the stipend? Like the Austria person? Because that would be phenomenal.

I feel ya. I've started to think it's not gonna happen until the first or second week of April, which is actually a problem for me. I have to tell grad schools whether or not I'm going before April 15th. I was hoping to have some time to weigh options (assuming I get in, of course). Although, didn't decisions go out on the 28th last year for Germany? That's what the spreadsheet says, any way.

I've gotten to the point where I just expect it not to happen. At this point, I'd probably be surprised if I found out.

I mean... I imagine the Laos Fulbright program is pretty small, whereas the Germany one is one of the biggest. It makes sense that it would take longer to sort. I'm just angry (in a friendly, rivalry sort of way) that the UK found out first. Grrrr.

My two cents about the TEFL programs I did: I needed a TEFL certificate to get my job in China, and because I was still in school and short on money, I took a 120-hour online course for about 400 dollars. It taught me a lot about how language lessons are structured and gave me tons of ideas for lesson plans. The 120-hour deal (as opposed to the 40 hour, which is cheaper) also had an English grammar course and modules about working with younger students and business English. In all, it was better than nothing, but it had no physical teaching component, so sometimes it felt like I wasn't doing much. However, I do use a lot of the things I learned, especially in terms of structure, in my teaching. The second program I did was through a language institute in Beijing. It covered a lot of the same ground (structure of lessons, lesson plan ideas), but also included a teaching component with real students, complete with in depth evaluation of your lessons. I only got evaluated two times and the program was only two weeks, but it felt more useful than the online course. So yeah, I would recommend doing anything that involves actual teaching and evaluation. That includes volunteering. I don't think getting an online TEFL certificate is actually a bad idea, so long as you supplement it with some real teaching. It is, after all, way cheaper and doesn't require you to leave home.

I agree that just being "thrown into it" is only useful to a point. I think I'm ready for some more serious instruction. Although having lessons observed sort of terrifies me still. If I do go master's though, I'll also be working as a teaching assistant. It just won't be for English language. So either way, hopefully I'll get to hone my craft next year. Then, if I decide not to go full PhD, I'll probably return to something like CELTA. I'm also worried about teaching English in a country where I actually speak the language. I didn't have a problem with not using Chinese in the classroom because my Chinese is totally dreadful. It's going to be a bit more difficult not to lapse into German in tough spots. One thing I do like, though, is having students that come from the same cultural background over a significant period of time. You really start to get a feel for the types of difficulties someone from a specific language background faces while learning English. I think having a pretty good understanding of German grammar will help that as well. It's nice to know where the students are coming from. Someone mentioned receiving a Fulbright from a country they did not apply to a few pages back, so naturally, I had a dream last night that I received a grant to India. The email was in Hindi (or at least my brain's bizarre approximation of HIndi). I was very, very confused.

I guess I should clarify. I spent a year teaching English in China and I have a few TEFL certificates myself, although no CELTA. I've also been spending the last year working with ESL students in various capacities. I was thinking about getting the CELTA but it looks like I'll be going for a master's degree in history next year if I don't get the Fulbright, so further ESL certification might have to go on hold for a while. I've heard great things about CELTA though. I have a friend who's starting a class next month at Bridge Linguatec, which is only several blocks away from here in Denver. I have to say that both my TEFL certificates (including an online one from Bridge) really didn't help that much beyond giving me ideas for lesson plans. I'd like to do something a bit more formal if I had the chance. That being said, I feel pretty confident that I could be a good teaching assistant in a German Gymnasium (high school...ish). I imagine it'll be a lot less responsibility than I'm accustomed to, but with more structure and evaluation. In China, I had several university classes with no supervision or curriculum. They just sort of turned me loose with about 200 kids of varying levels. I did pretty well, but I'm looking forward to having a little more structure at my next teaching job, haha. So yeah, I was just curious what the lay of the land was with other applicants. I'm sure that the responsibilities of the ETA position won't be more than most applicants can handle, including those with no teaching experience. Maybe I'm biased, but I think one of the best ways to learn to be a teacher is just to be thrown into it, especially in an ESL setting. And for what it's worth, I balance out my ESL experience with a relative lack of preparedness in German language skills. So yeah, here's hoping we hear something by week's end! Good luck everyone! Also, WOOO denver!

Hello all, I'm a Germany ETA hopeful and I've been stalking this board for the last two weeks or so. I was just curious, how many of you ETAers have previous experience teaching English? My Fulbright advisor has not been very communicative so y'all are my main source of knowledge about the program. Congrats to all those who have received the grant and sympathy to those rejected and still waiting...