Profesores de Ingles

By Debbie
Now that we have been back in Santiago going on three weeks, I figure it is time for an update on the day to day life we have been living. We have been learning to adjust to “Chilean” time. We had a week of training and orientation before we began our teaching jobs. We were looking forward to this as we thought we would finally have some of our questions answered and clarification on just what exactly we were supposed to be teaching. We were wrong. Our first day of training began at 10:00 am on Monday morning, so of course we arrived 10-15 minutes early, pretty standard. We waited for about 20 minutes after 10:00 when the woman presenting showed up, however, the majority of the Duoc staff was still on holiday so no one was in the building to unlock the door. We finally entered the room at about 10:45, and actually began the training around 11:00. About 30 minutes after we had been at it, it was time for a 10 minute break, which was actually closer to 30 minutes. We “trained” for another hour and then took a 2 hour lunch; however, all the presenters were late coming back, so it was closer to 3 hours. The afternoon proceeded with another break or two. The whole week proceeded this way, with training beginning later each day, but we always ended on time at 5:00 pm. We spent more time on breaks than in actual training.
Throughout this process we also began to notice a general vagueness to our job descriptions. The presenters were Chilean English teachers who sidestepped all our direct questions such as what are our schedules, where is the curriculum, what order do we teach the material? We were continuously told we would have to ask our “Site Coordinators,” unfortunately the majority of them were still on holiday. We finally met our site coordinator on Friday (classes started the next Monday), and she told us our site had changed some things, so we wouldn’t be following the information we had learned during training, not that we had learned anything. We were getting new books, but they wouldn’t be here for another 2 weeks “mas o menos,” which in Chilean time means at least a month. When we asked what we should do in the meantime we were told to “review.” When we asked what we should review we were told vocabulary, conversations, dialogue. All the Chilean English teachers are very friendly and have told us to come to them for help and advice; however we have yet to receive a straight answer on anything. The only thing they consistently tell us is to “just relax.” I can’t count how many times I get told in a day, “Just relax Deeebeee.” It has become my new mantra. I’ll be so relaxed by the time I return to the States, I’m worried I won’t be able to function in mainstream society. So Cam and I have been “reviewing” random information some hit, some miss, with no frameworks or consistency. Our students ask us everyday when we’ll get the books, but don’t seem surprised to not have them.
I feel the need to clarify that while Duoc seems disorganized and second rate, it is actually a prestigious university here in Chile, with 5 campuses here in Santiago and others scattered around in surrounding towns. Other than the ESL content, we have both been impressed and pleased with the students and staff we are working with. We have a beautiful campus literally in the foothills of the Andes, worth the hour commute via Metro and bus amongst jam packed, wall to wall Chileans, most days. I will post pictures soon, when I feel confident my camera won’t get pick pocketed on the Metro if I take it along.