It’s been more than 15 years now since the Romanian teachers of English became accustomed to attending the ELT conferences organized by the national or regional teachers’ associations (TAs) and by the different publishing houses involved in the educational business.
Whilst the national or regional TAs organize yearly conferences as a means to call for an annual general meeting of the members and an opportunity to meet colleagues, share ideas and make new acquaintances and friends, the main goals of the publishing houses’ conferences are to introduce, promote and sell their new coursebooks, methodology and resource books. In both these types of conferences, the number of participants is likely to increase if famous methodology authors, coursebook writers and teacher trainers are invited to give plenary presentations. No wonder, right? Show me the Romanian English teacher who wouldn’t want to see authors “in the flesh” and listen to their presentations? The topics of the plenaries are interesting, the language flows smoothly and effortlessly, the visuals capture the essence of the material, the interaction with the audience creates a bond and stirs the latter’s imagination, the jokes make it all a lot more enjoyable. And if, on top of all these, the speakers make use of their charisma (which they never fail to do), the success of the plenaries is complete.
There are around 10,000 teachers of English in Romania and, lately, a maximum of 500 of them are likely to meet at one conference or another happening over the year, with an average of 100-150 participants in one conference at a time. It’s sad and I can’t help remembering that there was a time when only one Macmillan conference would gather more than 500 teachers… Mind you, I’m not speaking only about the conferences in 2009 but about those in the last 4-5 years.
What contributed to the drastic decrease in the number of participants? For 2009, I guess we could blame the world financial and economic recess which affected Romanian teachers as well, but who’s there to blame for the previous years?
The organizers? No, definitely not the organizers! They put the same interest and dedication and hard work in making these events happen as they always did, they wouldn’t do with less than passion when planning their conference!
The guest speakers? Again definitely not! They are just as passionate as always about what they’re doing, they are the first to keep up with whatever is new in the world of ELT and they’re still motivated enough to share everything with us! What’s more, some of the speakers have fallen in love with Romania and the Romanian English teachers and they keep returning here whenever they’re invited. The more pessimistic among us would argue that the authors and teacher trainers keep coming back here because of various reasons: they’re paid to do it, they’re interested in promoting and ensuring their books and courses sell, they need to do it in order to give us, the participants, a sense of being important, or – who knows – maybe because a three-day conference in Romania is, to them, like a short vacation away from home.
On the brighter side, let me reassure everyone: native speakers keep coming to conferences in Romania mainly because they admire the Romanian teachers who, over the years, have kept showing interest and proving that they have really benefitted from listening to those plenaries, have kept or even increased the level of their enthusiasm in their profession and have demonstrated that they are worth their (i.e. the speakers’) effort of leaving families, personal problems and work behind and just come here, to enjoy once again the company of the best non-native English speakers in Europe!
Who’s left to take the blame? The Romanian teachers of English? Why blame them for their limited financial situation when the teacher’s salary is incredibly and offensively low? Why blame them when, after a conference, feeling so full of new ideas, so enthusiastic about the newly discovered resources, they return to their schools and discover the same old, ragged and soiled textbooks in the school library (no use ordering new ones, there’s no money to pay for them) or the same head-master who thinks the English class is a real mess (because the teacher allows the pupils to move around and speak freely)? Why blame them when the conference, the speakers and their presentations raise their hopes by showing them how interesting and enjoyable teaching English can be and then the reality of their job wakes them up with a cold shower: the commuting, the curriculum, the inspections, the exams for the teaching degrees, the loads of paperwork, the lack of materials and resources…
A sad but true reality: much as they might like to participate at conferences by the hundreds, enjoy the distinguished guest speakers’ presentations, discover all those amazing materials and resources and dream of how wonderful the world of ELT can be, more and more Romanian teachers (of English included) feel overwhelmed and demotivated by the ever-lasting reform of the educational system, the ever-changing laws and regulations and by the ever-humiliating indifference with which governmental authorities keep treating those who are made responsible for the education of their children and grandchildren, the future generations!
Dear Melania,
Thank you.It’s good to be here.
I look forward to your new posts!
Dear Vesna,
You are so sweet to say all these nice things to me! I thank you so much and deeply appreciate your words!
It’s true I am passionate about my students and teaching and sharing everything I know with whomever might want to listen to me. I know there’s so much I still need to learn and I’m always open to learning from everybody around me, and I mean everybody. I have been learning so many things from my daughter, from my students, from my younger colleagues – I chose to mention just my younger ‘teachers’, because learning from my friends and my elders was and is only natural.
Check the blog soon – I’ll have a new post on who had the strongest impact on my career.
Thank you again for all your kind words and let me tell you a secret: there’s no other difference between us but my age…
Thank you Melania for your kind words.
I agree with you and for a person to be able to speak like you do it takes more than passion …it takes love for every human being and school is the place where that kind of pure love can be shared with great number of people in just one minute not to mention hours,days,…:)..a teacher without prejudice..That’s the best thing a student can have during education
I agree with the saying that ‘We can’t love other people until we learn to love ourselves’..it takes guts to love oneself..with all the good and bad sides..We have to open our eyes and see the good intentions even if a person isn’t able to carry out an idea into action..we should see beyond that and understand the intention.
I meet a lot of colleagues who give themselves the right to judge other people’s work before they stop and try to understand. It’s easy to judge people’s work and sit all day long ..every true effort is worth of being acknowledged so that our students can become stronger in time..to be braver in their work and eventually faster in their learning and happier about themselves..
I can only imagine how lucky your students are to have you . ..I really mean this.
Dear Vesna,
Thank you for your comments!
I agree with those who say that not all the guest speakers at conferences really have something to say or manage to make participants feel they’ve learned something new. Truth is that, in time, I’ve come to choose to learn from all the speakers whose lectures/presentations I’ve had the opportunity to attend; I value all the new things I learn from those presenters who may be less charismatic but have something meaningful to transmit and I do my best to avoid making the same ‘mistakes’ I spot in those presentations which don’t meet my expectations.
What I take with me after a conference is sometimes different than what I choose to apply in the classroom, I need to adapt my newly acquired methodology to my students’ needs and interests. Nevertheless, I’m always grateful to the conference speakers (guest speakers or workshop presenters) for what I learn from them, because either way, my students and I always benefit from these experiences.
Thank you and come again, it’s good to have you here!
Dear Melania,
I agree with everything you say even though I don’t know what’s the situation in Romania.
I personally find seminars very useful and I use most of the materials in the classroom.
I think that if guest speakers motivate us to use those materials in the classroom..our students would feel better as well.If we are happy,they will be happy too..:)
I am inspired to use new ideas I hear and see at seminars and I thank all the guest speakers for taking their job seriously and showing respect for all those teachers who come to listen to them..no matter how long it takes…
Everything you’ve mentioned here…an active way of learning and being involved in what you are learning ( students move around and speak freely) make my students think positive about themselves and when they see they are able to use English they are happy and can’t wait for another class to come ..:) There are bad moments as well because we are only humans but that should not bring us down ..we should just hope for the best but expect the worst (to be prepared just in case the worst happens )
Thank you Philip!
It’s good to know that we’re not the only country where this happens. Yet, it still doesn’t make me feel more comfortable with the idea that teachers in Romania could benefit from all the good things happening at conferences, one of which is the authors’ enthusiasm – a ‘catching disease’ I would always want to be infested with!
I don’t think you should believe that the situation in Romania is in any way exceptional. Here in Belgium (at least in the French-speaking part) where I’ve lived for the last ten years, I’ve only been to (and heard of!) one conference for English teachers in all this time. France, Germany and Holland are slightly better, but only slightly. The decline in teacher-training events is particularly marked in ex-communist countries. In Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, (where there was huge enthusiasm ten / fifteen years ago) a growing lack of interest is very obvious.
There are exceptions – Russia and Kazakhstan, for example, where teachers still seem very ‘thirsty’ – and then there’s Serbia (where the annual conference of the national teachers’ association can attract 800+). Or Albania, where I recently went to two conferences (not major conferences) in one day (in different cities) and spoke to over 250 people!
I can only speculate about the reasons for these differences, but the best that I can do is that it seems to me that in these ‘exception’ countries, there is still a strong interest in ‘Europe’ and the ‘West’. Elsewhere, the attitude seems to me to be more of ‘been there, done that, got the T-shirt’. Romania seems to me to be somewhere in the middle. In this respect, I have the impression that the situation in Bulgaria is very similar.
Ouch, Silvia!
I know you might be right but it just sounds so cynical… so cruel and yet so true… you have, as always, dotted the ‘i’.
But then again, I wouldn’t have expected less of you! You always speak your mind (and mine…), irrespective of the consequences!
Thanks for your comment!
Sad but absolutely true and i totally agree with you…I think that if things keep going in the direction they have been so far we will end up having no more conferences in Romania and that for the simple but painful reason that the governments, whatever their political views may be, show no interest in doing something for those responsible for the education of the younger generations. Why so? Simple answer, if you ask me, and that is: well-educated people are harder to manipulate ….so….who needs them????