Frustrations as a Language Instructor

In my junior year I was lucky enough to get a part-time job as a Spanish instructor in National Chengchi University's Foreign Language Group. On the very first day of class, it suddenly hit me that I possessed a very natural talent in teaching languages and explaining culture and grammar; that was a feeling so strong that I immediately fell in love with language-teaching, and I have been trying to discover the difficulties and struggles of beginners who are learning Spanish. However, as much as I love it, there are many troubles that come with this job. The process isn't half as easy as it looks like, and to date I have experienced so, so many frustrations. Allow me to elaborate on that.

  For one thing, it wasn't until a few months ago until I realized that as a Spanish "near-native speaker", I do not really comprehend that questions and worries that a beginner might have. I keep finding it incredible to believe why some people have problems with the easiest type of grammar, or why people have such a hard time memorizing Spanish vocabulary. "Putting ourselves in our students' shoes" is something so crucial that most languages teachers forget. I bet that's also why most departments in the Foreign Language College assign foreign professors to teach only seniors. 

 

   In addition, I can to say I am seriously annoyed by the fact that Taiwanese students always "memorize" grammar and vocabulary. Languages aren't like History, we can't expect to get adept at it solely by memorizing rules and not using it often.  Also, several students struggle with syntax as they rely too much on straight-forward translated" pictionaries" (illustrated books in which there are many words in a foreign language and the Chinese translation beside it). In reality, experts in language-teaching in a broader sense investigate on the effects of this. In cases of TESOL studies, experts see that habits like these lead to students giving sentences like "My grandmother is ancient" or "My brother hits me with his paws". Errors like these  seem inevitable, and sadly most Taiwanese students still stick with the same ways of learning English, those "unhealthy ways" that make them misunderstand the usage of each word.