Dave’s ESL Cafe has helped many new teachers find out about the TEFL profession with informative forums and great resources. I started out in TEFL almost 10 years ago with the help of Dave’s ESL Cafe. I’m one of many who can owe a great new lifestyle thanks to the help given to me by the vibrant community. We’ve got an interview with one of the biggest movers and shakers in the TEFL World. Nope, it’s not Dave Sperling, but it is one of the core moderators over at Dave’s ESL Cafe, the most popular and most informative TEFL and ESL forum on the net.

Q. How did you get your start moderating on the ESL Cafe Forums?

Mr. Kalgukshi: Before I get into the body of the interview, let me begin by saying that anything I write here is strictly my own opinion and not necessarily Dave’s ESL Cafe official policy. I should also point out that I am not a “Head Moderator,” as there is no such position on either the International Job Forums or the Korean Job Forums. For purposes of this interview, I am answering your questions from the perspective of moderating on the International Job Forums only. How did I get started moderating on Dave’s? Well, I had been a very early member of Dave’s ESL Cafe on the forerunner of the present board. When Dave decided to revamp it to its present format in late 2002, he asked for some help with the moderating. I immediately volunteered because I viewed the site as a great resource for TEFL teachers around the world and I wanted to help out in insuring its continued success. I’ve been moderating both the International Job Forums and the Korean Job Forums since that time.

Q. What kind of experience do you have in TEFL teaching?

Mr. Kalgukshi: I’ve taught in the TEFL area for over thirteen years in three nations. The majority of my time has been spent teaching at the university level.

Q. In my opinion, experience in an area seems to be a double-edged sword, it helps you understand the topic, but it also ruins your objectivity. What’s your thoughts on what makes an objective moderator?

Mr. Kalgukshi: I try very hard to stay above the fray. I remain focused on impartiality when it comes to making a decision. I play NO favorites and I treat everyone equally. When any member starts interfering in the civil exchange of information on Dave’s ESL Cafe, it is highly likely he or she will be hearing from me or another member of the Mod Team. Personally, I have no time for someone who comes to the board only to promote a particular agenda or cause trouble. You have to understand that very few members ever receive a warning from a Moderator. This is because they follow the rules and play the game as it was intended. The very few who do not frequently find their way to other sites. Yes, the Mod Team sometimes assists in this process.

Q. What do you see happening in the future with the TEFL profession?

Mr. Kalgukshi: I see it growing remarkably and expanding into areas that we probably can’t even imagine right now. It’s a wonderful profession to be in and especially if you are well qualified. I entered it after having another career. While I enjoyed my previous career very much and am most grateful for the financial security and other benefits I have as a result, I do regret somewhat that I did not discover TEFL teaching when I was younger. Some distinct advantages that I had coming into the profession were that I had completed an Education curriculum (teacher licensing) while at my university and I had earned a graduate degree in Education. These assisted me in no small respect when I entered the world of ESL/EFL. I would encourage anyone to enter the TEFL teaching profession, but I would caution him or her that real success in the profession is often directly dependent upon the level of education one brings to it.

Q. If you could add three resources to ESL Cafe, what would you add?

Mr. Kalgukshi: Good question. I had to give this one some thought and my answers reflect, in part, what I have heard from members. Here they are: 1.) Tech Forum 2.) Spell Check feature 3.) Possibly a blog area or something similar.

Q. If you could offer one piece of advice to new TEFL teachers, what would that be?

Mr. Kalgukshi: Be innovative. Don’t be afraid to try something different. Just because (allegedly) no one has ever done it before does not mean it will not work or help students to learn. Too many teachers I have worked with over the years seem to fall into a rut where they are very comfortable teaching only one way often using only one “tried and trueâ€? teaching methodology. Very often this becomes boring even to them. If the teacher is bored, it is highly likely the students are bored, too. Bored students don’t want to learn. They only want to escape. I’ve found that shaking the students up on occasion by “teaching outside the box” works wonders for both the teacher and the students.

Q. What do you like the most about moderating ESL Cafe?

Mr. Kalgukshi: I have been privileged for many years to be able to help the members who require our assistance. There are many different ways this takes place, but it does take place on a continuous basis and it is very vital to what we do as Moderators on Dave’s ESL Café. To the extent that the trolls and flamers come on the board and cause trouble, they interfere with our ability to provide this service and restrict the amount of time we are able to devote to it. While some boards out there seem to welcome, invite, permit or even promote such behavior, Dave’s ESL Cafe is not one of them. As a result, trolls and flamers are not welcome and we take swift and appropriate action to insure their behavior does not continue. By doing so, we protect our members who follow the rules and are on Dave’s for what the board is intended for and not just to create havoc or insult other members.

Moderating can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. I’ve been doing it for many years on two very active boards and know full well the difficulties involved in moderating. At the same time, I owe a lot to the community we have in terms of providing a wealth of information for our members including me, and I work very hard to protect that community from those who would work to harm it. In closing, I want to point out that I am very proud to be a member of the very experienced and united Mod Team we have on the International Job Forums. For many years now, I have witnessed my fellow Mod Team members work tirelessly and selflessly in their desire to maintain and grow Dave’s ESL Cafe as the first place to go on the Internet to find a wealth of ESL/EFL teaching information and engage in healthy and civil exchange of that information.

Through the combined and consistent efforts of the members of the Mod Team, our nearly fifty-four thousand (and continuously growing) members always know they will be treated and respected as professionals on our site for professionals. Thank you very much for the opportunity to respond to your questions and I wish you continued success in the years ahead.

Thanks, Mr. Kalgukshi. It’s been a real pleasure having you here to answer our questions. I appreciate your time and hope that we can do this again in the future. Thanks for continually making ESL Cafe a quality resource for teachers.

Archived Comments

The following approved comments were preserved from the original Great TEFL Jobs site.

David V.

2008-01-31 10:16:27

I also thank Mr. K for taking the time to do this. He is perhaps one of the most maligned figures in the internet TEFL community, for right or wrong. My thoughts on the policies of the ESL Cafe forums are well known, but I appreciate the chance to finally see where Mr. K is coming from. I have commented on this interview on the ELT World blog: www.elt-world.blogspot.com I have also drawn attention to this interview on the ELT World forums: www.eltworld.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=823

Darrick Jane

2008-01-31 10:43:18

“Through the combined and consistent efforts of the members of the Mod Team, our nearly fifty-four thousand (and continuously growing) members” What a load of rubbish! Check the membership lists. There are countless pages of “members” who have never posted! There are also the “banned” members, who are still counted in the membership list. Kalqushki “moderates” without a sense of humour, and a Gestapo-like attitude. Any post critical of an advertising School or Organization is quickly deleted. The “newbies” will still flock like sheep to The Greasy Spoon, but older more experienced members of the ESL Teaching Profession prefer far better sites. For example….raoulschinasaloon.com, or eltworld.net. These two sites provide REAL information and assistance to fellow Teachers.

Ex Mod on Korea forums

2008-01-31 13:49:42

As an ex mod on the Korea forums I can say that Mr.K is difficult to work with and one of the reasons that I quit moderating there.

Guy Courchesne

2008-01-31 14:31:16

I’ll echo David…god to hear from Mr. K outside the confines of the Cafe.

rusmeister

2008-01-31 17:18:15

I’ll guardedly echo Guy and Dave. Although I’ve had a misunderstanding with Mr K (once only, I think - we never did see eye-to-eye on it), I would not moderate. So many people with worldviews that radically differ from each other colliding and conflicting - I would tire of it too quickly. Moderating, on the whole, is an underappreciated function, so let me throw out a thanks for doing it!

Guy Courchesne

2008-01-31 17:24:06

Hmm…typo above. ‘Good’ instead of ‘god’. Mr K isn’t that grand. ;)

Another ex-Korean Mod

2008-01-31 23:00:26

I was once a mod there, too. Kal was always fair and not afraid to support his opinion. It’s not a job for everyone. I was happy to get out.

Alex Case

2008-01-31 23:31:53

An interesting read- and not just because I have had my clashes with Mr K!

Larry Paradine

2008-02-01 15:43:23

I’ve never corresponded (or clashed) with Mr. Kalqushki and am prepared to accept his declaration of principles at face value but, if the farrago of nonsense and frequent exchanges of vituperative personal abuse that characterise many of the strings on the Russia and CIS forum (the only one in the eslcafe that I regulary read) are representative of contributions to all the forums, I can only say that he’s fighting a losing battle. Quite apart from failing to exclude exhibitionists (for example a current string by a “Pakistani princess”), Mr. K and his colleagues do nothing tangible to prevent a hard core of frequent contributors from obfuscating and distorting issues that started as clear and to the point strings and end up as exchanges of view on entirely unrelated subjects.

Larry Paradine

2008-02-05 07:01:41

A postscript to the above. A few days ago I started a new string in the General Discussion forum of eslcafe.com and gave it the title “Political correctness.” With hindsight, I realise I should have added “in the classroom”, but I think the text made that clear. By last night, there were nine replies, but most of them written by two contributors, and the theme of a teacher’s need to tread carefuly in areas of possible student sensitivities had been buried under a landslide of arguments about political correctness in general, and in terms of the American socio-poliitical scene in particular. This morning, I notice that Mr. Kalgukshi (I apologise to him for earlier misspelling his name, but I wasn’t alone in that) has stepped in and magisterially embargoed further contributions pending “digestion” of the existing information. Mr. K. I agree with you that the discussion had wandered a long way from the context of teaching, but a brief scan through other fairly recent strings throws up several instances of irrelevant soapboxing that seem to have either escaped your unsleeping vigilance or been given the green light by some other monitor who is less devoted to the ’troll patrol“. The ultimate result is that any hope I had of finding a few grains of wisdom amidst the piles of obscurantist chaff has now disappeared along with the string itself.

hippy.dippy

2008-02-05 18:30:57

Mr K is, pure and simple, a bully in his role as a “moderator.” In private messages, his attempts at threatening or intimidating warnings are hilarious: “You are being watched.” “I’m looking over your shoulder.” “Be very, very careful.” He has favorites among the membership whom he never warns or criticises or edits. How impartial is that?

Larry Paradine

2008-02-06 07:36:55

Mr. K. has now unlocked my thread, albeit with the dire threat of instant annihilation of any further irrelevant material, and i’ve edited the title to make the thread’s object clearer, so this is just to say that I have no complaint about Mr. Kalgukshi’s monitoring of my submissions (though I still think he hasn’t always shown the same assiduity in scrutinising other posts, one notable example being the “sticky” about phonemes in the General Discussion forum that attracted some personal abuse aimed at the originator of the thread.

Nostalgia

2008-02-09 07:06:24

Not a particularly insightful interview. Straightforward questions answered in a vague and dreary manner. I had hoped for more. Dave’s ESL Cafe used to be a place with more humour and sparkling debate. I totally agree with Darrick Jane’s comments about what has happened. Under Mr K it’s become too rigid and I think the power has gone to his head a little. The forums are now dull tepid affairs, with few new ideas or displays of energy being shown. Mr K steps in too often when a little more restraint would allow the senior forum members to resolve the issue themselves. (This happened before his arrival.) Perhaps Mr K should follow his own advice and “be innovative”. Experienced teachers used to trust Dave’s Cafe for reliable information on bad schools, but it sold out a long time ago.

Larry Paradine

2008-02-09 17:38:24

Alas! It’s me again! And although I said (above) that I have no complaint about Mr. K., he doesn’t feel the same way about me. After he unlocked my thread, I posted a little note asking future contributors to keep the discussion within a teaching related context, because “Big Brother is watching you”. Not a very original joke admittedly, and not very respectful, but I was rather taken aback when I found a pm from Mr. K. warning me that any more cracks like that one and “you soon won’t be with us.” How does that Orwellian threat compare with the pm’s you’ve received hippy dippy and Darrick Jane?

Darrick Jane

2008-02-15 01:14:15

Similar, but I’ve forgotten the exact wording…..then I received a “holiday”..because I continued to re-post a thread that he deleted…so I told him where he could place his Forum, and sent a copy to sperling . Of course, the door was then firmly locked in my face. Now it’s a dismal, boring place, since most of the insightful, humourous posters are elsewhere