Hopefully you’ve been enjoying your time with this, the Eltabb Journal… perhaps you’re here to get tips on working as a teacher in Germany. Maybe you’ve dropped by to read about one of our fascinating ELTABB workshops. Or are you about to teach English to a group of skilled professionals, whose workplace English is as alien to you as it is to them?
Whatever your reason for coming here in the first place, I’m going to guess that you clicked on this article because you have at least some interest in not just reading our articles, but maybe in writing for us also!
Well, if you’re unsure if you can quite be bothered putting pen to paper (or opening your word processor…), let me try to convince you over the next few minutes…
I get no kick from champagne
[A total lie – Ed.]
1. It’s fun!
Some people paint for pleasure, and some people sing. Some people get their kicks from football, whilst others get theirs from champagne. I, however, get my kicks from writing! Writing is, after all, a creative outlet – a way to express your individuality, to create something unique to share with the world, to craft something beautiful…
And if you’re scared of putting your potentially ugly baby out into the world – don’t worry, we have editors at this journal.
Forget grammar and think about potatoes.
Gertrude Stein
They will help you with your questions and queries, suggest topics for you to write about, clean up your commas, polish your participles and check your spelling before the ravenous Eltabb readership ever even see the first sentence.
2. It’s educational
Of course, you can just put pen to paper and write, write, write – stream-of-consciousness writing has produced some masterpieces over the decades. But here at Eltabb, we have a large readership of nerds education professionals [see me – Ed.] – so perhaps you’d like to write something more informative?
Find that subject that interests you, and read, read, read instead. Once you’ve swotted up, you can put all of that new knowledge into an article – learning is fun, and ‘I have an article to write’ is the perfect excuse to do so!
3. It looks good on your CV
Whilst Barnum and Bailey might be impressed by March 2020-March 2025, Lockdown, learned to juggle, potential employers may look for something a little more… academic.
>>Go on, show off!<<
Saying that you’ve written for our journal will look pretty snazzy, eh? You can demonstrate an ‘extra-curricular’ interest in English… plus, you can show off your knowledge of the subject and demonstrate that people want to listen to what you have to say! And, for all of this, you will have proof – up on the internet for all to read.
4. It helps you connect with the world
Writing’s not just a solitary pursuit, tapping away on your keyboard… Once you’ve published your article, people will read it! They will hopefully even talk about it, and leave a comment. By writing for Eltabb, you will be engaging with the wider teaching world. It feels good when people tell you they enjoyed an article you wrote, and a good article leaves a mark on its reader.
In addition to giving people an interesting diversion for a few minutes, you will be building up a community of English teachers. English teachers like to read, and they like to talk. People will discuss your article, and might even get in touch to discuss it with you. It’s exciting to be part of such a community!
…and I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when.
5. Help us see sunlight one day…
Not to dilute any of what I’ve just said, but more hands make lighter work. Our current writers could continue staying up all night, fuelled by coffee and deadlines… Or you could give us a chance to see our friends, our family, to visit museums and art galleries [Oh dear, you really have been inside too long. I have some bad news about 2020-21 – Ed].
What’s more, it’s a bit dull if you only get to read about our interests. We have a wide and varied membership – just look here if you need proof, so wouldn’t it be nice if we all chipped in and contributed something a little bit different? We’ve already had articles from as far afield as India – isn’t that exciting?
How much more adventure in the world of English teaching is just waiting, undiscovered, to be shared with a curious public?
After all of this, I hope to have sparked your interest just a little bit… If you need more persuasion, or have any questions, just leave a comment. And after that, how about you tell your teacher friends about the Eltabb Journal? Maybe they have that creative urge that’s just waiting to be unleashed upon the world! Even Godzilla started small…
Write for ELTABB
Following the traditional path of discovering Rammstein, Kraftwerk and Run Lola Run as a teenager, Kit has dreamed of living in Germany ever since. Finally making the move in January 2019, he now works here as a freelance English teacher by day and by night enjoys reading, writing and weeping into books of German grammar.
