I have been doing yoga for more than four years. I am far from being a yogi, but I can see the progress I have made over the years as I increase my flexibility, strength, and endurance. I also love yoga because it helps me to breathe deeply, to stay focused on the present moment, to release stress, and to stretch all the muscles I need to keep fit for my opera singing. Quite unfortunately, one of my classes was given by a teacher with a very similar attitude to the character played by Cameron Diaz in the movie ”Bad Teacher”.

And I HATED the class. I thought that if it had been my very first yoga class, it would have probably discouraged me to attend a second one. Or to even consider yoga as a good fitness class for me. Despite my relatively good yoga knowledge, I still felt that with this particular teacher, I would never be good enough and I would always fall in the category of the ”Bad Student”.

Bad Teachers are an unfortunate reality: there is even a Reddit thread on people’s experience with bad French teachers around the world! They can forever destroy your love for a subject with their stinkingly condescending attitude.

Why does it work perfectly with one teacher and not at all with another?

There are lots of charlatans or ”fake teachers” among the teaching community. Some might have dozens of diplomas in their field or say they have years of teaching experience behind them, but if they don’t have the love of sharing their knowledge with others, they very often become resentful, condescending, and contemptuous with their students.

In my opinion, they fall in the category of the ”Bad Teachers” to avoid at all costs!

Here are 5 Tips to Recognise & Avoid Bad Teachers

1. They Don’t Care About You

During the entire 60 minutes class, my Bad Yoga Teacher (BYT) didn’t mind that more than half of the class didn’t know what to do when she was telling us to get into what sounded like the Bananasana position. She didn’t bother demonstrating the positions or using the French or English terms to make it clearer. Why? Because she didn’t care!

Bad Teachers (Actually, I would say terrible!) :

• They smile condescendingly when hearing the expressions Je ne sais pas or Je ne comprends pas, but don’t do anything to help you.
• They can see that you are struggling to understand a new concept, but choose to go on with the lesson, without stopping, even though you look like a deer caught in headlights.
• They teach a pre-made program which isn’t practical or useful for your everyday life and are not ready to adapt it to your own specific needs.
• They keep working on complicated (and very often boring!) exercises which are too advanced for your level, without reviewing the basics until you feel comfortable enough to get to the next level.

Great Teachers :

• Great Teachers are attentive to your reactions while learning. They gladly give extra explanations and try to provide you with the most appropriate tools to better adapt to your style of learning.
• Great teachers find pedagogical challenges exciting and are happy to re-explain a new concept until your start understanding it. There is nothing more satisfactory for a teacher than seeing the progress made by their students.
• Every learner is different as we connect the dots in our very own way and that is what makes us so unique and interesting! Great teachers will nurture that difference and will try to find new ways to share their knowledge with you.

2. They Do All The Speaking

My BYT spent at least 20 minutes of the class explaining how important it is for us to learn the positions in Sanskrit. In my opinion, a yoga class is about breathing, stretching, involving your body and mind physically and spiritually. None of these matters were discussed during this 20 minutes speech and I felt like I was losing my precious time with someone who is fighting a battle I haven’t signed up for.

Bad Teachers :

• They talk all the time!

• They keep interrupting you or preventing you from finishing a sentence to correct you, which undermines your confidence and distracts your flow of thoughts.
• French speakers are well-known for their love of conversation! However, a good teacher should know this basic rule of teaching:

Minimal Teacher Talking Time (TTT) for maximal Student Talking Time (STT)

Great Teachers :

• Four simple words: They Let You Speak!
• They focus on improving your conversation and pronunciation skills. Yes, it is very important to work on grammar exercises, but it is equally if not more important to apply these concepts in speaking to reinforce your understanding. If you teacher focuses too much on writing and reading, make sure to let them know that you would like to work on improving your speaking skills as well. If they don’t take your needs into consideration, they don’t really care about you and your progress. Time to find someone else!

3. They Laugh At You When You Make Mistakes

My BYT laughed at us because we weren’t able to understand what she wanted from us. She rolled her eyes when asked to demonstrate the positions we had never heard of before. We felt ashamed, offended, angry, and many of us wanted to leave the class!

HOOOOORRIBLE!!! :

• They delight in making fun of you in front of the rest of the class. So, you made a funny mistake (said tu pues (you stink) instead of tu peux (you can)) or didn’t understand something immediately. What’s the big deal? We’ve all been there before! Sneering at a learner for something they don’t understand yet is just mean and ”unpedagogical”. To me, these are the worst teachers ever. Run away from that kind of fake pedagogue!
• They love the power they have on their pupils and make their classroom a tyrannical place to be. In my opinion, teachers who like to ridicule their students or belittle their knowledge in front of others probably have a lack of self-confidence in their own teaching method or a lack of knowledge of the subject they are teaching.

Great Teachers :

• Great Teachers have the love of learning, the love of learners and the love of bringing both together. It would never cross their mind to make fun of you for the sake of it.
• Great Teachers will explain why your mistake is funny and teach you how to correct it. They should be laughing with you, not at you!
• Each teacher has their own teaching philosophy. If your current teacher’s attitude make you feel uncomfortable, offended, irritated or discouraged, they are not the right fit for you. Why suffer when there are so many great teachers out there waiting to share their passion with you?

4. They Hate Being Asked Questions They Can’t Answer

I asked my BYT in the most polite way if she could repeat the Sanskrit names of the position and if she could associate them with their equivalent in French or English. She looked at me as if I was disturbing the class and I was from that moment onwards categorized as the ”troublesome participant”.

Bad Teachers :

• Bad teachers will just brush your questions off and make you feel stupid for asking them, as if you should already know the answer.
• Many bad teachers use condescension, sometimes without even being aware of it, out of fear to be ridiculed for their lack of knowledge.
• This passive-aggressive attitude is very often combined with mockery. Great Teachers nurture the improvement and refinement of knowledge. Keep far from knowledge misers!

Great Teachers :

• Great Teachers are aware that they cannot possibly know everything and stay humble about it. The French and English vocabulary is vast, rich, and varies from one person to another according to their work-related jargon. You cannot expect your teacher to know everything. However, a Great Teacher will ensure to provide you with a credible answer.
• Great Teachers are happy to research the answer to your question because they know that they will learn a great deal in the process. Our cultural differences and various linguistic backgrounds make us see things differently and approach language learning in our unique way. I learned so much about my own language while teaching it and I still do everyday, thanks to my students. They see things I had never thought about as a native speaker and they ask really interesting questions for which I am always happy to find an answer. When in doubt, I refer to grammar books, online dictionaries, translation websites, the Almighty Google, and if I still cannot find a plausible answer to their question, I make sure to come back with it at the beginning of the next class.

5. They Are Monolingual

Bananasana doesn’t mean anything to me! I wish my BYT would have explained the concept using words I could understand. It would have then been much easier to integrate the new words into my daily yoga practice. 

Being monolingual, i.e. speaking only your mother tongue and no other language, isn’t a bad thing in itself. It used to be and is still quite common to be taught a language by monolingual teachers. However, in 2017, being monolingual and a language teacher isn’t as normal as it used to be. Think about it: how can someone who only speak their language understand how it feels like to learn a new language? How can they relate to your struggle and therefore find ways to make it easier for you?

When I was at univeristy, I had to work with an Italian diction coach who had never been to Italy and couldn’t speak Italian. In my eyes, she didn’t have the credibility, knowledge, and experience a good Italian diction teacher should have. We never got along very well and the lessons were long and painful for both of us.

Steer clear of any cordonnier mal chaussé (poorly shod shoemaker)!

Choose a Great Teacher who can speak your language to avoid many frustrating ”lost in translation” moments.