Interview to Cláudia Martins

Why have you chosen languages?
I have no idea. What I started by doing in academic terms was study law. Then, I dropped out and went on to the Faculty of Arts in Porto, just because I loved English, something I had taken up on a more serious basis when I was 15. I never wanted to become a teacher; I only realized what I was doing when I was at the eve of starting my teaching training year. Afterwards, I did my master’s on Translation, another of my passions and here I am.

How long have you worked in IPB and are you enjoying the experience? Do you plan on working here for the future?
I’ve been working at the IPB for almost 10 years and I can truly say that I am enjoying the experience very much; otherwise, I would have left long ago. What has appealed the most to me is the fact that I have had the opportunity of teaching “1001” different courses, which prevents boredom to step in, though it is also very demanding. I don’t really know if I will stay here for long: the future is not really easy to foresee; it all depends on too many variables, some of which are not dependent on me.


Where else have you worked at and did you like the experience?
Apart from my teaching training year, which was done at “Escola Secundária Oliveira do Douro”, Vila Nova de Gaia, I worked as a tutor and a trainer in several private institutions the year after I finished my degree and I also worked at “Civilização Editora” for a short period copy-editing American Express Guides and other texts. I especially liked working at a publishing house, even though it was not as a translator. Notwithstanding, this type of job can turn out to be a boring and repetitive, and lonely as well.

Back when you were a fresh graduate, did you imagine your life as it is now?
It never crossed my mind that someone as ordinary as I am would end up here, working as a higher education teacher. I guess I imagined it to be cut out to those brains that finished their degrees with 19 or 20 out of 20. But it turned out to be otherwise. At the time I applied for the vacancies for the English Department, I was the best candidate. Perhaps it was luck or it was fate: I don’t really know.

And what are your expectations for your future?
This is a very tricky question. I have many dreams, some of which do not include teaching. But not all our dreams are supposed to happen. So rationally speaking, I’d like to finish my doctorate, become a professor and be part of many interesting and ambitious projects.

Do you like your job, what are the pros and cons about it?
As I said, I do like it; otherwise I would be somewhere else. It is my very strong belief that one has to “live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” (vide Henry David Thoreau) and thus we should not accept unhappiness in any walk of life. I know this is very idealistic and sounds like fiddlesticks from a stuck-up person, but if we are not content with what we do professionally, what good is it? A good salary at the end of the month? And does that pay off? I don’t really buy it. Nevertheless, this job is not really a walk in the park, as many people think. Teachers are thought to be people with plenty of free time who keep on complaining about nothing. It might be true for those who have no work ethics and I’ve known a couple of handfuls of this type of teacher, though I am not part of this league. Being a professional teacher demands a lot of hard work, a lot of reading (and digesting) when you have purely theoretical courses, preparation of materials and critical thinking. A must is really to look at what you did at the end of a day’s work, or week or month or even semester and think, ‘What have I done wrong? How can I improve?’ Without this, there’s no evolution and without evolution there’s ignorance. Another con is when you have these ambitious projects for which there are neither conditions nor resources to carry them out. The best pro is definitely the pleasure of feeling you did things well and you achieve a friendly relationship with your students.

What advice would you give to future graduates of the English Spanish degree?
To take it easy, not to give up at the first door slam and to try to find the right job for them. To be modest and humble and never stop studying, because teaching demands endless updating, i.e. lifelong training.

What do you think about Portugal's Education System and particularly the teaching of languages?
I’m not exactly the best person to answer this question, because I am very negative and highly critical about our education system. The successive reforms done throughout these 30 years or so have brought about nothing positive: better European statistics, no doubt, but a lot more ignorance. One of the most visible outcomes has been the decrease of basic knowledge (what we call in Portuguese ‘bases’), work skills and lack of how to behave in a classroom and in front of a teacher. In terms of the languages themselves, they don’t know grammar, which is essential for working with a language, and due to this, they can’t write or speak correctly, nor can they read and interpret a text. They also have huge handicaps as far as vocabulary is concerned. Thus, the work to be done at higher education is seriously limited and, as a consequence, a lot of students fail languages, especially English, though it’s a paradox.
Something I find bewildering is to find a student that might even be good at English and though s/he does not even know what hard work is thinks s/he can just say, ‘Teacher, it’s not like that! Are you sure?’ It’s not that I believe in what used to happen in the old days: respect the teacher no matter what, even if s/he is a thick as two planks. No, teachers are not the supreme vehicle of wisdom. I just think that the saying ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ fits like a glove here. They know something; they managed to control the teacher back at secondary school and because they used to do that, they believe higher education, even if at a polytechnic, is the follow-up. It is not. Of course, this is not only the students’ fault, but school, former teachers and parents’ as well.
However negative this perspective of the education system might be, there’s always something to be done and, throughout these 10 years of teaching, I found very few students who were rude and did to manage to do something for themselves. My motto is that hard work and a demanding teacher does not hurt a soul.


(Interview made by Elizabeth Rocha)