Job Discussion Forums

lclaroche · Joined: 16 Jun 2003 Posts: 21 Location: Seattle, USA

Hello,

I'm considering my options for EFL jobs abroad, and Turkey's one of them. What would your collective experience say the chances were of a Turkish school would pay for my flight to Turkey (at least getting there) from the US? (Let's assume that I'm worth it). What do you think?

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

If the school is worth it, your ticket would be furnished. In other words, most respectable schools do include the ticket.

SweetOne · Joined: 19 Jul 2003 Posts: 109

I am worth it, but I didn't find a school that was going to pay my ticket there, sight unseen. I decided to go with one that will reimburse me at the end of the term. If they don't, it's no big deal. I won't get too upset, though I will try my darndest to convince them that I should recieve it. Also, because they are not buying the ticket, I feel a less pressured to stay if I decide that THEY are no worth it. Knowing me, I couldn't, in good conscience, leave a school that has invested that much in me from the outset.

richard ame · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 319 Location: Republic of Turkey

Hi
Generally a school is not going to pay for you to come over for an interview and send you away I mean would you ?What they do is give you the ticket price after a year on the condition that you work for them the following year this usually means signing a contract for the following year around april/ may time . Some places have stopped paying for flight tickets all together or give a return ticket once every three years so if they do give you travel expenses consider yourself honoured and one of the chosen few but then, you are American aren't you ?

yaramaz · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 12:13 pm Post subject:

When I was hired by my school, I was told that I must purchase a one-way ticket from my home in Canada to Kayseri. They would refund the price upon my arrival. And this they did. My one way flight from Vancouver was about 1600 CDN dollars. A return ticket, btw, was 1200 dollars but they insisted I get the single fare-- guess they were afraid I'd bail... They also said that at the end of my time of employment here (NOT at the end of the contract) they would pay for my flight home, or to my next job location, provided it wasn't in Turkey. They honoured that with last year's departing teachers.

O, and guys... this year I've been honoured with an 18 hour workweek with no pay cut! Wooohooo! I get the Lise prep class for 10 hours a week, the surreal Anadolu Lisesi 9s for 4 hours, and the university prep class for 4... My god, but I've never had such a cushy schedule! High five, y'all!!! Laughing

gelin · Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 144 Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Richard, not sure about your crack regarding being American, but a great many of the private K-12 schools DO furnish tickets. They may only furnish home leave every two years, but the initial ticket is furnished. Granted, many of the language schools probably don't furnish them. I'm curious to know how many schools pay for the residence permit? My old school in Ankara did NOT, but my current school does.

yaramaz · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 5:17 pm Post subject:

Mine paid for everythng AND gave us $100US for a clothing allowance... Very Happy

ghost · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 1693 Location: Saudi Arabia

Looks like I missed my chance with TED Kayseri. 18 hours a week with the Prep. classes etc...is the best gig in town.

At my Koleji on the coast...all the teachers work 27 hours a week, which includes 2 club hours. The teachers all work as a group taking turns to prepare lesson plans for the others who teach the same grades. This does save time on lesson preparation.

My schedule is four grade 4 classes, and one grade 5 class. With the grade fours I have only fifteen students in each class because the class is divided into two groups, with the Turkish teacher taking one group of fifteen and myself the other group. After the break we switch groups. All of this means that I only have two lesson plans a day, because each of the grade four classes (four groups of fifteen in all) do the same lesson. I am only responsible for one grade 5 class (40 minutes a day).

This Koleji did pay for a return ticket for the work papers.

El Gordo · Joined: 22 Apr 2003 Posts: 35 Location: Turkey

I always buy a return ticket when taking up a new post in Turkey. It's cheaper for the school and gives me peace of mind that if anything should go wrong... Fortunately I have never had to use the return portion and have ended up throwing it away when it reached the end of its validity.

For anyone travelling from the UK to Turkey I can recommend Swiss Airlines (LHR-ZRH-IST twice daily), as they are to the best of my knowledge the only airline which allows you to change the return date on their cheap three-month ticket (GBP 198). So you can go out on, say, 15 September, with a return reservation for 15 December and if things go horribly wrong you can bring forward your return date.

But won't the school want to see the ticket? Tell them it was an electronic ticket and just give them the receipt, suitably doctored so that it makes no mention of a return.