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New Zealand "attraction"
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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Fri May 20, 2011 9:53 pm    Post subject: card carrying union member Reply with quote

.
delete


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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Sat May 21, 2011 2:32 am    Post subject: yawn Reply with quote

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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artemisia



Joined: 04 Nov 2008
Posts: 828
Location: the world

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 1:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
I’ve Googled that a solo parent of two like you living in Auckland NZ would get (including an accommodation allowance) about NZ$510 after tax per week as a dole payment.
Totally uncaring, narrow-minded, baby-like and unsympathetic levels of support I know, but that’s NZ for you!

Show me the country that does offer a social welfare benefit for solo parents that they can actually do a bit more than merely survive! It sure isn't the UK. Sweden maybe? Sweden's probably been the most socially progressive country for decades with economic policies to match. There are few others that come anywhere close.

I had a look at this "expat exposed" site. It looks a bit old but I'd agree with some of the comments - certainly the underuse of migrant's skills in NZ and the pathetic way the NZ Govt. tries to market itself to the rest of the world. Oz is always going to offer more in terms of jobs and money but I continue to think that a lot of people don't do their homework before travelling. It truly surprises me how many just seem to turn up somewhere and hope for the best.

How could anyone seriously think a small, isolated country like NZ could ever be more than it is? If you go anywhere with skyhigh notions of what you deserve and what your standard of living should be then those are bound to take a tumble. I noted a lot of comments were about Christchurch. Having lived there myself (pre-quakes) I can confirm Chch is really insular and anyone who hasn't grown up there and made lots of connections along the way will have a hard time getting work - especially teaching. These days it's hard to say what the situation is like there but it certainly won't be good for English language teaching. International students have left in droves.

Blaming the country you're in for all your woes (even if you come from it!) is a common enough phenomenon, I suppose. The biggest mistake people make, IMO, is the belief that they just have to go somewhere else to have a much better life and be a different person. Sometimes that's true for your standard of living but rarely for the kind of person you are.
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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 4:23 am    Post subject: yawn Reply with quote

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 4:23 am    Post subject: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz yawn Reply with quote

yawn

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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 4:24 am    Post subject: nzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Reply with quote

nzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzyawn

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artemisia



Joined: 04 Nov 2008
Posts: 828
Location: the world

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 4:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Peter Jackson debacle was truly shocking but not usual, I think.

Some of the posts on this thread and indeed, those on the 'expat exposed' site I found quite disturbing - at least from those who emigrated with their families. I guess this is because of my own experiences.

I grew up in an immigrant family where I more or less had to lead a double life to fit in. This wasn’t something I analysed or fully understood at the time – I just had to do it! Children can be resourceful. Surprised

My parents mocked the accents of their new country, scoffed at the scenery and education – anything and everything! You name it – they hated it!! It was all always so much better “back home”. Of course they were very homesick but made little attempt to adapt and accept their new situation. We were forbidden to and told off if we spoke in the local accent (not good enough like everything else) so I adapted – I spoke one way at home and another way at school. This could get tricky when the two parts sometimes came together! Wink That wasn’t often though – I didn’t bring friends home. That might sound extreme but in fact is quite a typical story for those growing up in immigrant families. Probably it’s made me be quite chameleon-like and adaptable in terms of living in other places and that’s been an advantage. Overall, though, not something I’d recommend to those raising children abroad, especially when nowhere ends up really being “home”.

I hope the majority of migrants who move abroad with their young children or have children in the country they've moved to, consider letting them fit in, enjoy their local lives fully and feel at home. Especially so if they’re spending a large part of their formative years there. Growing up in a place your parents make no secret of detesting is hard.


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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 19

PostPosted: Sun May 22, 2011 9:21 pm    Post subject: tall poppy Reply with quote

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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artemisia



Joined: 04 Nov 2008
Posts: 828
Location: the world

PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2011 12:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, you sound like you're on a mission! I thought that 'expose' site was quite funny. I mean EVERYTHING about NZ was bad. Downright bad - yes, even the magazines!! I had to agree. You know it's time to write off a country when it can't even produce a decent magazine!

Seriously, whatever issues someone has with a particular workplace, it's helpful for people to have balanced websites or threads - all good or all bad is just two sides of the same coin and a distorted picture is not useful for anyone. Nz currently has a conservative Govt. and that inevitably means an erosion of the rights of workers and that's true anywhere. ESL in NZ hasn't had much going for it since about 2002 (?) I heard that was the time to get a lot of work. Those days are long gone and, as I said, Chch is a place where you have to be born and bred (parents, too) or know people to make any real inroads. I don't know anything about CPIT but I'm not sure the apparent favouring of certain individuals over you was really as personal as it might've felt at the time. Politicking is usually endemic in university and other tertiary institutions. That doesn't change a problematic work situation (or lack thereof), of course.

It looks like you can't wait to be off elsewhere and I wish you well with that - just wonder if you'd be best off putting all your energy and effort into organising that. Some places just aren't right for some people whether you've been raised in them or not.
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Non Sequitur



Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 1441
Location: China

PostPosted: Mon May 23, 2011 9:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dictionary.com has two definitions of ‘ocker’
noun
1.
an uncultured Australian male.
2.
an uncouth, offensive male chauvinist.

Neither describes a female in NZ and neither describes an accent - especially not a NZ one
An Oz accent is often called ‘Strine’
And a NZ one ‘New Zild’.
And why is having a local accent such a no no?

Another point is that I’m always amused by posters who describe ESL opportunities in Aust or NZ as ‘sucks’ or some other negative wording.
These are native English speaking countries where demand for ESL services is bound to be minuscule compared to the main demand locations. If I was an ESL teacher why shouldn't I work in my home country and that's what many do after returning. The lack of turnover such as you get in China is self evident.
Also having supervised many ESL teachers who didn’t have any ESL training, all of them would have benefited from even a short course in the subject. To haughtily dismiss a tutor of ESL because they don’t have your standard of education is snobbery of the first degree (no pun..).
You don’t ignore the mechanic who fixes your car because you have a degree and he a trade qual. He is a specialist in his field and worth listening to.
Even just to get across to a few self-important MAs what Teacher Talk Time is and how to avoid the pitfalls would do more for ESL teaching than any other single technique.

Frankly mentions no posts on the Vietnam website. suggest he/she complain to the management because there is an imposter there using his/her name.

I looked at expat exposed but gave up after reading a recent post by someone who was critical of Aust or NZ because his house insurance had gone up.
Clearly never heard of reinsurance which internationalises claim history.
9/11 and the Air France Concorde crash plus the Haiti earthquake and the Japan one plus the emerging disaster in New Orleans have had and will have a bearing on premiums worldwide - not to mention Christchurch.
Such lack of even basic knowledge is strange from someone whose other criticisms of his host country included an accusation of 'insularity'.
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frankly



Joined: 22 Oct 2004
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PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 5:42 am    Post subject: yawn Reply with quote

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Non Sequitur



Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 1441
Location: China

PostPosted: Tue May 24, 2011 7:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, we seem to be making progress.
Shall we say same time next week then?
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