Job Discussion Forums

[Dream_Seller]

[quote="kurtz"]

[mark_in_saigon]

[bentanddisfunctional]

Back on topic.

40 contact hours a week????
You're off your face mate-even if you get get them you'd be fried in no time.

I can hardly cope with my 17

[TRH]

I like to keep my hours close to 20 a week. I thought that was just my own position based on my age, however a friend who is a retired school teacher from AU, and more than a decade younger that I, tells me that he feels that 25 is the equivalent of full time teaching back there. I know that a full time High School teacher in the US probably doesn't have more than 30 hours of actual "face time." I also had a local VN English teacher tell me that she was doing 26 classes (not hours) and that she considered it difficult. As she and I teach the same students on different days, I know that she is doing a good job.

Some people are doing 35 public school hours, but a lot of their classes are identical. Prep time for one class may cover more than 10 class time hours.

A 40 hour goal may be unrealistic. You can get that many hours, particularly if you are willing to work public school contracts, but at what cost to the quality of your work.

[mark_in_saigon]

Yeah, and your voice can run out of steam also. 20 paid hours seems right to me. If getting a high rate and doing high level work which requires a lot of analysis, preparation and scoring, you may still end up working 40 or more. But in those cases you should be making a credible income and not have to scramble around in the heat, floods, pollution and traffic. When working the public schools and jumping from place to place, I figure 20 of those hours is at least 40 as well. You have to also factor in getting ready more than once For schools that work you in the morning then later in the day, you may go home, change, then change again to get ready again. Yeah, no real prep time on that work, it really seems like a different industry.

Not sure why guys ask about working long hours, but I would not recommend it. Folks who do it seem like zombies to me, they have no life, but they often seem to be the guys who need tobacco, booze and paid encounters to make up for no life. I enjoy my work, but my 20 is much more than 40 considering all the time I put into it, it is plenty. You have to have rewards other than the work itself and the money to make this really worth doing, in my opinion. Working 40 contact hours would be way too much.

[I'm With Stupid]

I believe British Council and RMIT both have 20 contact hours on a 40 hour a week contract (24 at BC if you have a DELTA). Based on my secondary school, I'd say that a high school teacher back home would be doing about 25 hours (5 hours x 5 days). I typically consider 24 hours to be full time, although I'm happy with 20. I can go up to 30 occasionally, but I wouldn't want to do it for more than a couple of weeks at a time. 40 hours would kill you and your lessons would likely be terrible.

[Guiza]

It's a good read this thread.

Just in response to the food discussion, since I got here there have been some shocking stories about produce being sold here. A friend of a friend (of my grandmother's auntie ha) suddenly died after complaining of stomach cramps that lasted for days. She died of something that was in her stomach that could not digest causing too much damage.

To be fair, that's hardly the sort of thing you're going to give much creedence to online, but these were all published last year:

http://tuoitrenews.vn/business/11723/75-of-vietnamese-pho-samples-found-toxic-food-tests

"The center said the samples were randomly taken from nine food selling facilities, including three supermarkets (Co.op Mart Cong Quynh, Maximark Cong Hoa, and Big C Hoang Van Thu), five markets (Pham Van Hai, Ben Thanh, Tan Son Nhat, Go Vap, and Ba Chieu), and a grocery in Tan Binh District."

http://tuoitrenews.vn/city-diary/12056/food-safety-crisis-in-vietnam

http://www.beveragedaily.com/Regulation-Safety/Heineken-absolutely-on-top-of-fake-beer-threat-after-Vietnam-gang-bust

There's just no control over anything in food.

I doubt these things would kill you within a week but spending a decade here eating noodles for dinner... seems like you are putting your insides through some turmoil that will probably rear it's ugly head one day or another.

[deadlift]

[mark_in_saigon]

Guiza,

thanks for your very interesting post.

We have a thread called "straw men and issues we cannot resolve", where we tried to move the food discussion over to (also pollution). Interesting how these threads go. Like this one, talking about working 40 hours, so it is natural to discuss driving around in the heat and the nasty air. So then the discussion can become the pollution. I am doing my part to try to keep topics a bit organized, so I will copy your post over there, and hope that anyone who wants to continue the food/pollution discussions will respond there, where we already have a lot of posts on that topic.

[Guiza]

[Prof.Gringo]

[TRH]

[deadlift]

[Dream_Seller]

Thanks for the helpful responses.This is what I should have asked.

How many hours do you work outside your main source of employment?

[VietCanada]