Job Discussion Forums

[Knedliki]

This thread should be changed to "my tinky winky is bigger than yours".

[jenkinsd]

Agreed! Shouldn't have got involved, but that guy winds me up something rotten.

[dragonpiwo]

You wind yourself up. Must be all that time you spend on the tube. Nope, you like me left Poland to make a decent living.

I'm chilled as sat here by the pool having a sundowner next to my stunning wife.

Gave up City life to chill Winston.

[sparks]

Anyone who gets "wound up" about TEFL or what other TEFL teachers are doing or saying is either a school owner or doing it completely wrong

[spiral78]

[dragonpiwo]

I have way better hair and a better looking wife.

[Master Shake]

[mitsui]

Sounds like he is winding someone up.

[dragonpiwo]

Well Mitsui, it's not exactly hard is it? My Polish is pretty bad but I get by. I have many expat friends and acquaintances who speak Polish fluently, some are even translators. They do OK but that's about it. This idea that you can't 'get' on or 'get Polish people if you don't speak the language really well is poppycock. This idea that learning Polish is some sort of economic panacea is also balls. It's mostly luck and meeting people.

I'm not one of these die-hard immerse yourself in a culture people. I just live in Poland and work elsewhere. Lovely country, good beer, good grub, interesting history and buildings but working there? Come on, 99% of the time it's a joke. The hourly rates in real terms have gone way down over a 10-year period, the cost of everything but the essentials has gone up a lot. It doesn't take Einstein to do the maths. Also, these self-employed working conditions are just ripe for shafting people. My advice to any new guy would be to go there and have a laugh for a year but then leave. Most of the old-timers here have wives now and 2 salaries coming in, so it's do-able. Getting established now isn't like it was getting established 15 or 10 years ago-it's way harder. Warsaw may be different but the rest of the country is pretty much the same.

The guy who seems to get wound up probably isn't even working in Poland, so why did he leave? There you go.

[mitsui]

Having a Polish wife working helps.
Also, she could help with housing.

It is different for the single man.

Interesting. Many of my former students wanted to be translators. Wonder how they did.

For me in Japan, things sound the same.

Too bad. You might think with all the Poles going to the UK that work would be better but no.
Too bad things have dived since the early 2000s (2003).

[Master Shake]

Hi mitsui,

I made the Poland to Japan switch in 2014. I moved from Warsaw to Tokyo and taught for the same companies in both countries. Even though I made a lot more money in Tokyo, I was able to save a slightly higher percentage of my salary in Warsaw.

So I don't think the situation is nearly as gloomy as dragonpiwo does.

It's safe to say that in either country a newbie TEFL-er is going to be living frugally the first couple of years. Japan may have more opportunities (JET, examining, uni. gigs, fake priest-ing), but once the novelty wore off, I really enjoyed living in Warsaw a lot more than Tokyo.

I never spent much time there, but I heard that Kawasaki was kind of the 'hood in Tokyo. Is that true?

[mitsui]

No, but it does have a lot of homeless.
It borders Tokyo and is just across the Tama River.
There is a Koretown.
I live in the northern part, which is just residential.

Probably Edogawa is one of the worst parts.

Japan's cost of living is too high, so people don't save as much as when the yen was stronger.

I like Warsaw better too, but not when schools pay just 1000 bucks per month.

[jenkinsd]

Obviously I got out of Poland, and out of TEFL. By 2000, I was done with the industry and had left the country. My point was that learning the language opened doors which I never expected, and I'm grateful for that.

Now, I don't doubt that things are harder now. All the more reason I would have thought to add as many strings to one's bow as possible.

I have a look on here from time to time for sentimental reasons. I loved my time in Poland, and I loved teaching. I'm sorry to see the industry in such an apparent state of decline, and I wish things were different. With advances in technology and vastly increased exposure to the language through media, travel and, indeed, immigration, I suppose there will be barely any TEFL industry left at all 5 years from now.

If you're in your early 40s, DP, I would hope that you have some kind of sensible exit strategy. Things might look rosy for you now, but I'm not so sure how attractive a lifelong TEFLer with little work experience outside the industry would be on the job market.

Good luck.

[dragonpiwo]

16 years in oil companies-I'm fine thanks. My exit strategy is to stay with them.

[WhirlwindTobias]

I foolishly thought I could get by as I did in Bavaria. I ended up getting frustrated about it, however I had to delay my plans to go into the Tatry and in doing so I crammed some basic phrases overnight and went into Zakopane to shop, eat etc.

That day was when I fell in love with the country.

I have a funny anecdote I always tell people, and I will briefly say it here. The first local I met kept saying "Rozumiesz", I looked into my phrase book; "Understand". Combined that with Nie, and spent the next two days telling very confused faces "You don't understand!"

Fortunately I met and befriended some Polish girls, and after they laughed it was explained to me and then I realised why everyone I talked to was giving me strange looks.