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Teaching ESL in Georgia through Footprints Recruiting

 
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Crash Bang



Joined: 06 Feb 2012
Posts: 1

PostPosted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 7:57 pm    Post subject: Teaching ESL in Georgia through Footprints Recruiting Reply with quote

Footprints placed me in S. Korea a few years ago, and it was a good situation. I'm thinking about going to Georgia. Does anyone have any thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea? I have heard that it is great for men, not so great for women. How isolated will I be if I do not speak Georgian? I understand the pay is not great, but is it possible to sock back a little bit? What can I expect at the school? Is there much internet access? etc.
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golsa



Joined: 20 Nov 2011
Posts: 185

PostPosted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:07 pm    Post subject: Re: Teaching ESL in Georgia through Footprints Recruiting Reply with quote

Crash Bang wrote:
Footprints placed me in S. Korea a few years ago, and it was a good situation. I'm thinking about going to Georgia. Does anyone have any thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea?


I'm currently in Georgia and enjoy it.

Crash Bang wrote:
I have heard that it is great for men, not so great for women.


It really depends on how socially liberal you are. Georgia is a very conservative country, but we're not talking about Saudi Arabia conservative. Women are expected to be virgins when they get married and they do all of the house work. The flip side to this is that men do all of the work out of the house, which is often quite dangerous. It's neither good nor bad for women - simply different than life in developed nations.

Western women are seen as extremely promiscuous, which is a fact when they're compared to Georgian women. Let me put it this way - every town has a woman or two who no one will marry because she is as promiscuous as the average American or British college age girl. Consequently, Georgian men see and treat western women as if they were the town ho.

Crash Bang wrote:
How isolated will I be if I do not speak Georgian?


The family you live with will drag you around to the social events they attend, so it won't be a huge problem. You might make a few local friends, but most Georgians speak little to know English.

Crash Bang wrote:
I understand the pay is not great, but is it possible to sock back a little bit?


Your take home pay will be in the ballpark of $250 per month and you could save at least $200 of it per month. This assumes that you don't smoke, eat out, or go anywhere on the weekends. Taking weekend trips will quickly eat up your money.

Crash Bang wrote:
What can I expect at the school? Is there much internet access? etc.


Schools vary widely. My school has electric radiators in every room, a new computer lab, internet access, and a Xerox machine. My friend's school is missing windows, so snow piles up in the hallway, and classrooms have wood burning stoves.

You can get internet access almost everywhere in Georgia. It will be over the cell phone networks and will cost approximately 10% of your net income per month. Speeds vary based on weather and your location. I'm currently downloading a video at 40kb/ps, which is pretty average.

Let me know if you have any other questions.
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golsa



Joined: 20 Nov 2011
Posts: 185

PostPosted: Sun Feb 12, 2012 9:04 am    Post subject: Re: Teaching ESL in Georgia through Footprints Recruiting Reply with quote

golsa wrote:
It really depends on how socially liberal you are. Georgia is a very conservative country, but we're not talking about Saudi Arabia conservative. Women are expected to be virgins when they get married and they do all of the house work. The flip side to this is that men do all of the work out of the house, which is often quite dangerous. It's neither good nor bad for women - simply different than life in developed nations.


I wanted to take time to clarify something that wasn't clear in my original response: marriage is very important in Georgian culture. People are given far more respect after they get married because it's the normal thing for people to do here. It's very strange for a man in his 30s or a woman in her 20s to not be married. Like the Koreans, Georgians have a very homogenous society and everyone here dresses the same, does the same things at the same age, etc.

Georgia absolutely is not a bad place for women to be, but their culture would not jive well with a hard core feminist. Georgians have very strict gender roles in all aspects of society, which younger western women have difficulty accepting. However, unlike feminist ideas, Georgian society is remarkably consistent in its approach to gender roles. Case and point: I've never seen a western woman insist that she should help run an arc welder, dig a ditch, or chop wood.
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jooooooey



Joined: 16 Dec 2009
Posts: 65

PostPosted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Crash Bang wrote:
Footprints placed me in S. Korea a few years ago, and it was a good situation. I'm thinking about going to Georgia. Does anyone have any thoughts? Good idea? Bad idea? I have heard that it is great for men, not so great for women. How isolated will I be if I do not speak Georgian? I understand the pay is not great, but is it possible to sock back a little bit? What can I expect at the school? Is there much internet access? etc.


I lived in Tbilisi for a year (through footprints) and loved it. I made a lot of friends and the culture was really interesting.

As far as the gender thing goes, yes marriage is very important for them and they are pretty conservative, traditional gender roles (although this is starting to change a little in Tbilisi), I don�t know how many times I got asked if I was married. If you are a girl and openly have boyfriends, it might be looked down upon. On the other hand, at least in Tbilisi, it still happens a lot. It�s just kept quiet.

On the other hand, a girl never has to stand in the bus, someone always gets up for her, she gets treated well, they will walk you to your car, that kind of thing. I thought that was kind of cool.

There�s still not a lot of English, but the younger generation is pretty on top of it. Personally, I made a lot of Georgian friends, some of them spoke a fair amount of English and some of them none. After living there half a year a got to where I could start to communicate in Georgian a little and that helps a lot, and yes, they�ll take you out. You also get to know the other volunteers pretty well, it�s a pretty small group and we would go out a lot.

In Tbilisi, I usually spent most of my 300 a month, that�s after helping out with rent, going out a lot, buses, that kind of thing--I lived very well on that amount. I had a friend who was in a village and he spent 0 dollars every month. Also, I always got invited to go out on excursions to different parts of Georgia by my students or my family and they never let me chip in on gas and food and that kind of thing, people there really really nice.

My school had a heating system but it didn�t really work, so I wore a coat in the winter. But they had a computer lab with internet. And there was 24 hour internet cafes everywhere for really cheap. But my school was pretty antiquated, their teaching methods too; it depends on your co-teachers but you can have a really active part in the class or just lay back and help out.

It depends on you, how ready you adapt to different cultures, it�s probably the opposite of Korea. But I really really liked it and want to go back sometime. I made a lot of friends, like I said, everyone can sing or dance or play some instrument, people are really welcoming.
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Prometheus12



Joined: 05 Mar 2012
Posts: 9
Location: Korea

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey guys,

I'm glad I read the posts here, I wasn't aware uhm gender roles were so fixed in Georgia.

I'm looking to work in Georgia with my fiance? If having a BF as seen as being promiscuous will they be more accepting of a fiance?

I know we won't be able to live together, but I think it stands to reason that we will want to live in the same town.

What's the working hours like in Georgia? Will the co-teacher usually be able to communicate with you?
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bjp07



Joined: 12 Feb 2012
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 3:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey,

I don't know much about Georgia, but I have a friend over there who's been keeping a blog. Feel free to check it out: http://gamarjobaleslie.blogspot.com/
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golsa



Joined: 20 Nov 2011
Posts: 185

PostPosted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Prometheus12 wrote:

I'm looking to work in Georgia with my fiance? If having a BF as seen as being promiscuous will they be more accepting of a fiance?


They will love the fact that you have a fiance and you'll be asked to get married in Georgia almost weekly.

Marriage is considered a right of passage in Georgia and you're not a full member of society until you're married. It's the difference between being age 13 and 35 in terms of respect in most western countries.

Having a boyfriend is not a sign of promiscuity, but understand that all "dating" in Georgia ends in marriage. The Georgian language doesn't really have a word for dating - they use "walking together" for that purpose. I'm currently "dating" a Georgian girl (we started flirting and have been seen walking down the road together) and have to quickly decide if I want to spend the rest of my life with her or leave her alone. Attempting casual western style dating with her (if she were to even allow it) would cause life long damage to our reputations in our village.

Let me put it another way: if a man is seen at a restaurant with a single woman, he is basically obligated to propose to her in the very near future.

edit: This information is true for villages and towns. Tbilisi is an exception. It's a different way of life than western countries, but it boils down to Georgians wanting to protect the honor and reputation of their women.

Prometheus12 wrote:
I know we won't be able to live together, but I think it stands to reason that we will want to live in the same town.


If you're applying to the TLG program, it's possible for you to be placed together with a host family. You need to specifically request this in your application.

Prometheus12 wrote:
What's the working hours like in Georgia? Will the co-teacher usually be able to communicate with you?


Your contracted working hours are 30 hours per week, which includes working with up to 3 co-teachers, 3 hours of English lessons with your host family, and writing your monthly report. Many people work far less than 30 hours though.

I'm at school from 9 am until 3:30 on Monday through Thursday and from 9 to 11:30 on Friday. The Monday through Thursday hours would be shorter if I didn't run two extracurricular activities at school. One of my friends is only at school for 7 hours per week.

You will be able to communicate with your co-teachers to some degree, but don't expect them to be fluent in English.
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