Job Discussion Forums

Steve Smith · Joined: 06 Jul 2004 Posts: 26

4.5K after tax is special, I reckon. Oxford Study Centre paid me (as ADOS) 2000zl after tax. I was required to be there from 11am to 9pm daily (with an hour for lunch). Mrs. G. was also big on making deductions from wages for one reason or another.

Grant was a good guy when I was there, it was just the regime we were working under which was intolerable. This was caused by the owner enforcing a strict system of teacher observations. One of the crazy things we had during that year was an "approval league table" of teachers. This involved the (mostly teenaged) students being questionnaired, and then each of the 12 teachers was given a percentage approval and a ranking, which was made public to all the teachers. Those who fared worse totally lost their confidence and motivation - and this happened as early in the academic year as November...

Grant was caught up in the middle. He put up as much resistance as he could to the owner, but ultimately he had no choice but to yield to her demands. Poor guy! Last I heard of him he was working for Pearson - anyone know where he is now?

CROGO · Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Krakow

Oh, the grand man! And me just a poor country lad, walked a mile in me bare feet just to see him!

Why the grand man with his degree with honours hath earnt less than anyone else teaching in Poland at the time he was there!

[ASIDE] Perhaps he was turned down for the better paying jobs because he persisted in using an archaic form of the past participle without its helping verb in his application letters? Or perhaps he could not get a job at a Polish university teaching English literature because he was a stranger to Shakespeare?

Scour the works of Shakespeare for a reference to "earnt" all you want, old boy! You will not find the word, not even in the past participle! But "earned" does appear five times, "I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats." (Much Ado about Nothing, Act III, Scene III, line 45), "a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manhood more approbation than ever proof itself would have earned him." (Twelfth-Night; or, What You Will, Act III, Scene IV, line 96), "they would truncheon you out for taking their names upon you before you have earned them" (The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, Act II, Scene IV, line 50), "A great addition earned in thy death." (Troilus and Cressida, Act IV, Scene V, line 161), "Of earned praise, Marina's life." (Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act IV, Prologue, line 13).

Similar to "learn'd" the truncated "earn'd" appears 3 times, "The one for ever earn'd a royal husband," (The Winter's Tale, Act I, Scene II, line 131), "Though Marcius earn'd them not; and all his faults." (Coriolanus, Act I, Scene I, line 261), "And they have earn'd the waste. Poor Antony!" (Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, Scene I, line 19). (No need to scour really, old boy! All of Oxford's Shakespeare is online and searchable with the click of a mouse! See: http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/reference/shakespeare/index.html)

So it would appear that Shakespeare approved of "earnt" not at all.
Oh, and sorry old boy, but Shakespeare created a character called Bottom not Prat.

[Exeunt.]

Steve Smith · Joined: 06 Jul 2004 Posts: 26

Sorry, as I was asking, does anyone know what Grant K is doing now?

CROGO · Joined: 15 Mar 2004 Posts: 46 Location: Krakow

"�500 a month was one of the best deals going?! Looks like the Target brainwashing has another victim. In 1997 �500 was about 3,000PLN. Even English First (widely known as one of the worst paying schools in the universe) was paying 3,800PLN ($1,000). Personally I was working far fewer hours than teachers at Target and EF (I was doing 18 hours a week, they were doing 24) and making 4,500PLN a month AFTER tax (something which neither EF not Target bothered with)."

No need for a Brainwashing. A light rinse was all that was required.

Kymro · Joined: 19 Oct 2003 Posts: 244

Alex Shulgin · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 553

go2guy · Joined: 15 Apr 2004 Posts: 74 Location: France

I rather enjoy stopping in to the "Poland" forum, always some good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) pissin' matches happening. Anyway, out of curiosity, what are some of the more REPUTABLE schools in Poland? I came - I read - I learned ... thanks!

XXX · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:30 pm Post subject:

The "Word" School in Tarnobrzeg and Stalowa Wola. I was payed on time and treated very well. It was a very pleasant year.

Kymro · Joined: 19 Oct 2003 Posts: 244

Alex Shulgin · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 553

Kymro · Joined: 19 Oct 2003 Posts: 244

As I've never met you I can't see how you'd know anything about my habits.

But I am, of course, more than happy to arrange a personal meeting.

How about it?

Kevin Fletcher · Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 10

Hi,
It's quite common for guys to meet girls in Poland and have children, but I know more girls who have met guys, so watch out girls.
Ha ha