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New teachers thinking of coming to Poland
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:48 am    Post subject: erm Reply with quote

It's not a hustlers game working for an oil company in the UAE Simon and maybe I'm the only one, but I kind of get where he's coming from. I would add that respect and EFL are not two words that can often be combined when one thinks of employers in ELT-world.

The point he makes about locals not respecting teachers is not really different from saying native speakers have a bad reputation, which is 'for real' in the words of Ali G. I've seen first-hand on dozens of occasions how the local teachers think we're poorly qualified, performing chimps.

Having succeeded in Poland and the Middle East, I have perspective. I would love to earn the salary I have here in the UAE but live in Poland. Outside Warsaw (as I've stressed a zillion times), ELT-world is simply a dreadful Sisyphean slog for the vast, vast majority, who may well be too young and green to know it yet. When I was earning 900Zl/month back in 95 at IH Bydgoszcz, the last thing I thought about was a mortgage, pension, getting sick or paying for kids. I was too busy having an amazing 'party-like-a-rockstar time of it. As soon as 1 domino falls out of place in Poland ie a divorce, child support, illness, getting screwed by an employer, you are fcuked unless mum can help you out.
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 5:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

With all due respect DP, you always found (entirely down to your hard work and the chances you've created for yourself) jobs which are in the teaching field exceptional. That is, they're not open to any tom disk or harry. Like my job for example. But that's the thing, yes you can get there but you have to put in the hard yards first. You band your job in 97 about as something which was the norm. It's not. I earned once 10k+ on one proof reading job, it's hardly justifiable for me to say back in 2013 I was paid XYZ and treat that as a standard. You and I and any one else are entitled to what we get cos we bloody well earned it. But that in itself doesn't set the industry yard stick. Many professions around the world have stayed wage depressed. This is nothing exceptional to the Polish teaching industry. The good thing about being an entrepreneur is that you can be entrepreneurial and change your financial position if you have an idea and work hard enough to create those opportunities.

Chuck comes along (as have many ofhers) without a CELTA to a country which demands nothing else as a bare minimum), works in a small town, teaches CALLAN, spends all of 5 minutes teaching and decides it's Poland"s fault that it sucks. I don't know what he thought Poland was, a land of easy riches it has never been.

It is however a land of opportunity and if you have an ounce of entrepreneurial skills you'll (after putting in the first few hard years) get somewhere.

I don't buy this concept of Poland is a hard place to live nonsense and I especially don't buy the Poland is rubbish argument because the cost of an effing iphone is higher or levi jeans cost more. Land is cheap, building a house cheap, bread is cheap, life's simple pleasures are cheap.
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Master Shake



Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1202
Location: Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Simon_porter's right, especially about life's simple pleasures being cheap. I just finished a year+ stint in Tokyo, Japan and that's a place where simple pleasures definitely don't come cheap. Housing, produce, public transportation, movies and and nights out will eat up your yen very quickly. 4 apples cost 11 zloty; ticket to the movies = 57 zloty. Sure, you can make more money in Tokyo, but if I'd lived like I had in Warsaw, I'd have gone broke.

dragonpiwo wrote:
The point he makes about locals not respecting teachers is not really different from saying native speakers have a bad reputation, which is 'for real' in the words of Ali G. I've seen first-hand on dozens of occasions how the local teachers think we're poorly qualified, performing chimps.
After I told a Pole I was a teacher, the second question was invariably "What school?" followed by "oh, I've heard that's a good one". You know how much emphasis Poles put on qualifications. They know the difference between some dude who works at a Callan school and a qualified teacher. I've not encountered much resentment at all to foreign teachers. Must be a small town thing.
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Infinite



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 235

PostPosted: Tue Sep 08, 2015 6:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

simon_porter00 wrote:
I earned once 10k+ on one proof reading job


That's pretty much the name of the game in this here language industry. If you don't get it, then off to whatever you come from... I'm with you 100%.
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 3:51 am    Post subject: Erm Reply with quote

'Once' being the key word.

Proofread or proof-read? I suggest you 'proof read' a bit more.
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 4:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As a grandee of this board I would have assumed that you would be above nazi grammar brigade comments and other forms of language nit-picking.

Given that you've gone for the lowest form of fight back and not attempted to question anything I've written, should I make the assumption that you have nothing of substance to argue back with?
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 9:05 am    Post subject: erm Reply with quote

Nothing of substance to reply to. Chuck has the same rights as anyone to voice his opinion. Whether you or I agree or diagree with him is up to us. However, the tone of your comments is somewhat not okay on occasion.
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Wed Sep 09, 2015 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No point in being delicate, I call it as I see it. Quite happy to be called to account if I state something which is wrong / misleading. If I see something that is wrong or misleading I'll say so.
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Master Shake



Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1202
Location: Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2015 4:31 pm    Post subject: Re: erm Reply with quote

dragonpiwo wrote:
Nothing of substance to reply to. Chuck has the same rights as anyone to voice his opinion. Whether you or I agree or diagree with him is up to us. However, the tone of your comments is somewhat not okay on occasion.
Wow, dp is complaining about the tone of someone's post. Kind of like Donald Trump complaining that someone's too boastful, confrontational and arrogant (not that Trump doing so would be unusual!).

Glass houses, dp. Glass houses.
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AndyD



Joined: 19 Mar 2013
Posts: 7

PostPosted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 11:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

^yessssss

Sincerely,
Polish forum lurker
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Master Shake



Joined: 03 Nov 2006
Posts: 1202
Location: Colorado, USA

PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 4:18 pm    Post subject: almost 2 weeks now Reply with quote

Wow, it's been almost 2 weeks with no new posts on this forum. Either that or my browser has stopped refreshing properly... This must be some kind of record.

I'll take this as a sign that the teaching is going extremely well, there are no problems worth reporting, and everyone has plenty of work. Well done!
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 8:41 am    Post subject: erm Reply with quote

I'm on holiday.

I can report that there are more 4 and 5 Zl bars in and around the rynek.
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simon_porter00



Joined: 09 Nov 2005
Posts: 505
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In which you still managed to spend 500 zloty Wink
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dragonpiwo



Joined: 04 Mar 2013
Posts: 1650
Location: Berlin

PostPosted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 9:43 pm    Post subject: erm Reply with quote

Only been out once. The taxi to the rynek and back is 120! Hardly worth it if you're gonna spend 40zl on drinks. Luckily, I've got my wee garden and friends who come over.

Clothes remain stupidly expensive if you buy anything with a name on it.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 11:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Taxis ? is there no longer a public transport system ?
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