Job Discussion Forums

[almuze]

So, here we are. my turkish husband and me and our 2 small kids have just returned back to turkey after 5 years of life in america. hmmmm, so far, this is not an experience I am recommending to friends. But, we are trying to get situated, so any advice would be helpful.

does anybody know what turkish families do together? So far as I can tell, they all crowd together and drink tea and let the kids jump off the furniture and anything else *except* take them outside to play, because that would interrupt tea drinking time. and whats up with taking the kids outside (finally) and then shouting at them not to run because they might a)fall down, b)break a sweat or c)both! ahh!

does anybody here have kids? mine are 5 and 2 and like to run and sweat and sit in the dirt, so we are finding some cultural situations difficult.hmmmmm,

and then salaries, teaching english and such. I have previous experience, i have a BA (but not in english) i have a toefl, all the fun things, and i have heard people say native speakers get up to $4000usd/MTH, but the state school down the street offered me 300TL/mth for 3 days a week. that's a pretty big difference, yes?
Translating turkish to english books gets you anywhere from 40 to 90 TL/page, does this sound right? The babysitters at our local park all want free english lessons, or they'll give me 15tl/hr to help thier kid pass the test, maybe my brain just hasn't adjusted to turkish economics, but 15 turkish lira doesn't really seem all that great., specially since I have to hire a sitter to go to work.

So, kids and wages, and if anybody has any really great thoughts to share on fun (family) things to do in Kadikoy, that would be soooo cool! And, cheap places to buy furniture and all those household appliaces, like a dishwasher! and carpets! and fold out couches for guests! and little silver thingy decorations to put all over your shelves and stuff with doylies! - actually, someone gave us some doylies (sp?) as a house warming gift and the kids are using them as hats. And why are turkish housewives like Martha Stewart on speed? what is up with wiping all the floors in your house every single day? how dirty can they get in 12 hours? why do your *jeans* need to be ironed? has anyone here gotten sick and gone to the hospital? did the doctor give you a "needle"? what was in it? Where can you find good mexican food? tortillas? so many questions... questions, but, I'll start with these for now. signing off.

[dmb]

4000 dollars a month. Have you a contact number? No chance of that. At the top end with experience and qualifications you can get 2000 dollars a month.

[almuze]

Contact number? no no, nothing that organized My turkish boss told me. We were swapping cost of living prices and I said 2000/mth will get you nowhere fast in the States, she said; "Thats a lot of money here, tho. English teachers get paid a lot in turkey, too. I have an american friend of mine who works at the american college in uskudar, and of course she has her masters, and she makes 4000/mth."

So, not really a contact number, no. And I have to ask - when I was working here 7 years ago, I made 1800usd/mth for 25 contact hours a week at a private primary school, so, *now* if 2000 is top of the line, what happened? have wages fallen? did something wierd happen with inflation? And, I charged $25/hr for private lessons, which, 7 years ago, was not the same as 15 million today. The price of everything else in istanbul has gone up, so I just assumed that the price of foreign teachers did too, but it seems not. hmmm. Maybe this is an IMF problem or something.

[vre]

Hi there.

You might be better doing private lessons but finding rich kids/ doctors/ business people etc whom you can easily charge 35 million ph and keep it strictly formal and private. Contact large businesses or word of mouth to doctors and rich families as a freelancer. You could make around 2 milliar doing that and not do many hours. Your 'quote' from your friend is unbelievable. I am in a very lucky position, but I clear just over half of that.

I don't have kids but I have also noticed that they aren't allowed to happily wade in the mud in this country for fear of anything and everything. You will encounter people telling YOU how to look after YOUR kids. Just take it with a pinch of salt and let your kids do what YOU think is right. The coast road to Bostanci is a nice, spacious place to go play ball, cycle, have a picnic etc. There is also a good mexican restaurant down there near suaddiye. Take them on a ferry, or go to the Prince's Islands or visit the other side.

In Kadikoy there are many 2nd hand furniture/ white goods shops. Haggle well. I would go to the 2nd hand shops in Kucukyali (just past Bostanci - you can take the train) because they will give you better prices.

I tend to go straight to the pharmacy for any ailments coz I usually know what is wrong. e.g. If you have a little cold here, you're sent for blood tests, allergy tests, injections, follow ups, when all you need is a paracetamol and hot fluids and rest. You usually know better than a doc what's troubling your body (unless its really serious) and can get most stuff over the counter hear - inhalers, antihistamines, antibiotics etc. With kiddies you cant take the risk as much, I know.

Good luck! Let's meet for coffee in 'the park' some time. I'm on this side too.

[almuze]

I love coffee!

[dervish]

[queenfrog]

Hello there,

I was reading through the posts when yours caught my attention. I see that you are looking for cheap washers and things. ı don't know any exact places but I can say that you should ask the sales rep how much water and electricity the machine uses for each load. Most people don't ask and then get stuck with machine that wash 3 kilos but use twice as much water and electricity as a 6 or 7 kilo machine. Also, insist on what you want. When I was buying mine the woman kept trying to pass a different one off on me as better but it held only 5 kilos (and before you ask, yes it did make a difference to me).

Hope this can help you some.

[ghost]

[dervish]

As I've said in other posts............people who stay working at those crappy jobs are questionable indeed. I read their posts on this board about this and that on how Turkey is so very enchanting. Every once in a while these aliens show their human side and complain about the absolute absurdity of their situation.

Yep things will never change as long as weirdoes continue to put up with abuse and degradation for a mere thousand bucks a month

[dmb]

Ghost, what do you mean by Public schools.It Means something different in the UK. I presume, being North American, you mean state schools, then Yabancıs can work in State schools. I know a few yabancıs who do work in them.

[almuze]

and, I know a couple private kolejis where corporal punishment is still used, so not just "state schools" (whatever those may be)

and, maybe the kids run riot with the foreign teachers becasue most of them can't speak enough turkish to keep up with decent classroom management.

and, maybe the foreign teachers who want respect from students should get with the program and learn how to use that whole "don't you want to be a good little student and be the teachers pet?" vibe that turkish teachers use for all it's worth.

[dervish]

State schools = government run

The private koej's start their students in English from preschool. Two hours a day, five days a week. Come on! These kids still can't communicate by the seventh grade and still act like disrespectful brats to their Turkish and foreign English teachers. The problem is that they've been doing this crap for years and the yabanci teachers continue to put up with it year after year. if a teacher is in a situation where going to work everyday is dreaded than they should leave the country rather than look for all the other minor things they like about the country or stay because they feel obligated to a contract. Most people working in turkey are at private kid�s schools or private adult schools, not state run.

My job in turkey just simply bit a*s. I could never form an attachment to the kids because their behavior was so annoying, although there were kids I loved and thought were sooooo cute, but I�m speaking generally here. Sorry, but the good kids just weren't enough to hold me there.

[calsimsek]

Back home we have a great old saying 'a pack of wingeing Poms', but most of you are not Poms. Look I keep reading how horred the kids are and bad the schools are. Dear Ghost as always comes up with the great sweeping coments about every one, and tells us to 'vote with our feet'.
God you can all get out when you want. Theres no gun to your heads keeping you here.
O.K I'm 39 and a bit big (A bit. I wish) and I've been teaching at all levels K-12, Uni, L-Schools and privet Business men.
It's all up to you if you set the rules and you can run the show then there no hugh problems . Ok kids can be a bit much but you can and have to control them. Thats your job. In any country kids will pay up, if they think they can get away with it.
So if you hate it so much let me be the first to through in some money and get who ever is wingeing the most out here.

[mkalpakci]

Some people on here are very rude.... You know who you are.

I almost spit my apple out when I read the first post about Turkish women cleaning. I can totally agree... I am constantly fighting my husband about cleaning every day. It is just not necessary to scrub the wood off of the parke.... I am looking for work as a preschool instructor but I am coming up frustrated. I will have to stay at the ESL school I am at for a while. Has anyone had problems with hours? I was promised at least 20-25 hours a week but for the last two months I have been averaging 10...