Job Discussion Forums

[ghost]

Those who stay in Turkey for years generally appreciate the 'laid back' quality of life, and fairly relaxed work environment prevalent in most language schools.

However, one imagines that most are not saving much 'coin' in Turkey - at least not enough to shout home about. The money 'saved' might generally take care of weekend trips and occasional 2-3 week holidays and 'low workload' periods during the year. This would apply to all those people on those $1000-$1200 dollar plus salaries with accommodation thrown in.

For those lucky enough to hold Uni. positions (in Turkey) with salaries in excess of $2000 U.S. per month, coin can be saved, but there are not many fortunate enough to land those positions. Also, workloads in Unis. have increased for foreign teachers, who used to teach about 12 'contact hours' per week. Now, many teachers are doing the job of two teachers (!) and their contact hours time has doubled with the increased workloads and markings too.....not quite as nice.

All the people teaching in Taiwan (where ghost will be going in late August for one 'High School year') mention the money saved each year (most teachers 'save' between $15.000-$20.000 Canadian dollars per year) as being the main benefit. Quite a few of the teachers have bought condos. in Taiwan and homes in their own countries on the salaries over there.

Few people in Taiwan mention the quality of life....because, truth is, Taiwan is a relatively small Island, with one of the highest densities of population on the globe, where every square kilometre is taken up by thousands and thousands of citizens vying and staking out their space.

Similar to Taiwan, perhaps, are the people teaching in the Gulf Arab countries, where serious money can be made (tax free) but where the quality of life is not as high as other locales, because of conservative customs and sharp demarcation between muslims and non muslims.

The longer people stay away from their 'developed' home countries, the harder it is to adjust to life back home, because things back home move along at a faster pace, and work loads increasing rather than decreasing. In Britain, for example, work pressures force many to work over 45 hours a week, in addition to commuting constraints.

In a nutshell - the question is 'what is more important, quality of life, or money?' for most?...but the question, has, in part, been answered by all those staying in Turkey for protracted periods of time - quality of life (which is subjective in any case) appears to win the day.

[dmb]

[scot47]

"a creature of Scotland of the late 1960's" Frightening ?

Well YES. That is why I am such an astounding success in the classroom !

[dmb]

Interesting idea, frightening your students into learning English. But would it work outside of KSA

[molly farquharson]

ghost, this thread was not about money but ambiguity. I think the money issue has been beat to death, unless something new comes along. I taught in the US for many years and I did not save money then either, btw.

[Bahcevan]

I've been following this interesting topic, and thought I'd add
a "home country" perspective. That is, I am in the U.S. at the
moment and getting ready to make a dash for greener pastures.

Entrailicus, you brought up an interesting point - wondering if
you owe it to your native country to stay there and try to make
things better, or to escape and find your personal peace. I think
the carefree feeling of lightness you feel in Turkey is real and
to be savored! You are quite correct that you are relieved of
many of the responsibilities of your native country - you are a
foreigner and fully entitled to leave things to the Turks!

As an American, I am disgusted and insulted at many things that
"my" government does in "my" name. The "powers that be" in this
country are indeed powerful, and have already created the kind
of country that I don't want to be a part of. Thus I have decided
to remove myself from its pool of participants. There is ambiguity
for us people in "our own" countries - the very fact that you who
are reading this (are living in a place like Turkey) already sets
you apart from most of your countrymen (assuming you are
from US, UK, OZ, or CAN) . Most folks in these countries tend
to turn up their noses at the idea of moving TO a place like Turkiye
and TRYING to stay there and get to know people, etc... It simply
does not fit into the Monoculture of Consumption that pervades
these places. (just read the many threads complaining
about money to see the friction)

Also, speaking for my tiny section of the world (western USA)-
the American people here in my city are cold and closed to one
another. Their only unity is one of feeling like they are in the
"same boat" as each other. Other that that, people are really
only concerned with their own lives, own incomes, own friends,
own familiar hangouts, etc... Most people are small-minded
with no interest in the goings-on of the world. People who
move to other countries have an infinitely deeper understanding
of things that will forever set them apart from their countrymen
who stay home. At least the Turks are curious about you and
will invite you in for tea! - the Americans don't give a toss.

[31]

'' Other that that, people are really
only concerned with their own lives, own incomes, own friends,
own familiar hangouts, etc... Most people are small-minded
with no interest in the goings-on of the world.''

Sounds exactly like the Turks.

[justme]

[calsimsek]

This thread has brought up alot of issues. It seems we all agree that we will never fit in 100 %. Yet we all appear to be happy and getting on with our lifes.

So the question is why did we leave? Most of our childhood friends stayed back home got married, had the kids, brought the house, got divorced and died. What makes people like us leave and not go back. Did we all know that we would leave or was it some sort of twisted luck that dumped us here.

How many of you would be rich man/women if you were given 1 Y.T.L for every time you were asked WHY By now I would be very rich, what about you?

[Golightly]

Why did we leave? Where do you start? I suspect that if you asked 10 EFLers that question, you'd probably get 12 opinions.
I left in the first place because
a) I was in a maddeningly boring job, selling car number plates;
b) I saw an advert saying ,' work your way round the world!';
c) Life was boring;
d) The Conservatives had just returned to power;
but more importantly
e) I just wanted to escape.
The fact that anywhere foreign seemed to have cheaper booze and fags and better weather helped.

[31]

Work you way round the world.

You fell for that old chestnut. Whose ad was it, some tefl mill flogging its 900 quid Celta?

[Golightly]

absolutely!
I WAS young and naive, though.
And it was still better than selling car number plates.

[justme]

I honestly don't know why I left home and came here. It was a rather split second decision that just seemed like the thing to do at that time. I mean, I have an answer to give to the 'why did you come to Turkey?' that I'm forever asked (actually, the question is usually 'why did you in T�rkiye came?'), really several answers, because I get bored of answering the same thing all the time. I never planned to stay here for a long or short time, though originally I guess I thought it would be longer than a year, since I shipped most of my stuff over with a plan to work at a job I'd found online and accepted by email after a phone interview. I've never worked anywhere else, I never had a desire to country hop, and I never had a desire to go home.

And except for some foods (which are day by day appearing here) and my family (who are available by phone and email), I don't especially miss America, and don't really have a particular reason to go back there. Or anywhere, for that matter. The only thing I truly regret about leaving is missing my grandmother's funeral. But I can console myself a little by thinking she would have thought it was ridiculous to go to all that trouble and spend all that money to go just for that.

Is it really neccessary to know the reason for doing the things we do? For small decisions, I have reasons, but for big decisions, things just seem to happen and I'm cool with that...

[Golightly]

I've just noticed that the word f4gs in my last post got beeped! May I just point out that my f4gs were British English f4gs, i.e. cigarettes, not American English f4gs.
Sorry for any confusion caused.
Of course, it gives a whole new perspective to the phrase 'do you know where I can find some f4gs?' when a Brit is asking a Yank.
No wonder you guys have some strange ideas about us Brit blokes...

[dmb]

I left because I had a boring lab job for a very short time. I then hada boring office job again for a very short time. I just had to do something different. I cant remember why I chose EFL though