Job Discussion Forums

[billybuzz]

Bloody board markers! I've got them coming out my ears .they issue us with a couple of boxes worth each month.when it first started we were encouraged to reuse the old ones over and over,now I have scores of them that I'm hardly ever likely to use.I rescued about 50 that had been thrown away and never used .What a waste! I would prefer a flight ticket home once in a while and fewer board markers .In fact I would welcome anything other than a meal ticket and board markers as an employment "package" .

[dmb]

Billy why don't you redirect them to the schools in Izmir that could do with them. I am not talking about private language schools that are just to tight to buy them. But underfunded schools.

[billybuzz]

D.M.B you are sooooooooooooooooooo right ! I could do that, it would help others and make me feel good at the same time maybe even make me a better human being ,I mean I just don't have the time to use them all so why not give them away or even sell them them ,hey I could be rich on flogging my supply of boardmarkers ,exactly,thats it ! Who needs a chip van anyway ? Sorted !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[guangho]

To the students I'm about to pretend to fail:

Look, I know English, specifically academic writing, is not your cuppa joe. Being the newly wealthy of Eastern Europe means focusing on nice clothes, cell phones and parties. I understand that, in the cosmic order of importance, my classes are somewhere beneath cow dung. I also understand that your stupendous tuition fees keep this place afloat, hence you are literally the (privileged) inmates running the asylum. Because of this last point, I also understand that my grades have all the impact of hot air and as such you feel free to ignore me, confident that threatening to withdraw from the school will intimidate the admin into passing you.

However, your teacher would be thrilled if you kept up with the basics. Firstly, learn to turn off your cell phones so that I do not have to do it for you. Because that is just sad. Also, people existed for eons without cell phones. Seriously.

Second, please come on time, bring a few pencils, bring some paper and maybe even your textbook. It's not much of a textbook, being that this is EFL, but can still be useful. You won't believe how much more you will understand once you read it. The coming on time thing- I know it's a pain to come to class early when you commute from cities that are far away, but please remember that we scheduled early classes specifically so that you can leave early and catch buses back home. We're still working on holding classes remotely through the use of smoke signals, but until that's sorted out, I must subject you to the indignities of actual human interaction.

Third, I don't think having about two writing assignments a week is excessive for a writing class. Please do them, do them on time, and put some effort into it. Writing a single word and proceeding to copy and paste it all over a page is not a complete writing assignment.

Finally, talking to each other or on the phone during the entire class, or coming to class half an hour late because you were talking to your friend in the hallway is rude. It annoys me. My annoyance will harm your grade. The worst thing you can do in such a situation is to insinuate in your desperate half-arsed way that I am being "unfair" or "picking on you." Doing so will annoy me to the point where I will seriously consider being unfair and picking on you.

[cangringo]

Coffee?? A visuals room?? photocopier?? Wow, to dream. You can send me some of those markers as well because we seem to have the same problem as Guy...5 minutes - of course the students usually arrive late anyway so there's lots of time to run around looking and it's a very small school.

We do have a fax machine that copies but most of the time it just jams.

No real complaints though.

[jonniboy]

Things that bug me

English-i-t-i-s. A mysterious little known illness with a dreadful tendency to strike an hour before a private lesson is due to begin thus requiring the cancellation of such. Symptoms are short lived though and have a tendency to completely vanish 10 minutes after the class should have begun.

Private students and cancellations in general. I can happily accept that people have other things to do which will ocasionally mean that they won't come but when they come to 4 classes out of ten then hmmm....

I even had a student who didn't show up for two weeks and didn't call me, who then had the nerve to phone me and complain that I wasn't in on the third occasion!!!

Most of all when privates decide to stop coming to class any more. A thank you for the lessons would have been nice. Why oh why is that too much to expect? At the very least a text message or e-mail to say that they're not coming any more so that yours truly doesn't waste time preparing a lesson and sitting waiting for a non-existent student.

Management who frown on constructive criticism of adult students and insist that I bump up the marks,grades and reports of incredibly weak students, just so they will keep coming back. I know I know... they need to keep up their motivation for coming to class but they also need to realise when more home study is necessary too.

[cangringo]

Yes ok good point jonniboy, I was just referring to the school, but for private lessons english-i-t-i-s is very irritating. Will someone please explain why that word gets beeped...??

We have now learned to just schedule someone else after 3 missed lessons. We don't wait anymore, costs us money to make up lessons after all so give the time to someone who wants to come. It's still irritating sitting there waiting for no student. Of course occasionally they have already paid, in which case it's not as bad except for the preparation.

[Dragonlady]

deleted

out of date

[Jizzo T. Clown]

Not earning enough to pay my monthly bills and being told that all I need to do to fix the problem is to "find a woman who's got a good job," and that I'm crazy for even considering going to Korea.

[guangho]

Speaking of salaries, Interlink is offering 28,000-32,000 in the States but want an M.A. and 2 years Uni experience. What are they smoking?