Job Discussion Forums

bozo loves cheese · Joined: 21 Sep 2006 Posts: 2 Location: busan, south korea

Can anyone give me information about Bursa, the cost of living there, what type of city it is, how far/close it is to Istanbul as an employer has told me they have opennings for ESL teachers there.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Supposedly a good place for 'admirers of the male form'. Nudge, nudge, wink.

Vixter · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 64

I've been living in Bursa for the last year and I really like it.

Cost of living is lower than Istanbul- I pay 650 YTL a month for a fab 3 bedroom apartment in a lovely smart residential area. For a 1 bed, it'd be around 400YTL.

Transport is good - they have an excellent metro system which costs 1.5 YTL to take you into the centre of town, 1 YTL if you use the card system here. Traffic is much lighter than Istanbul.

The IS nightlife but I'm sorry to say that it's not a patch on Istanbul. Bursa is lovely, a lovely setting on the side of Uludağ (mountain) so skiing in the winter is great at weekends though drinks up there are pricey. In fact the price of alcohol seems to be fairly high in Bursa (but maybe that's the sort of bars I frequent - you either have smart stylish bars or the raki houses that only men go to). It's fairly traditional - lots of political style headscarves, and not millions of westerners, but the people here are very friendly.

However from my limited experience the salaries are much less than Istanbul and they expect you to put in more hours for them e.g. I'm paid 1250 YTL per month with full SSK, and work 28 hrs a week. But then I only qualified last summer which has a bearing on things.

Good luck! Which school are you thinking about?