Job Discussion Forums

[yaramaz]

Two words: Jerry Springer

Oh, and two more words: The Sunday Sport (the British paper with the very dignified naked chicks in it)

And so on.

Turkey doesn't have a monopoly on trash.

[daveryan]

O, and Dave, where did the "The welfare of the other teacher who shares the same flat is in jeopardy as well, and it is not fair" quote come from? One does not remember seeing it [/quote]

The loon wrote this in a previous post on this topic. One is now having joyful dreams of gangs of rampaging Turks besieging his flat

[ghost]

There is only one 'loon' on this forum.

A seriously deranged individual, living somewhere in the North West of England who exhibits paranoid-schizophrenic tendencies and would do well to get his unfortunate head examined.

And that individual claims to have an interest in teaching....who does he think he's kidding..?

No room for bad seed louts in Turkey.

[yaramaz]

Ghost, I think our Dave is writing with humour and honesty-- which I think you value too. I don't think he's serious in his threats or deranged. If you can't see the wit in his posts then you are really lacking in funny bone. But that's ok, because the Turks are humourless and dull people too. You'll fit in well here...

[Anitata]

I am teaching in one of the K-12 colleges in Istanbul. I am not white and I am not a native speaker either. I do have a teaching degree from University of Sydney and few years teaching experience in Australia, Taiwan and China. I see myself very lucky, although I am a qualified teacher, I know how racist this industry is. I was a director in a major Whole English Kindergarten in Taiwan and then an international school in Shanghai, I know how important for a foreign language institute to have white teachers from England and North America. So I was prepared to be treated in a rude way teaching here in Turkey. On my farewell party in Shanghai, my South African boyfriend told me that -you are about to enter a white-only ESL Teaching Industry, people might treat you badly because your nationality and skin colour-. I know this and was prepared for it. Now I have been in Turkey for 3 months or so and all the turks I meet are very nice to me. My students are very naughty and rude sometimes, but I know its nothing personal, they treat the turkish teachers the same ways they treat me. The headmaster of the school is very nice to me and the teachers at my school love me (they bought a lot of things for my apartment when I first moved in three months ago). However, I sometimes feel very lonely and I often spend my weekend with my turkish friends (they are Aussie turks I know them all the way from before I was living in Sydney).
Last weekend, I was invited by one of my Turkish friends to his engagement party in Istanbul and a close relative of the bride-to-be is an English but married to a turk, and she is teaching in one of the K-12 private colleges in Asian side of Istanbul. That English lady gave me the first racist treatment in Turkey. The first thing she asked me was- How much do you get paid per month?- which I found very rude, from the working culture I came from, we never discuss salary openly with others, its very personal. Plus most of the people in the room are probably get half or even less of our paid. and then she went on and on about how much good stuff she gave up in order to move to Turkey, and all these things as Turks are very racist because they look down at blacks. I felt very angry while I was talking to her.
There are many people come from a major culture (well such as English culture, American culture..that the whole world can get some ideas with by watching TV. News or movies..) and they feel they know everything about other countries and dont want to know or understand more about different cultures. I have travelled to more than 20 something countries and can master 3 major languages in the world. I am a qualified teacher and I know what I am doing with my children and I love teaching children.Sometimes I do feel unfair that there are so many white people can travel around the world just simply they can speak their native language....but they are also us who are not white and eager to be part of the world creat this whole ESL racist teaching culture....
I see myself a very lucky one here and hope I will make more friends and enjoy the culture here. I do not regret to give up the good salary (three times more than what I received here) and good position to come here. Although the children are naughty, but I still trying very hard to make them interested in learning. That what teachers for- we should be able to teach all kinds of children, smart ones, slow ones, disable ones and many more different kinds of kids. Nothing is more rewarding than shaping young minds.
[/b]isa, if you like, please write me an e-mail. I can tell you the details about my school, its a wonderful school and I think they will need more teachers next academic year.
cheers, everyone and have a merry christmas and happy new year!!

[Mike_2003]

Is asking someone how much they earn racist? I get asked this all the time.

[SueH]

Bear in mind also that it in the _employer's_ interest for the workers not to know what the others are earning.

I agree that better or more qualified teachers should earn more, but although employers may use that argument it's not why they prefer employees not to discuss what they earn.

[Byzantine]

If you plan on staying in TEFL, I'd get used to the salary question

A large part of TEFL teaching involves making decisions about where to teach and with whom. Teachers operate in an information vacuum, so asking about a wage, accomodation, contact hours, etc. all seems very normal to me.

Sounds like this person chose a poor time to ask you, though.

[daveryan]

[ghost]

No - Yaramaz, you are wrong not to take the threats seriously from the individual we know about.

In the first place, the individual in question is continually contravening the rules of the forum with his ugly, aggressive and threatening dialogue. He should have been kicked out a long time ago.

Secondly, how individuals like that even entertain the thought of teaching with the kind of deranged mindsets they hold is depressing to consider.

Those unfortunate people should be taken care of because they are capable of anything. They have no business in an area such as this.

One often reflects that this so called 'profession' is a refuge for all kinds of misfits, cranks, imposters and sick individuals hiding under the 'mask' of a respectable profession - the profession of teaching - a noble art if ever there was one....