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boundforsaudi
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Posts: 243
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 Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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| This is how I figure it, taking the CfBT-Teachanywhere team as an example. The ministry is the contractor, in the sense that it has a contract to supply students with an education. But the ministry needs teachers, so it makes a contract with subcontractor #1, CfBT, to supply and babysit teachers for, let's say, 3000 OR/month each. But CfBT has its hands full just getting all set up to babysit the whining little brats, so it calls in subcontractor #2, Teachanywhere, which is supposed to be good at recruiting, and pays it 1000 OR/month for finding each applicant. CfBT splits the remaining 2000 OR/month with the teacher. Seems fair, huh? |
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sanpedro72
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 86
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject: Abdul Majid Majali / Hawthorn |
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Abdul just offered me a job at Sohar or Sur... I have read the postings. Seems the Colleges of Applied Sciences were worse years ago than they are now. Or am I wrote. What's worse the recruiter(s) or the job? I am difficulty separating them in this thread.
Abdul didn't even interview me. His assistant Marivic did not call me for the scheduled interview and in fact didn't write me back at all before, during or after the interview time. So I wrote him, a day or two later M gets back to me, I respond with some questions and then I get a contract from Abdul.
Then Adbul goes off to the UK, doesn't respond to email questions, then sends an updated contract with a little higher of a base salary, about $2,800 including "allowances".
Food for thought? Chew it up and spit it out? Recommendations? |
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Borealis
Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 12:03 am Post subject: |
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If you have any sense you won't touch this bloke with the proverbial barge pole.
B |
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sanpedro72
Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Posts: 86
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 5:29 am Post subject: Intuition speaks for itself... |
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| Going to Turkey probably. Would like to visit Oman one day soon. |
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kuberkat
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 358
Location: Oman
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| Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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Steppy-Boy wrote:
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| Get a normal job. ESL teaching is NOT a normal job. It is, on the whole, a rather childish and futile occupation. |
Ah, Stepps, I feel your pain. Our profession has an identity crisis, and the longer it persists, the greater our collective self-esteem issues. There's no denying it: we've got problems.
This is not, I agree, a normal job. Pretending that it is just causes immense suffering. But if it is not a normal job, what is it?
VeiledSentiments suggests professionalisation through further study. That is one route that can enhance the quality of what we do, and our experience of it- not to mention our occupational self-image.
A contrasting route would be to simply declare TEFL (abroad, at least) strictly a gap year occupation, something you do for a year as an adventure while you see the world. After that, you go home to a "normal job". Enthusiasm can do wonders, but that fresh-faced wonder does have an expiry date.
There may be some solutions in between as well. But what is patently not advisable is to paint oneself into a career corner by teaching English abroad, with no alternatives. This is an English teaching forum, and yet an overwhelming percentage of the posts here are distress signals that have nothing to do with either English or teaching. Deny it: the stench of desperation hangs in the air. Yes, that is what you are smelling.
Why? Could it be because many do not actually love this work enough to do it in a country where we would have to sacrifice more and gain less? Could it be because we got hooked on the money at the crest of the TEFL wave, and as inflation rates rise and economies cool we are panicking? Could it simply be that we are no longer capable of doing what Steppy-Boy has called a "normal" job in a country where speaking English is not considered a talent? To be blunt, could it be that many of us are here because we have no better options?
If we want to regain our self-respect, professionally and even personally, it will be up to us to prove that this is not a profession of desperation. The only way to do that is to do this job as well as it can be done... AND have a Plan B.
I dare us all to take that ironic sting out of the words:
"I can quit any time." |
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