Job Discussion Forums

[carolinachristy]

I am thinking about teaching in Turkey when my contract is up and was wondering what my job options are. I have a BA in English, an online TEFL, 6 months teaching in Mexico and a year teaching in Korea.

[keitepai]

I think you should do a search of the Turkey forum, there may be a recent answer for you already and could be why no replies.

[nomad22]

if you want a school as in kids, search for terakki or istek, they both pay well and give good conditions but you have to put up with turkish children and sometimes demanding principals. if you want to teach adults you cant do much better than english time unless you want a university position - theyre hard to come by and dont really pay very well due to all the holidays. english time is good if you liked the walk-in, walk-out system in korean hagwons, no frills, no spills. you can usually get as many hours as you need at ET. sure the textbooks arent great, some managers are bad, but the students are generally pretty cool and the money is good for a no strings attached job. ive worked for ET on 2 separate occasions and if i was to return to turkey that's where id go again. it's a great starting school for arriving newbies. dont listen to too many of the posts on this forum. turkey is full of whinging expats who are trapped and unhappy and cant return to their home countries for numerous reasons. teach your classes well and be a friendly person and you wont have any probs.

[yaramaz]

[PhilYouUp75]

[fishmb]

Teaching Turkish adults is always an option too!

[eclectic]

boy is this confusing.........ET yes? ET no????? children yes?? adults no????? everybody has somethin different to say. Guess Im jumpin in baptism by fire Ill let you know how it goes.

[misterkodak]

ET.. well, I'd have to agree to disagree with the Nomad. I worked at 2 of their branches and it was pretty much the same. They want alot from teachers but want to give very little in return. Student quality varies. In our branch, one student threatened to kill one of my colleagues because he was marked late and absent. This guy wasn't the usual youthful thug, but a "professional" who owned his own company. We had a thief come in during the break time and steal phones,money, and other valuables out of the classrooms. That was a wonderful evening because one of the cleaners noticed the thief, ran after him and was stabbed. Then, there were the 3 teachers who were sent to a factor well outside of Istanbul. It was a 3 hour drive in the back of the ET "deathmobile" van. However, they weren't reimbursed for travel. When they told management that they didn't want to teach those courses they were told "Do it or you're fired!".
One evening on a really nasty snowy, icey night the van (which had bald tires and no chains) slid across the median and into the other lane of traffic!
My advice is to be very careful where you work. The ET textbooks are the least of their worries!

[Antepli Ejderha]

Lots of positives and negatives about here.

Do a good search of the Turkey forum and then come back with specific questions.

[coffeespoonman]

Think of ET like your first time having... you know... It's a bit awkward, and neither of you really know what you're supposed to be doing. It's pretty fun, but afterwards, you're kind of left with the feeling that you could probably do a whole lot better next time.

Seriously - English Time is a great place to work if you're either really inexperienced or only teaching abroad to have fun. It's easy, no one expects anything from you, other than your presence, and you'll meet lots of people to have a drink with. It is, however, not a place to stick around at if you're looking for a career in EFL.

I say this having taught at ET for about 2 years (both full and part time). I have very fond memories of my time there, and I'm thankful to them for hiring me despite the fact that I had no idea what I was doing. Of course, the time came to move on, but I don't regret starting out there at all.