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Work in Wroclaw

 
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anospi



Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 152
Location: Perth, Western Australia

PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 9:04 am    Post subject: Work in Wroclaw Reply with quote

I was all set to return to Wroclaw in three weeks. Back to my old school, old flat, the misses, everything was set. Then I find out thanks to "the financial crisis" companies are pulling contracts and there is no longer a job for me at my old school.

Is this happening elsewhere in Wroclaw? Poland? What are my chances of finding full time work in Wroclaw if I hit the streets middle of Feb? I'm fully qualified, CELTA, MA TESOL, looking to net a minimum of 4000zl/month. Or am I better hanging tight in my cushy job at a uni in Aus for a couple more months?
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lundjstuart



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

wait out the storm!
I lost a class because they fired my student!
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dynow



Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080

PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 11:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

crisis shmisis.

i don't have a CELTA, an MA TESOL.......and I could get 5 schools to hire me by next tuesday.

the other friends I have here, they work for multiple schools, and they have to routinely turn down work.

sure, my school as well made some cutbacks recently, had to tell a few part timers they should look elsewhere for work, but that doesn't mean that they can't simply go somewhere else.

if you ask me, if you're a native speaker, especially with all your fancy credentials to flash around, if Wroclaw is what you want, don't hesitate to come out here. better to come now then in say April/May when schools won't be looking at all to hire new teachers.

to say "wait out the storm" would be silly. this financial crisis is not going anywhere for a long time. if anything, come here and get a job now before it gets worse.

not to mention, once you get a job here..........in my experience, if you're a native and do even a decent job with the school, they will keep you on. i know countless schools out here without a single native speaker to their name, and if they do, it's 1, maybe 2. natives are still hard to come by in Poland, regardless what others may say.
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anospi



Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 152
Location: Perth, Western Australia

PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 10:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is interesting. Because it sounds completely different from my experience in Wroclaw. Despite my qualifications and experience, most DOSs seemed to treat me with suspicion, and either helped me out the door or offered me a couple of hours at a pittance. In the end I settled for less than what I thought I was worth (3000-3500zl/month net), simply because there was nothing else.

Furthermore, despite working my arse off, doing extra classes at the drop of a hat, even doing triple shifts and never complaining, my boss has said there's no work for me.

I also found a number of schools/businesses/students preferred Polish natives. I guess it was easier for them to listen to a couple of lectures in Polish about English grammar, then do some exercises from Murphy. I never figured this one out.

So you can see, I don't have particularly pleasant memories from teaching in Wroclaw.

If you know people who have to turn down work, I'd be very interested to know which schools they work with. Or are they doing privates or business classes on their own?

I want to come back because of my girlfriend. But I'm worried I'll have trouble scraping together enough hours to pay the rent and bills. With my current creds, I'd be hoping for a minimum of 4000zl/month. If you think this is possible to achieve in Wroclaw as of Feb, I'd love to know how!
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lundjstuart



Joined: 01 Jul 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Warsaw, Poland

PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 8:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In order to do it, negotiate with the school that your interviewing at. Your bottom line is 4k net, ask for 5.5k net and come down but be hard with them!

The students that want Polish teachers are the ones that write great and can read very well in English but they don't understand anything when you speak to them and they are unable to communicate back to you. From my experience it's usually like that!
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dynow



Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080

PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
If you know people who have to turn down work, I'd be very interested to know which schools they work with. Or are they doing privates or business classes on their own?

I want to come back because of my girlfriend. But I'm worried I'll have trouble scraping together enough hours to pay the rent and bills. With my current creds, I'd be hoping for a minimum of 4000zl/month. If you think this is possible to achieve in Wroclaw as of Feb, I'd love to know how!


these are not privates or business classes of their own. just standard, run of the mill contracts with schools.

my advice would be to come here and look to work for at least 2 schools, maybe three. explain to them the situation, that you need X number of lessons per month and that you want to work for more than one school. fill your schedule for the first couple months you're out here and by then, you'll know more or less what's going on with these schools, and start to tailor your schedule to suit you best, assuming you do a good job and have that liberty.

if you go that route, i would also say that you should be upfront with all your schools telling them that you need X amount of work, and if in the future you don't get it, you will start increasing hours at another school, and possibly decreasing your availability at theirs. in my experience, it pays to make that fact clear with the school because they make money no matter who teaches the lessons. if you do a good job at the school, as a native speaker, that should motivate the school to keep your schedule full.

natives, as i said earlier, are still few and far between in Wroclaw, and good ones.......obviously even more scarce, so if you prove yourself at a school, and they have half a brain, they will load you up with as many lessons as you need. if not, that's their loss. in my school, we have been getting more and more contracts that are only available to teach if you're a native. many companies nowadays that have employees at the intermediate/upper intermediate levels want their employees being taught exclusively by natives.

again, as a native, with your qual's, i can't see you having any trouble finding enough work out here, assuming you do a decent job of selling yourself.
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PhilDuval



Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 11

PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Try Empik and Speak Up schools. They are part of the same company. Empik is traditional CELTA style, Speak Up is some mental multi-media place where you just have to photocopy the class materials and deliver them. That said the staff at Speak Up were a lovely bunch of people and the DOS is really kind. The DOS at Empik is not a particularly pleasant person and the manager even less so but the students are generally really nice. There are no supplementary materials at Empik and they generally leave the teachers to it. But the money is ok and they always wanted me to teach more hours - both at the school and in-company.

Empik has a Winter break the last two weeks in January. Speak Up works all year round.

I also got offered work at Profi-Lingua and Lektor. The DOS at Prof Lingua seemed nice, not so reliable at Lektor.

I found that all the schools play their cards close to their chest and for a while I didnt think I would find anything. They did seem a bit suspicious of native teachers. But this was in August - the quietest period. Once the academic year started I was innundated.

And yes the vast majority of teachers in the city are Polish (with the exception of IH which has a very good reputation). These locals have MA's in Philology and yet they get half the rate the natives get. Bit shit really.

I left Wroclaw with a very positive impression of the average Polish person but a shit impression of how they do business.

All the best
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dynow



Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 1080

PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

And yes the vast majority of teachers in the city are Polish (with the exception of IH which has a very good reputation). These locals have MA's in Philology and yet they get half the rate the natives get. Bit shit really.


there's two sides to the coin.

we discuss very often on this forum how many natives come to Poland with no cred's and no idea how to teach, but it happens often with the Polish natives as well.

I have several reasons for saying this.

for one, having an MA in Philology does not make you a good ESL teacher. sure they have lots of classes, practical and theoretical, they are trained with children as well, but in the end, i have seen my fair share of your run of the mill Polish teachers in my day with no more of a clue how to teach people English than the everyday expat landing in Poland.

secondly, i've yet to meet a Polish teacher that speaks perfect English, and the majority of them that I know routinely make mistakes when speaking or have been speaking for so long that they have designed their own "dry", "bookish" vocabulary set to get around material they struggle with.

in many instances, the only purpose they serve at the higher proficiency levels (assuming the DOS even gives them the opportunity) is to deliver the target material/words/phrases/slang etc. in an effective way to the class, but 2 minutes after they teach it to their students, the students themselves are as proficient with the new vocab as the teacher is.

at my school, we are all paid the same. Polish teacher, British, Canadian, American, Norwegian, Swedish, whatever, and to be honest, I like this pay system. every teacher has strengths and weaknesses, and where I have weaknesses, the random English teacher from say Denmark may have strengths. the difference though is that I'm not going to make mistakes when I speak, will have a far richer vocabulary, possess a huge slang/idiom/phrasal verb library, have a direct and deeply rooted connection with culture from an English speaking country............and some may argue that this fact alone = $$$.
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sharter



Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 878
Location: All over the place

PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:57 pm    Post subject: erm Reply with quote

I've met loads of Polish Philologhy grads whose spoken English is faultless because many Poles have now spent a lot of time in the US or the UK.

I'd rather have one of them than an unqualified, scruffy native speaker.

I did a stint at Profi a few years ago and I was amazed at the ability of the Polish teachers and they were on the same hourly rate as the natives. I was shocked by Profi-Lingua's set-up.

Asking more because you're a native was fair in 95 but is not always the case now.

Schools mostly hire natives because it's good for PR.
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anospi



Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 152
Location: Perth, Western Australia

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was DOS at a summer camp in the UK last year and I had two Polish teachers on the team who I had to observe. One was fantastic. The other was painful to watch.

I guess this last post explains why so many schools seemed so suspicious when I went job hunting in Wroclaw 18 months ago. Employing the qualified Polish native was a safer bet. Despite being well dressed and having a fancy CV, I was still an unknown quantity.

If I get treated the same way now, with my qualifications, I'll be surprised. From why dynow says, I shouldn't have much of a problem though.

Nevertheless, the money I could save in Australia in 5 weeks could support me for three months in Poland, so I've decided to postpone my return for a couple of weeks, just to be on the safe side.
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sharter



Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 878
Location: All over the place

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:35 pm    Post subject: 3 months Reply with quote

3 months...Poland ain't cheap now.

Good luck!!
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anospi



Joined: 03 Dec 2004
Posts: 152
Location: Perth, Western Australia

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aussie dollar is buying 2.2zl at the moment, and I'm staying with the pares for a couple of weeks to save save save Laughing
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maniak



Joined: 06 Feb 2008
Posts: 194

PostPosted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

PhilDuval wrote:
Try Empik


No way, whats up phil! its mike from speakup.. ill do the facebook thing in a second, let you know that more than a few girls miss you Smile

ill chime in to say that the way most poles do business, whether as a consumer, client, or employee, would lead to an overnight bankruptcy in the US. as a teacher youve really got to play hardball in negotiating a decent salary and for heavens sake go over your contract with a fine tooth comb
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