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OverseasTeacher · Joined: 09 Aug 2011 Posts: 29

My bad, I meant gloomygumi.

Qigong · Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 8 Location: Turkey

OverseasTeacher,

I enjoyed reading your posts. It's hard to tell if you just got here, have been here too long, or simply know everything and anything about Turkish culture and the Turkish education system.

I cut and pasted my five favorites from your posts:

OverseasTeacher · Joined: 09 Aug 2011 Posts: 29

Thanks for the kind words. The review of that school came from the heart. I have been teaching in overseas schools all my life. I like to quote a favorite educator of mine by the name Howard Gardner. He said, "I went to school when I was six years old and liked it so much I never left." That's me. I have been on one side of the desk or another all my life. I love this town though. I have had a hard time coming to terms with what it means to be a yabanci oretmen in Istanbul, but it has been worth it. Prior to coming here my favorite city in the world was Cape Town, South Africa...however it has slowly been edged out by this incredible city. The Turks are great. They are just being Turks, and it is my job to figure out what that means and get on with it. If I don't like it Turkish airlines has regular direct flights to Chicago every day, and I can leave anytime. However, despite my grumblings, the fact of the matter is I don't really want to leave and have decided to do another stint here. Go figure. I have worked all over the world. In fact I have had my teeth fixed on every continent except Antartica, and I think that says something. But at the end of the day I am going to try and make a go of it here. Thanks again for the kind words. Keep well.

gloomyGumi · Joined: 29 Dec 2010 Posts: 353

where has overseas teacher been all this time when we needed some refreshing prose to liven this stinkhole up? these are greatly entertaining, in a wild sort of way, keep it up OST.

OverseasTeacher · Joined: 09 Aug 2011 Posts: 29

For those of you considering TED Istanbul, watch out for Asyin Alp. While not technically the Director of the school, this woman is the Director of English studies and Foreign Languages and has tremendous power as the so-called General Manager, Guven Bestas, is rarely seen and concentrates on the business and financial aspects of the school. Few of the ex-pat teachers would recognize either the Turkish "General Manager" or the "Academic Director" if they tapped them on the shoulder. It is this Aysin Alp person who hires, fires and supervises foreign hires and she is a terror.

First of all she is a workaholic who commonly stays in the school for 12 to 14 hours a day and writes emails late into the night. This would be fine if she were competent or effective, but that is not the case. The school is her life and she pushes people around like pieces on a chess board, and she is a poor chess player. Don't get me wrong, she is no Rasputin or Machiavelli, just a person in a position of authority with little training and no people skills.

Recently she sacked someone in the last week of school who has worked in her HS English Department for five years. No personal contact, just a message to report to Human Resources and the impersonal heave-ho. She is a chain smoker who reeks of tobacco, has a coughing fit every time she cackles and can barely walk up the two flights of stairs to the faculty room. Even though it is presumably a smoke-free school she lights up on a balcony attached to the teachers work room and holds court at a picnic table out there smoking endlessly and guzzling bad coffee as she alternately cajoles and threatens the teachers who must work in that area when not teaching in the classrooms. She is feared and hated, but still gets hypocritical smiles and compliments from the staff who know the score if they pull a face. Turn-over was nearly 90% of the foreign hires last year with all of them complaining about this woman in their exit interviews to no avail. She is the single most detrimental force in this school and seems to have consolidated her position working her way up the ranks from day one when the school opened 12 years ago.

This school is a franchise from the successful and notable mother school in Ankara. However headquarters either hasn't caught on to this person or chooses to ignore her for whatever reason. She can be charming in Skype interviews and quite flattering until you make a misstep when the claws come out and you know you are in for major grief. Do not work for this woman. She is a manipulator extraordinaire.