Job Discussion Forums

PC Parrot · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:50 am Post subject:

To put this into perspective .. while I have no doubt that the rich kids behave appallingly .. when it comes to Turks in general following rules, the Arabs make the Turks look like absolute sticklers for following the rules ..

lucia79 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 156

sixthchild · Joined: 18 Apr 2012 Posts: 298 Location: East of Eden

Yep thats true! However, you do get paid a lot more to endure the grief you get and things like accomodation and meals and holidays and annual bonus and flight tickets and all the sand you can eat, etc, etc, etc.

delal · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 251 Location: N Turkey

Food for thought: at the weekend I met a 7 yr old boy I used to teach. With me (in a class, not private lessons) he used to be well-behaved and motivated, but when I asked him about school he told me that he's really "naughty" in his English classes at-private-school because he-and I quote-"can." (He's apparently generally well-behaved in the rest of his classes.)
His teacher is a newbie, isn't used to that age group (an important factor I feel) and has apparently yet to learn classroom management...

sixthchild · Joined: 18 Apr 2012 Posts: 298 Location: East of Eden

Yeah another misnomer, bloody classroom management, generally used by people who don't have the first idea how to manage their staff yet expect them to control kids who can do no wrong, never lie and are never rude to the foreign teacher, give me strength!
When you bring one of the little tykes to the office for a dressing down its the softly softly approach and then push the hair back over their sweet little head and off you go back to the ratpack, in the classroom, leaving the poor smuck who brought you there totally in the brown stuff. Total bollox the lot of them. Virtually every school does NOT, REPEAT NOT, have any form of progressive punishment or conflict resolution programme running just send it to the councillor. WOFT!

sroetem · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 33

Wow! Pretty much all of these sentiments ring true.
Most of it is the fault of the parents, but the poor management
at these businesses doesn't help either.

Has anybody had problems with their Turk-Eng teachers and
the resentment that they have for native speakers?
I try not to take it too seriously, but there are some
very obvious signs of all of the natives being ostracized at
the school I work for. Thank god the non language teachers
get on with me very well. I don't think I'll be back next year.

sixthchild · Joined: 18 Apr 2012 Posts: 298 Location: East of Eden

Oh yeah thats another thing, coz we have like more money than them, coz we may be more experienced, better qualified, are native speakers who actually know what we are talking about, etc, etc, yet they do resent us! It never crosses their tiny minds that we have higher living expenses and we pay nearly double for everything.
I have a few Turkish friends who don't teach English, get on with them ok, but others (who teach) esp the females can be very hard work.

lucia79 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 156

lucia79 · Joined: 18 Jun 2011 Posts: 156

sroetem · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 33

How has it panned out for you?
I probably won't teach in this country again,
as lovely as it is.

"Four weeks down the raod...
Things aren't looking up much in the primary school..

Today, I had a 1st grade boy start hitting the keyboard of the computer I was using... then he said, "Teacher! Go back to the Teacher's room!"

I am exhausted every day from these unruly kids..."

dagi_1 · Joined: 08 Mar 2013 Posts: 4

[quote="sroetem"]Wow! Pretty much all of these sentiments ring true.
Most of it is the fault of the parents, but the poor management
at these businesses doesn't help either.

Has anybody had problems with their Turk-Eng teachers and
the resentment that they have for native speakers?
I try not to take it too seriously, but there are some
very obvious signs of all of the natives being ostracized at
the school I work for. Thank god the non language teachers
get on with me very well. I don't think I'll be back next year.[/quote]

Well you can't blame them, can you? The Turkish teachers have actually studied at uni to be teachers, they are there for the long-term and teaching in school is not an overseas adventure for them.
Given the poor qualifications of many TEFL teachers and the fact that they get paid twice as much than their local counterparts, you really can't blame the locals for being upset.

I've had colleagues who bitterly complained that they had to do grading in the weekend or refused to be a chaperone for a school trip. Basically they refused to do tasks that are part of a teacher's job description.

massiveg · Joined: 14 Mar 2013 Posts: 36

How often do you see the Turkish teachers planning lessons or cutting and pasting? How often do you see them doing anything other than gap fills and writing on the board and having the students copy? How often do you see them getting the students speaking in class? How many of them are improving their qualifications and by that I don't mean doing a crappy MA from a Turkish uni that is just multiple choice and a copied thesis? How many of them attend conferences or read anything? How many of them are doing the DELTA? No money but they can afford to smoke. Most of them don't deserve any extra pay and have no interest in teaching.

PC Parrot · Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:40 am Post subject:

That voice sounds familiar.

sroetem · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 33

Touche. Generally, I would agree with you. There are many TEFL teachers with poor qualifications and little experience. If an outfit will hire one; apply within. Stop hiring inexperienced imbeciles if that�s not what you�re after. Some don�t happen to be in those categories. Some happen to be worth every penny and some. I�ve only wanted to garner what those in the same game have had the pleasure of experiencing. Half of the responses I�ve gotten were face-to-face conversations with TEFLers, so it�s not been just an online conversation. I know it is not just me. It saddens and amuses me at the same time.
Judging from the past experiences they�ve had with foreigners, you�d think they would be glad to have such an extraordinary specimen�ok, tooting my horn a bit. It seems they are also too proud to seek out advice on many occasions. I�ve a chest of knowledge and expertise were they willing to utilize it. Yet, I�m a very humble and helpful individual in the office. I do those chaperon things and create and grade tests/homework, etc.
Additionally, why would they hire me and expect me to stay another year in such an environment?? Has the administration not made it apparent to the hens in the office that they should at least make an effort to be cordial with the foreign help? My gut tells me to take off into the sunset tomorrow, but my moral stance believes I should finish out my contract - as trifling as it is.
And the Turk-Eng teachers are just a trivial issue. Teach these MF kids some respect, you parents.

cartago · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 283 Location: Iraq

I guess I've been pretty lucky that I've got along very well with almost all of the Turkish English teachers. From what I've seen of the teaching, I'm not that impressed but I think it's not really their fault, they have to follow this system of preparing students for useless multiple choice exam booklets. A lot of energy just has to go into classroom management, if someone can manage to teach these kids anything at all I'm impressed.

I can understand TEFL teachers getting upset about having to chaperone, some Turkish schools expect all sorts of extra activities which the teachers don't get paid for.