Job Discussion Forums

[Carlos1915]

Heya all,

let's be honest. Alot of the ESLers who come to Indonesia are tourists, not what I call professional ESL teachers (those that choose to make this a career).

I mean, WTF, You arrive at the school at 1:50 and told you have a class at 2:00. SO what. How many lesson plans have you got rolled up at the back of your brain. Ya just go in and do the job.

One of the reasons I try to stay away from some ESLers is that they tend to be the dine and wine (complain) peeps. Don't like it, move on. There are a lot of good schools in Indonesia with a lot of good local teachers. The kids would love to have a bule teacher. They like the fact that they get to have someone different and can have someone they can talk to about things they can't discuss with their parents.

I agree to a certain extent, particularly with the Chinese Indos, that they like their teachers to be white, but still, if ya show them that your a team player, friendly, and have a genuine desire to get along, things will work out fine. Compromise does not have to be a bad thing.

Teachers (myself included) have tended to be selfish when it comes to what we expect to get. What's in it for me? It's true we do have to be rather mercenarish (is this a word? ) as we are our own business, but at the same time, considering the benefits we get and what our local colleagues get, I think we are rather lucky. Sure, these guys are not going back to an expensive country to live in, but lets remind ourselves, that no one gets rich, working as an ESL teacher. Life is too short to be preoccupied with making money.

I would return to Indonesia in a heartbeat. Problem is, there are too many other countries out their to explore and experience.

Good luck one and all.

[TEAM_PAPUA]

[Cardinal Synn]

Yup! Then they end up in some panty school like EF and, despite the warnings, they're shocked about how little there is "in it for me".

[benbobaggins]

And then spend the next 5 years of their life posting messages about it..........

[TEAM_PAPUA]

Gives me something to do while the porn is downloading.

[samoht]

everyone i know that comes to indo to teach says they came to experience a differebt culture. This isn't england or usa or canada. why do people expect that culture and labour law? 2 years ago i was freezing my a$$ off working outside, now i'm not. ya take the positive and focus on it. sure the culture and work conditions could be shite, but if people just stopped having 'bule' type expectations we really don't have it so bad even at ef. and i can't believe i just said that even at ef hehehe.

[guruengerish]

Well, if you think EF is bad, go over to the Japan forum and see what they're saying there about NOVA school, where thousands of teachers are out of work now.

Qantas is flying teachers back to Australia on reduced fares, and the flack is flying and the moderator is busy snipping stories.

No job - no visa.

Also no pay for the past month.

[malu]

Already happened here at EF. Medan and Pekanbaru to be precise, early 2005. No job, no house, no visa, no pay. EF headless office at Tamara did NOTHING to help the teachers caught up in it.

[tukangojek]

INDO IS BETTER, BUT JUST DON'T EVEN THINK OF JOINING THE EF SWARA CHINESE GROUP!! :twisted:

[diggydiggy]

I didn't work for them in the end but I will say that EF Swara were at least honest in regards to the contract they were offering.

It wasn't a good one but it did spell out conditions etc.