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simon_porter00
Joined: 09 Nov 2005 Posts: 505 Location: Warsaw, Poland
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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geek alert! I take my hat off to you, not a bad bit of geekery.
Back to the OP: (Based on Warsaw figures)
8k gross? 20 lessons a week at 100zł, 4 times a month and there you go. The question is how to get there. Assuming you're not working the BC and the average wage is roughly 55zł gross per 60 min (please correct me if i'm wrong, i've not worked in a school for a little while now) that means you'd have to pull 37 odd hours a week - ouch.
Assuming you were earning 60zł for 60 min privates and you'd mix that in there somewhere you'd have to do 19 hours of school work and 15 hours or privates a week (assuming it was a 50/50 split and adjusting for gross/net) and that means 34 hours a week. ouch.
8k net? Now, that's a hard one. You'd have to earn a leeeetle bit less than 9500zł gross a month to pull that one out of the bag.
Not going to work out the hours on that, needless to say even if you worked 40 hours a week you wouldn't hit that.
The seemingly obvious alternative is to start up your own business, but I wouldn't do that for at least 6 months not until you've made some contacts and got things lined up. |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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Hod wrote: |
A foreigner entering Thailand via any airport can stay thirty days, whereas any EU citizen can stay in Poland until the krowy come home. I can also generalise with the best of them and could go on to describe the lifestyles of at least four Warsaw teachers who make your Bangkok flatmates look like monks. |
Nope. You can get a 3 month "tourist visa" to Thailand at Thai consulates. Once that runs out, you simply have to cross the border to Laos or Cambodia to get another one. Westerners can stay in Thailand indefinitely doing this.
Hod, I don't doubt that you know some shady characters teaching in Warsaw. There are dodgy schools here that will employ almost anybody, sure. But I can name at least half a dozen schools in Bangkok where the only requirement to teach is to 1) be white 2) speak int. + level English 3) wear a tie 4) smile and 5) show up to (at least most) of your lessons halfway sober. A "good" teaching/learning environment is the exception, not the rule
I interviewed at several schools in Warsaw last Fall. I tried to apply to schools which had good reps on Dave's and elsewhere. I could tell from the questions they asked me and their observations of my teaching that most of them at least had a clue what a teacher should be doing in the classroom.
Can't say the same about Thailand. Heck, they still smack the kids over there. |
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Hod
Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home
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Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:57 pm Post subject: |
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Once again, opinions about schools� interviews and their tricky questions, dress codes, sobriety, smacking and skin colour are subjective. To be objective, however, the realities are below.
�Thailand�those arriving at overland crossings will only be given visa free entry valid for 15 days.�
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/asia-oceania/thailand?ta=entryRequirements&pg=4
A Thailand-based teacher with dodgy paperwork can no longer rely on crossing a border every once in a while, unless they�re prepared to do so every fifteen days. |
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simon_porter00
Joined: 09 Nov 2005 Posts: 505 Location: Warsaw, Poland
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 6:31 am Post subject: |
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Master Shake wrote: |
Heck, they still smack the kids over there. |
You know, I don't think this is such a bad thing - every time one of my students says something daft like 'furnitures' or 'advices' or something or gets subject verb agreement wrong for the umpteenth time and it's clear that they're never going to get it right I think a quick thump to the back of the head could resolve those issues  |
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dynow
Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 1080
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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for your informations mr. porter, I am beats my students from 3 years  |
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Scawie
Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 44
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Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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dynow wrote: |
for your informations mr. porter, I am beats my students from 3 years  |
Come on, I am beating my students since 3 years. |
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thefuzz
Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 271
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:51 am Post subject: |
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Thanks everyone for your input.
Now I know that a more realistic figure would be between 5 and 6K per month...I also don't feel like working all those hours...a but of downtime is necessary to remain sane. Again, all your help is much appreciated.
Cheers. |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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Hod wrote: |
A Thailand-based teacher with dodgy paperwork can no longer rely on crossing a border every once in a while, unless they�re prepared to do so every fifteen days. |
No. As I posted, you can use ""toruist visas,"" which are valid for 90 or 180 days, to remain in the Thailand indefinitely. A tourist visa is not the same as the 15 or 30 day "visa exeption" stamp they put in your passport when you arrive/cross the border.
Read this: http://www.thaivisa.com/297.0.html
simon_porter00 wrote: |
You know, I don't think this is such a bad thing - every time one of my students says something daft like 'furnitures' or 'advices' or something or gets subject verb agreement wrong for the umpteenth time and it's clear that they're never going to get it right I think a quick thump to the back of the head could resolve those issues |
I always knew you were a horrible, evil, brute of a man.
Ever considered Thailand? No more freezing winters...? |
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sharter
Joined: 25 Jun 2008 Posts: 878 Location: All over the place
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:29 pm Post subject: the op and the thread |
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So the bottom line is; 8k is gonna be hard to earn and no-one wants to learn Chinese......
I enjoyed reading the Polish-Thai crazies thread. Personally, I think that EFL is full of unemplyable loonies the world over. Self proclaimed great teachers are everywhere and decent ones very rare. It doesn't matter where you go, you'll find your share of backstabbing, neurotic, over sensitive, pill popping, minor bonking, booze addled drop outs. Poland's got it's fair share of absolute screw ups and cowboyschools just look no further than JDJ. The bottom line is that the private language school cares very little if you can teach. You're just there for the marketing and to make the students laugh. Privates are different ball game though. |
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scottie1113
Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:38 pm Post subject: Re: the op and the thread |
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sharter wrote: |
So the bottom line is; 8k is gonna be hard to earn and no-one wants to learn Chinese......
I enjoyed reading the Polish-Thai crazies thread. Personally, I think that EFL is full of unemplyable loonies the world over. Self proclaimed great teachers are everywhere and decent ones very rare. It doesn't matter where you go, you'll find your share of backstabbing, neurotic, over sensitive, pill popping, minor bonking, booze addled drop outs. Poland's got it's fair share of absolute screw ups and cowboyschools just look no further than JDJ. The bottom line is that the private language school cares very little if you can teach. You're just there for the marketing and to make the students laugh. Privates are different ball game though. |
Not in my school. |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:21 pm Post subject: Re: the op and the thread |
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scottie1113 wrote: |
sharter wrote: |
So the bottom line is; 8k is gonna be hard to earn and no-one wants to learn Chinese......
I enjoyed reading the Polish-Thai crazies thread. Personally, I think that EFL is full of unemplyable loonies the world over. Self proclaimed great teachers are everywhere and decent ones very rare. It doesn't matter where you go, you'll find your share of backstabbing, neurotic, over sensitive, pill popping, minor bonking, booze addled drop outs. Poland's got it's fair share of absolute screw ups and cowboyschools just look no further than JDJ. The bottom line is that the private language school cares very little if you can teach. You're just there for the marketing and to make the students laugh. Privates are different ball game though. |
Not in my school. |
"Not in my school."...he types, and then crushes an empty can to Tyskie against his forehead. And later falls fast asleep to the sound of a female Polish student roughly a third of his age showering in his bathroom.
Just giving you sh*t, scottie.
There are quite a few good English schools in Poland. Bell is definitely one of them. I think schools, and students, in Poland are becoming more and more selective about who they employ. |
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scottie1113
Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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I drink Tyskie from the bottle, not from a can. The pain is better when I hit my forehead.
I had a friend here in Gdansk (he's since moved back to the US after about 6 years here for reasons which are outside the scope of this thread) who made 8K nett here. 8 hours a day of private lessons at 50 zl an hour, 5 days a week. Sometimes he went to students (I won't do that) but more often they went to his flat. He started lessons at 10.00 and finished at 22.00.
He usually didn't work during the summer except for hustling students for the next year, which was almost a full time job. It took him a while to build his business, and before he left he told me "never again".
8K is doable if you don't mind not having a life and wrecking your health.
Maybe it's different in WaWa. |
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TwinCentre
Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 273 Location: Mokotow
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thefuzz
Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 271
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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That is some truly excellent advice. Thanks for the link! |
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Master Shake
Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Posts: 1202 Location: Colorado, USA
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:27 pm Post subject: |
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With corporate contracts, I not only offered high quality teaching but also uniquely flexible agreements which allowed them to cancel when they wished with no charge. (They rarely did). |
Don't know if he means cancel a course or a lesson. Either way, I wouldn't do this.
Polish students are bad about cancelling lessons on short notice.
Make them pay in advance and stick to your cencellation policy or you will get burned. |
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