Job Discussion Forums

[thebigqtip]

Greetings.

I'm 24 and I've found myself back in my boyhood Nebraskan hometown and I'm really losing my head. I'm surrounded by zombies. Nebraskan zombies.

I just finished a one-year TEFL tour of duty in Korea. It was exhausting and exasperating, but I miss the lifestyle and I miss living someplace slightly less provincial than Nebraska.

I've gotten some encouraging emails from Global Village in Kielce. It seems like a legitimate school. The director's given me the email addresses of three current teachers, so I'm sure it's not a cowboy outfit, unless they all write me back: "It's a cowboy outfit."

So, here is the situation:
- I'm applying to graduate school in the fall and I still have some money saved from Korea. My goal is to teach abroad and not blow any/all of that money.

- I got my CELTA in Krakow and stayed there just long enough to develop a mad crush on the city. But having resigned myself to teaching elsewhere in Poland, I'm looking for someplace relatively pleasant, unpolluted, and not too lonely.

- I'm also thinking about teaching in South America.

Those things considered:
- Global Village pays 40 zlotych per 45-minute teaching hour, and that's before taxes. I'll be paying rent on a place picked out by the school. I know I won't be making much (any) money, but can I at least rest assured that I won't be flat broke by the time I get home?

- What sort of city is Kielce? There isn't much about it on the message boards, aside from really meaningless descriptors like "nice" and "pretty" and "okay."

- If any of you have taught in both Poland and South America, which experience would you prefer to repeat and why? I'm undecided. I'd rather learn Spanish than Polish. South America is a Get Out of Winter Free card, whereas I would be heading into Poland just as things were getting ugly. But TEFL in South America seems a bit shadier than it appears to be in Poland. The South American schools I've contacted aren't getting back to me. Meanwhile, all sorts of nice ladies with extremely long Polish names are sending me emails and I'd hate to keep them waiting.

Thanks for reading this. Free cheese pizza to all who respond.

- Q-Tip

[Harry from NWE]

Kielce is OK but a little grim. There are nicer cities in Poland. Have you looked into working in Warsaw (there's loads of work here), Wroclaw, Poznan or Gdansk?

[asgerd]

I spent a year in Kielce (some time ago, admittedly.) It's not a bad place but there's not a lot to it. The best thing was the many well-marked forest trails through the SK mountains, accessible from the city on foot or at the end of a trolleybus line - through villages, to the caves, to the (low) tops of "the oldest mountains in Poland" (don't forget that). Warsaw and Krakow were easy to get to, as were various little towns.

It used to have an excellent Ukrainian restaurant! don't know if it's still there. Otherwise, I can't think of any highlights. (Lowlight: being shown round the ball-bearing factory so the manager could practice for visiting investors... zzzzzz.) People were fine (even those in ball bearings) and I hardly met a single non-Pole.

Put it this way: I didn't itch to get out, but I'm planning to go back to Poland and it won't be to Kielce (except maybe for a hike.)

[thebigqtip]

Thanks, guys. I think I have a better feel for the sort of place I'm (probably) heading for. I'm something of a TEFL greenhorn, so I don't suppose I can afford to be too picky.

I taught English in Daegu, South Korea, which was similarly mediocre: between Seoul and Busan, not really known for anything, lots of ball-bearing factories ...

... with the notable difference that Daegu was overrun with hard-drinking foreigners who were impossible to avoid.

"Hey, white guy, come get sh*tfaced!"

Cheese pizzas are in the mail.