Job Discussion Forums

[eclectic]

Anybody have any accounts either firsthand or otherwise about places far out in the East of Turkey, regarding teaching positions?

[theenlil]

[eclectic]

great. I assumed the same. Now------ the real problem as I see it is inaccessibility to for example Kars or Malatya or Sivas. Going so far from major hubs just for pounding the pavement and/or interviews seems discouraging, and then there's the OTHER problem of the most likely lack of existing schools/positions way out east. I mean seriously, how many schools in Erzincan or Diyarbakir are there potentially as ESL employers?

What do you say?

[teachinggypsy]

I had a disastrous experience at British Culture in Erzurum (where the head teacher punched his girlfriend in the face in the canteen on my first day there). Their "housing" consisted of me sharing an apartment with a lot of drug-taking roughnecks whose idea of a good time was going to the local whorehouse for a little relaxation. After a few weeks of this I fled and was ignored when I asked for a month's salary. Of course, the nightlife in Erzurum is non-existent--unless, of course, you would like to go to the grocer and risk being beaten up. Groups of thugs staring at you on the street is the least of your worries...when they start following you things get a little more interesting. If you can manage to masquerade as a religious, nationalistic Turk you might not have any problems. The mountains are nice to look at. Otherwise, good luck.

[eclectic]

[teachinggypsy]

I told them I was leaving and I went. As I didn't have a contract yet, there really wasn't any legal recourse--not that such a thing is likely to exist there.

The whole place has a rather Mafia or lynch mob feel to it. I suppose it didn't help that I look a bit like a German basketball player. But I have heard the same sort of horrific responses from Turks. So I didn't think I was being terribly touchy.

Glad to hear that drug-taking roughnecks are someone's cup of tea. They certainly weren't mine.