Korean Job Discussion Forums

[William Beckerson]

Actually, I'm not interested in going at him.

[Hankukin]

[Homer]

Oh Canuckistan I as right with you concerning teaching back home..that is until you started ranting about the separatists and the PQ...

Teachign condition in Quebec are pretty much the same as they are in other provinces. The salaries are lower than in Ontario and the taxes higher but the work load and conditions are quite similar.

Two of my friends got their teaching liscence accredited by the QC government and are now permanent teachers in high schools in the Montreal area. It took them 3 years to earn the permanence, thats average time.
The cut backs you mentionned are true almost across Canada in the piblic schools.
You want better conditions (i.e. not counting your copies...) go to a private school like Notre Dame or Brebeuf.

Also, coming here just for the money and calling the teaching industry a "joke" means you are a mercenary of sorts since a) You do not find any redeeming values with the system that you now work beyond the savings you get and b) See this as a "smart financial management decision.

Perhaps you simply did not express yourself as you wished and I missunderstood you...

Teaching here is like teaching back home but with different sets of challenges, advantages and problems.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[canuckistan]

Homer, I know things are bad right across the country with the school boards. See a previous poster's frustration. But in Quebec for the last umpteen years you've had the EXTRA added fun of dealing with all the entrenched b.s. of the French union politics. You know, the ones who leverage the P.Q. right before an election. Less than 1% of Quebec civil servants are English. That should tell you something. In the past I was asked in interviews if I thought the federal gov't was fair. Yup. Had to pass a written French test with at least 70% to get in too. No problems there, but fed up with facing the prospect of perrenial limbo on "the list", I simply started my own school in the private sector. Got a life to lead cha-cha!

Things have opened up the last 5 years waves of teachers hired in the late 70's have retired now. They also realized that yes, you're going to have to hire those maudit Anglophones if you want to teach English properly! The Liberals have just lowered the grade at which French kids start learning English too-grade 3 now. They're taken it much more seriously the last years. I'll probably end up at a school board again.
As for teaching at the private schools/colleges, get in line, especially for places as famous as Brebeuf.

The real mercenaries in this industry are the hagwon onwers that just don't give a rat's butt about good management, curriculum, books, you name it. My students don't suffer for it, because in the end no matter where on the planet I work or how upside down the place is, I bring in my books and my knowledge/experience and knock myself out for them.
And I get paid. That's not mercenary, that's just the deal I signed.

[Homer]

You mean those same french union reps who voted for the liberals in the past election canuckistan??


As for the french test, I am an ontarian and I completely agree with it. Just like a teacher coming from Quebec has to prove his or her English ability before being able to teach in another province. Its simple demographics really. Quebec is still well over 85% francophone so, unless you teach at their English schoolboard you have to be proficient in French.

As for the civil servants canuckistan, francophones represent about 23% of the total canadian population but less then 15% of the public sector employees at the federal government.

Teaching jobs in the private sector are harder to get but not that hard. they are facing the same problems that other schools are facing now across Canada: Teacher shortages.
They do require higher qualifications (a Masters Degree sometimes) but thats their policy.

Finally, kudos to you for your attitude towards teaching! We need more teachers like you around. I would definitively share a cold one with ya!