ENGLISH STILL PROFITABLE IN POLAND?

Maybe for schools it has been a bad year. Yet when I left my school to come here, they were over-flowing with classes, so much that they sometimes couldn't find a teacher who was free. This led to the "boss/owner" (who couldn't speak English) to start a happy smile board. Teachers who took on extra lessons would get more smiles and be paid more. Another crap idea she had was to have the teacher evaluations put on a board so other teachers and students could read them. I almost slapped her when she asked for my opinion on these idea's. From a man management point of view it is moral destroying for the teachers. As everybody can have an "off-day".

Again I will point out the only rule that matters in teaching. If you have a good reputation, then work, money and private lessons will come flowing to you. But a good rep is something very hard to build in a city like Krakow.

That's the bad side of it. You could have a long string of great classes and one bad day and that's the one people remember. That's nonsense!

Schools have tightened their belts and have made teachers bargain more come negotiation time. They will not lower their profit margins for teachers. It's easier in Gliwice. My timetable is falling into place nicely so I can slot some privates in.

Exactly. Plus I hate schools who tell newbies that they must have a TEFL certificate. For me these qualifications are meaningless. Yes they do kinda teach you how to teach. But give me a month with any new teacher and trust me, they will be great.

They are largely redundant, part of the drive to move people towards debt. We live in an age when the internet can give people access to virtually anything they need. They are token gestures that show a commitment to the teaching process but it's expensive for sth that isn't even a guarantee. The willingness to invest is the value but a sober and motivated teacher will be just as attractive a proposition for most schools.

So many people have them these days and jobs are getting harder to get. The best bet is getting the timing right in the application process.

Guess you're not talking about me then :D


That and knowing someone already in a school.
Many people came to me to ask for jobs. One of which is on this forum. I made the mistake once of getting someone a job in the school i worked at, after that I was dealing with 4-5 folk asking for jobs. In the school I used to work at before here, 70% of teachers have me to thank for their jobs and the said school has one of the best reps in Krakow.

Well, I don't like to talk for others ;) ;)

Contacts are hugely important but it's making first contact that is key in getting the ball rolling. You have to let people find their own way or they will teen a len o ye.

hmmmm bad patter :P

Those who want to eke out profits should look towards teaching kids. They are the future and that which Poles will invest in. You can find many bright sparks and build them up. For those that are true teachers, there is a nice feeling that comes from helping young ones raise their profile and gain more confidence with the language.

In the beginning I really hated the little feckers. But once I saw my efforts were making result, I started to love teaching kids. Big job satisfaction with it!

It's not my style to teach them but I have taught kids in Japan and also a private here who came on in leaps and bounds. They are like sponges and are naturally more receptive. If you have the knack, that's where it's at.

I would throw proofreading into the ring. But you know why maybe only I would do that ;)

Nah, ukpolska does it too and I have asked for some assignments to check. That reminds me, I have to chase up my contact for that. These academics need their work to be tip-top and a native speaker can put a good shine on it.

Kids are much more pleasant to teach - they don't have any preconceptions and will willingly do silly things.

Adults on the other hand are a nightmare - particularly the ones that have a 'I don't have to learn at home, I pay you to teach me' attitude. That particular mindset is very, very common in 25-40 year old men - and it's awful. They seem to believe that they know everything about English - one guy complained about me because apparently he just KNEW that his pronouncation was wrong and I wasn't correcting him.

Women are usually fine though.

Isn't proofreading exceptionally tedious, but well paying work?

Proofreading can be tedious, it just depends on what kinds of texts come your way. I like doing it as it requires precision. It pays quite well too.

I dislike the 'ja wiem' types too, those that think they know it all. Women tend to be less defensive right enough.

Yes, I still work for one of the biggest international companies in Poland. So next time you buy your Electrolux product, and read the instruction manual, think of me!!! :D

That doesn't mean it will be any easier to understand, as a fecking computer program prevents you from using English that you know is simple :D

Yeah, it doesn't appeal to me at all - anyone that can do it to make a living from (as opposed for just some cash) does deserve credit in my book. Maybe it's because there's no room for innovation and it's simply tedious work - but then again, I guess that's why it pays well!


The worst of those people are the ones who clearly don't bother to actually learn - there's one guy I can think of who spends the break on his mobile, doesn't bother to bring the workbook and generally has a rotten attitude. Unsurprisingly, he likes women - mainly because he can flirt with them behind his wife's back.

Ugh.

I remember one class that we were discussing childrens toys. I taught them "rocking-horse", And one ****** complained to me in front of the class that I didnt know what it meant and had to glance at my book to find the meaning. I stared at him as if to say "WTF, which person here is the teacher?". He thought he was funny and had a wee laugh. The rest of the class were looking at me as if I was going to hit him. In the end I told him that if he wasn't willing to learn, and showed no respect that he could sit outside and ride a rocking-horse till he understood that I wasn't willing to deal with his smart assed comments. He complained and I got fined 50pln, but it was worth it. 2 years later I got a card thanking me for being his teacher after he passed his FC exam.

Other people I dont like teaching are those who are only there because they feel that they should be there, but dont give a toss. You know, those who spend all lesson laughing and chatting with one another rather than actually make an effort or listen.

There's occasionally an anachronistic word in the books that I don't understand. I just skip it, there's nothing worse than them getting the false image of your vocab being weak when it isn't. Heck, most words I read in my postgrad are beyond the comprehension of most native speakers and that's just the way it is. They pick some obscure words that just aren't used anymore and the utility of that is more than questionable.

Great way to motivate your teachers, isn't it? :/

I can never understand why most language schools seem so utterly unable to accept that the teacher might actually be right.

The hypocrisy lies in the students seeing all manner of problems with the operating of the school yet the school will pander to all their whims at the expense of the teacher. Just read some of the comments on teaching fora is you don't believe me. A teacher doesn't get the same kind of respect here as in Japan. Even there, you are used as a money-making tool and that made me irate. The boss of one of the schools I worked at had a habit of pushing the teachers towards the classroom of the waiting student so I pushed her hands right off of me. I got reprimanded but she had no right to put her hands on me.

In Poland, I've heard some behind-the-scenes dealings of those trying to drive down the wages for teachers on an across-the-board basis. I found the culprit and told him to stop playing his games as I'm watching him. Ain't nobody gonna cream the profits in an underhand fashion when I'm around.

In the end teachers have had a fair share of BS from their bosses. A lot of this comes down to the 2-3 of them who turn up drunk or completely miss lessons due to drinking or not being bothered. In turn those teachers who actually enjoy their job and work hard get tarred with the same brush.

On the point about crappy school policies. A school I worked for had a fine list, with about 10 different ways of teachers getting fined. Ranging from a 25pln for being at the school 9mins before the lesson as opposed to a 300pln fine I got for them changing my hours without my knowledge and missing a 2 hour business lesson!

The fining is an absolute nonsense, designed to take money away from already meagre wages.

Fines from a language school? Huh? What are you doing accepting that? Why not just walk?

They are often built into the contracts. The importance of checking boilertype provisions is of critical importance. They will try and brush over them but they are there for you to read.

You also got to remember that 90% of contract are not worth the paper they are printed on. I never accepted a fine and made sure I always got my money back through different means.

Yeah, they are often of the wrong type to start with. McDonalds English taught to the masses for profit.

In the contract? Eh? You just tell them that if they attempt to enforce it, and you don't see your wages in full as usual in the next month's pay packet, they can find a new teacher full stop - and that's not easy mid-term. When I was teaching English 15 years ago, it seemed like my whole world, and I would have been scared to speak my mind or break a contract. Now I realise how trivial that whole stuff is, especially with these language school entrepreneurs who, as has been mentioned in this thread, just use teachers as a means to making money. Sod 'em! They've got more to lose than you have.

Some of us are lucky to avoid such draconian schools :)

Considering that exactly what most schools use in their favour, not a good tactic. Teachers are ten a penny. Many of them have no choice or they would be sacked. I know many folk who have had to leave the country cos they made enemies with the bosses and couldnt find any work afterwards. For a lot of teachers its the only job they can take in a given country. Lose it means lose any chance of working there, paying bills ect as most school wouldnt even bother giving you the money you have already earned.

I know when I left my school, they tried not to pay me anything, so on the second last day of teaching I made it clear that I would take their business' which many joined up for classes cos of me with me.

There are BIG problems in Poland at the moment when it comes to the right of teachers. Basically the schools have it good cos there are more teachers than needed. I had other teachers who had to wait for upto 6 weeks for their wages because the owner said she couldnt afford to pay. In time this became a normal thing for them, and because they were Polish and didnt have contracts, they couldnt do anything about it. At the same time the owner would be on her holidays and updating her school while her teachers were still waiting for weeks on end to get their cash.

Exactly! I knew a case of non-payment where the Polish teacher simply resigned due to months of not getting money. That's a ridiculous state of affairs. Where is the decency is that kind of treatment? You have to know the tone to take with them.