3 reasons why you hate Poland.

well i guess it's not just me then, what you guys have been discussing really irks me. what i mean is, that the vast majority of "managers" (if you can call them that) and owners of language schools here have this weird notion that as teachers we don't have options, or worse yet that we don't have to deal with any variables beyond what they perceive (usually none).

I've managed to make connections with the few good ones in the area but it's like most of them have no concept of what makes a good manager: intolerant? check unimaginative? check irrational? double check. These people see students and teachers as cash cows and nothing more. If the students are happy, then they think the lesson must just be one big party, if the students are working hard then they think the teacher is too strict.

I'm sure they have no bloody idea what it is they envision their service to be other than a means to pay for their material aspirations.

There was one complete idiot (australian in this case) running some joke of an operation, anyways, I was working for a company which wanted to continue having classes with me but didn't like the school i had been contracted through. So they asked this fool if they could sign up for his school (in essence hand him money) as long as i continue to run their lessons. This idiot actually wanted me to go through the application process and write an essay for him (really applicable to the job/sarcasm). In the end the company went back to the old school cause i told them there's no conceivable way i could ever work with such a self-important oaf. This guy deserves to have the tar beat out him just on general principal; he actually tried to argue what my name is with me-wtf?

Then there's the team at profi-lingua who have managed to spend more time and money on marketing than improving their service. Gee what surprise they're doing so poorly these days.

One of the owners was trying to sell me one the branches they closed down. He arrived at the figure of 40k zł, so when i asked him for some paperwork to verify this value he provided jack and sh!t, trying to persuade me that this number wasn't just pulled out of his arse. I told him we'd talk more when i get the accountant's paperwork and was not surprised to never hear from him again. Christ do they really think everyone is so thick?

ugh, it's 10 and i was teaching or preparing or driving from 730 to 2030- tuesdays are killer.

1. Tourists in Krakow.
2. The postal service.
3. The Fiat 126 Maluch... all of them.

THE FOOD? are you off your rocker. kurwa mac !!

Paid Public Toilets! Ridiculous!

And sand paper instead of toilet paper. No wonder your a$$ is always red after using their toilets.
And them babas in them toilets! OMG. Toothless and mean. If you don't pay they go after you.

Paid public toilets are a good idea. Minimises the chances of riff raff

What sort of riff raff? A toilet is a toilet.


lol. Did you try to walk out without paying?

I've heard many similar stories from the TEFL world, so many 'schools' realyl ripping the teachers off. They don't seems to realise that if they have happy teachers, they have happy students who come back.

I also had interviews recently, one school seemed really good, but, my instinct told me not to go near them. They said that they must give a good quality of service because they 'are expensive', but then offered the worst rates ever! Ok, not as bad as IH, but pretty bad. Then they offered a self employed options where they boasted one person had earned 5000 gross in one month. By my calculation, this person could have not slept that month. oh,, then there was the looong list of activities that I must perform *without pay*. Such as lesson prep (ok, that's standard), exam supervision, student assesment, weekely meetings (possibly an entire afternoon) and more.. Sorry, but I don't work for free! If you want me, you pay me, there's plenty of companies out there willing to do just that.

So, I'm a little disillussioned with the TEFL world. The only way to make a living is to own a school and I don't yet have the experience to do this. Maybe it's an easier living in a country that's no so expensive. It's back to IT for me and private teaching in the evening - which, lets face it, I'll make more on evening private lessons than in a full time teaching job.

phew. maybe we needed a new thread for this?

We can't win a world cup or even do well in major competitions. We stink at football! and i hate us for that :'(

With all due respect tonyk, when you have actually had to run a school, as a business that makes money, and had to deal with tossy little teachers full of naive ideals, constant moaning about being over-worked on 25 contact and how much better everything would be if only they were in charge, then perhaps you would understand a little more about why so many schools are 'ripping' teachers off


See above about naive ideals. Happy students dont make a school viable. Unfortunately. Business essentails make a school viable

I find that the managers with a bit of experience usually understand the TEFL game but often can not be flexible because their boss (i.e. the owner of the school) doesn't understand the business. I'm talking about the kind of owner who thinks that 45zl per 45 minutes gross is a King's ransom in Warsaw (in fact 45zl per 45 net is slightly below the minimum) and so won't pay anything more than that but then complains when all the teachers are drunks who rarely teach a damn thing!


If you're sick of dealing with "tossy little teachers", perhaps you should stop hiring "tossy little teachers". Although hiring decent teachers would cost more than hiring the dross, which would eat into your profit margin and we can't have that, can we?!

So now you have run a school as well as a hotel VaFunkoolo...hmmm, clever guy!!!

Ooh, amongst many other things... it's not so much about cleverness, more about ambition, drive, taking opportunities and creating luck

What have you achieved ukp?

VaFunkoolo,
Thank you for your input. I am sure there are as many bad teachers are there are schools. I for one would _not_ moan about being overworked on a 25 hour contract. Even if it takes me 30 minutes to prepare each lesson, that is no more than a standard full time job. However, I do object to this then being annexed by an additional 5/10 hours per week of unpaid work!

I most certainly do not claim that things would be better if I were in charge (and I'm not suggesting you made such an allegation). I am an inexperienced teacher simply wanting a fair deal and an opportunity to grow professionaly. Yes, this includes some simple ideals such as being able to observe experienced teachers and to expect a basic level of respect from my manager which does not include being shouted at accross the length of the school for simply abiding by the student's (AKA customer's) wishes! Maybe these ideals are naive, if so then I'm certainly in the wrong trade.

This would also incluce some basic assistance from the school in matters where I don't speak the language, such as getting a NIP and a bank account. Oh and also, when I have a contract for a guaranteed minimum monthly income, I don't expect an email telling me "by the way, December is special so we're cutting your pay by a third" !! Needless to say, I was not happy and got this resolved pretty damn quick! Which, of course, left my manage not speaking to me for 2 weeks! Except to shout if she thought I breathed at the wrong time!

This is the kind of thing that is annoying. I have no naive ideals of grandure, runing my own school with rows of happy smiling students paying very little and the happiest teachers earning millions. I simply expect some basics which are largely based around mutual respect.

As it happens, I've returned to working in IT building on my 10 years experience in the industry, where I will also teach the staff in the company. This means I can teach privately in the evenings and also do the volunteer work that I really want to do!

kaching! My twopennorth.

Well in over seven years of being here I have:
got married,
opened my own company,
built my house,
had a daughter,
The usual things lol

Oh! One more thing, become extremely happy and content :)

Youre welcome. I'm not going to disagree or comment further on what you have said other than to suggest you sell yourself a little higher and stop working with mickey mouse organisations.


Well thats the important thing :)

The problem, as I see it, is that a good teacher doesn't make a good manager. And equally so, a good manager doesn't always understand what teaching is about. There's one school in Poznań which has a very good Callan teacher as a director, ex state school teacher, brilliant English, etc - but she's a dreadful director. She's brash, rude and has no issues with lying to paying customers just to get them to come back - literally to the point where people are being deluded into believing that they're better than they actually are.


My school operates purely on student satisfaction, thankfully. We're expected to bend, twist and do whatever it takes to make them happy - which is good, because it encourages creativity and keeping them occupied for the entire time. Of course, people are a bit odd and like being bullied into perfect pronouncation (which I don't understand! I'd go mad if someone was correcting my Polish constantly...) - but the deal is that the overall aim is to keep them happy and keep them coming back, because it's what pays our wages.


I'm sure you're right, too. There are exceptions, but as far as I can tell, all the schools in prominent places (like on Plac Wolnosci in Poznan) seem to run as factories. There's even one school here that has glass walls in the classrooms, so you can be observed constantly - which really isn't good for someone's ability to let a lesson flow.


It's such a basic thing that it surprises me that more people don't understand it. One interesting example is that some schools insist on their teachers being well dressed - despite the fact that people don't want to be confronted by someone wearing a suit after a long day working.

So true. Well said!

Whatever it takes to make them happy, Delph?

Don't take that to its extremes. Ways and means, man, ways and means ;)

My language school is quite miserly with the heating. Since it is always so cold in the classrooms, our teachers sometimes argue over which class gets the ONE space heater - however, the boss chides at anyone who uses it. In addition, the secretary opens the lobby window 2-3 times an hour to smoke a cigarette! Sometimes when I am waiting to teach a class, I need to wear my jacket.

I understand that energy is expensive here, but this is part of the cost of doing business...

In the winter, 4pm looks like 8pm & 8pm looks like midnight.

I identify with this and yet I partialy disagree. There is a time to correct and a time not to correct. My foreign friends insist that I must correct them all the time. I gently suggest that they allow me to choose when to do so because sometimes communication is more important than accuracy, as we well know. Not only that, if I've just finished a 12 hour day, the last thing I want to do is explain grammar!

On the other hand, when I was on a Polish course and reading out my homework to the class, the teacher would stop at EVERY SINGLE BLOODY ERROR! This was so annoying that nobody actually heard what I had written and the whole point was lost. My manager even asked me to correct grammar at the end of EVERY SENTENCE! Instead, I allow the student to finish what they are saying and help with error when they finish speaking. This allows for them to actually communicate and feel better about doing so. I keep paper handy and have learned to write some errors without losing eye contact with the student. A neat trick if you can manage it so they don't notice you're writing - oh and don't retract the nib on your pen.. that 'click-click' alerts them to the fact you're about to make a note!

You're right, sombody correcting every other word really p*sses you off and you lose confidence too quickly.

T
(this soo needed a new thread)

great. another legal business f*cked by gaverment...
in short: legal business of selling *legal* drugs /mostly speed-like/, those shops was suddenly checked by Ministry of Finance (??) (ministerstwo finansow) and Sluzba Celna /well... guys who keep guard on borders, track illegal things etc/- and all those checks are with coincidence with fact, that there *will* be a novelisation of anti-drug law.

In short: do not think about opening business in Poland- because one beautiful day you will be stopped- your business will be destroyed- and you will be (probably) punished *before* your business will be illegal.

Are you sure?

Think about what youre actually saying

Can you explain? I'm not sure I understand your response, VaFunkoolo. Surely hiring better teachers will cost more and eat into profit? On the other hand, hiring better teachers will cost attract more students and increase reputation and profit.

I've given up teaching as a job because I can mare more money in IT, in fact twice as much. This gives me time to teach privately and do some voluntary teaching and enjoy it more. I love teaching so this will become a 'professional hobby'.

Toy

Simple - being a tossy little teacher isn't so much about ability but attitude.

Youre quite right - in theory, hiring qualified and more experienced teachers should potentially mean delivering a better service, increasing reputation and eventually profit - on paper it makes sense, in practice it's not always so straight forward.

Gross margins for many smaller, private language schools are invariably tight and what appears to be a relatively small difference in hourly pay between teacher A and teacher B can, in terms of hours over the course of the month multiplied by number of teachers, become a significant sum.

I recently oversaw the recruitment of teaching staff for a language school - I didn't play a role in the interview process but was asked for my input with decision making and this involved meeting the candidates informally.

With 1 more position to fill, the choice was between a well qualified teacher with experience in the skill-sets needed by the school (IELTS) and somebody fresh off the CELTA but with a couple of years previous experience.

After a short chat with each, the choice was clear - the recent CELTA grad was enthusiastic and full of motivation, the teacher who looked better on paper had an attitude which would only cause problems in the staffroom. Hiring the recent grad would obviously cost the school less, but this wasn't the reason the choice was made.

To give a good service, the school needs to be well organised and coordinated with managers who know what they're doing. Without clear direction, decent materials, proper programmes of study and decent pay and conditions, you don't have a school, you have a travelling circus selling 90 minute slots with dancing bears.

Thanks for the replies, now it is a lot more clear! :)

Tony

1/ there ignorent people
2/they have no respect for anyone else except there own scum'' layabouts and thieves''
3/and chopin >> needed fuckin chopin in half .. god bless

ive added a number (4) = waste of fuckin space

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I have found that they are not so open to foreigners. They seem to have too much respect for their own. I was chatting with a guy in the delicatessen on the market square tonight. He came back from Leeds and is already depressed. He was happy that I spoke Polish so eloquently and understood his predicament. Making the adjustment to Scottish life wasn't so easy when I returned from Asia.

Ignorance is everywhere.