Sticky Apple Kisses

I am a damn good English teacher.  Well actually let me rephrase that, I CAN be one when I try.  I have also been teaching long enough that even when I don’t try I have a bag of tricks I can rely on to pull off an average class.  But I consider myself lucky because a lot of teachers have to try even for that.  Now that I have bragged a little, I will let you know why I am doing so.  It is because I know my worth as a teacher.  Most of my students enjoy having me as a teacher.  It is impossible to make everyone happy of course, but a large majority enjoy my lessons.  I go out of my way to find material that they can relate to and that fits with why they want to learn English in the first place.  So I know I am worth every penny I am paid, especially when you compare how much happy student’s contracts are worth!  in terms of chain school I work freelance for, I know I am worth so much more!  But they offer a lot of work, and so are good for filling in the empty slots of my day.

I did take on some regular courses with them.  Of course as a freelancer regular course merely means the regular teacher, if you cant make the lessons someone else fills them, or they are canceled until you come back.  It also means when another school offers you more money for the same contract, you get to see goodbye.  Yes that means you are not so reliable, but then pay your teachers well and treat them well, and even your freelancers don’t want to go elsewhere.  A school I love, who support teacher development, and believe that ELT is a two way street, has offered me a lot more money for those slots.  I gave my chain school 2 weeks notice, I do not want those classes anymore.

The beauty is now that I have proven to the new school that I am a reliable and good teacher, they want to offer me more courses.   Which means I don’t want any more regular courses from chain school, just subs and flexible one to ones.  Which means dropping one more class, one that I agreed to but in over a month has never actually met  (the first time I went there I was told that there was a mistake and they were not to meet for another 3 weeks, then the train strike meant I could not get there, and they canceled this week) GAAA the drama!   More importantly, that is a time slot that could be freed for another student or class that will be consistent.   The director pulled me into his office all upset that I was dropping two groups.  He gave me a lecture on how I agreed to this classes, but I explained that they were underpaid and time consuming, and another school offered me more money for less hours in those time slots.  He then pulled the “in that case we wont give you anymore regular classes, you can just be a substitute or  a private teacher.”  His threat backfired.  THIS was exactly what I now want from chain school, and have been trying to find the best way to tell them without the guilt.  (They don’t deserve guilt, I was just raised Catholic  and I thrive on the stuff!)  I jumped on it and told him then I need to be taken off the Friday course right away.  He was obviously taken aback and started stammering that perhaps in that particular case it was Ok to stay with the group.  But I insisted no, that the reason I love freelancing is because of the freedom of being able to take holidays when I want, and as often as I want.  That though I can and will be dedicated to the group, he has to understand that as a freelancer I need to look after myself as well, and that when coupled with the low pay, courses with him are just not worth it.  I thanked him, told him no hard feelings, and that I will continue with my one to ones in his school, but otherwise I understand his position just as he must understand mine.  So sweet I am not even the bad guy!!! 

I have been such a slacker with my Young Germany Blog, but I finally have a new post up over there on autobahn adventures with Oma! 

As a masochistic little beast I have a job on Thursdays that is with one student from 9 - 5. More importantly it involves a 5 hour train ride both ways. The company pays for my hotel on Wednesdays so I can come out Wednesday evenings.

Yesterday however I discover that the Deutsch Bahn is on strike, and that in all likelihood I was stuck 5 hours away from home in what was quite literally, the middle of Germany. I decided to chance it and jump on a train running on a reduced schedule. 2 hours outside of Stuttgart we are told sorry, try back again in an hour. My German is a bit crap, and I was pretty sure I had heard what I heard, but I didn’t know if that was in fact what I had heard. When I heard a girl look at another one and go “great, thankfully we started this trip really early” I pounced on them to clarify the worse news. They said yes its true, then in awesome, rare to expat form, they invited me along on a  quest for wine.

2 hours later we are successfully on a train bound to Stuttgart, friends for life, and I called home to tell my partner that I would not be home that night as planned, but rather I was following my new friends to Amsterdam for the weekend. It is amazing how wine, chocolate, and a common love for Eddy Izzard can unite a group of people!

Sadly, a last minute ticket to Amsterdam costs 250 Euros. As I had not planned it at all, I had to show them where to find great margaritas and wish them luck with the city, and a promise to visit each other.

Personally I think anyone who answers a withheld number is mad regardless of the circumstances.   If someone wants to hide who they are chances are they want something from you that you probably are not overly willing to give them.  But as an ESL teacher I especailly only answer phone calls that display numbers.  For the same reason that if I recognize the number and I don’t want to answer it I wont, a withheld number is probably the same private student calling back and hoping I am stupid enough to fall for the withheld trick.

No I am not.

There are times when you have to let a student go, because of time conflicts or otherwise.  These students usually get the hint after 2 or 3 emails/calls.  Some do not.  I dont care if I am missing out on the student of the year, its worth it not to be trapped into the same bloody conversation all over again about why you cant meet with a student.

One of the pitfalls of teaching privates.

Sigh.

I really love Dylan Moran.  I have had a weekend where if I am not teaching (yes I taught BOTH days this weekend), then I am watching all of his stuff on YouTube, OR talking about it over coffee with my friend who recommended him to me in the first  place.  He is brilliant funny!  And as I am currently teaching in Germany, Im passing on his Germany clip for your viewing pleasure.  But everything is worth watching!!!

I have yet to decide on the theme for this blog.  I know the focus, the wonderful crazy world of ESL.  But theme wise I can not make up my mind.  So for now I am going with Naruto because I love him, and thank my lucky stars I was blissfully unaware of the anime in Japan or I would have come back completely, utterly, heartbreakingly, broke. 

One thing that has often confused me about that particular sentence is sense of shame that seems to be attached to it. Admittedly it is less so in Europe than in Asia, but the whole industry is full of reluctant teachers. We never really want to admit to our work, it doesn’t seem like a “real job.” And I suppose in some ways it hardly fits the profile. In many countries (particularly Asia) the only qualification you need is your degree – in anything. People new to the game (and I will not go so far as to say the industry is not a game) often see themselves doing it only for the short term. “Its my way to see Asia and pay off my student loans” to pass through the awkward looks the sentence creates. Only most of the time this is said to a fellow ESL teacher. Yes we even justify ourselves to each other. Maybe particularly to each other.

The life of an ESL teacher usually processes in a couple of predictable patterns. You quit in 2 months, you quit after your first year contract, or you stay forever unable to ever leave your place of work or at least your type of work. Many of us perfect and hone our skills over time, rising to positions and serious enough that we treat our jobs as real professions (which of course it is). I am glad to say I see that happening more and more often. Others see it as a better paid option to McDonalds, with international travel tossed in. Which in some cases it also is.

I am somewhere in the middle. I love and I am hopelessly addicted to the life it provides. I am a eternal gypsy, so much so I have another blog called Confessions of A Wandering Gypsy Princess, where I blog about anything and everything, including a lot of paid blogging. This blog is being set up to provide a blog space that is a little more directed, although I won’t say there will never be paid blogging on it. However given the randomness of the other one, I would like to start one off that maybe avoids some of the mistakes I made with the other one. And that way I can continue making them as well. I always was a have your cake and eat it too type of person. Probably the reason I keep circling back to English as a foreign language teaching.