[UPDATE 22-12-19, Timeline Nha Trang…]
This post has become cancerous, growing all over the place but doing nobody any good.
So here’s the latest: after jumping through all the circus hoops for one online outfit, I’m finally getting online teaching work!
Pay isn’t great, $10 US/ hr, but during the last 2 days I earned $85 sitting on my couch. The platform is Bibo Global, and it’s mainly giving lessons chatting to Japanese adults with pre-prepared material.
Of course, I haven’t been paid yet. But counting chickens ( the company is large, and I assume wouldn’t survive if it was a total scam ), if my booking rate continues as is, I should just be able to support myself from wherever.
The job doors are revolving quickly at the moment.
One door, the McJob, has closed. Get this – the head teacher told me they needed a more ‘fun’ atmosphere at the school.
Perhaps it might be an idea to put something – anything – up on the bare concrete walls of the classrooms cells? Posters? Alphabets? World maps?
Another idea might be to fix the equipment; The rooms contain only piece of equipment – apart from whiteboard – a monitor, which in at least one room is broken. The air-conditioners in the rooms either didn’t work, or were turned off. With the result that many of the kids were dozing off by the end of the 40-minute lesson.
I could go on, but it no doubt already sounds like Sour Grapes. Let’s just say I’m not upset at being told that I would no longer be required.
Opportunities and Knocks
Meanwhile, another few opportunities are there. A university teacher I met via Facebook who needs IETLS tuition. And a full-time job opening at a Nha Trang school whose door I’m knocking on.
Plus I’ve been peddling madly exploring the huge market for online teaching. I’ve had a few knock-backs, but also a couple of green lights. If I can make that work, it’d be ideal long-term.
I got a job at a Language Centre here in Nha Trang. It’s a McJob because;
Right now, it’s a zero-hour job. I’m basically on call. So far I’ve done 4 sessions on Sunday. I went for the interview on Saturday.
The working conditions aren’t great. The classrooms put me in mind of cells. Concrete walls and tiny. The equipment ( e.g. overhead monitors ) doesn’t always work.
The centre is chaotic, managed on the fly. The manager / head teacher couldn’t tell in advance which room I’d be in for one of the four sessions.
The pay is low by industry standards. About NZD $10.40 per 45-minute session.
But, it’s a start, and will go toward making the rent without having to further deplete savings.
The kids are a delight. Keen to learn, and sometimes with pretty good English. Ages 6 to about 12. So no horrible adolescents.
It’s all grist for the mill, teaching experience.
That all might change quickly, and I may get no further teaching hours.
I’ve been “invited” to resign, and I’ve gladly taken that opportunity.
I get a month’s notice ( legally mandated ) , which I’ll work out during the best possible month, October, which contains two weeks paid holiday.
It’s a resolution to the doubt and intrigue that’s been hanging over my head recently, and it’s a relief, to be honest.
I’ll chalk it up to experience, which will look good on my CV, and aim for better wages and conditions in my next contract. Much more on that when I’m outside the country and thus safer to say whatever I want.
At the moment, the plan is to go to Vietnam at the end of October.
More dubious news on the job front this week when a mysterious unsmiling stranger ( pictured ) began turning up in my classrooms.
Which would normally be no cause for alarm, except that she was clearly not a student, and said not a word. Not a nod, not a smile, not a hello, not a name.
I assumed I was being blessed with a new Thai co-teacher, and so it proved.
Now you might assume from the charming photo that the news was bad, but not so. It was worse. When I introduced myself it became clear that my Thai is better than her English.
Ulp. This is bad because this is the person who is supposed to do the following;
relay the orders from On High
help in teaching the class / giving students directions in Thai who might not have fully understood my English
perhaps give suggestions as to classroom management and / or lesson plans.
And maybe I’m seeing things through Western Eyes, but I would have thought basic courtesy dictated at least an attempt to introduce herself to me. No matter which culture.
It seems not. I know better than most that ‘just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you’.
But it looks suspiciously like this outfit’s track record of keeping NES teachers in the dark and guessing continues unblemished.
The statue co-teacher has twice now moved my deadlines for exam setting and sitting forward with no notice.
It almost as if fostering a state of permanent fire-drill (hypervigilance if you must ) serves their purposes…
Eep, just found this English language page ( choose ‘Englsh Programme’ Dropdown ) with mugshots of all ‘RayongWit’ English programme teachers.
It looks as if they’ve ordered the mugshots first by seniority ( first two ) , and then by age.
As you can see, it’s an odd bunch of loners and ne’er-do-wells. Of the Causasian faces, all are American except myself, Rosie ( English ), and Edoardo ( Italian ).
The rest are Thai teachers, and about half a dozen Filippinos, many of whom have been at the school since Forever.
There is, apparently, a lot of enmity between the NES and Filippino teachers. Both cohorts teach in English, but the NES teachers are much better compensated.
Below is the original version of my mugshot. This is my attempt at looking professional in a pass-around school jacket three sizes too big.
Apparently this document means I’m now a registered teacher. In Thailand.
I think this is the second-to-last hoop I have to jump through in the Byzantine Thai bureaucracy.
The last isn’t so much bureaucracy as it is the school giving itself, and its students, an ‘out’. In case a teacher suddenly begins sniffing glue in the classroom.for example.
That is the student review, due after three months. I passed the 3-month mark yesterday, as did most other NES teachers who began this term.
I’m not sure how much of a formality this is. I have heard dark whisperings about somebody who failed the student review, but that’s only hearsay.
As with many other goings-on at the school, one does one’s best with the murky information forthcoming, and keeps one’s head down.
The stress of setting and then supervising exams is over. I’m officially at work, but there’s nothing I have to do today.
Time to futz about with my new install of the Linux mint operating system on the laptop. Hydrating. Warming myself. And suchlike.
Exams – Setting
Setting exams was a drama. I’d earlier set tests for some classes, so assumed it was just rinse and repeat, with extras.
Wrong. After the first drafts, my Thai co-teacher tells me the fonts, format, and nearly everything else is wrong. I’m given a list of requirements.
Take two. I rewrite, to be told that the HOD has vetoed the exams for reasons which remain fuzzy.
I’m due for an in-class assessment by the HOD, so I assume I’ll be able to clarify things then. But when the HOD doesnt show for the scheduled class, I start job-hunting as a backup.
TWO days after I send a detailed explanation of events, and basically asking ‘what now?’, my Thai teacher tells me my exams have now been approved.
Apparently, there were machinations in a department meeting. It’s all very mysterious.
But that decision gives me the impression I’m a truckload more secure in the job than I been.
So my exams will be held in my scheduled class times ( easy work ), as compared with …
Exams – Supervising
The past three days have been spent cooped up like chickens watching students sit other exams.
Two days of four-hours a day in a room with no air-conditioning, swilling water to try to compensate. One day of the same with air-conditioning.
Light, tunnel
Today, I’ve done my time supervising, and get my rationed relief.
Tomorrow is a day of supervising my exams with my regular classes. The same for several days next week.
And Monday is a holiday. It’s the King’s birthday.
