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FaultyMario
January 30th, 2014, 08:01 PM
Apparently that's what I'm worth.
To top it off, It seems I'm going to be taking it.

Any questions?

I'll post more, to put things into perspective.

thesameguy
January 30th, 2014, 08:55 PM
$5.81/hr in rural China is a king's random. In San Francisco, it's well below poverty. I think the wage itself is less important that where it's being earned, and what it's being earned for. So, do tell!

FaultyMario
January 30th, 2014, 09:00 PM
I was earning more 6 years ago doing the same thing. So, kids don't burn those bridges!

FaultyMario
January 30th, 2014, 09:02 PM
It's an ESL teaching job. Wish I could apply for a UAE english teaching gig, but I'm not a native speaker so I can't. That's 15 years of experience there, too.

FaultyMario
January 30th, 2014, 09:16 PM
I guess it comes down to employer expectations/discipline(?).

Back when I started, I was part of a teaching staff that was 90% foreigner, so it was "not a job", the people I worked with were basically taking a year off, in their "sabbatical", free roaming hippies, old guys living off the land in the norhtern oaxaca valley (http://www.aquioaxaca.com/imagenes/templos/templos2/image11.jpg) and getting some supplemental income, or recent university graduates getting some experience. We got to experiment with our students, try out our own teaching approaches and share them over beers and 'wild horses', and you know, just enjoy it. Put some of those crazy Noam Chomsky theories to test.

Right now, it seems to be burger-joint uniforms, ultra-strict classroom behavior, student-retention ratios, full-on corporate BS.

I'm pretty certain no one from a developed country would take that wage.

FaultyMario
January 30th, 2014, 09:19 PM
...and a supervisor who can't pronounce long vowel sounds. It's all \ˈti-ˈsher\ instead of \ˈtē-chər\.

Ugh!

Yw-slayer
January 30th, 2014, 09:38 PM
Oh yeah, in mainland China, public doctors make around USD660/month.

KillerB
January 30th, 2014, 10:06 PM
So what do you do, aside from ESL? Because I'm always about helping people with talent move up here. There's got to be something you can do here that won't get you treated like that.

Dicknose
January 31st, 2014, 03:49 AM
I'm on jury duty next week and I will get paid about $20/hour for that.
And that won't cover my mortgage.

Godson
January 31st, 2014, 05:58 AM
20/hr?


Missouri it is like $20 for the entire day.

thesameguy
January 31st, 2014, 07:23 AM
California is $15 per day starting on day 2. How they justify that in a state with some of the highest living costs is beyond me.

On topic, yeah, get outta there! :)

FaultyMario
January 31st, 2014, 08:02 AM
So what do you do, aside from ESL? Because I'm always about helping people with talent move up here. There's got to be something you can do here that won't get you treated like that.

Got a communications degree under my belt... have a couple of years of radio experience and I'm crafty doing Jingles and some advertising.
The last 5 years were spent in University administration, you know, analyzing data and building reasons to get funding from the government.
And inbetween those two long spells I worked in social research. Although my statistical skills are definitely on par with a humanities undergrad, that means, really poor compared to the people I worked with.

I haven't been able to get into National Quality* grad school, but through some contacts I have a shot at a master's in history, and I'm going full-steam on that chance, that's why right now I need a full time job that isn't really stressful so I can concentrate on the application process.

*Public schools in Mexico can qualify to have their graduate programs inscribed in a national registry if they meet certain criteria, once approved, their students have their tuition fees waived and they get paid to study. I want to get accepted into one of them so that I can eventually compete for a U.S. move. That's the plan.

FaultyMario
January 31st, 2014, 08:07 AM
Oh, and jobs here suck. Because the economy sucks and the Kleptocracy sucks. No, literally, my region's economy depends on public spending, and a select few suck it all.

Think Appalachia levels of poverty, and multiply times Mexico.

thesameguy
January 31st, 2014, 01:31 PM
Just a thought, but with some advertising done have you considered the possibility of funneling a small amount of money into a website and promoting yourself as an multi-language advertising consultant for hire? Or even a translator? It took a little while, but a good friend of mine was able to parlay her shitty major (French) into a reasonably solid job doing exactly that. Her bread and butter has become translating contracts between English and French but she also does some low-end (ie simple) layouts and such just because she has a good eye. You've got a different education and arguably better skills than she does. It might be worth looking into!

FWIW, my firm just paid a translator $1800 to translate a four page agreement from English into Vietnamese. I don't know what that is per word, but I know that if I was fluent in another language, $450 per page of writing is a a great gig! I'll bet there is a large amount of work on this coast for doing the same with Spanish. You just find the road in.

Crazed_Insanity
January 31st, 2014, 03:17 PM
Yeah, doing some translating on the side should net you more income. Brother-in-law did that and tutoring English in Taiwan to make extra bucks for a while. He was making decent amount of money for a college student. He later on also caught a lucky break(which he pro-actively earned himself) when he wrote to a Chinese Apple wannabe cellphone company Xiaomi to offer his translating services. They were pleased with his work and turned out that company just happened to be thinking of expanding to Taiwan... so they offer him a job as some sort of PR manager, managing just himself of course... Nevertheless, he's now earning twice the typical income of recent college grads working only part-time. Like I said, he's doing pretty well for a college student... Employment situation in Taiwan sucked pretty bad too. They have high unemployment and low wages... so my bro-in-law was definitely lucky, but like I said, he also actively searched and worked hard for it. Good luck dude... or may God bless what you do. ;)

FaultyMario
January 31st, 2014, 03:33 PM
Thanks for all the advice.

Yw-slayer
January 31st, 2014, 05:53 PM
Actually, if you want to teach English then you could always come to Asia. Loads of jobs and it's a decent stepping stone to other professions. And I don't just mean the "Rent a white face to stand behind me at this important meeting to make the other side think that I employ white dudes and am therefore powerful" type jobs.

FaultyMario
February 3rd, 2014, 01:15 PM
Thanks a lot. Just by caring, it means a lot.

FaultyMario
February 4th, 2014, 02:03 PM
I was supposed to start a four (to six) week (unpaid) training period today. 7 a.m. to whenever they had a slot to fit you in for observing a class; I was offered 28-hours per week employment but they expected full time availability.

Wife says I should write Corporate HQ a lengthy letter citing the multiple illegalities in their hiring process; I think it's a waste of time.

FaultyMario
February 4th, 2014, 02:08 PM
I'm sure I'm just spoiled.

Godson
February 4th, 2014, 03:23 PM
I'd write to them, but I am not the best person for liability...

FaultyMario
February 4th, 2014, 04:57 PM
It came down to me showing up for the morning session and midway thru it, have the coordinator tell 3 of us that we needed to come back at 4 p.m. for yet another webcam interview, this time with HR, just to have someone else in their staff approach us near the end of our observance session (don't know who or in what position; they never bother with common courtesy), that he expected us to be there 10 minutes earlier.

It's no big deal, really; by itself. But I had already given them full evidence of my teaching experience and a history of test results, and taken their mock TOEFL test, and shown up for their Blackboard interview, and spent another afternoon doing their psych assessments, only to have the coordinator call me one day and ask me in what part of the evaluation process I was at. The Fuck? I'm supposed to know how many more times I need be tested/interviewed? You're the one conducting the hiring not me, you dumb fuck! Go ask your staff, not the interviewee! So really, I was not in the best mood to come in the afternoon, again, because someone, somewhere along your Quality Assured® chain of procedures forgot to make the arrangements to have all of us in the same room the first time they ran their HR videochat.

I show up at the computer lab 15 minutes before 4 and they've already started. I say my greetings and excuse myself in Spanish, only to have this dude look at me head to toe (I'm wearing jeans and comfy shoes) and tell me in English "This is the last time you come to Douchebag Inc. without formal clothing. I'm sure you were told our clothing policy. Sit here, in the corner".

So, I excused myself and I left.

JoshInKC
February 4th, 2014, 06:31 PM
Jesus, that sound like a place where you do not want to be working.
Both really disorganized and inclined to be dicks to interviewees? Fuck those guys.

Yw-slayer
February 4th, 2014, 06:58 PM
Had you been told of their clothing policy? Regardless, sounds dicky, but a lot of places behave like that.

FaultyMario
February 4th, 2014, 07:16 PM
This is just a rant.

BUT... you are supposed to teach rhythm and cadence of speech. I get that some people find it really difficult to pronounce certain consonant/diphthongs, and they give up on it, not their fault, that's a consequence of their upbringing. But you, the teacher can not give up on them! That's just fucking lazy. So when I hear you, school supervisor, mix in Spanish interjections that break up the flow of the other language you're speaking, it gets on my nerves; no, wait, You get on my fucking nerves!. A language works within a multi-dimensional culture; in essence, you're teaching a whole set of cultural "rules" not just words and sounds, so make sure your students take notice of the pauses, stops, stresses, and oddities because they're a fundamental part of the thing, dammit! Your ajá is not the uh-huh your listener is expecting, the Spanish ¿No? requires a different sort of follow-up than the more appropriate affirmative interjectionright? would.

I'm irked!

End of rant.

FaultyMario
February 4th, 2014, 07:37 PM
Had you been told of their clothing policy? Regardless, sounds dicky, but a lot of places behave like that.

Yes I had; It's black shoes, black slacks and a white shirt. Which I understood as attire for working/teaching. I had not planned on coming back that afternoon, and it certainly didn't sound like the uniform was required for that interview, specially after we were told that it was to be conducted in Spanish.

I have no objection to wearing work-formal, but let's not pretend that that policy and the unpaid 'training' (illegal under Mexican labor law) are not part of some power play, particularly when the person being so picky about my clothes looks like a Domino's employee.

Yw-slayer
February 5th, 2014, 02:37 AM
Fair 'nough, although if I were going to interview somewhere, I'd usually dress like I was working there.

thesameguy
February 5th, 2014, 08:58 AM
and the unpaid 'training' (illegal under Mexican labor law) are not part of some power play, particularly when the person being so picky about my clothes looks like a Domino's employee.

I have not personally experienced that, but I know lots of people who have been asked to "interview" and in the process executed actual work-related tasks. Very illegal in California - in fact my girl got a settlement from a large retailer who was sued in a class action for doing just that. My point is, yeah, get out of there. Snotty companies who also happen to be rule breakers rarely turn out to be good working environments. Sucks to have to go through that, but on the uspide, you got the warning on day one rather than weeks or months later, after you might have closed the door on better opportunities. I'm not much of a "silver linings" type of guy, but that right there is exactly that. The number of times in my life I wish I'd just had a damned warning so I could have saved some major grief... ugh.

FaultyMario
February 28th, 2014, 04:56 PM
moved! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/93rd_meridian_west)

Dicknose
March 1st, 2014, 01:33 AM
Unclaimed Antarctic Territory?

FaultyMario
March 3rd, 2014, 08:25 AM
On the shore of the North American Mediterranean sea.

Dicknose
March 3rd, 2014, 11:58 AM
That sounds nicer.
Hope the move, work and life all go well.