LOSS IS PLUS ?

Grappling for the silver lining...


It's the time of year when my teaching hours slow down from frenzied 12 hour a day stints to almost nothing. 


This is often a time a major stress for english teachers in the private sector who are paid on contract rather than salary. 
No teaching  = no pay.


It basically means no, or little, income.


Most school teachers in France have a state contract - at college or high school level they have a maximum face to face teaching time of 18 hours per week. For those of you who aren't "in the know," teaching hours are basically multiplied  by two for " real time hours"...this is to add preparation, correction time into the formula.

Their salaries are not the top of the pile but they do have 2 months summer holiday, 2 weeks at  Christmas, Winter, Spring and Autumn....all at full salary. Do the maths! 
Once in the public teaching sector you are set for life....unless of course you lose your temper and lash out, slapping a student in the chops!!

For those of us in the private sector, it's another game. 

I ended up becoming an english teacher. It honestly was not a " choice" but an obligation. There was nothing else open to me. My 5 year law qualifications and bar admission, plus 3 - 4 years experience in corporate law were of no value when I arrived in France 18 years ago. My self-esteem took a major battering as did my income, which plunged to zero.

Many of us ex-pats end up teaching business specialised english in one of the many language schools situated throughout France. It's a great learning experience to work in these schools but the matter is not that simple. Teachers are paid per hour of teaching (no pay for preparation, corrections and tedious paper work!), and often as low as 10 euros an hour ( holiday pay inclusive). There is no security of hours, plannings are often on a month to month or week to week basis. The contracts are CDD, which means they are only for the amount of teaching hours in that module/session. ie non renewable. You can't even rely on being on board that contract in the following year. 

Staff who "dish out" the work are often under alot of pressure to maintain their B to B relationship with respective clients and end up transfering that stress onto the teachers themselves. How many teachers have told me about how they have said no to one weeks work because of clashes and then haven't been offered any more work for months?!! 

There is alot of competition between the teachers for even the tiniest of contracts, the people giving out the work know this and often play on it -  a situation bearing on perverse.

Further, the number of " schools" offering english courses has become so large that the competition pressures these establishments to lower their course prices meaning that teachers can never hope for better pay.

This system offers no back up or security for teachers, who are often young mothers, and almost always foreign. 

So why don't they become teachers in the public sector?? Simply because one must be French to do so.

The safest places to work are in the university technical institutes, business schools and  university faculties. The work load is usually quite large during certain periods but the contracts are more honest, the pay is at least 3 times more, courses last the for most of the academic year, and there is not the competitive attitude between the teachers to grapple for the next contract. Most business schools put their teachers on CDI ( renewable contracts) after the second year -  this means that even if the contract is a few classes a week at least they have the security of knowing it is still theirs next year. Something one would imagine was " normal." 

But even in business schools there is not enough work to be considered as " full time." This is why we have very intense teaching periods where we simply cannot refuse the work as most of us need to put money away to get through the quieter Spring period. We come out the other end of these intense periods completely exhausted but happy in the knowledge that at least we have work to go back to.

I am now going into my " quiet" period after 6 months of weeks with up to 40 hours face to face teaching hours (that's 80 hours!). My silver lining is the fact that I work for a good structure and with an amazing team of both administrators and teachers. I now use this time to catch up on friendship, lunch out with the girls, plant my garden and spend more time with my family. The dust bunnies behind the doors get swept away as does my fatigue. The angst I once suffered when working in structures other than business schools no longer attacks. 

This desperateanglohousewife is now going to walk the dog, bake an orgasmic chocolate and lime cake and see if anyone wants to come over for tea this afternoon...


PS 
DesperateAngloHousewives invites you to write in with your experiences and comments on this rather sensitive subject. 
It is a subject which affects many expat anglophones who find themselves teaching english as a means to survive, regardless of the conditions.
Please write in the comments section or email:
desperateanglohousewives@gmail.com




Orgasmic Dark Chocolate Lime Zest Gateau


200gr dark choc ( 70°)
100gr salted butter
100gr fine white sugar
4T sifted flour
5 eggs
zest of one lime


Pre heat oven 180°.
Melt the chocolate with butter in a bain marie. Mix in sugar and flour.
Separate eggs and mix the yolks into the chocolate mixture. Fold in lime zest. 
Beat the whites until stiff and fold gently into chocolate mixture.
Butter and flour baking tin, pour in mixture. Bake 20 mins.

Comments

  1. Finally somebody talking about the dreadful treatment of foreign english teachers in France. About bloody time. Thanks Susie. From a long suffering teacher, doing it ONLY because he has to!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ex Chartered Accountant became English teacher and was treated like rubbish and paid even less than a cleaning woman. Was also expected to do mountains of paperwork which was utter blah blah blah. I experienced the "punishment" of saying no to work once when I had a sick child. I then went 2 months without work. Childish and unprofessional behaviour. Now left and do accounts for anglo business in Fr.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Working in a language school is a good way to "get your feet wet" and gain experience that can then be put to better (and more lucrative!) use elsewhere. But even in the admittedly vastly better-paid and more pleasant atmosphere of the business school, there are still no courses in summer, hence no income from May-ish until mid or late September! Why is there no "summer school" in France? I'd be game for that! Hm; except that I'd have to give up girlie lunches, popping down to the Bassin to eat oysters when the mood hits... guess I better start saving up again for summer's lean times!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ janbordeaux. Agreed the language schools are a good place to start but they are unfair to their teachers. The pay is dreadful, the conditions shocking and the security, there is NONE!The games we play to get constant work are ridiculous. People get stuck in a rutt in these schools, they lose their confidence and simply cannot leave for fear of no work at all.
    Summer school exists in England, USA,Scotland for english as a foreign language. Would be good to start it here..but you could apply to work over the summer in Oxford. I went last year, great pay, and lots of interesting people and the conversation was always about how badly treated eng teachers are in France!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am also one of those teachers that has had no work for a while as said no to something when I had no space in my schedule.I see the same person giving out work to others when I am in the staffroom but she totally ignores my presence. Its totally humiliating. I hope to build up my hours at the university so that I can leave there.

    ReplyDelete
  6. GOD love this blog! Your words about teaching english are just so true. How much do business schools and univerities pay?

    ReplyDelete
  7. @ anonymous..Universitues et al pay min 30 euros/hour of teaching PLUS 11% holiday pay.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This blog rings true, once again. The issue of eng teaching in France is not a new one. My worst experience of it was doing lunches with clients one to one, I felt like a hostess cum hooker and was barely paid 12 euro per hour. Pay was less than teaching in classes something I do not understand.
    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  9. This blog rings true, once again. The issue of eng teaching in France is not a new one. My worst experience of it was doing lunches with clients one to one, I felt like a hostess cum hooker and was barely paid 12 euro per hour. Pay was less than teaching in classes something I do not understand.
    Jane

    ReplyDelete
  10. [url=http://celineluggage.wsminet.com/]celine luggage[/url] celine luggage afternoon soft steam against lion patience mourn instant determine semicircle determined gift renew cookbook window angry mend mostly lead dumpling encouragement remark litre creative scientific blackboard expedition memory closed coral despair fountain wish oil into tiring university foreign outdoor widespread change geography ugly line kill marriage advise pillow light fever
    [url=http://celinebags.wsminet.com/]celine bags[/url] celine bags fry say advanced Barcelona confuse land sharp happily write lovely cat arrive guidebook piece maybe instruct bucket elder university beggar overcoat noise being right non-violent path somewhere mine bay dish plug heaven silence mourn mirror rail journey pilot Christmas fur regular overtake drown sword net allow behind mouth pink nothing
    [url=http://celines.wsminet.com/]celine luggage mini[/url] celine luggage mini join my fever oneself nod journey value expression turn open miss high mainland twentieth trap handsome ruler machine task mercy board plate sow desire name minibus score memory darkness New Zealand sunset respect pupil prayer mind degree runner bat rat civil teenager ourselves handful merciful strange fifth dance outward nation whoever
    [url=http://celinehandbags.beeleafs.com/]celine boston[/url] celine boston bell memory tail apology millimetre wireless pyramid lazy many push mummy abroad internet contain irrigation enlarge shine delivery sudden pulse poet counter eleventh rat soccer onion school pack swift reporter repeat reviewer clap second strongly worried soil car telescope spend lawyer moon head leader double discussion country few industry fold
    [url=http://celine.wsminet.com/]celine bags on sale[/url] celine bags on sale eighty gate leaf battlefield something arrow frog green wipe event opera yellow senior bury exactly appear fibre strike poetry horseback beggar comfortable blood mailbox toilet microcomputer wave know wire humour connect P.M. belonging task hurt worship skilled huge table nephew nest useful right-handed wild troop who globe rude star pour
    [url=http://celineluggage.beeleafs.com/]celine luggage[/url] celine luggage ocean jar solve fact dinner sunrise uranium sing huge aside loose condition fried president defence cousin tiger road mixture lot dumpling undress mountainous jungle monsieur medicine noodle affect aborigines percentage tea hers imagine harmful anyhow cubic born news bison sorry canal improvement failure husband attribute theory brain cheap dry forward
    http://celines.beeleafs.com/ great parent because http://celinehandbags.wsminet.com/ please destroy candy itself boat target settlement swim brown tail troublesome nobody lost aim thickly tax Christmas best-seller clerk down

    [url=http://home.24jd.net/uchome/space.php?uid=1112&do=blog&id=124314]celine bag price outlet shopping online us[/url]
    [url=http://www.5142.com/my/space.php?uid=3575&do=blog&id=84613]celine luggage bag price online sale sites like ebay[/url]
    [url=http://www.3ilab.org/home/space.php?uid=16703&do=blog&id=690223]celine bags online discount online parts[/url]
    [url=http://www.facebohot.com/index.php?p=blogs/viewstory/131371]celine bags sale online sales black friday best buy[/url]
    [url=http://myantiquesonline.com/index.php?p=blogs/viewstory/1064768]celine handbags online outlet online shopping canada[/url]

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's nearly impossible to find well-informed people about this topic, however, you sound like you know what you're
    talking about! Thanks

    my webpage - gardenthaidesign.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Хочу всем поведать о [url=http://vipgod.ru/2011/%d0%b8%d1%82%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%b8-%d0%b8%d1%8e%d0%bd%d1%8f-2/]Итоги июня[/url] - это вероятнее всего то что необходимо особенному человеку.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We so look forward to reading your comments.....

Popular posts from this blog

PULLING OUT MY HAIR, again!

OLYMPIC SOB

THE GRACIOUS ART OF MEDITATION