The (S)Q&A Hangout

[Chocobo Princess]

terradi

I need to find a job. Going to do that after NaNo though.

Hello Chocobo Princess! (I have no idea how to shorten your name).

Good luck with NaNoWriMo and with job hunting. whee

My name shortens to ChoPri, but I also answer to Princess or Chocobo or Choco. blaugh

[Skye River]

terradi

Japan has squandered a lot of funds. There are still people in evacuation centers in Fukushima. 25% of funds have been mis-spent on things like whaling and roads in areas not directly impacted by the Tohoku earthquake. 25% has been spent on the people who actually needed it. 50% is still un-spent.

There are definitely some ongoing issues. I wish I could say I pictured them going away ... I don't. I have contacts still living and working in the area. I wish them the best, but it just doesn't seem like they are getting the support they really need. A bit over a year and a half in and I think people are forgetting.

I need to find a job. Going to do that after NaNo though.

~

Hello Chocobo Princess! (I have no idea how to shorten your name).

Just as I thought, Japan is going through rough times out there. I wished they stopped the whole whaling thing though. I wish the best for those that are still there. Imagine how the folks in Haiti are still dealing with their situation to this day.

Darien: Yes, I has a Facebook.

[Darien S.Darien S.]

ninja

[wtf its kae]

ninja

[terradi]

heart heart

Peoplesssss!

Whaling doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. I just have a hard time figuring out how it's worse than what we do to pigs. Pigs are really smart creatures.

[Darien S.Darien S.]

terradi

heart heart

Peoplesssss!

Whaling doesn't bother me as much as it probably should. I just have a hard time figuring out how it's worse than what we do to pigs. Pigs are really smart creatures.

Please don't ruin bacon for me. crying

[terradi]

sweatdrop Sorry .

Prolly worth noting that I eat meat (including bacon), even though I kind of question the morality of it. Which is semi-hypocritical. But I figure it'd be even worse if I went after whaling just because I thought whales were somehow better than the animals I usually eat.

I have issues with money set aside for disaster relief (that is still NEEDED) being mis-used. But whaling itself I can't get worked up about.

[Yuji Ikaido]

How was your teaching job getting worse? Was it just because of the disaster that happened there, or was the job in general in decline for other reasons? Less demand for teachers?

[terradi]

Nothing to do with the disaster. Kyoto is pretty far away from all of that chaos.

The demand for English teachers isn't great, and the company changed hands for ... I think the third time? The idiots in charge now think of teachers as being extremely replaceable. If I'd stuck around long enough to hit the next new contract (and we have a new one every year. no such thing as tenure) I'd have taken another pay cut. Every year since the second has been a reduction or just staying even.

It's cleverly disguised as an 'incentive'. Get enough students in your classes and you can technically make more money. But if no one shows up you get no pay. I worked at a quiet school. We never had a ton of students. That was because the company treated them poorly, not because I was an inferior teacher.

I also had the option of being paid ... I think fifty or sixty bucks for each new lesson I created that the company would be allowed to use. Because apparently this is more profitable than actually hiring someone to do it right. rolleyes

They changed the rules for students too. Talking about anything and everything used to be just fine if the students wanted to do it. I did a lot of lessons like that. They decided to make that a special thing that students would have to pay more money to do.

Any time you take away something that used to be free and make people pay more for it, you're doing a poor job.

I loved my students. I loved Japan. But everyone I knew who was working for my company was quitting or just sticking around long enough to find better work and then quitting. I liked what the company I worked for was six years ago. But that company is long gone.

[Skye River]

terradi

Nothing to do with the disaster. Kyoto is pretty far away from all of that chaos.

The demand for English teachers isn't great, and the company changed hands for ... I think the third time? The idiots in charge now think of teachers as being extremely replaceable. If I'd stuck around long enough to hit the next new contract (and we have a new one every year. no such thing as tenure) I'd have taken another pay cut. Every year since the second has been a reduction or just staying even.

It's cleverly disguised as an 'incentive'. Get enough students in your classes and you can technically make more money. But if no one shows up you get no pay. I worked at a quiet school. We never had a ton of students. That was because the company treated them poorly, not because I was an inferior teacher.

I also had the option of being paid ... I think fifty or sixty bucks for each new lesson I created that the company would be allowed to use. Because apparently this is more profitable than actually hiring someone to do it right. rolleyes

They changed the rules for students too. Talking about anything and everything used to be just fine if the students wanted to do it. I did a lot of lessons like that. They decided to make that a special thing that students would have to pay more money to do.

Any time you take away something that used to be free and make people pay more for it, you're doing a poor job.

I loved my students. I loved Japan. But everyone I knew who was working for my company was quitting or just sticking around long enough to find better work and then quitting. I liked what the company I worked for was six years ago. But that company is long gone.

That's horrible sad I thought things were bad here in Las Vegas with the casinos. Well, I hope that you find something worthwhile down the road.

[Yuji Ikaido]

Wow, I don't even know what to say about that. Education should never be managed like it's a business.

[The Real Bright Eyes]

ninja

[Skye River]

xd mrgreen

[terradi]

Well, it was a business. I didn't work for a school system. I worked for a chain of shops that just happened to teach English as their product. Conversation schools aren't really comparable to standard education.

~

Man, if I was still in Japan I think I'd have to make a trip down to Obama and see if they had a big party like they did last election.

[Skye River]

*reaction to last night's election results* Happy Happy Joy Joy ! mrgreen