Rant VIII: The Reckoning
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doomdragon6
Staff member
I'm really curious as to how you would have managed to do that.
GasBandit
Staff member
You're OK, Frank.
I would like to rant on my wife's behalf.
So, she's an English teacher. Now, the way teaching gigs work in Taiwan (not sure if it's the same elsewhere) is that first you need to take a teaching training course, and pass its final evaluation. Stuff like teaching theory, six month internship at a school, etc. Only then are you considered an eligible, certified teacher.
After receiving certification, you then go to city- or county-wide teacher recruitment exams, where you need to take a written exam, and then if you pass the written exam (something like a 10% pass rate), you then do a ten-minute sample teaching in front of a panel of judges, who then only select the best and most impressive teachers (again, something like a 10% pass rate, so the overall selection rate is close to 1%).
As you can see, the teacher recruitment process is very competitive, and lots of people try for years and years until they get a teaching job. My wife, being the academic genius that she is, got in on the first try (seriously, so proud of her).
Now, here's the ranty part. There were around 35 openings for English teachers this year in the Taipei region. My wife came around 20th overall in the final rankings. The new teachers get to select their teaching gigs based on their ranking, so the teacher who performed the best gets to pick the cushiest school, one that's close to civilization and has the best reputation, etc. By the time they got to 20th, only the relatively undesirable schools were left. My wife had to pick a tiny elementary school (120 students in total, including first to sixth grade) on the other side of Taipei. So now she needs to get up at 5am every morning, and endure a 90 minute commute, just to get to work.
But that's not all. Because the school is tiny, they're intensely short-staffed. This means teachers need to take on additional responsibilities. And it's more than just having the chemistry teacher act as the baseball coach. My wife, who was trained in English language education, has been roped into the school's general affairs division, and is in charge of the school's finances. And because the school's so small, their payroll only has room for one English teacher, which means my wife needs to teach all six grades. That's 12 hours a week, just in the classroom, and not including the work that needs to be done for six different curricula.
Let me just repeat that. A first-time teacher who's trained in English education has been given the job of overseeing an entire elementary school's finances. She has no financial management experience or training. This is in addition to her already exceedingly heavy workload of handling the English language education of every student in the school. She needs to get up at 5am every day to do this job.
She loves teaching. She's taught at cram schools before, and she found it to be a rewarding experience. She wanted to get a teaching gig at a proper elementary school though, because it offers better job security. She needs to stay at this school for at least two years before she can apply for a transfer (part of the teaching recruitment regulations). I can just imagine these two years completely burning out any enthusiasm for teaching she'll ever have. Yesterday was the first day of school. School's meant to be out at 4pm, but she had to stay until 7 to deal with the financial stuff, and she only got home at 8:30. She basically came back home a zombie, mentally and physically exhausted. This is going to be every day for her from now on.
It sucks that I can't help her. It sucks that I'm not a more competent earner. If I made mad amounts of cash, she wouldn't have to work. I wish I could do more.
So, she's an English teacher. Now, the way teaching gigs work in Taiwan (not sure if it's the same elsewhere) is that first you need to take a teaching training course, and pass its final evaluation. Stuff like teaching theory, six month internship at a school, etc. Only then are you considered an eligible, certified teacher.
After receiving certification, you then go to city- or county-wide teacher recruitment exams, where you need to take a written exam, and then if you pass the written exam (something like a 10% pass rate), you then do a ten-minute sample teaching in front of a panel of judges, who then only select the best and most impressive teachers (again, something like a 10% pass rate, so the overall selection rate is close to 1%).
As you can see, the teacher recruitment process is very competitive, and lots of people try for years and years until they get a teaching job. My wife, being the academic genius that she is, got in on the first try (seriously, so proud of her).
Now, here's the ranty part. There were around 35 openings for English teachers this year in the Taipei region. My wife came around 20th overall in the final rankings. The new teachers get to select their teaching gigs based on their ranking, so the teacher who performed the best gets to pick the cushiest school, one that's close to civilization and has the best reputation, etc. By the time they got to 20th, only the relatively undesirable schools were left. My wife had to pick a tiny elementary school (120 students in total, including first to sixth grade) on the other side of Taipei. So now she needs to get up at 5am every morning, and endure a 90 minute commute, just to get to work.
But that's not all. Because the school is tiny, they're intensely short-staffed. This means teachers need to take on additional responsibilities. And it's more than just having the chemistry teacher act as the baseball coach. My wife, who was trained in English language education, has been roped into the school's general affairs division, and is in charge of the school's finances. And because the school's so small, their payroll only has room for one English teacher, which means my wife needs to teach all six grades. That's 12 hours a week, just in the classroom, and not including the work that needs to be done for six different curricula.
Let me just repeat that. A first-time teacher who's trained in English education has been given the job of overseeing an entire elementary school's finances. She has no financial management experience or training. This is in addition to her already exceedingly heavy workload of handling the English language education of every student in the school. She needs to get up at 5am every day to do this job.
She loves teaching. She's taught at cram schools before, and she found it to be a rewarding experience. She wanted to get a teaching gig at a proper elementary school though, because it offers better job security. She needs to stay at this school for at least two years before she can apply for a transfer (part of the teaching recruitment regulations). I can just imagine these two years completely burning out any enthusiasm for teaching she'll ever have. Yesterday was the first day of school. School's meant to be out at 4pm, but she had to stay until 7 to deal with the financial stuff, and she only got home at 8:30. She basically came back home a zombie, mentally and physically exhausted. This is going to be every day for her from now on.
It sucks that I can't help her. It sucks that I'm not a more competent earner. If I made mad amounts of cash, she wouldn't have to work. I wish I could do more.
I had a front row seat to a pretty nasty car accident this AM.
I was stopped at a red light when a guy blew past me and right into oncoming traffic. Nailed a lady on her way to work and totaled both their cars. He was ok, she turned out to be alright, just bruised and shocked but as me and another guy approached her to help she was freaking out about her heart and had us call her husband and it was just... really intense.
I called 911 right away as I threw my blinkers on and jumped out of my car. In a slightly panicked voice I told the operator where I was and that there was a really horrible accident involving 2 cars and that I was going to check to see if the people were ok. She asks me if she needs to send an ambulance and part of me wanted to yell, "No, I'm just calling to trade stories with you", but I just went, "Uh, yes? Horrible accident. People involved. Send help."
As we were waiting for the ambulance to get there a cop drove by, no lights, no speeding, just rolls on by.
Drove by.
What the fuck?
There's car parts EVERYWHERE, a crowd of folks around the cars trying to help and this guy just drives by? 5 Minutes later another cop shows up right after the ambulance. Good thing we didn't need a cop.
I was stopped at a red light when a guy blew past me and right into oncoming traffic. Nailed a lady on her way to work and totaled both their cars. He was ok, she turned out to be alright, just bruised and shocked but as me and another guy approached her to help she was freaking out about her heart and had us call her husband and it was just... really intense.
I called 911 right away as I threw my blinkers on and jumped out of my car. In a slightly panicked voice I told the operator where I was and that there was a really horrible accident involving 2 cars and that I was going to check to see if the people were ok. She asks me if she needs to send an ambulance and part of me wanted to yell, "No, I'm just calling to trade stories with you", but I just went, "Uh, yes? Horrible accident. People involved. Send help."
As we were waiting for the ambulance to get there a cop drove by, no lights, no speeding, just rolls on by.
Drove by.
What the fuck?
There's car parts EVERYWHERE, a crowd of folks around the cars trying to help and this guy just drives by? 5 Minutes later another cop shows up right after the ambulance. Good thing we didn't need a cop.
Sucks man. I spent 2 hrs on the side of the road (at a major intersection near Duke) on Easter Sunday waiting for the po-po. No cops rolled by though. Jeez.
Seeing that can be freaky. Cheers for helping out.
Dave
Staff member
Sam still hasn't gotten paid although she was supposed to last Friday. She has rent to pay and even though they can't kick her out (she's no longer living there), it hurts her credit, her former roommates, and her finances like gas, etc. We can help her a little, but not that much.
New jobs suck.
New jobs suck.
I hope no one takes this personal but I've said this countless times. Always ensure to have additional funds in a additional bank account. This is your emergency funds. In this account I have $5000. It hasn't been touched in years. Heck, it's actually close to 5100 now due to interests. The day may come where I may use it and I don't like the concept of living by the paycheck. I learnt that shit early in my life (18-20). For 2-3 years, I worked overtime and didn't go out much being cheap as fuck so that I can save cash and grow some reserves so that when expenses come I'm not fucked. It always sucks but I'm not in "that situation". I'm not saying people should save 5 grand but there should always be fund that will help you out for 2-3 months.
Shit happens, you know.
In your specific case Dave, I hope all goes well for everyone involved.
Shit happens, you know.
In your specific case Dave, I hope all goes well for everyone involved.
I realize how it can be hard for some but all I can say is that live by 3 rules.
1. Emergency funds. Only used when really needed. Thankfully, hasn't happened.
2. Budget your wants with hard limits. Needs are "rent/food/utilities". Want to eat out? Sure. Is your emergency funds at maximum level? No. Then no eating out. But I need to live a little. No you don't. You poop this stuff out. You're better off with emergency funds when shit hits the fan.
3. Make a goal to save money. Start small. All of it goes to emergency funds at first. Then once tapped. Start another account (yes I have 3) and that's your big projects account. Want that new bike? That new console? That new espresso machine? The money comes from here. I like setting up 250 here a month. At the end of the year I get a sweet 3 grand to buy WHATEVER I want. This also happens around X-Mas.
Just me though.
Everyone's different.
Just save money if you don't have any in the bank. Anything to avoid living paycheck from paycheck. That sucks.
1. Emergency funds. Only used when really needed. Thankfully, hasn't happened.
2. Budget your wants with hard limits. Needs are "rent/food/utilities". Want to eat out? Sure. Is your emergency funds at maximum level? No. Then no eating out. But I need to live a little. No you don't. You poop this stuff out. You're better off with emergency funds when shit hits the fan.
3. Make a goal to save money. Start small. All of it goes to emergency funds at first. Then once tapped. Start another account (yes I have 3) and that's your big projects account. Want that new bike? That new console? That new espresso machine? The money comes from here. I like setting up 250 here a month. At the end of the year I get a sweet 3 grand to buy WHATEVER I want. This also happens around X-Mas.
Just me though.
Everyone's different.
Just save money if you don't have any in the bank. Anything to avoid living paycheck from paycheck. That sucks.
First World Problems, I went to a new restaurant in town. I have a fairly generous lunch hour, but Heysoo Christo! a salad should be done in less than 35 minutes. But it is the 20 minutes just waiting to place an order is what pushed them over the top. So I went to the cashier and asked to pay for my drink. Thankfully the cashier was smart enough to turn that down. Then she said to wait while she checked on my salad. I told her that I have to work...
Just what is your baseline expectations when you go to a sit-down restaurant before lunch rush starts?[DOUBLEPOST=1409765973,1409765914][/DOUBLEPOST]The patron that sat down 5 minutes after I did already had his meal and dessert before I got my first drink refill.
Just what is your baseline expectations when you go to a sit-down restaurant before lunch rush starts?[DOUBLEPOST=1409765973,1409765914][/DOUBLEPOST]The patron that sat down 5 minutes after I did already had his meal and dessert before I got my first drink refill.
A
Anonymous
Anonymous
I just found out that one of my best friends is HIV+.
I don't know how to support them. Or if they really need it. All our interactions shouldn't be about their disease(s), but I want them to be comfortable talking to me about their health status if they need to.
I don't know how to support them. Or if they really need it. All our interactions shouldn't be about their disease(s), but I want them to be comfortable talking to me about their health status if they need to.
Scarlet A and fire?
Except for the pity sex...
A
Anonymous
Anonymous
That is legitimately good advice. It gives me a frame of reference to work from. (Particularly since I routinely interact with a few cancer patients.) Thanks Dave.
Dave
Staff member
No worries. The stigma from being HIV+ is largely gone from most places and it's just like any other potentially deadly disease with a terrible cure. In both cases it's a fight that they may or may not be up to discussing. Hope your friend gets all the help they need.
... shave your head?
These both assume that we haven't already cut every bit of scrap fat from our expenditures. Trust me here when I say that you'd be astounded at how we manage our quality of life on such thin margins.
And yes, it does suck.
--Patrick
Dave
Staff member
Sorry.