I don’t have deals like that in my contracts, but I do show up a little bit early and leave a little bit late for prep and extra help. If it takes more than two minutes (with the student standing right there with me) then there’s an issue of time and money.
I don’t like full time jobs simply for many of the reasons outlined before in this thread. They often want you to do stuff like have your picture taken endlessly, work too much unpaid hours, do special events on your own free time, and handle items such as public school homework.
Part time work is much simpler: Show up prepared, do a job, paid and go home. Private work is even better, and more rewarding to see them improve so quickly.
For what it’s worth, I give all students my home phone number and an e-mail address to take advantage of, and a time that they may try to contact me, and few ever do.
I sometimes wish I could barter teaching time for services, like painting the house or other things. Problem is, If you don’t charge what seems to be a substantial amount of cash for teaching, then you devalue it. I get more and better business charging 1000+ an hour than I do charging 700. Try to get a painter to assign hourly wages to a contract one off job.
I think the issue here is that the parent wants a favour. Now, if these are the nice kinds of parents (and kid) who take time to chat and do nice things for the teacher, and they ask the teacher for help, that’s one thing. I, personally, would be happy to help. Good guanxi and all that jazz. Ten minutes isn’t a lot out of my life, and if my goal is to teach this child rather than do his homework for him, no worries.
On the other hand, if the child or parents don’t have the time of day for the teacher, but have no problem demanding help from the teacher’s free time, I would either refuse or demand compensation. Or you could do what a former co-worker of mine did and acquiesce and agree to “help” in the way that she “helped” people such as themselves (those too stingy to pay). Make all of the answers wrong, enough so that even the teachers in the PS will know. Sure, your boss will be pissy, but your boss doesn’t sound like a keeper in any case, and chances are that you won’t be asked to do stuff outside of school hours.
I guess it comes down to attitude and ask versus demand. As well, consider how much extra help your boss gives to students and is really willing to help them (without pay). That should tell you which is the best action to take in this case.
If I see that my boss is willing to go the extra mile for the students, I am more likely to follow suit.
Seriously, the “say yes and then fail to deliver/do such a lousy job you are never asked to do it again” is an actual, culturally-acceptable way of not saying “no” in Taiwan. And lest you think this is my cynical self overanalyzing, this was explained to me in so many words by a Taiwanese business partner of mine, who was explaining to me the art of not doing while not saying “no” either.
Is this kind of thing “cheating” or “unethical” to most Westerners? Sure. But if the person you don’t want to do the favor for is Taiwanese, that will get the message across in a way that is not directly causing them to lose face. You alter the way you speak to make it easier for non-native speakers to understand; think of this as altering the way you act to make it easier for non-native-thinkers of English.
Well, from the boss’ POV, deliberately fucking with the kid’s homework will probably come back to haunt the school. In fact, I’m pretty sure it would.
I would not think too hard about firing a teacher who deliberately screwed over a kid because said kid’s mom wanted his homework checked, or in some cases, rewritten.
If you are a school owner and you wish to send this message that freebies are a nono, then do it yourself; if you are teaching a private student who wants more from you than they are willing to pay for, fine by me. But a rogue teacher, working for someone, screwing over the student and the boss, while sticking it to the parents?
[quote=“shifty”][quote=“Maoman”]
They’re not unpaid office hours if you’re required to keep them. There’s a cost, and if you haven’t figured that into your total salary, then you’re being cavalier about the value of your time. [/quote]
I never really thought about it that way, now that I have I feel even worse, as I get paid 450 per hour before taxes.[/quote]
Maybe I’ve been out of it for too long…But doesn’t this seem like a really low wage?
[quote=“ironlady”]“You just don’t understand Chinese culture.”
Seriously, the “say yes and then fail to deliver/do such a lousy job you are never asked to do it again” is an actual, culturally-acceptable way of not saying “no” in Taiwan. And lest you think this is my cynical self overanalyzing, this was explained to me in so many words by a Taiwanese business partner of mine, who was explaining to me the art of not doing while not saying “no” either.
Is this kind of thing “cheating” or “unethical” to most Westerners? Sure. But if the person you don’t want to do the favor for is Taiwanese, that will get the message across in a way that is not directly causing them to lose face. You alter the way you speak to make it easier for non-native speakers to understand; think of this as altering the way you act to make it easier for non-native-thinkers of English. [/quote]
Indeed. I forgot to mention that she was a Taiwanese English teacher. :bravo:
Such a teacher would be gone the same day, if it were my school. :fatchance:[/quote]
Would either of you financially compensate the teacher for checking/rewritting the homework? How do you reply to parents who make such demands on foreign teachers?
I understand what you are saying but I can not do this because the person it really effects is the kid. I can not do that to one of my students. I strive to impart to them the idea that a thing is not worth doing if it is not worth doing properly.
There is no half-assed allowed in my classroom, from them or from me.
yes the $450 is way low, but I am locked into a 2 year contract, the wage was changed after I started work.
As far as I’m concerned, you should not have been approached to do this. It’s ignorant and rude. It’s fucking Taiwan goddamn China. Land of duo shao chien. Nothing wrong with giving you 600 NT to check someone’s homework in you neck of the woods. Expecting you to, and using you, is just wrong on their part.
Now we, as teachers, can be benevolent enough to help students out with their English during our free time. But it’s our choice.
I know exactly how the OP feels. I’d probably do it. Once. Maybe. You’re in a weird position. Depends on what it is. If it takes you an hour. No damn way. Even a half-hour is expecting too much.
Not like this student who wanted me to proofread her speech. She didn’t even offer me any money. I thought that was really rude. What’s she going to do for me? Nothing except be my student. Oh. Good deal. I teach her son to at the hagwon (buxiban), but it makes no damn difference to me. Am I helping the reputation of the school? Doesn’t matter. I already do a good job. Is she paying my boss? Maybe. That would suck.
Such a teacher would be gone the same day, if it were my school. :fatchance:[/quote]
Would either of you financially compensate the teacher for checking/rewritting the homework? How do you reply to parents who make such demands on foreign teachers?[/quote]
I would give it to a FT teacher, or do it myself.
This is a service business. When the schools have their speech contests, we have practice classes for them, for free. A FT teacher will run the class. If a parent thinks their child needs extra help, we provide it, free of charge (for them) and a FT teacher will do it.
High maintainence parents usually calm down after a while when they realize that we are doing our best, or they leave unsatisfied and take their kid to another school. It’s a bidness. It happens. We can only bend so far.
It’s tit-for-tat. In a reasonably small working environment, contracts are for people who don’t understand respect.
At my first school, I went out of my way to be accommodating, until they made it clear that accommodation was going to a one-way affair. Then I shut down and made things equally difficult for them… all according to the letter of the contract. When I moved on to my next school, I was treated well, and treated them well, and never gave the contract a second thought.
Having a look at homework isn’t a big deal. If it’s not what I’m there for, well, giving me advice on where to find a better lunch isn’t what they’re there for either. At one of my positions–non-teaching–someone asked if I could look at her daughter’s homework in the run up to a speech contest. I didn’t really want to, but it’s a minor inconvenience. She offered to pay, but I didn’t want to accept cash (nor did I wish to set a precedent). Did the deal for lunch. I was stuck in the office, she brought me lunch the 4 or 5 times she asked for help. Good deal for both of us, and kept business from sneaking in to a professional office relationship.
That said, I NEVER do homework for anyone. Poke, prod, and drag them by the nose to the right answer, sure, but NEVER do the homework for them. A good thing too. A student I edit for has had her work challenged for plagiarism; having records demonstrating precisely what aid was given, and how, may have kept her from being drummed out of her program. Besides, while it’s a business, it’s an educational business, and nobody ever learned anything from having their homework done for them.
Remember, too, that doing a poor job is not the only option…the most common way to say “no” without saying “no” in Taiwan is to say “yes” and then fail to deliver at all…delay…plausible excuses for delays…until it’s just way too late, and the favor-asker figures it out. Doing a poor job would be a last resort if you were absolutely cornered and I wouldn’t particularly advise it; doing the whole “Sure” and then delaying thing is better.
Unfortunately, one of the big lessons I learned in my ten years in Asia is “do not do unpaid work.” Do not do favours for your boss. They will not be doing any favours for you. If you help them, they will just come to expect it - when you need help, you won’t get it.
Now, doing favours for other people may help with guanxi. But the boss already looks down on the teacher because he or she is a lowly employee. The boss won’t see your help as a favour - he will see it as his due.
Of course, I agree with Ironlady that one must be crafty in how one goes about not doing unappreciated favours.
