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Lia Berman - 2010-11-04

I have just resigned from Doga Koleji, the job is unbearable and the conditions are terrible.
These are two e-mails i wrote to "Duygu" head of english teachers at doga- if your thinking about working for them dont, it was the worst job i have ever taken on.... Its a complete facade of money with no real teaching happening. Duygu never officially responded to my e-mails, she ignored me or talked to me "off the record"

Dear Duygu,

Over the past few weeks i have thoroughly enjoyed many of the
great things about doga koleji including the amazing classroom
materials, fantastic scenery and caring teachers. Unfortunately many
of these fantastic attributes have been difficult to connect with.
Firstly your amazing classroom materials such as the smartboard are
virtually inaccessible due to the lack of classroom computers. I have
asked about the possibility of using a school computer to do lessons
but there is none. I have also tried to ask the classroom teachers to
let me borrow theres but they have refused to let me use them. Since i
already have a computer, i am unwilling to purchase another one just
for the purpose of teaching class. As you can imagine, it is extremely
difficult to teach the materials which require at least a writing
board for comprehension and i have been using mere flashcards for
class which is unproductive. The fantastic scenery is another
wonderful attribute of your school but again can be difficult when
school is an hour and a half away by public transport. I am extremely
grateful for the service provided and i thank doga koleji for that.
One thing that i would like to ask is that the days when i have little
to no classes such as wednesdays, i think its only necessary for me to
come into school one hour before the lessons start. This is standard
practice for lingua franca teachers in other schools. Also i have
heard from other franca lingua teachers that last year teachers were
allowed to leave when the students left. Frankly there is little to no
work to be done once students leave and this is the first time i have
heard of a school who requires native teachers to stay after their
classes are finished.Since there is little preparation for 1st and 2nd
graders i find it unnecessary to start work at 7 20 in the morning
when i don't teach until 2:50 in the afternoon. Thirdly the teachers
employed by doga are certainly competent and caring towards the
children and you are very lucky to employ them. I have however had a
less then welcoming first few weeks. My teaching partners when i asked
for help have said on many occasions "its not my responsibility." when
i asked "whose responsibility is it?" they couldn't tell me who to go
to. I have asked many different people, including yourself, who i
should go to when i have problems and it seems no one is responsible
for franca lingua teachers. For one, i do not have a school locker in
which to keep my books and materials and therefore either carry the
many books i have back and forth in a large backpack or leave them out
and get blamed for the mess i am leaving in the teachers room, and
have been doing so in the past two weeks.I have overheard other
teachers talking negatively about me in Turkish which they assume i
don't understand, which is juvenile and alienating.On top of that
m b has filled me with false hope and empty promises. I
was promised a school laptop early last week that never materialized,
he also had the nerve to borrow money from me for "school purposes"
and never return the 50TL i lent him. Especially in this financially
rough time of moving to turkey and getting a job i feel it is
disrespectful to take advantage of a new teacher and borrow money for
taxis for "school purposes". On top of all of this the children are
out of control with the foreign teachers. Many times i do not
understand their problems because i don't speak Turkish and when they
realize i don't understand they feel they can do anything they want.
One child through a chair over his head at another child and a Turkish
teacher wouldn't help me talk to him. The kids have absolutely no
respect for any of the franca lingua teachers and do not listen or
obey a word. My voice has been lost due to trying to get children's
attention in class and i refuse to scream at children any longer. When
signing up for this job i assumed i would be told information, be
accepted, and be welcomed into the community but i was sadly mistaken
and I feel that we need to talk at your earliest convenience about
addressing these stated problems in the near future.

Dear Duygu,

This is a follow up e-mail regarding my resignation from Doga
Koleji. I apologize for leaving today before we had the chance to talk
about what transpired today. However i am sure that you understand the
difficult circumstances i was under today at work. On my way to class
i was stopped by multiple teachers who wanted to hear the story of why
i was leaving and what had happened. Let me reiterate the reasons why
i am resigning from this position.
- the smartboard and computer promised to me two weeks
ago never surfaced
- the teachers mistreated me and took advantage of my
foreign heritage
- the children were overly disrespectful and
uncontrollable due to the lack of discipline
- I received no help from my colleagues in times of distress.
Today my personal privacy was broken into when three teachers
looked through my personal belongings and read personal e-mails
without permission while i was not there. When i re-entered into the
room and first handily saw what they were doing they conversed in
Turkish and laughed about what had happened. This is completely
unacceptable behavior, especially in the workplace. You surely can
understand that I will not teach under these circumstances. According
to my first e-mail that i sent to you on September 29 ( and the
meeting which we had) where i stated my previous complaints, I feel i
made it clear that if the situation didn't improve i would be leaving
the school. My official resignation letter was sent on October 11. I
understand you need time to figure the financial situation out, but I
would like to request a meeting next Wednesday when I could pick up
my salary for the days i have worked; October 1-14. I wish you all the
luck with finding a new foreign teacher, and i hope we can end this
professional relationship swiftly and in a positive manner. Thank you
for your time and waiting for your reply.

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