Page 36 - ELG1901 Jan-Feb 463

COMMENT .

Point too high. So, they took us in one by one

of View and told us our new rates, based on various
parameters. Divide and conquer. They did at
least have criteria.
Teaching English in Ireland can be very
Des enjoyable. Classes are small (max. fifteen)
Ryan and the students are adults from all round the
world. It’s a great bunch to be teaching and
the craic is great.
The visa students keep the schools alive
‘We’ve run out of in the Autumn, Winter and Spring. In the
summer, schools swell to capacity as buckets
of Europeans stall over for a few weeks at a
time, like your neighbours popping over for a
cup of tea and a chat.
students: on your summer is coming when you start seeing
Teenagers come en masse. You know the
caravans of continental teens marauding
down Dame Street.
bike, mate.’ little hectic in the summer. Teachers are given
The atmosphere in school is pleasant, if a
huge trust in how they combine obligatory
topics with their own material, a system which
largely brings out the best in them.
Outside the summer, schools are mostly full
The Irish EFL industry could be a win-win for in the morning while things vary after lunch.
everyone if the income were divided more Some schools provide extra classes, such as
evenly, argues Des Ryan business English or exam preparation. You
might have three hours of class in the morning,
a lunch break and three more in the afternoon.
A my advantage, getting work when I needed it non-EU citizens are not allowed to study after
Evenings do tend to be quiet, because
After that, I managed to use the industry to
friend and colleague of mine has
six. A decade ago, students would often work
always described English teaching
and a school needed me.
all day, contravening their work restrictions,
as ‘the best shit job’. The working
In 2017, I was working in a new language
conditions are brutal, but the actual
work is often really interesting and fun. school inside a university. There were four and then maybe stall into class from six to
nine pm.
teachers and I was the last to join, so I was
Unfortunately, the work is not regular told that I would be the first against the wall Nowadays, evening classes seem to involve
enough. As a result, the industry tends to if there weren’t enough new students. a combo of EU workers in the city and au
attract people who are trying to carve out pairs doing four hours of English spread over
a career doing something else: musicians, two nights a week.
writers, actors and the like. During your lunch The bulk of teachers will teach for three
Not everyone teaches English as a side or four contact hours in the morning. After
hustle. Many just like teaching English and break, you have to lunch, there are three ways that your day can
do it as their career. hop on your bike and pan out: go home, teach scraps, or double up.
I first started teaching English twelve years Teachers doing scraps might do two or
ago, and it soon became a regular nixer to peddle your way to three afternoons per week, so that they
help fund my PhD research. Teaching English end up with 20-25 paid hours per week.
is now my sole job, and I want to continue in another school… Unfortunately, these afternoon classes are
this industry, talking language with people, infinitely more precarious and teachers can
and writing about it. Sure enough, there weren’t enough seldom rely on them.
But this huge industry does not look after students, so I actually volunteered to take a Teachers doubling up will have a 30-hour
its employees, does not allow them to live wee break, seeing as my partner was almost week. This is doable for a few weeks or
profitable lives. Many students fork out their nine months pregnant and my PhD revisions months but you get burnt out sooner rather
life savings to come to Ireland, learn English needed to be completed. than later. Or, you are expecting to double up
and then forge a better career back home. I never heard back. No summer work. but half your hours are suddenly taken off you.
They cannot believe that teachers get so No work in the new academic year. Like the You might be working across two schools.
little, given how much they pay. guy on the news in Grafton college, I was an During your lunch break, you have to hop
And then there is the precariousness. unemployed new father. I didn’t even get my on your bike and peddle your way to another
Over the years, I’ve worked in a dozen two weeks of paternity leave. school, grabbing lunch if you are lucky.
or more establishments, and my jobs have I managed to get a job that involved setting The other option is what makes English
finished in many different ways. The most up and running a new franchise summer teaching so attractive. You work the
common theme is: we’ve run out of students. school, but I was only paid for the six weeks of mornings, earn your three or four hundred
On your bike, mate. actual class. I don’t even want to go into how nicker, and then you’re free to do what you
The first job I lost was in a private school stupid that was, but I was freshly unemployed want. That’s what draws in the artists and the
in 2011. I was to be employed for the summer and living in rural Ireland, so I was taking musicians, and the semi-retired. In my current
and was told I’d be working till September. what I could get. situation, I mind the bambino in the morning
I had no contract or clue. Then one day in In 2016, I was working inside a different and teach in the afternoons.
August I got chucked out on my ear because university structure. Our pay was advertised, It should be noted that I am not macro-
they didn’t have enough students. but the powers-that-be decided that was complaining about my current situation. I am

36 January/February 2019