Interview #2

My second interview was quite different from my first. This one was at St. Lazarre, a very rich, business-y area in the middle of the city. When I walked in I had no idea what to expect. They sent me to a room with 3 other people. A group interview. Fantastic. Two people were chatting away in fluent French. A few more people entered. The woman who was to conduct the interview/information session entered and began telling us how the interview was going to go. One girl stopped her and said that she doesn't speak French. The interviewer stared at her blankly for a few seconds and then continued to talk to her in French. Then another girl piped up and said that she doesn't speak French either. Another girl was late and sat down while this was going on and didn't realize that the interview was to be conducted in French. The first girl was quite upset when the interviewer told her that maybe she should come back another time. She finally switched to English and said that it's important that their teachers speak French in order to teach. Girl #1 said that she taught in Australia for 4 years without speaking any of the languages that the students spoke. The interviewer told the girls to wait in the hall while we continued with the meeting.

While the girls waited in the hall they talked very loudly amongst themselves. This really made the interviewer upset. She had to stop talking several times and even after asking them to be quiet they continued. The woman kept stopping to say "I have never in my life seen anything like this before. It's so rude and unprofessional! I can't concentrate!" There is no way that these girls will get the job after that.

I was first to tell a little bit about myself, my experience, where I live etc. It was good that I went first because my French was far worse than the other's. Two of them were French and one was Canadian (from Vancouver, but lived in Quebec) I guess the good thing about the 3 non French speakers was that I didn't look so bad in comparison. I was quite nervous and my French was really shaky. I didn't get to explain all that I've done teaching wise quite as well as I would have liked to. I think I'd work well with their program, but unfortunately I feel like if I don't get the job it will be because of my level of French.

It ticked me off that there wasn't a word of English spoken during the entire interview. How the heck are they supposed to know if we're actually fluent, mother tongue English speakers?! Anyone could have lied about it. It's terrible that I might be considered for the position only after the others due to the language that I will NOT be teaching! It's beyond me!

Anyway, the job is going to people's homes and teaching them in sessions of two hours. I have to go there and figure out what level they're at and decide what areas they need to work on. I'd have to prepare the lessons and basically work out with the clients when we'd have our lessons. It's not the greatest that the institution gets paid for basically doing nothing. They only arrange the first meeting with the clients and then it's up to us to do the rest. They have materials that we can use for the classes, but they don't give any training or information on the way that they want things to go.

It's too bad that I couldn't just walk down the street and have private lessons offered to me the same way it was in Korea. This is basically the exact same thing I was doing outside of Youngdo!

The pay really isn't that great, but at least it could be a start. And it's good that I can set my hours. The way it works is when they get a client they will call me up and ask if I want to teach this lesson. I'd figure out where it is and when they want to meet and if it suits me then I'll agree to it. If not, I can say no without any obligations. I imagine they'll start with some of the more crappy lessons that no one wants that are way outside of Paris, then if we do well with those they might start calling me up for closer lessons.

They also have some other more business-y clientele that look for group classes and those can be held in the offices of the school. The pay is greater, but I find this to be more intimidating. I've never really taught adults and without a curriculum and books I don't really know where to begin.

I've very overwhelmed with everything right now. I'd really prefer to just have one full time job, but it's beginning to look like I'm going to have to get several part time jobs. I'm seriously considering au pair.

The job that I had last time I was here is out of the question now. My former boss looked into getting me a job again, but they only hire students as interns. He talked to his bosses and they said that it was too complicated to give me a different contract from the other teachers. Too bad, it would have been so good to work for them again. I really enjoyed that job.

On another note, Pascaline and I watched Thirst (the latest Park Chan-Wook film) It was in Korean with French subtitles. I understood about 90% of what they were saying! It's a seriously twisted movie; a much darker take on vampires than the overly commercial Twilight phenomenon.