The pleasure of its company
So some jobs fell through this month, which is sad, but other work has appeared, which is great. In the interim, I made sure to update my resume, a document that is more like a tapestry hanging in a polytheist cathedral, full of competing heresies that amount to one glorious worldview. (Then the cathedral is burned down.)A representative from Berlitz called me this morning and noted with enthusiasm my teaching resume. She was French. "Oh, it eez notheeng," I said. She liked the populations I'd taught and the subjects, and was gracious about my having worked for the competition. She proceeded to tell me how I could get a job teaching anywhere with Berlitz on my resume.
"I don't mean to be rude, but my resume shows that I can already."
She told me that she was glad I had other employment because most people teach at Berlitz for fun.
Don't get me wrong; I love the work I do, and need to enjoy my work, but when people emphasize how fun something is before they mention salary, I get suspicious.
"Uh - "
After a little period of overtalking, in which she touted small class sizes, interesting students, the steep financial expense to the students for such small classes and individual attention, and Berlitz' 138-year history, I asked if her professors were volunteers.
"Non," she said, "the teachers make $11.33 an hour."
"So it seems the only people benefiting from the expense of the course is the students," I said, many-a-true-word-hath-been-spoke-in-jest-style.
"People really do this for the fun of it," she repeated. "Plus, after one year, you will get a free course, and a discount on the materials." She then said something about an unpaid 40-hour orientation course in Beverly Hills during which I would be offered a discount on parking.
"I know a parking lot there," she said. "This is a a teep."
Normally I don't let unsatisfying conversations go so far, but I was thinking about a job I applied for at MTV several years ago when I arrived in Los Angeles. I turned it down because I couldn't believe they were paying people so little.
"In the end," the hiring manager said, "you get to say that you worked at MTV."
I did work at MTV later, and then two planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Coincidence? Probably. But how did the 9/11 hijackers learn English?
I was very polite to the Berlitz lady, and said that I couldn't afford an unpaid week of work in which I'd still need to get all my other work done. I should have said something about indentured servitude, but I don't speak French very well.
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by Marty Barrett at Saturday, December 17, 2005
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