Why Brisbane? Well, Maria hated the Victorian climate and so did I. but, more importantly, I wanted out of science teaching and administration and management in international schools. I was not suited to management.I had contacts with an international school in Brisbane and they wanted an ESL teacher. So, I accepted.
This school had a mainstream of Aussies and the overseas students were just there to bring in revenue to the school. The word was that in Queensland there were a lot of Language schools for foreign students. Foreign students were polite, hardworking and fun.
I had to make a reconnaissance trip to Brisbane on my own first. I flew up and stayed with friends of my brother , who were I think a little bemused at our plans. I had no idea where to go. I went to a few estate agents on the South side close to the school but and didn’t like the look of them much. Eventually, I took a place very close to my friends place' in Northgate –in an old and pretty grim Queenslander. My (flawed) thinking was that we would be better off being close to someone we knew. The problem was it was one and a half hours drive from the school which was way, way south of the city.
I flew back to Melbourne, and we packed up as quickly as we could. We headed north out of Melbourne for the sun in ‘Bluey”, our 1982 Falcon-loaded with stuff and three kids. R was 6 , Serge 4 and J still a baby. I bought a pair of polaroid clip-on sunglasses for the drive. I don’t remember much of the trip except that it took three days and two nights and the weather slowly improved as we headed north. The kids were magnificent. They slept practically the whole way.
When I saw 25 Hall Street again in Brisbane I was disappointed–and I think Marie was, too. It really was shabby –and the location wasn’t great. Nevertheless, Roger went to Northgate Primary and I went to the international school every day. Marie did a sterling job keeping everything going at home.
September 1994
The nightmare continued..!. Professionally, this was my first real stab at ESL teaching and I was nervous. It was very different from science teaching. I could see that it would take time for me to adapt my teaching style. It was a real ‘Baptism of Fire’. The school was in financial trouble and was trying to save itself by importing Koreans worth 20,000 dollars each to the boarding department. This was a great idea except that the Koreans were street fighters-‘new money’ from Seoul. The spawn of the Korean ‘Tiger’. They were absolutely revolting! They were immature and rude ..very unlike most other Koreans I have met before or since. Most Koreans I have met are very polite and hardworking The HOD was very apologetic to me .. and together we worked out a plan to tame these 'wild' Koreans.
After a few weeks we decided to expel two of them on a Friday! The Head agreed and we thought that was that. Job done!
But no!
On the Monday when we came back to school the Head had changed her mind!
The HOd and I were devastated. I knew what this meant. They would be hell from here on – and they were!
A few days later the head of Discipline-the husband of the Headmistress, sidled up to me sheepishly muttering “Sorry about that Korean thing-they are worth 20,000 dollars each”.
That was the bottom line with that school.
They also had serious trouble between the Japanese and the Koreans in the boarding house. They used to line up and fight each other having pitched battles on the football field. I remember thinking ruefully maybe we hadn’t done so badly in Melbourne after all. We never had trouble like that
One particular incident sticks in my mind… I was asked to do a relief class in the main school – an eighth grade high school class of Aussies. As I entered I immediately spotted a little knot of trouble at the back in the form of boisterous youths who wouldn’t sit down, keep quiet, open their books or even write down the instructions for their work.
Eventually. I asked one of them to come up to the front with his book so I could get his name. (I wanted to report him to the regular teacher) If I had asked him for his name he would have given me a false one. I was sitting down and he turned round to face the class and then parked his bum on my desk in front of my face. I pushed him off and he went squealing out of the room like a little pig screeching.... He told the Head of Discipline that I had 'touched' him!
After school the Head of Discipline called me in and gave me a warning! “Don’t ever touch a student in this school again” I protested that the boy had invaded my personal space.The Head of discipline wasn't interested. There was only three weeks left on my contract till the end of term so I didn't say anything more.
Ironically, a few years later later when I was working at a language college, this same head of discipline turned up at the photocopier. He pretended not to know me. It turned out that the school had gone bust and he was unemployed! The Koreans, even at a 20,000 each apparently hadn't saved the school. I wasn't really surprised.
Back to the story: I felt humiliated and that was it, as far as I was concerned. I had only three weeks left on my contract and I determined to look for work in a language college with adults. At this school, I remember actually walking into my ESL class and hardly even talking to those spoiled brats who were completely ignoring me anyway. It was almost surreal! I would put on a video such as ‘The Lion king’ and just sit there, almost sulking. That is the only time in my career I have been reduced to doing that–a lesson in which I did not try, and hardly spoke!
This school collapsed in 2000 due to financial mismanagement.
Another winning choice for Nixon!.
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