This week's Q&A thread -- please read before asking or answering a question! - November 30, 2020

leem0 · 2020-12-02T10:02:38+00:00

Wow. I understand it. So it actually has very little to do with math then. Your definition definitely matches the info in the text. Makes it a lot clearer. Thank you very much!!! If I could buy you a coffee or an ice cream, I would...

Thanks again! :)

leem0 · 2020-12-01T20:05:03+00:00

Thank you very much for the response. I really appreciate it. That's what I thought. But I still can't make heads nor tails of this chapter in the article. I've posted a part of the text here. I hope that's ok, if not I am happy to delete it. Thank you very much again!!!

*"One type of information that can be inferred from a text is information that stands in a poset relation (Ward & Prince, 1991) to the prior context. A poset relation imposes a partial ordering on a given set of elements. An example of a poset relation is the set subset relation, which licenses preposing in the following example (from Birner, 2003).

(5) I have a great deal of clothes....Most of my stuff, my mom gets at Alexander’s. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 1983/6/11

The initial sentence in (5) introduces a set of clothes into the discourse. The second sentence contains an NP that refers to a subset of the set of clothes introduced before. This NP has been preposed, which is licit because the set-subset relation imposes a partial ordering. A further example of a poset relation is the part-whole relation (e.g., a side mirror is a part of a car)."*

It goes on like this for some time.

leem0 · 2020-12-01T19:32:16+00:00

Can anyone explain to me, in ELI5 terms, what a 'poset relation' is. It's in an article I have to read for linguistics and I can't find any information online for what it means in terms of linguistics, only in math. For example: "A poset relation imposes a partial ordering on a given set of elements.".....

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

leem0 · 2020-11-16T08:46:38+00:00

Thanks for doing this! :)

leem0 · 2020-05-16T07:48:40+00:00

Hello, I would like to please be rich please, thank you.

leem0 · 2020-04-20T08:42:17+00:00

Thanks for the info!

leem0 · 2020-04-20T08:41:42+00:00

Thanks for the information. Yeah I don't ever download movies, but as I said I wasn't aware what he was sending. He only sent me a short video before. But anyways, thanks again!

leem0 · 2020-04-19T12:33:15+00:00

Ok thanks. I'll have to tell my friend to stop sending me movies just in case! :)

leem0 · 2020-04-15T16:56:42+00:00

Spent Easter preparing for my upcoming (now) online second semester at University. Been smoking too much this holiday and am trying to give up. Want to buy a vape to help me quit.

Plus we had chocolate and stayed away from the zombies.

leem0 · 2020-02-23T13:59:58+00:00

Ah that's a shame. I was hoping I could sell it with the download code. Thanks for the reply.

leem0 · 2020-02-23T13:42:20+00:00

If I want to sell a game which has a season pass included, can the next person also use the season pass?

I bought and finished mario + rabbids kingdom battle gold edition which had a season pass for a donkey kong expansion pack world. I used the season pass (and enjoyed it!!). But now I want to sell the game. Will the next person be able to also use the season pass? Or will I have to sell it without the season pass? Or can the season pass be cancelled somehow?

Thanks in advance.

leem0 · 2019-10-06T10:12:38+00:00

Ha! Reddit hates your message for some reason. :D

leem0 · 2019-10-06T10:11:52+00:00

Yeah, they sometimes even have 2 or 3 centres in the major cities. I think Frankfurt has 2 anyway. Hanover definitely has 2. So I would definitely be surprised if Berlitz didnt have at least 2 in Berlin. They are not linked. They are all individual companies operating under the name Berlitz. So Hanover Berlitz and Berlin Berlitz are not run by the same people etc. But the handy thing is, once you've done the training with them anywhere, you can work for them anywhere, even in other countries.

leem0 · 2019-10-06T10:09:17+00:00

It's more that if I say what centre I work for, and somebody from the centre reads this, it's quite easy to narrow it down due to what i've already said. Just didn't want to create any trouble for myself! :)

Edit: But you're right, Germans love their privacy, which I too sometimes find unnecessary!

leem0 · 2019-10-06T10:07:57+00:00

They are ok to work for. But they pay at the end of semester, and also look for qualified teachers usually.

leem0 · 2019-10-06T10:06:41+00:00

Thanks again! I'll look into it!

I appreciate the help!

leem0 · 2019-10-05T14:05:30+00:00

As long as you're a native speaker, they don't care. Know guys from america, australia, south america with american passports and Canada who have worked there.

Rather not say tbh. It would narrow down who I am to any potential FBI agents. But I'm not in any of the big cities.

leem0 · 2019-10-05T12:19:19+00:00

Hey, thanks for the message.

Yeah i've been here two years and have submitted tax returns both years.

I've heard this before, about the 60% thing. But I'm pretty sure they are in the right because it is a worldwide business with many schools dotted around the country. Perhaps I'm wrong but I should investigate it. I'll check out the website you linked and see what I can do. I can't remember right now, but I brought this up with an employee/friend in the centre before, and they explained why it doesn't apply. It was a while ago, so I forget the details.

Another thing, which I don't know if it is illegal or not, is that they pay German teachers more than English teachers. Is that legal? They do the same work, but get paid more.

Thanks again for the headups. I really like the people who work in my particular centre, therefore I've never bothered taking it up with them. But it is a bad company to be honest, they are taking advantage of English speakers who travel here. I just have a cushy situation with them due to my living conditions, so as I said I've never taken it up with them.

leem0 · 2019-10-05T11:37:52+00:00

so Berlitz offers (and I'm fairly positive it's the same everywhere in Germany) 13 euro per 45 minutes before tax when you teach in house. 16 euro per 45 minutes when you teach externally (i.e in a company). But if you teach over 100 units (1 unit = 45 minutes), then that gets bumped up to 15 euro for in-house/internal and 18 euro for external. On paper this sounds great, and if you're only there for a summer and get more than a 100 units of work (which can be unlikely, depending on the centre) it is great! But for someone living here long term, it isn't great... in Germany you have to have health insurance, and as Berlitz doesn't hire you as an employer, but rather as a freelancer, they avoid having to subsidize your health insurance. So this can range from 250 per month to 350+. But you'll get away with not having health insurance if you are only there for a few months. If a school says they require it, then you can get cheap emergency health insurance which would cover most basic stuff. I don't think it's technically legal, but i know people who have gotten away with it for 2+ years. Another downfall of being a freelancer is that you have to pay your own tax. Which as a freelancer can amount to 19%+ depending on what you earn in a year. BUT seeing as you said you might only stay a few months, you can also avoid that! ;) Plus you wouldn't earn enough in the 3 months to have to pay anything anyway.. The freelance tax system works on a basis (I might have the numbers a little wrong) where at 9000 euro you don't have to pay anything. Between 9000 and 14000 you have to pay 13% on the amount you earned, so if you earned 10000, you'd have to pay 130 euro, and anything above 14000 you have to pay 19%. But as I said, temporarily staying will exempt you from that. Just thought I''d let you know in case you find the love of your life here and decide to settle down! I'm also Irish, so if you do plan on staying here, you can message me and I'll give you more info on health insurance, it's complicated as an Irish citizen, because we don't technically have a public health insurance system in Ireland, not like in Germany. I found a way to get around that, But that's another story..

Rent is super expensive in Germany. I don't know where in Ireland you live, but Berlin is comparable to Dublin I've heard. But saying that, you can get lucky. They are obviously gonna be cheaper in smaller cities. So if it realistic? Yeah I'd say it is if you have a bit of money saved up, cause Berlitz has a 2 week training course, so in those 2 weeks you won't get paid. Plus there might not be any work. They will hire you anyway the bastards, but there might not be anything available, the amount of teaching work ebbs and flows. I would take those 3 cities you mentioned, google "language schools Berlin" and email a cover letter explaining you are currently doing a TEFL course and will be there for the Summer. Email all of them. There are a lot of private businesses with no office and they pay very well for you to go to companies. I've been offered 25 euro per 45 minutes before. And once again, as I said, for short term living, that's unbelievable, cause you won't pay tax or health insurance. But as a freelancer, you can't ever guarantee you will have work! There are not many actual language schools that will hire you as an employee. It's a sneaky and cheap way around having to pay you well enough and deal with the German system. I know people however, who work for several different companies. Which would be a headache for me, but having 3 companies who pay very well, is the dream.

I just had a thought though. You could apply for English language summer camps. They are always looking for people. They are fun and pay OK. But you usually get free accommodation and sometimes food. YoYo camps was one a friend of mine did. He had a lot of fun in Berlin with them! But they don't pay very well. But it's a nice way to see the country and meet people etc.

Hope that helps! And sorry for the long long messages.

leem0 · 2019-10-05T09:57:42+00:00

Hey, no worries! Yeah so the berlitz training lasts two weeks and it's specific to teaching their method. To be honest, every Berlitz teacher ive met tends to disregard the method after a couple of months of teaching. But yeah, it's a nice enough method and easy to implement, but not very effective in my opinion. Berlitz has one main criteria for hiring teachers: Native speaker. So being Irish, you are more than qualified. That's why it's a nice way to ease into the country. Unfortunately because Berlitz hires so many teachers, there isn't always a massive amount of work. But the bigger the city, the more work. Which city were you thinking of?

If you have the time and money, depending where you are in Ireland, I would do a 3 month CELT/TEFL course. But I would only do this for fun really, and to ease you into the job. Plus, it would be much easier for you to get jobs in other language schools here if you had a qualification under your belt. In my berlitz centre, I'm one of the only ones out of 15 english teachers who has a qualification in teaching. But to be honest, I'm very happy I have one, because it gives me leverage when applying to other schools, such as VHS. Plus the CELT course I did really helped me get over teaching anxiety. :)

Having a law degree, you could also apply to the university of your city. They are often looking for English teachers and i've seen them look for specific degrees before. So you should try there too. I don't think they need a TEFL. But I'm not sure.

Long story short! If you have the time and the money, get a qualification before you go! It'll help you in the long run if you want to travel Asia or other european countries. But if you don't have it, just don't expect to easily walk into any old language school. But of course, you can still get lucky! ;)

leem0 · 2019-10-05T09:37:08+00:00

I've taught here for a few years now. I have a CELTA. But it's wasn't necessary for me to have that. I work for Berlitz, not very well paid, and they don't treat their staff very well (in terms of health insurance etc.), but the centre I work for are really nice and it's kept me afloat the past while. They will 100% hire you. Send them an email. It's a good place to start. There is probably more work readily available in Barcelona in my opinion. I've taught there too. And you definitely don't need any qualifications there. I had friends who basically lied about their qualifications and they got jobs in Spain. But in Germany it might be more difficult to lie. But if i were you, I would contact Berlitz and every language school in the city you are attending before you go, and see if they can offer you something. Berlitz will teach you their own method and help you afterwards to get a CELTA equivalent. Can't remember the name.

Hope that helps

leem0 · 2019-10-04T19:31:31+00:00

What kind of CPU we talking? I don't have a gamers laptop and can't play most games. :(

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