Chapter 401. A Heart-Pounding Day Together with My Girlfriend: Eating Marshmallows while Telling a Campfire Story. (2/4)
So anyway, she received her two years long teachers college degree in her country about fourteen years before I was born. After she received it she worked as a teacher for eight years. In her country, although the education was free, you had to at least work two years in her country as a teacher otherwise you’d have to pay back the government all the money you received for your education.”
“Was that to prevent teachers from immediately fleeing to other countries where they could receive better pay after receiving their education?”
“Yes, it was. Though she would have loved to, she didn’t immediately leave for another country back then because of this. She was working for next to nothing as an elementary school teacher. High school teachers in her country were paid three times more than elementary school teachers. However, universities in her county weren’t accredited at that time so getting a degree in her country at the time wasn’t recognized in foreign countries. It was a major waste of money to get a degree that wasn’t recognized elsewhere.”
“Yeah, it would definitely suck spending all that time and money only to be told it amounted to nothing.”
I nodded in full agreement before I continued recounting my mother’s bumpy life, “Whenever summer or winter breaks came around, she’d travel to another country using the money she painstakingly saved up working as an elementary school teacher. After converting her money into foreign currency she’d barely have anything because of how bad the exchange rate was combined with her lacking pay. She couldn’t go around spending lavishly with the tiny bit of money she made as an elementary school teacher, the most she could do was take in the sights.”
“Wait, but after the two years she worked in her county, why didn’t she try moving to another country?”
Rosa stuck another roasted marshmallow into my mouth.
When I finished swallowing the marshmallow I explained, “Well, she’d gotten a car and she had two years left to pay off on it, she didn’t want to give it up.”
“What about the four years she continued teaching after that?”
“Honestly… she probably could have. But I guess it was a sense of helplessness. She didn’t know anything about the laws or the immigration process. It was only about three to four years before I was born that she decided to further her education and aim to become a high school teacher by applying to the university in the city her father had been living. As I mentioned before, her mother refused to pay for her to receive an education. However, her father was different. He offered to help her pay for her education. As such, she applied here as an international student and actually got accepted.”
“Oh, her father sounds like a pretty great guy.”
“Yeah… he was a good father to her.” When he died she was left completely on her own and had to fend for herself. I didn’t bother to mention a gloomy detail like that though.
“The degree my mother took was a four-year one, but she was able to get two years transferred over for the teacher’s college degree she received in her country. It wasn’t until she actually attended university here that she finally looked into and learned how the immigration process worked. Only when she finally knew how it worked did she see a bit of hope. If her father sponsored her it was possible for her to move to the country. She’d need to be screened and show that she would be an overall benefit to the country through the system they had in place, but it was at least something possible.”
“Uh… by the way, did she find someone in university?”
She avoided bringing up the subject of my father directly.
“Yes, while she was attending university in this city she did meet someone and got married. But things went sour between them not long after they got married. In the last term before she was about to get her degree, the person she married tried to have her deported and sent back to her country. He filed for divorce a few months after I was conceived, but by that time my mother wasn’t in any condition to make sound judgment according to my mother’s doctor and lawyer. She was bedridden in the hospital. As she couldn’t sign the papers, the divorce proceedings were delayed until after I was born.”
“But get this, despite being the one who filed for the divorce, he had the gall to not even show his face in court. He even sent someone in his place who recorded the proceedings in secret for whatever reason when doing so was not allowed.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Who knows? Maybe he’s an idiot.” I shrugged it off as Rosa fed me a third marshmallow.
“Anyway, after they divorced, my mother was deported back to her home country a year after I was born.”
“You didn’t get to stay?”
“They told her she could leave me for the government to raise since I was born here and a citizen, but she couldn’t stay. She refused and took me back to her country with her.”
“As soon as she got back to her home country, she had to find a way to survive. She started up teaching again, but this time she was running things herself in a fashion that would be closer to what tutoring is.”
“She bought six chairs and one long table. That was all she had to her name and what she started out with. The business model she came up with was to teach one to three subjects to a child. If taking one subject she charged them what would be equivalent to $35 per month in our currency after adjusting for inflation. Two and three subjects would be $30 and $28 respectively per subject.”
“Within the first month, she saw massive success with her one on one teaching method, what followed was an explosive boom of customers. Children who were taught by her saw immediate improvements in their grades and word traveled very quickly.”
“Only two months in, she rapidly expanded and hired three more teachers as she couldn’t keep up with the insane demand. She also bought up tables and chairs like crazy. She ended up with about six long tables and a hundred chairs. She was running this gig out of her mother’s poorly maintained backyard and basement she’d been cast aside to. She quickly racked up 239 students who’d dropped by all throughout the day.”
“She effectively ran a school with a capacity of 239 students who showed up every day while providing personalized lessons which operated Monday through Thursday. One set of kids would come in from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, the next set would show up anywhere between 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. She even had adults coming in for lessons from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.”
“Wait, hold up,” Rosa stuck out a stick and shoved the marshmallow on it into my mouth. If she’d said ‘objection’ just now, I probably would have burst out into laughter. When I bit into the marshmallow, she pulled the stick back and continued, “so you’re saying four teachers were dealing with 239 students AND providing a one-on-one teaching experience? Even with those long working hours, how does that even work out?”
“Well, the kids would be around for an hour and a half for each subject. They didn’t show up all at once though. It wasn’t the same as a classroom where everyone was being taught the same thing at the exact same time. The teachers would explain things to them one by one, provide them with problems to solve, and while they were doing so, the teachers would move on to help the next student in the meantime. Whenever one of the students got stuck on anything, the teacher would come back to them and explain things in a simple, very easy-to-understand manner. The children actually enjoyed being taught when they realized they could actually understand the problems and they didn’t want to leave.”
“That sounds... really exhausting though. Just how much work and effort would that take?”
“A lot obviously. But my mother was earning quite a sum of money this way. She was quite generous with the salary she paid the three teachers she hired. Converting it to our currency and adjusting for inflation it would work out to about $325 a month. But with how well it was doing, after six months she raised it to a bit over $400.”
“That’s considered a generous salary?”
“Well yeah, keep in mind, for her third world country, this salary was quite good. The cost of living was also lower in the past. This salary was on par with what high school teachers were paid there. Three times more than an elementary school teacher.”
“I see. From the sound of it, she’d be making quite a bit of money for herself though with that many students.”
“She did make a decent sum...”
Was it really worth it in the end though...
KiraMinoru
No idea why this didn't publish yesterday. I definitely remember scheduling it.
Chapter 401. A Heart-Pounding Day Together with My Girlfriend: Eating Marshmallows while Telling a Campfire Story. (2/4)
So anyway, she received her two years long teachers college degree in her country about fourteen years before I was born. After she received it she worked as a teacher for eight years. In her country, although the education was free, you had to at least work two years in her country as a teacher otherwise you’d have to pay back the government all the money you received for your education.”
“Was that to prevent teachers from immediately fleeing to other countries where they could receive better pay after receiving their education?”
“Yes, it was. Though she would have loved to, she didn’t immediately leave for another country back then because of this. She was working for next to nothing as an elementary school teacher. High school teachers in her country were paid three times more than elementary school teachers. However, universities in her county weren’t accredited at that time so getting a degree in her country at the time wasn’t recognized in foreign countries. It was a major waste of money to get a degree that wasn’t recognized elsewhere.”
“Yeah, it would definitely suck spending all that time and money only to be told it amounted to nothing.”
I nodded in full agreement before I continued recounting my mother’s bumpy life, “Whenever summer or winter breaks came around, she’d travel to another country using the money she painstakingly saved up working as an elementary school teacher. After converting her money into foreign currency she’d barely have anything because of how bad the exchange rate was combined with her lacking pay. She couldn’t go around spending lavishly with the tiny bit of money she made as an elementary school teacher, the most she could do was take in the sights.”
“Wait, but after the two years she worked in her county, why didn’t she try moving to another country?”
Rosa stuck another roasted marshmallow into my mouth.
When I finished swallowing the marshmallow I explained, “Well, she’d gotten a car and she had two years left to pay off on it, she didn’t want to give it up.”
“What about the four years she continued teaching after that?”
“Honestly… she probably could have. But I guess it was a sense of helplessness. She didn’t know anything about the laws or the immigration process. It was only about three to four years before I was born that she decided to further her education and aim to become a high school teacher by applying to the university in the city her father had been living. As I mentioned before, her mother refused to pay for her to receive an education. However, her father was different. He offered to help her pay for her education. As such, she applied here as an international student and actually got accepted.”
“Oh, her father sounds like a pretty great guy.”
“Yeah… he was a good father to her.” When he died she was left completely on her own and had to fend for herself. I didn’t bother to mention a gloomy detail like that though.
“The degree my mother took was a four-year one, but she was able to get two years transferred over for the teacher’s college degree she received in her country. It wasn’t until she actually attended university here that she finally looked into and learned how the immigration process worked. Only when she finally knew how it worked did she see a bit of hope. If her father sponsored her it was possible for her to move to the country. She’d need to be screened and show that she would be an overall benefit to the country through the system they had in place, but it was at least something possible.”
“Uh… by the way, did she find someone in university?”
She avoided bringing up the subject of my father directly.
“Yes, while she was attending university in this city she did meet someone and got married. But things went sour between them not long after they got married. In the last term before she was about to get her degree, the person she married tried to have her deported and sent back to her country. He filed for divorce a few months after I was conceived, but by that time my mother wasn’t in any condition to make sound judgment according to my mother’s doctor and lawyer. She was bedridden in the hospital. As she couldn’t sign the papers, the divorce proceedings were delayed until after I was born.”
“But get this, despite being the one who filed for the divorce, he had the gall to not even show his face in court. He even sent someone in his place who recorded the proceedings in secret for whatever reason when doing so was not allowed.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Who knows? Maybe he’s an idiot.” I shrugged it off as Rosa fed me a third marshmallow.
“Anyway, after they divorced, my mother was deported back to her home country a year after I was born.”
“You didn’t get to stay?”
“They told her she could leave me for the government to raise since I was born here and a citizen, but she couldn’t stay. She refused and took me back to her country with her.”
“As soon as she got back to her home country, she had to find a way to survive. She started up teaching again, but this time she was running things herself in a fashion that would be closer to what tutoring is.”
“She bought six chairs and one long table. That was all she had to her name and what she started out with. The business model she came up with was to teach one to three subjects to a child. If taking one subject she charged them what would be equivalent to $35 per month in our currency after adjusting for inflation. Two and three subjects would be $30 and $28 respectively per subject.”
“Within the first month, she saw massive success with her one on one teaching method, what followed was an explosive boom of customers. Children who were taught by her saw immediate improvements in their grades and word traveled very quickly.”
“Only two months in, she rapidly expanded and hired three more teachers as she couldn’t keep up with the insane demand. She also bought up tables and chairs like crazy. She ended up with about six long tables and a hundred chairs. She was running this gig out of her mother’s poorly maintained backyard and basement she’d been cast aside to. She quickly racked up 239 students who’d dropped by all throughout the day.”
“She effectively ran a school with a capacity of 239 students who showed up every day while providing personalized lessons which operated Monday through Thursday. One set of kids would come in from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, the next set would show up anywhere between 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. She even had adults coming in for lessons from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM.”
“Wait, hold up,” Rosa stuck out a stick and shoved the marshmallow on it into my mouth. If she’d said ‘objection’ just now, I probably would have burst out into laughter. When I bit into the marshmallow, she pulled the stick back and continued, “so you’re saying four teachers were dealing with 239 students AND providing a one-on-one teaching experience? Even with those long working hours, how does that even work out?”
“Well, the kids would be around for an hour and a half for each subject. They didn’t show up all at once though. It wasn’t the same as a classroom where everyone was being taught the same thing at the exact same time. The teachers would explain things to them one by one, provide them with problems to solve, and while they were doing so, the teachers would move on to help the next student in the meantime. Whenever one of the students got stuck on anything, the teacher would come back to them and explain things in a simple, very easy-to-understand manner. The children actually enjoyed being taught when they realized they could actually understand the problems and they didn’t want to leave.”
“That sounds... really exhausting though. Just how much work and effort would that take?”
“A lot obviously. But my mother was earning quite a sum of money this way. She was quite generous with the salary she paid the three teachers she hired. Converting it to our currency and adjusting for inflation it would work out to about $325 a month. But with how well it was doing, after six months she raised it to a bit over $400.”
“That’s considered a generous salary?”
“Well yeah, keep in mind, for her third world country, this salary was quite good. The cost of living was also lower in the past. This salary was on par with what high school teachers were paid there. Three times more than an elementary school teacher.”
“I see. From the sound of it, she’d be making quite a bit of money for herself though with that many students.”
“She did make a decent sum...”
Was it really worth it in the end though...
KiraMinoru
No idea why this didn't publish yesterday. I definitely remember scheduling it.
