So for those who don't follow the Gelgarin saga - I spent most of the last year working in Russia as an EFL teacher. It was pretty mediocre, but I did meet a rather nice young lady who would qualify as comfortably out of my league anywhere with a warmer climate.
Anyway, since moving 2000 miles for the sake of a woman is exactly the kind of moronic decision that I love making, I'm working on heading back to Siberia for a second run. The old language school is off the table after I called my boss a hateful bigot, so I'm shopping myself around other places in the region.
It's not hard, I'm pretty well qualified and phrases like 'published novelist' and 'CELTA B' carry a fuckton of weight in the EFL community. Essentially I'm guaranteed as interview at any school on the continent that I apply to, and my odds of getting any particular job are favorable.
Anyway, did a couple of interviews this week. One for a really nice language school, one for a considerably more shitty language school. The shitty one got back to me straight away offering me the job - whilst the nice one is having to partition their head office in Moscow to let them take me one.
Problem is, this will take them a little while to do, and the considerably more shitty language school is already throwing contract offers in my direction. This brings us to the crux of the matter...
When someone is offering you a job, what are some good techniques to stall them that aren't transparently obvious and don't make you look like a fuckin' buffoon?
I've already done a fictional camping trip, and am now taking a really deep interest in apartment rental in Yekaterinburg asking lots of relevant questions. The time different gives me licence to spent 24 hours composing each and every email I send. Still I'm running out of material and probably need to kill the best part of another week.
Any ideas? Or cynical but entertaining one liners, those are good too.
Anyway, since moving 2000 miles for the sake of a woman is exactly the kind of moronic decision that I love making, I'm working on heading back to Siberia for a second run. The old language school is off the table after I called my boss a hateful bigot, so I'm shopping myself around other places in the region.
It's not hard, I'm pretty well qualified and phrases like 'published novelist' and 'CELTA B' carry a fuckton of weight in the EFL community. Essentially I'm guaranteed as interview at any school on the continent that I apply to, and my odds of getting any particular job are favorable.
Anyway, did a couple of interviews this week. One for a really nice language school, one for a considerably more shitty language school. The shitty one got back to me straight away offering me the job - whilst the nice one is having to partition their head office in Moscow to let them take me one.
Problem is, this will take them a little while to do, and the considerably more shitty language school is already throwing contract offers in my direction. This brings us to the crux of the matter...
When someone is offering you a job, what are some good techniques to stall them that aren't transparently obvious and don't make you look like a fuckin' buffoon?
I've already done a fictional camping trip, and am now taking a really deep interest in apartment rental in Yekaterinburg asking lots of relevant questions. The time different gives me licence to spent 24 hours composing each and every email I send. Still I'm running out of material and probably need to kill the best part of another week.
Any ideas? Or cynical but entertaining one liners, those are good too.
