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Old 12-09-2007, 01:59 PM
 
Location: Vienna, Austria
83 posts, read 397,105 times
Reputation: 92

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Thank you for all your answers. Thank you apartmentnomad, actually I'm no plannin to stay a year, but permanent if like it. Of course I can return if I do't, but I'd prefer to get stay in America. I have always loved this counry, but when 've been here previouslyI never realised how any problems it has.

I read the articles about school violence, and it seems shocking but those are single events and not normal, are they? It isn't like all students in Austria are blond and blue eyed angels, right now I work in a school where 65% of all students are muslims in one of he poorest neighborhoods of vienna, and we have problems here too, and I know how to deal with them, although I never heard about a teacher being seriously physically hurt.

I believe that good teachers can make a diferene, and I do want to make a difference, but I don't want to risk my life I really feel like Philadelphia is a truly great place and if it wasn't with all the criminality and decay I only see good sides. OK weather, close to NY,Washington, the beach, beautiful historic neighborhoods, good public transpot, relatively cheap, a lot of history, great museums, lots to do... I cannot afford to just make a short trp in spring and then decide the flight to there and back is 600 dollars. I could just go there and return after a year if I really hate it, it's an adventure
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Old 12-09-2007, 02:04 PM
 
Location: Vienna, Austria
83 posts, read 397,105 times
Reputation: 92
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimisru View Post
When you leave Germany and come to the US you will find narrow minded, insular people who believe we should all speak the same language because it's patriotic to do so. And that language is English in their minds.

They don't actually tell us which form of English we're all supposed to speak. Olde English. British English. Southern English. Perhaps it's Pittsburghese.

In any case, the country is full of people like this and it can be quite shocking coming from Europe where people pride themselves on speaking many languages, since it's a sign of education and intelligence.

Whatever you do, don't speak Spanish when you come here. Someone might just turn you into Border Patrol.
I don't quite get what you mean. Of course people coming to the US have to talk english how else would they communicate? I think it's veryunfair to say that most americans are narrow minded, all americans I met wanted to know everything abou Europe and were realy interested, and I was surprised to see how many americans at least kneew some words german. You must know that german is not like english, you can't lear it in a year it's really really difficult, and that's the case with most euopean languages, I undertsand that it's hard for english speakers to learn them.

Don't worry I can't speak spanish
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Old 12-09-2007, 03:06 PM
 
2,269 posts, read 7,565,077 times
Reputation: 962
Come visit us and enjoy yourself. This is a great city despite the opinions of some naysayers.
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Old 12-09-2007, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Lubbock, TX
4,255 posts, read 5,909,130 times
Reputation: 3642
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke81 View Post
I read the articles about school violence, and it seems shocking but those are single events and not normal, are they? It isn't like all students in Austria are blond and blue eyed angels, right now I work in a school where 65% of all students are muslims in one of he poorest neighborhoods of vienna, and we have problems here too, and I know how to deal with them, although I never heard about a teacher being seriously physically hurt.
I suppose those events aren't exactly normal, but I think more of them occur than get reported (based on some of the suppression of information discussed in some of those articles). Also, more importantly, I suspect classroom behavior will be more chaotic in Philadelphia than it is is Vienna, although maybe I'm giving Austria too much credit. I don't work in the schools and don't have children, but I do come in contact with school groups periodically, and a lot of them are out of hand, by my standards.

Quote:
I believe that good teachers can make a diferene, and I do want to make a difference, but I don't want to risk my life I really feel like Philadelphia is a truly great place and if it wasn't with all the criminality and decay I only see good sides. OK weather, close to NY,Washington, the beach, beautiful historic neighborhoods, good public transpot, relatively cheap, a lot of history, great museums, lots to do... I cannot afford to just make a short trp in spring and then decide the flight to there and back is 600 dollars. I could just go there and return after a year if I really hate it, it's an adventure
Without a doubt, Philadelphia has a lot of good things going for it, but the social problems can be kind of heavy (especially when you are in a public service sort of job like teaching).

As you may have heard, we are going to be getting a new mayor soon, and maybe his no-nonsense attitude about crime will carry over to school discipline. That might be expecting too much though. (After all, it remains to be seen whether he can even make a significan dent in the crime problem.) But at any rate, I think he is a step in the right direction. You have heard that Philadelphia is corrupt. Michael Nutter ran on a reformist platform, aimed at improving local government ethics. He's still a political insider, but he has a history of being in opposition to some of the entrenched interests in city government here.
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Old 12-10-2007, 07:42 PM
 
27 posts, read 39,672 times
Reputation: 17
I suspect classroom behavior will be more chaotic in Philadelphia than it is is Vienna,


How would you have any clue of what an Austrian school is like? Im not sure how your actually comparing any Austrian school to an American school. Have you ever lived in Europe? I did for over 3 years and they too have significant ghettos, Europe is just very good about not letting the tourists see them...Do you think it would be easy to teach in the Parisian suburbs? Have you seen the violence the immigrants cause? Huge riots ring a bell? It is similiar in a lot of places in Europe, I can speak directly of Germany where the immigrant Turks are NOT nice nor do they play or fight fair! If the OP can deal with those situations there won't be too much culture shock in Philly.
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Old 12-10-2007, 08:27 PM
 
Location: Lubbock, TX
4,255 posts, read 5,909,130 times
Reputation: 3642
Quote:
Originally Posted by kilbillrain View Post
I suspect classroom behavior will be more chaotic in Philadelphia than it is is Vienna,


How would you have any clue of what an Austrian school is like? Im not sure how your actually comparing any Austrian school to an American school. Have you ever lived in Europe? I did for over 3 years and they too have significant ghettos, Europe is just very good about not letting the tourists see them...Do you think it would be easy to teach in the Parisian suburbs? Have you seen the violence the immigrants cause? Huge riots ring a bell? It is similiar in a lot of places in Europe, I can speak directly of Germany where the immigrant Turks are NOT nice nor do they play or fight fair! If the OP can deal with those situations there won't be too much culture shock in Philly.
Yeah, I don't really know what schools would be like in Austria, frankly. I was forgetting the extent of that immigrant underclass. (Even so, the OP does mention not hearing about teachers being physically attacked in Vienna.)
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Old 12-11-2007, 08:50 AM
 
Location: Vienna, Austria
83 posts, read 397,105 times
Reputation: 92
Quote:
Originally Posted by kilbillrain View Post
I suspect classroom behavior will be more chaotic in Philadelphia than it is is Vienna,


How would you have any clue of what an Austrian school is like? Im not sure how your actually comparing any Austrian school to an American school. Have you ever lived in Europe? I did for over 3 years and they too have significant ghettos, Europe is just very good about not letting the tourists see them...Do you think it would be easy to teach in the Parisian suburbs? Have you seen the violence the immigrants cause? Huge riots ring a bell? It is similiar in a lot of places in Europe, I can speak directly of Germany where the immigrant Turks are NOT nice nor do they play or fight fair! If the OP can deal with those situations there won't be too much culture shock in Philly.
You're right, but the Parisian suburbs are an extreme example, in 95% of Europe those things don't happen. There are riots also in Germany, Denmark, Italy etc. but those are ususally middle class kids living out a wild rebellious phase in their lives. France is different than Germany, I'm sure you saw all those dangerous looking turkish immigrants hanging around, but they usually don't do anything but calling names. I'd be more afraid o skinheads. There aren't a lot of them, but they are dangerous.

Significant ghettos... well yeah, we call them ghettos, I live in one of those ghettos but taught in the US for 3 weeks as a teacher exchange programme in northern Virginia, and althouh it was a small middle class suburb there was more crime than in most of our european ghettos, except maybe in France or southern Italy. French ghettos really are dangerous places, most other ghettos in europe are poor and neglected areas but nothing to be afraid of.

German turks are the same as austrian turks, they play gangster but you don't have to be afraid. It is quite challenging during the lessons to make those kids listen (especially because they hardly understand the language) and sometimes they throw pens or school books to the front, but that's about as bad as it gets, there are no knives in schools, something like a teacher being hospitalised because a girl threw a phone at him and choked him wouldn't happen here.

But in general I'd say american think too highly of europe, we have the same problems as you, just on a smaller scale, and they are getting worse. I mean in the Vienna metro area 40% of the population is foreign born, and 11% live under the poverty line. Tourists only see the beautiful center and think all we do is drink punch at christmas markets, sunbathe naked in parks and talk on the phone in the subway (did you know that Austria has the most mobile phones per capita in the world? An average austrian owns 4.6 mobile phones ) But we also have congestion, criminality, pollution and poverty. That's why I also think Philadlephia can't be that horrible. There are also people saying Vienna is one huge dangerous ghetto with a nice downtown, and it just isn't.
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Old 12-12-2007, 03:29 PM
 
Location: Elizabethtown, KY
34 posts, read 143,797 times
Reputation: 19
Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke81 View Post
What about the weather. I can live with both heat and cold, but I really hate fog and overcast skies for weeks at a time (I had that now for 26 years in Austria from December to February..) Winter is fine, rain is fin, heat is fine, clouds are fine, but not for days or weks without seeing the sun. This is not a major argument though.
I've lived across the globe and one of the reasons I returned to Pennsylvania is because of it's similarity to the climate in (near to you Bavaria), where my wife is from. Cloudy, gray overcast days with periods of blue skies and puffy white clouds are very common here, but more so in the higher elevations. We like rainy days and having four distinct seasons. I know my in-laws prefer to hold family vacation in Florida rather than here, because of the great sun and weather.

As far as the level of violent crime goes, there is absolutely no comparison between any western European city and Philadelphia. You may want to think more in terms of Moscow or eastern Europe, perhaps even Kosovo. Crime happens here, but mostly in already dangerous areas. If you want a better analogy, I guess you'll have to come here and see it for yourself.

I do not live in City City. I work in University City and I must attest SEPTA is actually pretty good and my only complaint is that too many people use the train at rush hour! They can pack riders in like sardines in a can sometimes.

Good Luck!
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Old 03-20-2008, 05:03 AM
 
1,316 posts, read 3,891,759 times
Reputation: 328
Quote:
Originally Posted by kilbillrain View Post
Hey Luke,
I think you'll love Philly. I lived in Mainz for 3 years so ich glaube ich verstehen dich ein bission...

Like all American cities Philly has its good parts and its bad parts.Unfortunately no city in this country is as clean or crime free as you find in your German/Austrian city. That will be the thing you'll just have to get used to. In Philly for the most part the bad crime is located in the ghettos. The people that live there by and large do not venture out of their areas and you will have no reason to go into theirs. All the culture, education, arts, nightlife, government, business etc are located in the CBD.

Philly CBD is similiar to a big fussganger zone with excellent transportation, lots of peope, pubs, stubes and life. Though it does have plenty of cars on small colonial one way streets.
Going out of CBD varies in terms of transpo, crime, etc..but if your looking at living in the CBD you'll have a fun, unique and culturally rewarding experience.

Willkommen!

PS
I realize du kommes aus osterrich, but part of the city was founded by "Germans" and is still called Germantown. It is a very nice part w/ old houses, nice nightlife. Back then we considered Germans anyone from your part of Europe since of course technically the country of "Germany" didn't exist when Germantown was settled in th early 1700s. You might be interested in looking it up on wikipedia...
Chao.

Define please: fussganger and stubes! thanks
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Old 03-20-2008, 05:09 AM
 
1,316 posts, read 3,891,759 times
Reputation: 328
Quote:
Originally Posted by john_starks View Post
philly a great city but a little raw...its gritty, dirty and has a lot of crime. that said, areas around center city are vibrant and full of culture. i moved here from new york and like the laid back atmosphere and various options for dinner & drinks. i'd stay in and around center city for liberal minded, young folks. i certainly wouldn't stray too far. northern liberties, queen village/ bella vista probably offer housing in the $900 range.

other great cities to look at for teaching would be DC, NYC and Boston. i know people who have enjoyed their experiences teaching in those cities.
how would you compare the level of sophisitcation between NYC and Philly ie the more esoteric stores and such in tribeca versus Philly? Is Philly real estate more than Boston? Also what suburbs are the most upscale close to Philly? Thanks!
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