Ox seemly decides what J need and what not...

Hehe, like J said it was an internship. Wasn't at the EU either, but the Belgian ministry of home affairs. It was kinda fun (man, those dudes make a lot of cash as a civil servant) but I'm not sure if it's really my thing when it comes down to it. Who'll say.

So I'm back on the streets bumming about and supposedly preparing for my exams. I got my first one next Tuesday or something.

Hey J, you got a teacher's degree? Aggregaat or D-cursus? Just wondering. Do you get paid as an 'ambtenaar'? If so, you must fall into the A-scale too with your uni degree. But I'll gladly openup a spot in Idiocy Inc. I should check if that name is available really...sounds kinda sweet.

I'm still working on that "D-cursus" thing, it's called GPB (getuigschrift voor pedagogische bekwaamheid) - opleiding now btw.
Following it in evening school, so it takes 2 years. Last half year (hopefully) will start in september.

If you would like to know what you would earn if you were to become a teacher: http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/wedde/wedd ... rzicht.htm

to check out which code you fall under check this: http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/bekwaamhei ... woonso.htm

and enter whatever you studied.

These barema's only apply when you have the D-cursus thingie, otherwise it's less (i think you get paid as 'regentaat' if you're licentiaat if you don't have it yet).

As you see, the way things work in education aren't always simple, i'm not even going to try and explain how 'ancieniteit' works

hehe, sweet, thanks! My bruto wage is pretty good but I assume that's gonna be a lot suckier when I deduct taxes from it...

Not that becoming a teacher is a goal of mine, but you know. A friend of mine is doing the exact same thing as you btw. She's a translator/interpreter (hogeschool) and did this extra course at uni so she could combine it with aggregaat. But...turns out her degree wasn't made equal to a university degree yet so she couldn't do aggregaat and had to do GPB instead. Kinda fucked up for her, cos as you know aggregaat is designed to fit in with a regular course..;now she has to be in uni during the day and at GPB at night. Poor girl.

One thing I know of either aggregaat or GPB is that they SUCK. A lot of blaaaaah and little or no practical use. But ppl need it so...I feel for you, in any case.

Well most part of it is blablabla indeed, i think they could fit the moments i actually learned something into a few evenings .. could have saved me a LOT of trouble.

Positive thing is that i'm almost done, and next semester will be mainly 'stage' .. which has some downsides to it but bleh. I just need that paper to get better payment

Isn't it kinda stupid you need to do internship for a job you've been doing for almost a year already? Gotta love it.

Hehe yeah the rules about that are crazy. Like suppose that you are teaching full-time, you're not even allowed to count those hours for your internship. So you have to do extra hours, and only half of them are allowed in the school that you're already teaching.

Great system huh

Dang! I should have done the teacher's degree thing years ago then, now I'm not gonna bother with teaching at all anymore. Unpaid internships for a job I'm already doing: no thanks.

I think -hope?- that my degree gives me a little more freedom in (non-teaching) choice of jobs than yours, though. I mean, physics is an awesome degree with infinitely more practical uses than mine, but Germaanse should give me some options. (especially if I manage to score this ma-na-ma)

Maybe I'm just doing wishful thinking though.

Chemistry btw not physics .. but yeah that is a very narrow field of options you have with it.

Dunno what kind of options you have with yours, i guess you can do all kinds of things.

Btw what extra course did you follow this year? And was it interesting/usefull?
My brother's gf is in her last year now (spanish/english i believe) and she might want to do extra things as well.

It's a one year post-master course called "Meertalige Zakelijke Communicatie". Basically it's basics in economy, law and computer skills plus using a host of languages in business context (Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish).

I liked it, but you won't hear me say I learned a LOT there...but that might have to do with my attempts at passing while learning as little as possible.

Unfortunately, with the uni reforms the course as it is now will be abolished at the Antwerp uni. Something similar will be put in place but God knows what or why. I think the courses (with the same name) can still be done in Gent or Leuven though. Not sure.

Oh, and since your brother's gf has a similar background as mine it might be good to say what I thought good about it:

-refreshing a few languages you forgot about (French and German come to mind )
-getting familiar with basic work law and social security etc. Very useful
-the internship. You don't usually get that as a Germaanse or Vertaler student...

Yeah the internship seemed very interesting to me as well, that's why i asked. I just heard from my mom the she had the defend her thesis today and one of the comments was "This was the worst thesis ever" ... i guess this isn't the right moment to start talking about next year's possibilities.
Still it sucks for her to have such an ass in the jury (that's my educated guess, people that make such comments are just asses that want to feel better about themselves by making such degrading comments).

And big lol @ "you won't hear me say I learned a LOT there...but that might have to do with my attempts at passing while learning as little as possible."

Some people never change, do they

edit: i just realised that that jury guy is someone you would like to hit in the face .. hard. So i just brought this thread back on topic (in a way). Heh

lol @ worst thesis ever. poor girl. I would have had a good laugh over it if they'd said that, but for some reasons girls seem to be particularly vulnerable to criticism like that. I just assume I am awesome, so all criticism on my academic work is a joke. Either cos they don't know wtf they're saying or cos I wrote it in a few hours.

However, I think the worst thing I ever had to hear was "I don't know how on earth you made it to 2nd lic with this kind of work". I wanted to say "I know, it's amazing innit?!" but that probably wasn't a good idea as I had to face the guy again later on.

The trick is to play dumb during the year and then do an average or above-average performance during the exams...that way they'll go "he did his best" and let you pass. There's no freaking way they'd ever let me pass with the work I handed in if they knew I was half as smart as I am.

Aw man. The same guy just walked in now. He went to check if his favourite seat was taken, it was, and so he went to sit somewhere closer to me. The mental image of me roundhouse kicking the side of his head keeps looping over and over.

Im sure everyone here has wanted to thump my face as some point. What can I say, I call em like I see em.

I only do it out of love.

I don't think that's true, i don't remember wanting to thump you. Ignore you in a futile internet conversation: yes.
But it's not because you believe in all other kinds of things that you deserve to be punched in the face for defending your beliefs (even to an excaggerated extent).
I'm very open minded in that.