Job Discussion Forums

barabbas · Joined: 22 Aug 2009 Posts: 58

I think they're in the smaller towns, under the radar.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Not at all. Most of the expats I know in Prague are long-timers (10 yrs+). But they aren't to be found at the expat hot spots. Nor are they teaching for private language schools; to stay long term at reasonable standard of living requires some extra effort and quals usually.

jaffa · Joined: 25 Oct 2012 Posts: 403

It's an easy place to branch out into other lines of work and it's very easy to get a business licence so once teaching the ABC gets tedious people tend to do other things. I know one village with an Irishman (this isn't a joke Smile

), an Ozzie and an Argentinian in it and none of them teach. A lot of guys get married too and live a quiet life. Plenty of British guys have met Czech au-pairs in the UK and follow them back to Cz.

Sigma · Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Posts: 123

A lot of long term English speaking 'ex-pats' in my area seem to live in villages with their Czech wives.

Dejvice · Joined: 22 May 2013 Posts: 30

Teaching English in CZ as a long term career makes no sense. Say you are lucky to land a well paying job of 40,000kc a month teaching English. After tax you end up with say 30,000kc, a few privates here and there bumps you back up to 35,000kc.......times 12 is about 400,000kc a year......cc. Based on today's exchange rate that's $16,000. That's even before you pay rent, mortgage, living etc. Tops you'll save $8000 per year. Turn this out for 20 years the value of most of your working life...about $160,000....maybe at a push $250,000.....work longer, inflation etc push it up to $300,000. That's before you have even paid for your pension plan, your kids want to study abroad, go traveling, medical emergency, extra special holiday, family emergency. The list is endless.

Having a reasonable standard of living in Czech Republic is achievable but living a real life where you can do the things you really have to do and the things you want to do, well that is another thing.

For sure, a load people out there will disagree but they are truthful facts what I have written, and I'm sure many expat has gone back to USA, Canada, UK! Australia and figured "hey I've just blown half months salary on a few nights out back home......what exactly am I doing in Czech Republic teaching English"

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Dejvice · Joined: 22 May 2013 Posts: 30

er......Staying long term in CZ and raising your quals to CELTA, DELTA, MA Linguistics. PhD Linguistics of some completely unknown dialect isn't going to get you anything remotely approaching a well paid teaching job in CZ Elsewhere, one might have a chance, Middle East is one place.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Er. I work in the CR these days and am paid very decently, as are my colleagues and many acquaintances. This has been true over the long term - I've been around for almost 20 years now.

Evidently you aren't thinking outside the box of private language school work.

There aren't lots of better jobs, but there are some. It is true that applying for jobs from outside the CR is unlikely to net any of the few better positions that come open - they usually go to people with local contacts and reputations, but there are occasional hires of highly-qualified teachers from outside - I've done it myself, though rarely.

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Dejvice · Joined: 22 May 2013 Posts: 30

Dejvice · Joined: 22 May 2013 Posts: 30

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Ach, well, I've been around a long time and clearly made it work better than you were able to, so I guess I've got little to defend here.

BTW, you might want to look up the meaning of the word 'evidently.' I certainly wouldn't claim to know what's in your mind Rolling Eyes

Dejvice · Joined: 22 May 2013 Posts: 30

johnnyappleseed · Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:30 am Post subject:

Ive been here for twelve years(in a small town(30 000) in the Czech Republic) and do all right in the private language school business.

But I did have to start my own school at some point. I honestly think if you are in the private language teaching business it's a bit of a dead end unless you get people working for you(and even then, it's not that great a business but you can make a decent-for-the-Czech-Republic wage.) Good country to visit. Hard to expect much from merely teaching over a long period of time though.

Obviously teacher trainers also can do well , although they need higher qualifications and contacts.

I truly believe that if you are a good teacher and make wise decisions in your career you can do all right in this country.

One thing I also believe: making decisions purely based on money in the private language business in this country often backfires. I've seen it happen to a few people.
Instead of money think of terms of 'being a good teacher' 'playing to your strengths,' 'delivering good services to clients', 'keeping long-term clients satisfied', 'working in a good team of teachers' and focus on saving money rather than spending it all. If you're good I think that any teacher focusing on those things will succeed. But it might take awhile.

AGoodStory · Joined: 26 Feb 2010 Posts: 738