Job Discussion Forums

[OldandNew]

THANKING YOU ALL WHO REPLY MOST KINDLY

PERSONAL BACKGROUND:
-->Age 63, U.S. citizen, Native English speaker, attractive, good health-physique, upbeat, blah-blah-blah.
-->I have traveled to over 25 countries on 5 continents,
->I lived in GDL, Mex for 5 yrs (80’s) Went to a bi-lingual/bi-cultural language school. Tutored many Mexicans in English over several yrs
-->I speak a respectable Spanish.
-->For 20 years (1992-2012) as part of my job, I conducted hundreds of Bi-lingual (Eng-Spn) workshops to USA factory / health / hospitality employees in cleaning products’ usages-safety.
-->Moving to Latin American (Mexico/Nicaragua/Columbia/Other?) I have a monthly income of $1,300USD
-->I still want to add some PART-TIME TESOL instruction to augment that.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
-->Just finished my BA in accounting
-->I have recently earned several TEFL Certificates: TEFL -140-hr / Teach Busn Eng 50-hr / TESOL Technology 20-hr /
--> Will earn additional Certificates within next 60 days: Advance Grammar 25-hr / Phonetics and Phonology 25-hr / Others depending on my needs (Based on ‘QUESTIONS’ below)
--> Start Jan. 18th online Master’s in TESOL program from a regionally accredited, brick and mortar university, which includes a self-arranged 60 hr. practicum (Graduate Oct. 2017).
--> Continue with education to earn a 3 years doctorate (Ed.D) in ?? / Graduate 2021. (Based on ‘QUESTIONS’ below)
--> I enjoy learning and with the higher degrees I can earn more in the same amount of part-time hours) simple enough; Verdad que si, no? (isn’t Spanish a great language)

PART-TIME WORK OPTIONS
--> My 1st choice would first working as an online instructor for an ESL company (and get paid in USD).
--> My 2nd choice would be working locally in:
A) Teaching Business English to professional business people
B) Tutoring college-bound student for TOEFL Exam
C) Teaching English to young learner (I do well with children/teen-agers.)
D) After my doctorate, teach at University level.

QUESTIONS
Q1- How much more do I need to earn monthly (over my $1300USD) to afford have a simple, comfortable lifestyle, living in a clean, ‘furnished’ 2- bedroom apt in a safe/decent ‘Non-Gringo’ neighborhood in your particular county?
Q2- Which in highest to lowest ranking is accessibility / (#) pool of 'clients’ in your particular country?
Q3- Which in highest to lowest ranking is pay (can you please cite average tutoring/teaching hourly pay)
Q4-I think I know this answer (My mother was a high-school teacher for 17 yrs.) I love 'being' in the teacher role but: Which in highest to lowest ranking - class prep work time / follow-up time (grading -reading papers) I hope this is not Politically Incorrect Quetion

[HLJHLJ]

Was your BA at a bricks and mortar university or did you complete some/all of it online or distance?

Did your TEFL cert include an assessed practicum?

And is your $1,300 a pension of some sort?

[OldandNew]

[HLJHLJ]

You could live in Ecuador on your pension, and you could get a retirement visa based on that. You could supplement it with additional work if you wanted to. It's cheaper to live outside of the big cities, but the work is in Quito and Guayaquil. We use the US$ as our currency, so you would still be paid in dollars.

If you want to work online you will need to choose your location carefully as internet quality ranges from world class to practically non-existent.

Degrees have to be registered with the education authority here, and you can't currently register an online degree, so you wouldn't be able to get a visa on that basis. Further online qualifications won't improve your wage, but may make you marginally more employable. University work would be problematic, as you wouldn't even have a BA registered.

Pretty much the full range of work is available in Quito, kids, adults, business, a mixture, language institutes, universities, private students; whatever you are looking for. The amount of prep and grading involved varies wildly depending in the job.

[OldandNew]

[HLJHLJ]

As part of the registration process you will be asked to provide a letter from your university confirming how much of your course was completed online/by distance. Whether or not it also offers in-class courses is irrelevant.

Between about $5/hr and $30/hr, depending on where you are, what you can offer, how good your reputation is and how well you can sell yourself, amongst other things.

[OldandNew]

[HLJHLJ]

It applies to any job that has a degree as a requirement, which includes every job I've had here outside of language institutes. I think most universities would baulk at someone with no degree (and not having a registered degree is the same as not having a degree at all), but you'd have nothing to lose by applying. However, if they did employ you, you would likely be paid as if you had no tertiary education. This is for Quito and doesn't necessarily apply everywhere.

Equally, this is Ecuador, and if you happen to be in the right place at the right time anything can happen, no matter what the 'rules' say.

Language schools rarely care about your degree as long as you have got your own visa.

[Lotteloes]

Dear OldandNew,
You requested my opninion on your situation. As I am currently living in Spain, with no experience in teaching English yet and not having any clue how things go in Latin America, I am not the person who can give you advice on this.

Having said this, especially having a retirement income and therefore very likely no problems with visas, I would just go and see how things are in the countries of your preference. See the living conditions for yourself, find out about the prices of the costs of living and check the "legal" requirements needed to work as an English teacher.

I wish you a lot of luck

[Jultime]

With your pension of around 22,000 pesos a month you can live a comfortable life in Mexico. Check out the group Expats Living in Mexico for info on Visas and income requirements.

I teach business English in Queretaro, Mexico. Rent here depends on how close to the historic center you wish to be. For example, a 2 bedroom apartment near the center would cost close to 5,000 a month but if you go further out you can find something for under 3,000. There is no expat community here that I'm aware of.

Ageism is a fact of life here in Mexico so getting hired on at a school will be difficult. However, if you choose to live in a Mexican city with a large number of universities and manufacturing you will be able to find private students.

[HLJHLJ]

[OldandNew]

-->HLJHLJ has cautioned me about an "online" degree not being accepted by the Ecuadorian Government (at least in Quito).
-
--> Does any other Latin American country have the same restrictions regarding an 'online' degree?
-
--> As a side note, with universities such as Harvard, Un of Penn (probably all Ivy League schools) and state universities offering "online" degrees, its time to differentiate between 'diploma mills' and legitimate 'online' education.
-
-->Having done both brick and mortar (Boston U.) and 'online' education, the only difference I found was there is WAY MORE partying at brick and mortar. Either way, you get out what you put in, Duh.
-

[wanderingxelmundo]

Well, Ecuador may be picky about the kind of degree, but it's the only place I know of in LA (or anywhere) where just having a degree entitles you to a resident's visa. But you don't need that visa since you're eligible for the pensioner's visa, and you could work at an institute, though CELTA or SIT would be better for that than the TEFL course you took.

One you have your MA you may be able to get online work as an adjunct in the US, though many places seem to want you to be a US resident even if they don't care where in the US you live.

If your pension is a government one (social security) you can qualify for a pensioner's visa in Colombia. If it's not government, because the exchange rate is so favorable right now (for those with dollars) you might be able to get the rentista visa, but I don't know how often you have to prove that income and if the amounts then might change in the future because of changes in minimum wage (those visas are 3X and 10X the minimum monthly salary respectively). You can live pretty well off of $1,300 in Colombia, though anywhere but Bogota would be cheaper. Also, 6 months or a year ago it was around 1900 pesos per dollar and now it's 3,270. So if you're looking at costs in Colombia in dollars I'd figure the dollar at 2500 or less just in case and the great exchange rate for now will just be a bonus.

At some point since you're talking about degrees years into the future, and none of us are getting any younger, I could see your age as being an issue if not already. So you may want to choose somewhere that has the best bang for your 1300 bucks and where you can get a visa (and would enjoy) and see any work you could get as icing on the cake.

A bit off-topic: I am studying online (MA) as well; I'm also working harder than I did as an undergraduate, but that might just be maturity. I have taken classes online with Harvard as well, but one thing to note is that Harvard College students can't take even one course online, so the fact that Harvard Extension offers "real" Harvard classes and Harvard University degrees doesn't mean that they truly think that the online experience is equivalent. Even Harvard Extension requires a certain number of in-person courses if you want an actual degree with them.

[OldandNew]

-->Thanks so much for your input . . .
-

[wanderingxelmundo]

Yes, being a funded student for the next 7 years and not paying back if I have low income in another country is amongst my plans as well.

Like I said, I'm an online student (at a "real" state university), too, so I'm not knocking it. My semester starts tomorrow and I'm already doing reading, which I never did as an in-person undergraduate.

And sorry, don't want to derail your thread.