Job Discussion Forums

[Archie Rice]

Anyone have any experience of teaching / living there?

I'm on the move and thinking that Riga could be a good place. I have 5 years teaching experience working with adults, in company. Have lived and taught in Czech, Hungary and Spain. I've been to both Riga and Vilnius and liked them, though felt Vilnius was a little small. My only reservation with Riga is that the British Stag party scene is pretty strong there, and kind of dominates the town centre during summer.

Has anyone got any experience of Latvia, or the Baltics in general? Are there plenty of schools offering in-company classes for adults? If so i'd be interested which schools are good employers, and any other relevant information.

[currentaffairs]

I think that you can find work fairly easily with a good CV. I worked in Tallinn and visited Riga a few times.. The money will be pretty low (especially in Vilnius) compared to nearby countries. There are lots of opportunities to teach business classes on-site and at language institutes.

[Archie Rice]

Thanks. When were you last living there? I understand these places have changed quite a lot in the last few years. TBH my main reservation is the amount of drunken Brits on Tour brigade that visit, having got sick of them in Prague, worry that i may go from the frying pan into the fire...

[currentaffairs]

I left Tallinn last summer (2015). I didn't visit Vilnius but I expect it to have less British tourists and less money on offer than Riga and Tallinn.. Lithuania joined the eurozone in Jan, 2015 so prices went up quite a bit, too.

[Nicky_McG]

"Archie Rice"?! You don't seem to be sure of where to go judging by your posting history. FFS. Dave's has turned into a joke...

[Archie Rice]

One of the reasons i use the forum is to get a view of what the teaching scene is like in a country before deciding where to go next. What's wrong with that?

[jonniboy]

I've worked most of the last 10 years in Riga, though I'm now travelling a bit in Central America and strongly considering having a "Riga timeout" for at least half of this year. I don't know when you were last there, but the British stag scene was a factor in the past, but has died off a bit in recent years as other places get dubbed "the stag party capital" of Europe and stags who've gone there realise that it's not as cheap as it was. (They also seem to gravitate to the Irish bars and so on which skews their perception.... much more expensive than standard pubs.)

Quite a bit of work around, especially in-company, though I've noticed a bit of a tilt in the market in the last 2 years towards younger learners, who are still an improvement on their counterparts from southern Europe.

[Archie Rice]

Thanks Jonniboy, much appreciated.