Job Discussion Forums

cordilleranevada · Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 13

so the standard here in Santiago seems to be:
-about $5000 pesos an hour, or a little over US $8.50 .
-only paid for in-class, actual teaching hours (not preparation time or time/transportation to off-site classes, unless they�re really out in the boonies).

Today I got offered an off-site class (at a bank - by "off-site" I mean at the contracting company�s location, not at the institute), 3 hours a week. It�s my first teaching job in Chile, so I�m starting off slow. But I�m spending hours preparing for my first class, which will be Thursday, for 1.5 hrs. This despite the fact that my pay this week will be $12.75, and next week $25.50.

O.K. So then I hopefully get in the swing of things and am teaching "full time" - that is, as much as the institute will give me/that I can handle. I�m assuming that�s not 40 hrs a week of classroom time, since that would mean giving me another dozen or so 3-hr-a-week classes per week and me running all over the city. Even if I did have 40 hrs classroom time a week, that would end up netting me about $340 a week, or $1360 a month. Am I right in thinking getting PAID for 40 hrs/week, whether I put in 40 hrs/week effort or not, is not going to happen? How many hours/week is considered standard "full time"? Can I expect, optimistically, to have 20 hours of classroom time a week? Say that was the case: I�d get $170 a week, $680/month. But, considering preparation time, it would still end up being less than $4/hr, if that. $170 a week? And I don�t think I�d even be getting 20 hours a week for a while - maybe 10 hours a week by next month? So for all of April, I can hope for $340?? $85 a week? who the hell works for $85 A WEEK? Yet this seems to be the standard. Fellow teachers, please explain - how do you live on such low salaries? Maybe if Chile was a super-cheap place to live, but it�s not!
(I hear private lessons are a lot better remunerated, but where do you find the time? Is it better to do private lessons only?)
So I�m not really sure why the reality of how low the pay really is just hit me, but I know that plenty of teachers out there work for these low wages, and I wanted to ask: how do you make ends meet? I know Chile is ch�aper that the US, but it�s still pretty expensive, and travel is pretty expensive too. I was hoping to do some traveling, not just spend month after month trapped in the city. Anyone out there working for these kind of wages find the time and/or money to travel much? Am I missing something here? Are English-teaching jobs all over the world this poorly paid? I mean, I wasn�t expecting to get rich or anything, I�m just surprised at how low the pay really is, and trying to figure out other people�s motivations. For the experience, I guess? Should I think of it like an internship or something? Sorry, I�m a little confused...

Thanks for your input, I�d really like to know what others think!

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

Some employers pay by the hour, while others pay a fixed monthly salary. In the former case, the more you work, the more you earn, but your income can fluctuate dramatically. In the latter case, they work you like a dog, but at least you know what you'll receive at the end of each month.
Some employers pay you for preparation/travel time, others don't. Some will reimburse the cost of a bus/metro season ticket.
I used to give private lessons at weekends, as I didn't have time through the week. The problem with private lessons is that students have an annoying habit of cancelling at short notice. To protect yourself, you have to be quite mercenary in your approach. Insist on cash up front.
I get the impression that you didn't do much research before heading south. At least you'll know better in future.

cordilleranevada · Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 13

thanks grahamb,
I�ve contacted a good many institutes and have found the same thing at all of them (no pay for travel or preparation time, just for in-class hours). If you know of some institutes that pay monthly salaries, preparation time, and/or travel, etc. would you mind sharing which ones? Thanks so much!

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

At tremendous risk of being shunned, ostracised, invited to Neverland, reported to the Spanish Inquisition, etc, I suggest you try Berlitz. Apart from Santiago, they have schools in Concepcion and Vi�a del Mar. They won't pay for preparation or travel time, but at least you'll get a regular salary.

cordilleranevada · Joined: 08 Mar 2005 Posts: 13

damn, and they�re the ones who require you to already have a visa. Thanks so much for the suggestion though! I wasn�t aware that naming specific institutes was taboo, I appreciate the tremendous risk on your part, and I hope you weren�t subjected to The Comfy Chair as a result Laughing

eileen · Joined: 15 May 2004 Posts: 71

I don't think it's verboten to mention a school's name, it's just that Berlitz is a method school. They have thei method, and that's all there is to it. Creativity may be frowned upon.

Norteamericano (Instituto Chileno Norteamericano de Cultura) has classes on-site and offsite. For the offsite ones (called empresa, or company classes), they pay transportation (bus or metro or both, if applicable), and movilicacion, which I think of as your hazard pay. The farther the class is from your location of the institute, the more you are paid, as a bonus, per class, but also the more time you spend getting there. They also pay you more if you are able to get the magic combination of lots of hours and some of them during peak times (early in the morning, late at night or on Saturdays). Not impossible to do, but not likely one's first semester there. Their hourly rate is a little less than you mentioned, but it depends on your qualifications.

A lot of people come with a cushion and use that to travel, or rack up the private classes.