Job Discussion Forums

[ilugru2]

Hello everyone,

I'm about to get a zivno (or whatever it is called now) and try to find some classes/private students (most likely in Brno) starting in September 2010. Having looked at rental rates and the taxes I'll have to pay I figured I'll need to make about 25K gross to keep myself afloat and more if I want to be able to save up/travel. Does this sound realistic to you or am I missing something?

[spiral78]

Rent is the wild card here, but 25,000 should be feasible, outside Prague. I am also not sure what you'll net exactly - 20,000 would be good, but it's more likely to be around 18,000 - and that's just about what it takes to live.

The CR simply isn't lavish with pay
But I guess you already know that.

As I guess you already know that private students are pretty undependable and can be difficult to scratch up - you kinda need a local rep, contacts, and preferably language skills to get much.

Worst case, you go with a language school part time - or even full time if you can, while you build your base of privates or try to land direct contracts with companies in the area.

[ilugru2]

Thank you, spiral78.

I hope to rent a 1+ for about 8000-8500 Kc (bills included), health insurance plus social security payments amount to around 3300 Kc monthly. I was advised to estimate taxes as 15% of 50% income, which makes roughly 1500-2000. Then I'll have around 12K to spend - not much, but seemingly feasible. Am I leaving anything out?

Yes, I hope to get some classes from a language school, possibly more than one school actually, and start to build up a client base. My (sort of) area of expertise is exam preparation, Cambridge and IELTS - is there much demand for this now in Czech?

[smithryansmith]

You should be ok. Cambridge prep will always be big here. probably more individual lessons for exam prep.

What Ive seen lately are the people who go out and look for clients are successful. Those who write lang schools and wait for jobs to fall in their laps have trouble. because there are still jobs. its just employers can afford to be pickier than in the past.

[smithryansmith]

[ilugru2]

Yeah, that's true - I can make about 2,5k Usd here in a good month, but the thing is that I'm sick of Moscow and really need a change. Want to spend some time in a quieter place (I actually want to stay away even from Prague, if I can afford it) and see if I can make a living there and not get bored in a couple of months

[Mercury Morris]

25k ck is unusually high earnings in Prague. Most ESL teachers at the schools earn around 15,000 czk/month, which fluctuates widely depending on holidays, students cancelling, etc.

Further in Brno you will earn much less than in Prague...I would guess 10-12,000 czk. But cost of living will be cheaper too.

Nobody earns 25,000 czk teaching ESL in Czech...unless they own the school!

[mr tree]

depends. a friend of mine gets 30k a month, but works his arse off to get that much. i pull in around 25k a month, but that's 14k office work, 6-7k teaching at a language school (5 classes a week), 8k private teaching (4-5 students a week). i think it is important to give not just the "lazy" end of the scale, Morris...

[ilugru2]

I was offered a salary of about 18-20k a month by a language school outside Prague for appr. 25 hours a week. I think I can top it by some private ones. Do you think this is totally unrealistic? The school seems to be pretty reliable.

[Mercury Morris]

Mr. Tree- not only are you a workaholic but an amusingly provocative one at that Alluding to my being "lazy" is good fun, but of course you are talking out your 'arse'. I had 18 hours of in-class time per week through my school and another 5 hours of freelance. Hardly lazy, I was constantly on the go Mon-Fri from corporate office to corporate office to cafe for freelance. I still made sure to have fun and see the sights, etc. Only a fool wouldn't.

Mr. Tree: you need to stop working so much, we're worried about you. To make 25czk/month teaching ESL means to miss the joys of living in Europe, in mother Praha. The Europeans 'work to live' after all, quite unlike the boorish Americans and Canadians (especially!) who 'live to work'. Mr. Tree, you are busting your arse and missing out on all the fun. Call me lazy, but I call you money obsessed and missing the point of teaching ESL in Europe: only a fool tries to get rich teaching ESL in Europe...people do it for the experience--not the $$.

As for the OP I don't know what you are waiting for, maybe an invitation from the Queen of England? Get bloody on with it, man. Put 2+2 together--take the job offer and enjoy the good life of Moravia!!!! Wine, women, more wine....and Vienna beckons a short train ride away. If you don't want that job, please email me the company contact info and I'll gladly take your place

[mr tree]

that was easy - thanks for indulging me Morris

a friend today showed me his timesheet - 31000 net this month, and he's a party animal at the weekend. yes, he works too hard in the week too. but your initial statement's clearly false, that's all...

so you work only 23 hours per week, but you're not lazy?

fwiw, i work 7:30am to 7pm most days (but with breaks and travel in between), and finish at 3pm on Fridays. that's not bad. in fact, that's almost like a "normal job"
same with my girl - she was complaining (justifiably) that she was overworked (and sadly, she's very underpaid - only earns 13k net as a beginner). but i helpfully pointed out to her that she finishes at 11am on Fridays - a lot of people would love a 2.5day weekend

[Mercury Morris]

OK Mr. Tree, you're right. I'm "clearly false" that nobody earns 25czk/mo teaching ESl in CZ. Since you and your buddy do.

...and you're the only person I've heard of making such a claim.

...never mind that in my two years teaching in Prague, knowing many teachers there from several schools, NOBODY earned over 30,000 czk/month. Ever. The average earning for teachers is 14-22 czk/month for almost all ESL teachers there. My figure here is realistic, and your 30,000 czk/month is most unrealistic and exaggerated.

Go ahead and keep bragging about how much money you and your buddy make and what a hard worker you are blah blah bla--but your 25-30,000 czk/month is a gross exaggeration of realistic monthly earnings for ESL teachers in the Czech Republic.

The point of this thread is to give the OP and other readers realistic salary expectations---not offer them exaggerated, inflated, unrealistic earning figures that will mislead them--figures they will most likely never earn.

My final observations regarding Mr. Tree's self-assured Czech ESL teaching knowledge: you call my "23 hours" of teaching classes per week "lazy"? Strange. Any ESL teacher reading his comment would roll their eyes and laugh. Why? Because any ESL teacher--who is in fact an experienced ESL teacher--knows that 23 in-class hours teaching does not include many extra hours spent at home grading, preparing lessons, correcting tests, and doing administrative paperwork, etc. So, 23 in-class hours can easily require 15-25 out of class hours spent on preparation, admin, etc. Then again Mr. Tree, just now re-reading your post you mention you're actually an office worker who teaches ESL part time--so that would explain your lack of understanding regarding what 23 hours/week teaching actually entails

[mr tree]

mm - c'mon, this isn't the place for needless aggression

you said: "Nobody earns 25,000 czk teaching ESL in Czech...unless they own the school!"
i've given two contrary examples. so "nobody" is wrong. maybe you'd prefer to say "very few people earn 25k..."?

you say: "The average earning for teachers is 14-22 czk/month for almost all ESL teachers there"
i agree. that was pretty much what i earned in my 2 years full-time teaching.

you say: "you call my "23 hours" of teaching classes per week "lazy"? Strange."
c'mon - that was clearly a tongue-in-cheek comment. over-reacting to it is a bit unnecessary.


i am on my way out of this industry, because i do feel the pay and conditions are relatively poor. however, from personal experience, i know people who sit around and complain about the poor pay but don't do much to improve their situation. and it's because a lot of people view this English teaching lark as a drop-out. or a way to earn money while having fun.

if you're going to do this professionally, you can hustle and work hard and get good contacts and then it's possible to earn a little more money.

[spiral78]

I have to say that the whole conversation makes me a bit sad, because I was making 24,000 in 1999 - clearly salaries haven't risen along with inflation.

[Mercury Morris]

Dear Mr Tree, no hard feelings I wasn't so much being "aggressive" in my reply to you, just setting the record straight...if one pushes the envelope-- they will get pushed back from time to time

Ending on a positive note here are great things about ESL teaching in Prague/CZ:

� cheap rent, cheap food, can eat like a king on the cheap
� you lose weight as you are constantly walking everywhere all the time
� arguably the most beautiful city of all Europe!
� hands down BEST beer at hands down BEST price (cheaper than a glass of Coke!)
� incredible castles, incredible ruins, incredible history!
� it's still the "Wild East"! Wide open, free, anything goes in Prague. Unlike USA, Canada or UK...which are so gentrified and corporate everything, Prague still has a feeling of possibility.
� speaking from my own experience I found the Czechs to be really cool, very generous, and helpful. Counter-cultural types will flourish in Prague.

All things considered, I would highly recommend teaching ESL in Prague/CZ.

Praha je nejlepsi!!