Job Discussion Forums

[Chrstphr87340]

Reading through this forums, I notice that pretty much everybody says that intermediate or above Spanish skills is almost a prerequisite for obtaining a job in Latin America. This is curious to me, as I teach in Ukraine, and while knowledge of Russian/Ukrainian certainly makes life easier and more enjoyable, it is in no way required in order to get a job. As far as I understand, this is true for most regions in the world, i.e. no dire need to know Arabic in the Middle East or Chinese in China.

So, I'm curious why knowledge of Spanish seems so necessary to obtain work in Latin America?

[naturegirl321]

Honestly it's not. It makes life easier to know the local language, but I know plenty of people who never learnt it.

[MotherF]

Not required to get a job but generally required to make the kind of contacts that will move you into job worth having.

[HLJHLJ]

Nope, I know plenty of people who have no Spanish but have had no problem finding work (I had very little myself when I first came, and am still pretty bad at it). It does of course make life easier in many ways, and also opens many doors socially, but it's certainly not essential.

[lagringalindissima]

To answer your first question first.. the reason why jobs ask for some Spanish is basically that they can. They can because many Americans that graduate from college studied Spanish. (I would assume at least some people other from other Anglophone countries studied it, too, but since we have more about ten times native Spanish speakers in our country as live in Costa Rica, Spanish is the language the majority of Americans take for their foreign language in college.) If you want to hire a native English speaker to teach in Japan and you require intermediate Japanese it will be harder to find people.. and finding a native English speaker you speaks decent Arabic is even harder.

It is also true that people who want jobs in Latin America are often choosing that area due to the language..because they already know some, because it's easier to learn than other languages, and because it's a very useful language to know in the Anglophone world--especially in the USA but in other countries, too. I have met many teachers in Latin America who first did Saudi Arabia to make real money and are now trying Latin America to learn Spanish; I have never heard anyone say "I went to Saudi Arabia mainly to learn Arabic".

Many jobs do in fact only hire teachers with intermediate fluency--or at least say they require intermediate fluency-- but others don't want Spanish speakers (especially people who are already fluent). I have applied for jobs in Latin America and been denied the job because I speak Spanish. Some schools I have applied to have treated the fact that I already speak Spanish as if I have criminal record... I have been given extensive lectures on how they will be very unhappy if I become "the teacher who will use Spanish with you" multiple times.

Why do you need it to work in Latin America? Because English levels are low. It is very helpful to at least understand students' questions and ideally be able to help them with vocabulary if they need it. It is hugely helpful to be able to talk to parents with a translator and to be able to speak it if the school wants you to help them recruit students.

[Guy Courchesne]

Agree with all the above..Spanish not generally required for the job of teaching English, but it makes life easier.

In some smaller schools, the English department will have only a few native-speakers or people that speak English. Knowledge of Spanish would help you greatly in dealing with administration and with parents, but again, not usually a requirement.

[esl_prof]