Job Discussion Forums

[dreww]

Hello. I'm 23 and will be graduating in the spring with a Master's in TESOL. I'm a US native and I'd love to find a job in Europe that will help pay back student loans. Is this asking a lot or do places actually do that? I'm not too picky about which country, anyone know of any schools, intstitutions, etc.?
Thanks,
dreww

[poro]

dreww, many European countries have national online job databases, or a selection of them, and you could check there. There are also sites such as this one, which advertise a large number of jobs.

[comenius]

Can US citizens teach in Europe? It was my understanding it was really difficult to do so.

[spiral78]

For Western Europe, it's difficult......to impossible, depending on the country and your individual circumstances. Simply put, to get a job that will pay well enough for you to live on AND pay back student loans, you will most likely need LEGAL work - not readily available in most EU member countries.
In Central and Eastern European countries, legal work is available (though EU citizens are already being given preference in some more desirable locations).
However, Central/Eastern Europe schools generally pay less - so for a non-EU citizen with loans to repay, Asia may be a more feasible idea.

[poro]

[spiral78]

My personal experience is with north and west Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany). I understand things are sometimes easier in the south, and some of the countries I mention do have possibilities for non-EU teachers. Hence, my qualification of difficult (Germany) to impossible (Netherlands). However, the original poster is looking for the kind of positions that will enable him/her to repay student loans, in addition to living in Europe. That means private companies or universities....not your standard private language schools. I still maintain that it will be difficult for non-EU candidates to secure the better positions. I also disagree that "most" English teachers in the EU are non-native speakers. There are many, many British teachers - certainly they qualify as native speakers!

[poro]

[spiral78]

Hmmm. In my personal experience, private language school staff are mostly native speakers, and university staff are also mostly native speakers. However, I suppose if you count teachers in regular schools for kids up to 18, maybe there are more non-native teachers....
Again, my experience is in the above-mentioned countries, which aren't necessarily the same as the southern countries....
And I still think the real heart of the question by the original poster is whether he/she can get jobs in Western Europe that will pay enough to support a reasonable lifestyle plus pay back US school loans - and I still maintain that those positions would be difficult (not impossible, but tough) to find.

[Moore]

I really think it would be impossible to find teaching work that would that would allow you to do any more than live, and pay for the odd small holiday here and there. I�ve taught for many years in both Europe and Asia, and I say: Go to Asia! It�s the only place it�s really feasible to bank any money.
The alternative, if you�re really keen to live in Europe, is to go for non-teaching work, and get visa sponsorship if you have skills to offer, but this is rare in teaching, and as I said, it�s rather poorly paid here anyway. Maybe you could try and get into an international US company and try and get posted out to Europe: if you are young and therefore have no property / kids commitments then you�d be a prime candidate for an overseas transfer. But if it�s an instant change of scene after years of study at home that you�re after, with a bit of cash, get yourself off to somewhere like Korea.

[poro]

[BloodyIrish]

he already speaks one...english, the only other one worth learnign is the language of the country you will live in. this isnt my opinion so much as that of dutch people, who see english as the ointernational language, and seem to expect everyone else to be as good as they are at it, hence they make no effort to learn, for example, hungarian, when they visit. of course they tehn blow a fuse when nobody in some butthole town speaks a word...so maybe this advice can be ignored

im not sure what is meant by the argument over whether most english treachers are native or not. in my experience, english teachers teach different things. where i teach, im the only native speaker, but my usefulness is in practising the grammar learned in other classes...to teach the grammar would often require a good knowledge of the language of instruction. most conversational teachers (and nearly all the ones who are worth having at all) are native speakers. it is our usefulness as native speakers that gives us these jobs.

as for paying back loans in europe, i think it MAY be unrealistic, probably (though i hate to be a pessimist about these things, much less one of those who likes to dampen peoples enthusiasm for teaching, pulling th ladder up after themselves). the competition in the west is incredibly high...but its not too high at all for somebody with a masters in tesol...have hope, but be ready for failure. personally i, who have a masters but not in TESOL (literature, actually) could NEVER get a really good western job, but you might. you should have NO problem getting a good job in the new EU states or further east, but while these are good, and by local standards youll be pretty rich, to be honest, you will not be able to earn enough to pay loans. this applies all over europe really, since the amount you earn seems to be commensureate with cost of living (am i wrong on this could anybody tell me?). in fact, in terms of how well off you are everyday, the east is the way to go, since you will not earn twice the average wage, plus an enormous accommodation allowance, in germany or france or wherever. i do, in hungary.

[alaskad]

One option you can think about is if you are unemployed right after graduation, you can get an economic hardship forbearance on your loan for one year. If you happen to have a subsidized loan then the Gov. will pay your interest during this time. If not, you can choose to just make those small interest payments each month, and post-pone making the regular payments.

This forbarance can last one year, and it might be enough time to teach and travel for a year, and maybe by the end of that year you will able to find your prefered position that will earn enough to make those payments.

Anyway, that's just one option to consider.

[eslchatter2005]

I would just like to add that ECONOMIC HARDSHIP DEFERRAL, UNEMPLOYMENT DEFERRAL and FORBEARANCE are different things!

ECONOMIC HARDSHIP DEFERRAL: I think you can qualify for this by earning TOO LITTLE MONEY in a year. But that didn�t mean you are �unemployed.� The qualifications are based on earning below a certain amount per year, and thus it being �Economic Hardship� to pay back student loans. For my subsidized Stafford loans, there are different qualifications based on whether I was working full-time or working part-time and earning less than certain amounts of money per month. I got this information about deferring the loans from the internet site of my loan provider.

For example, one way to qualify for Economic Hardship deferral was that I could be employed full-time, and have a monthly gross income no more than the larger of:
1. The poverty line for a Family of Two (That is, $1010 in all states except Alaska and Hawaii, where the poverty lines are $1261.66 per month and $1161.66 per month respectively)
2. Federal minimum wage rate $892.66

If you had an income which was too low, then you had to send in documentation of your income, like some sort of payment stubs, or your tax invoice. I think that if you have an income of $0, then you are �pre-approved� for deferral, and don�t need to submit any more documentation.

My loan could be deferred based on Economic Hardship for a total of 36 months, each time for a period of 12 months. By the way, there was a grace period of something like 6 months before I had to pay any payments.

NO INTEREST accrued during all this period, because they are subsidized loans.

My Perkins loans also were deferred based on Economic Deferral. I proved my qualification because my Stafford loan had been deferred, and my loan adviser could look this up on the computer! The Perkins loan, however, was deferred for a period of 6 months, and then there is a grace period of 6 months. These Perkins loans can be deferred for a total of 36 months as well, but because of the grace periods, I can defer them longer than the Stafford loans.

UNEMPLOYMENT DEFERRAL: This is different from economic hardship deferral. For unemployment deferral, I believe that you have to be registered at some sort of government unemployment office in your home state. And in order to be register, you have to demonstrate that you worked for a period of time during the past year, and then lost your job somehow, and you also have to prove that you are actively looking for a job (by sending out resumes, etc.) I haven�t done this so I don�t know the details. But I just want to tell you that there is a difference between unemployment deferral and economic hardship deferral.

FORBEARANCE: First of all, forbearance is NOT deferral. For deferral, if you have a subsidized loan, then INTEREST DOESN�T ACCRUE, because the government subsidizes it. (I think that deferral for an unsubsidized loan WOULD accrue!) For forbearance, you INTEREST DOES ACCRUE. Forbearance is a voluntary decision that you will not pay back your loans for a while. You don�t need to qualify for any of the qualifications like ECONOMIC HARDSHIP DEFERRAL or any of the other types of DEFERRAL.

If you want any more info about this, I would highly suggest calling up your loan provider. I also went onto the internet and researched it a lot. Also, I really suggest signing up with your loan provider (Nellie Mae, Sallie Mae, etc.) to access loan details on the INTERNET. Then you can get all the information there.

Disclaimer: all these details were about my loans... of course your loans could have different rules, so please check with your loan provider.

If you have any more questions please feel free to send a post!

[JZer]

Stafford loans are friendly in the options that are available to defer them. I once thought I might have to defer my Stafford loan and I think you can defer it for like 3 or 4 years. I know that there is an option to defer it for one or two years without any reason. Then you have the ECONOMIC HARDSHIP DEFERRAL that you can use after that.


Disclaimer: all these details were about my Stafford loan... of course your loans could have different rules, so please check with your loan provider.