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jamesallan
Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 36
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 Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 3:00 pm Post subject: How much & How many? |
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Is Poland my next stop?
After 1 yr in Taiwan is Poland the place to earn decent money and live quite easily?
Can I send �300pm back home to the U.K. ?
Are there lots of open positions? |
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gregoryfromcali
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: People's Republic of Shanghai
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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No.  |
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gregoryfromcali
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: People's Republic of Shanghai
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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Okay, seriously now.
Compared to the money and jobs available in Taiwan, not to mention the number of jobs you can get rent free in Asia, Poland is nowhere as profitable.
People teach in Poland because they like Poland.
With the expection of one poster here most of us who teach in Poland (or have taught) in Poland have a good lifestyle and are able to go on a few trips but that's about it.
Finding a job where you can save 300 pounds a month would be nearly impossible for a new teacher. There are very few jobs like that here.
Saying that, Poland it is a cool place to live.
I'm back in Poland now visiting my lady since my school in Shanghai is closed for the Spring Festivals.
I do like it here, if I could've saved $500 a month I probably would have considered staying longer.
There are some other bonuses to living in Poland though.
You also get the whole summer off which can be as long as 3 and a half months.
You'd also be a short flight from the UK (which where it sounds like you're from).
But on the other hand, the students are a lot more demanding here. They want teahers who know their grammar, can create a good atmosphere for speaking activities and prepare them for exams. But being a "weigoren" is not enough.
If you do come, arrive in September and pound the pavement to find work in October.
Good times.
Last edited by gregoryfromcali on Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:34 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Bialonoz
Joined: 27 Sep 2005
Posts: 57
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| It's almost unheard of. You would have to teach an incredible number of classes. |
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gregoryfromcali
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: People's Republic of Shanghai
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| Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 8:41 pm Post subject: |
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One more thing, I don't know how well you can speak Chinese, but for my money Polish is a hell of a lot harder.
On the other hand you don't really need to know Polish to live here, but it helps. |
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Kymro
Joined: 19 Oct 2003
Posts: 244
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| Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Gregoryfromcali, I'm simply amazed 'Alex' hasn't popped up on this thread to tell us he's recently bought a Premiership football club from his earnings teaching English in Poland. |
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The_Hanged_Man
Joined: 10 Oct 2004
Posts: 224
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
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| Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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| I have an interview with the American School in Warsaw coming up in about a week, and the position has an annual salary of about $25k US. How well do you guys think I could live on that salary, and how much could I save assuming a modest lifestyle? Also, has anyone out there heard anything about the school? Any info would be much appreciated. |
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gregoryfromcali
Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1207
Location: People's Republic of Shanghai
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| Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:06 am Post subject: |
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That's a lot of money!
(You may want to keep it a secret until you know whether or not you've got the job.)
Somewhere around $1000 a month is the average, although in Warsaw the pay is higher because the cost of living is higher and people have more money there.
I don't really care for Warsaw, it's not as charming as some other places in Central Europe, but who needs charming when your salary has been doubled? |
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Alex Shulgin
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 553
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| Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| The_Hanged_Man wrote: |
| I have an interview with the American School in Warsaw coming up in about a week, and the position has an annual salary of about $25k US. How well do you guys think I could live on that salary, and how much could I save assuming a modest lifestyle? Also, has anyone out there heard anything about the school? Any info would be much appreciated. |
Is that the American School of Warsaw? If it is then the place is very highly recommended. It's extremely well thought of here and has a great reputation with teachers. I know a couple of the teachers there and they are very professional and all nice people.
But that figure sounds a bit low for the American school of Warsaw (unless they add on lots of allowances, which the American school does). Sounds rather closer to the wages offered by the American International school in Warsaw. Which is a very different proposition. I know somebody who worked there and hated it. From what she said a percentage of the pay from the first year of the two year contract until the second year. Otherwise people tend to leave after just one year. She did.
You could live pretty well on 6400PLN a month (that is what $2000 works out as). People work in Warsaw for places like EF and earn half that. They survive so you could perhaps save half of what you earn. More realistic is to expect to put by a couple of hundred dollars a month.
The key to saving is not to rent. A decent two room flat in the centre of town will cost you about 1700PLN. Of that 300PLN will be administration charges and heating/water bills. So the landlord gets 1400PLN a month. Say you take that same 1400PLN to a bank and pay off a mortgage. You could borrow 300,000PLN assuming that you pay it back over 30 years, allowing an interest rate of 3.5%. (Currently the best rates on offer are slightly less than 2% and at that repayment rate you could borrow 378,000 but let's assume that interest rates will go up). 300,000PLN will easily buy you that same flat which you rent for 1700PLN a month. The difference is that when you sell up and pay off the mortgage you're left with some money. If you rent then you are left with nothing. Yes there are costs when buying. About 6% of the purchase price. But with property prices going up by 15% a year you will cover those costs in the first six months. After that you get to keep all of the increase in the value.
Nice to see Kymro keeping up his 100% record of only posting here to attack other posters and his 0% record of giving any advice of any use at all. If you want to work for a school where the owner is a supportive and pleasant person then look no further than "Go! Languages" in Szczecin. There you can enjoy the help and support of our forum's friendliest and most helpful poster. And more importantly you can add considerably to his bank balance because you don't know how much money Kymro should really be paying you! |
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Kymro
Joined: 19 Oct 2003
Posts: 244
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| Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Alex Shulgin wrote: |
Nice to see Kymro keeping up his 100% record of only posting here to attack other posters and his 0% record of giving any advice of any use at all. If you want to work for a school where the owner is a supportive and pleasant person then look no further than "Go! Languages" in Szczecin. There you can enjoy the help and support of our forum's friendliest and most helpful poster. And more importantly you can add considerably to his bank balance because you don't know how much money Kymro should really be paying you! |
I think my advice is somewhat more realistic than that of someone who claims to be able to buy new BMWs and $250k apartments on a teacher's salary in Poland.
Just ask Biffinbridge. |
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The_Hanged_Man
Joined: 10 Oct 2004
Posts: 224
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
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| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 4:11 am Post subject: |
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Yep, it is the American School of Warsaw. My salary would be low because I only have the bare minimum requirements of a teacher cert plus 2 years of k-12 teaching experience. The upper range of their salary scale is about $40k for new hires. Plus, they have some pretty generous allowances on top of that.
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| (You may want to keep it a secret until you know whether or not you've got the job.) |
Heh, thanks for the tip, but most of their open positions are for secondary math and science so I think posting on an ESL site is pretty safe. Actually, thier salary is pretty standard for most decent international/american schools. Since my experience is limited I'm not super confident of landing a postion, but since I am math certified I think I have a shot. |
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Alex Shulgin
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 553
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| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:29 am Post subject: |
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| Kymro wrote: |
I think my advice is somewhat more realistic than that of someone who claims to be able to buy new BMWs and $250k apartments on a teacher's salary in Poland.
Just ask Biffinbridge. |
What advice Warren? You don't post any advice here. You only post to attack people. In this post you attack other posters and give no advice at all. Just as you do in all your posts. You really do need to register a new username. Everybody here can see that you're a school owner with an agenda so they won't listen to what you have to say. Plus you're making the real world you look bad. Who wants a boss that does nothing to help anybody and only enjoys attacking people?
BTW: I really can't be bothered to pull up the online mortgage calculator again so I'll go with ballpark figures. $250,000 = 800,000PLN. A 30 year mortgage for that amount is not going to be as much as 4,000PLN per month. Split between a working couple that's 2,000PLN each. Here in Warsaw wages are about 50PLN per 45 minutes. Teach for a huge four and a half hours a day and earn net 6,000PLN per month. Then a third of your income will be mortgage payments. Banks are happy to see 45% of net income go in mortgage so $250,000 mortgage is easily possible. You might want to spend less than four hours 30 minutes a day working and want to spend more than 65% of your income on booze but we don't all have to be like that too. |
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cezarek
Joined: 29 Aug 2005
Posts: 149
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| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:59 am Post subject: |
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It's worth remembering that 6000 net would be considered a middle class salary here, even in the capital, and people buy expensive flats even if they earn rather less.
A new teacher, fresh off the plane, would be lucky to get much more than half that. And don't forget there's a price war right now.
And it isn't helped by native speakers who are NOT teachers doing private lessons for 25pln per hour, thus squeezing professionals out of the market. |
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Alex Shulgin
Joined: 20 Jul 2003
Posts: 553
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| Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| cezarek wrote: |
It's worth remembering that 6000 net would be considered a middle class salary here, even in the capital, and people buy expensive flats even if they earn rather less.
A new teacher, fresh off the plane, would be lucky to get much more than half that. And don't forget there's a price war right now.
And it isn't helped by native speakers who are NOT teachers doing private lessons for 25pln per hour, thus squeezing professionals out of the market. |
There's been a price war for the last five or six years in Warsaw. You should know that! Point is that there is still demand for professional teachers and schools which charge too little can only pay peanuts, which means they eventually employ only monkeys. Sending monkeys to teach serious students is a great way to ruin the name of a school. Charging more and sending teachers which the companies then want to teach more and more classes is how to justify higher prices.
I'm sure that this price war will eventually work out in the favour of the professional teachers and schools. Companies are beginning to realise that price is a long way from the only thing to consider. There is no point paying money for a 'teacher' who can't teach. Better to pay more and actually get some kind of useful product. Have you noticed how some companies now want to review the CVs of and then interview teachers proposed by schools? That certainly didn't happen five years ago.
Sure there are the 'teachers' charging 25PLN per hour for private 'lessons' but then there have always been. They aren't squeezing us out of the market, they're making the market better for us! I've got private students happy to pay three times more than they used to pay because they have a teacher who can actually teach them the language and so they learn, not something they used to do with a teacher who didn't even know the names of English tenses let alone how to explain when to use each one. |
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cheeseandegg
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 58
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| Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Alex Shulgin wrote: |
| Kymro wrote: |
I think my advice is somewhat more realistic than that of someone who claims to be able to buy new BMWs and $250k apartments on a teacher's salary in Poland.
Just ask Biffinbridge. |
What advice Warren? You don't post any advice here. You only post to attack people. In this post you attack other posters and give no advice at all. Just as you do in all your posts. You really do need to register a new username. Everybody here can see that you're a school owner with an agenda so they won't listen to what you have to say. Plus you're making the real world you look bad. Who wants a boss that does nothing to help anybody and only enjoys attacking people?
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If that's the same Warren from Go! in Szczecin then he's doing pretty well for himself. While working in Szczecin (for an inferior, national chain) I met many students who'd studied at Go! and all of them were agreed that Go! were the best. And no, I don't work for Go!  |
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