Job Discussion Forums

[jonathanhunt]

I spent over a year living in S.L.P. and working at English Unlimited. For the majority of that time I was the teaching coordinator at the school. I've spent some time looking over the post recently concerning English Unlimited. Anyone who is seriously considering work at E.U. has undoubtedly read the more current posts. Most of the comments were supportive of the school and the city. Unfortunately, one person hid behind the anonymity of an internet posting to slander both the school and the director.

I could point by point refute the negative information disseminated against both E.U. and Michael Tan, but that would just spawn another flurry of rebuttal postings. I might even be lucky enough to draw a few attacks about my motivations and truthfulness. It all sounds so very tempting, but I�m sure some readers want actual information concerning working and living in S.L.P. and whether they should take the plunge or not. So I�ll try my best to provide helpful and pertinent information.

The city of San Luis Potosi is quite a beautiful old colonial city. Some people find it bit on the boring side when they first arrive. However, almost without exception, I found that after a few months teachers grew more and more attached to the place. The downtown is closed to car traffic and holds seven stunning cathedrals and plazas. It�s filled with a number of excellent restaurants, and some that serve meals indigenous to S.L.P. If you ever make it there, eat the tacos rojos. I have dreams about them.

Even with the well-preserved colonial center, the city still has all the amenities one could ever need. You�ll find a Wal-mart, Sam�s club, Costco, and even a Sears if you�re so inclined. S.L.P. is a pleasant mixture of old and new Mexico. Whatever your tastes concerning restaurants, shopping, and nightlife S.L.P can usually fulfill them. The other benefit of S.L.P. is that it is within 4 hours of at least 7 other cities. This makes it a nice jumping off point to explore colonial Mexico.

S.L.P. also has a number of language schools. The only school I have direct experience with is English Unlimited. As I wrote earlier, I worked at the school for 14 months, the last 8 months as the teaching coordinator. While I was there, I taught everything from foundations courses to Toefl and business English. I had never been any further into Mexico than Tijuana, and was more than a bit nervous about working at a place I found on the internet. I was put in touch with E.U. through a job placement company. The director, Michael Tan, sent me an extensive information packet outlining both my job responsibilities and the school�s responsibilities as an employer. During my entire time at E.U., I never encountered an instance when the information I was given before taking the job was contradicted. There are not many surprises when you come to E.U. because the director adheres religiously to what is in the information packet.

The school is in the nicest area of the city and well equipped. The teachers are given numerous resources to help make them successful. Each course has a set of books so you�re never scrambling to figure out what to teach. The books can be a bit dull, but plenty of supplementary resources are provided to make the classes interesting.

The best part about teaching at E.U. is the students. My closest friends in Mexico are those I met while teaching. The classes are usually between 5 and 15 students�averaging around 12. The students are mainly business professionals who work or hope to work for American or European companies. I found them warm and easy to work with. All they ask is that you�re professional and prepared. You�ll undoubtedly find yourself invited out for drinks or over for dinner.

As for other aspects of the school, the pay is always delivered on time, and minimum hours are always provided and usually many more. The other teachers at the school tend to be an eclectic mix of interesting people from all over the English- speaking world.

Finding an apartment can be a bit challenging, but if your persistent about checking the local papers you can usually find a place within 2 or 3 weeks. In the meantime, the school provides a nice house with reasonable rent. The key to living off one�s salary is to not overspend on rent. The only teachers I knew who couldn�t make it on their wages were the ones who paid high rents. This is easily avoided by finding a roommate and being proactive about finding a reasonably priced apartment. Each term, 4 or 5 new teachers arrive and are usually looking for roommates. There are also a number of families and boarding houses that rent rooms.

As for the pay, it�s on the higher end for S.L.P. No one gets rich working in Mexico. However, my wife and I both worked at the school, and we made enough money to cover all our living expenses, and to travel extensively throughout Mexico without touching our savings. We were reasonably disciplined with our finances, but we still went out quite a bit and were able to make it work.

Two downsides to the school are the split schedule and limited vacations. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at E.U., but I freely admit the split schedule is tough. Waking up for a morning class, and then returning for afternoon and evening classes is draining. Unfortunately, almost all language schools in Mexico work on this schedule. Most students are business professionals. They come to school when they are not at work-- early in the morning and in the evenings. This is just part of teaching English in Mexico.

Both S.L.P. and English Unlimited hold a special place for me. My wife and I now live in Central Virginia, but we try and make it back to Mexico at least once a year. My brother just finished working at E.U. for the past nine months, and we were able to visit with him for a couple weeks. The point being, I wouldn�t recommend San Luis or English Unlimited to my brother or anyone else if I was not certain that the city and school are enjoyable places to live and work.

If you have any additional questions, please ask. I�d be glad to answer them. If you�re considering working in Mexico, I wish you the best of luck.

[J Sevigny]

I don't know anything about the school but that's a darned long post that reads more like an advertisement than a "personal experience."

[jonathanhunt]

Maybe I should be more crictical and then my post would seem more authentic? I thoroughly enjoyed my time at E.U. as well as living in San Luis. If you have any other questions, I'd gladly answer them.

[J Sevigny]

Hey Jonathan.

I'm not trying to start an argument. But I will say that your post doesn't contain a lot of specific information that a potential employee at your former school would find useful. Also, you are probably aware that this forum has frequently been used by employers with bad reputations to defend themselves. And the employers frequently do so through third parties.

All that said, instead of being more critical, why not offer more specific and useful information.

For example, how much, exactly, does the school pay? How many hours does the school guarantee? What's rent like in the city? What's turnover like at the school? Are teachers generally happy or do they spend Friday nights at a local bar complaining about the boss or whatever?

Just my ideas to make your post more useful.

[jonathanhunt]

I was trying to provide a general overview of what San Luis and English Unlimted are like. I appreciate your more specific questions.

The school starts instructors at 45 pesos an hour and provides small increases after certain anniversary dates--six months I believe for the first raise. As I said before, the pay isn't fantastic, but it is on the higher end for San Luis. If you stay for a year, you're reimbursed for your visa.

The rents vary widely based on the type of place you're looking for and the location. That said, a decent furnished apartment within a 10-20 minute walk from the school usually runs between 3000-6000 pesos a month. Affording these rents requires that you either find a roommate or live off savings. There are usually three or four new teachers each term looking for a roommate. You can also rent rooms and those range from 1000-2000 pesos a month.

As for the general morale of the teachers, I can only speak to the morale of when I taught at E.U. Of course, everyone complains about work, but generally the attitude among teachers toward the school and their students were more positive than negative. Most teachers enjoyed the time they spent teaching at E.U. and quite a few ex-teachers make their way back to E.U. to catch up with friends and visit the school. Of course I obviously can't speak for every teacher who has worked at E.U., but this is my broad impressions of how teachers like working at E.U.

When I was working as the coordinator, the majority of teachers stayed for about six months. A few like myself stayed over a year, and I know of two teachers who worked 2 and four years respectively.

Thanks for your input. I hope this provides some helpful info.