Job Discussion Forums

[vtchica]

Anyone have any experience being a freelance ESL teacher in Mexico? If so, could you please share your impressions/experiences. Can you live off the pay? Is it easy to find clients?

Thanks.

[Ben Round de Bloc]

It can be done, but it would take a while to get established and make connections. I know of a couple of people in this city who seem to do okay as freelance EFL teachers, but when they first moved here, they worked for language schools. After they got their reputations established as being good teachers and made some connections, they started working on their own. Now that there's the option of getting an independent work visa to teach English, it should be easier to freelance legally. I've also heard of a few cases in tourist areas where teachers have been able to connect directly with hotels and resorts to teach English to employees. Most businesses that want English teachers in the city where I live hire/contract them through well established private language schools. However, it's not unheard of for businesses to contact teachers directly, but again that depends on connections and reputation.

[Roy Briggs]

Hi,
Teaching private students can be fun and pay well. The downside is that private students usually will not pay you for your vacations, holidays or when they go on vacation. I always get two weeks pay in advance. This protects me from them quitting without notice and motivates them to continue classes.

The advice to teach at a private school first is vey good. I teach three hours a day at a private school to keep my Visa current and to have a base with other teachers. Most private schools do not have full time work (their classes are in the early mornings, evenings and on weekends. Most are cool about teachers having other work.

I get free classifieds from the local paper. Most papers have coupons for classified ads if you buy the paper. You will have turnover so keep advertising.

Doctors, dentists, and medical students are excellent prospects. Go door to door in the rich part of town with a small flyer - native speakers are well sought after.

Good luck,
Roy

[tonydicer]

IT will not work. Students come and go. You will not find consistency.

[Roy Briggs]

It does work - I have been making a living for over two years this way. If you do a good job and find students who are motivated they will stay with you.

If you are negative, a poor teacher and have no self confidence, you won't have consistency.

[mapache]

So Tony Dicer is a recruiter and thus the motive for his reply

[Ben Round de Bloc]

Freelancing wouldn't necessarily have to be limited to private teaching/tutoring. Teachers with independent work visas could probably pick up some freelance work teaching short courses and/or special courses for language schools. In places like Merida, reputable schools don't hire foreigners illegally but are hesitant to sponsor work visas for short-term employment. Foreign teachers with independent work visas could legally work short-term for language schools without causing immigration hassles for school owners.

[cangringo]

Hello,

I have been lurking for a long time and let my old account lapse and now have an account and can reply. Yay!! Anyway hubby and I drove to Monterrey from Canada with TEFL certs in hand and tried a few outdated school phone numbers with no work until we found a school a few blocks away. We work an hour a week in the mornings Monday to Friday and I work 5 hours on Saturday but it wasn't quite enough so we started advertising private classes.

It does work and you can make a decent living but I would suggest having some back up cash because a lot of times our students just don't show up. We have a good core now but went through people who came for a week and then didn't come anymore - people just move and disappear. They also don't come to class when it's too rainy or cold sometimes. We have a reputation already though and have students coming from far away just to take classes because we are Canadian and they seem to like our classes.

You can also contract yourself out to private companies. It depends where you live. Monterrey is huge and they do a lot of business with the US and have a lot of US companies so the demand for English is huge here. It's fairly easy to find companies that will hire you and let you pick the hours and pay you about 200 pesos per hour. With enough of those you can make a decent living.

[Samantha]

Good post. It sounds like you are having a good positive experience. How are you finding the cost of living in Monterrey?

[cangringo]

Thank you

The cost of living is fairly high here but it depends what you want. Food is about half of the cost in Canada so that's a good thing, even cheddar cheese is pretty cheap. I have heard it's one of if not the most expensive city but we are finding things pretty cheap.

Of course a main part of our cost of living is cervezas y cigarros -

[Guy Courchesne]

[cangringo]

Mmmmm cheddar, for some reason we avoided going to HEB for the longest time and finally went and there it was. Good aged cheddar too.

Goes really well with Cervezas...mmm

They don't have it at Wal-Mart.

[hlamb]

[ls650]

Geez, I can't find good cheddar here at all - yet the local La Fuente carries a really nice imported Danish blue cheese for a reasnable price. WTF?

[mapache]

One can find a fresh block of cheddar at Sam's Club