Job Discussion Forums

[rosie2k]

Hi everyone.
I'm a very newbie and I have already posted this on the newbie board, but maybe you guys on the Spain board can help me too.

I've just complete a weekend TEFL, and have ordered my additional home study 80 hours. I have absorbed the basic skills and idea's shown over the weekend, and I hope to do as much further study as I can.
I understand that this is a very basic level of teaching knowledge, but I'm a mature woman, and hope that practice will make perfect eventually!

I live in a small town in Northern Spain, there are a variety of other cultures living and working in the town, from Morroco and Eastern European. There is a mixture of affluency too. I'd like to cater for both sides if possible. I've lived here now 6 months and from personal experience I am absolutely sure that hardly any English is spoken here by the average adult. I'm not sure if they are teaching it in the local schools.

I intend to offer small group lessons, possibly in the reception area of a local hotel, which is always deserted , or perhaps an area in a local bar. My plan would perhaps be to keep my hourly rate low, but hope for volume of people and perhaps three sessions a week. Please help with these questions.

I speak no Spanish, I'm ashamed to say, or any of the other languages as above. Its on my 'to do' list. Even I get by with mime and gestures. I already run a small business but my own customers are all from the UK.

I have plans to put a card/leaflet in as many places as possible, but how should it read for best effect.

How can I possibly advertise my lessons, and gather people together in one place to 'register' them, not to mention explaining up front payments, cancellation charges, and advising of venue, time, etc. if I can't speak the language. What would the first point of contact be, phone would be hopeless, email the same.

There's only so much miming and gesturing a woman can do and it just doesn't work well over the phone or email !

My other query is of course charges. I feel volume is the best way forward, but what should my basic charge be. If I do offer one to one, what then ? Surely its not good practice to charge two different rates.

Many thanks for any suggestions, I would really appreciates lots of help.
Rosie.

[Moore]

In Spain word of mouth is definitely the way forward, once you have a handful of students, your reputation will grow and you will be able to get more/better paid classes.

I don't mean to sound negative, but word of mouth is a language thing, and your biggest obstacle, as far as I can see, is your lack of Spanish, and it's something you will have to address urgently if you want to teach private students. In a big city like Madrid, this isn't so necessary, but in a smaller town where people's language levels are often lower, this is going to be a major issue, particularly as, for example, you will often have a non-English speaking parent phoning you to arrange for lessons for their kids.

It's really not that hard though, if you start getting down to learning Spanish seriously right now, then in one year from now your Spanish will be functional, and that's not such a long time. If an idiot like me can pick up the language, basically by osmosis, I'm sure you can!

Basically, to start with, you need to find someone to translate your adverts, and then put them in both English and Spanish on the same advert. Perhaps you could just find one Spanish friend, who is willing to help you with arranging classes and translating in exchange for free classes from you?

The local school sounds like a very good source of business, and is somewhere where people congregate daily. You might well try asking there if there is an English teacher and see if you can get a bit of help from him/her?

Hope I'm not just stating the obvious here! Best of luck

[rosie2k]

Thank you so much for your reply, it all made sense and wasn't negative in any way. I'm sure other people must have had the same problems wherever they go to teach.

I'm guessing the average gap year student, probably doesn't speak Thai......you know what I mean !

I do sound like PollynoSpanishPals, but one of my great assets could be my little Spanish friend who handily works in the local Tourist Board office. So I will take your advice and see what happens.

If I can get her to help, do you have any tried and tested idea's for an effective text for an advert/leaflet. I have printing and publisher facilities, so I could make it reasonably interesting hopefully.

Thanks so much, I really appreciate your help.
Rosie.

[sheikh radlinrol]

Rosie
It's hard to believe that you've been living in Aragon for six months and still speak no Spanish! I imagine that you are exaggerating somewhat.
Moore is right. Word of mouth is the best way to get clients. Each student you find will have friends, brothers, sisters, neighbours etc. Get started on the language!

[Moore]

For some ideas about advertising blurb, try collecting a load of examples from peoples adverts for private classes on LoQuo...

http://www.loquo.com/ce/classes/languages/1000

...and pick out the best ideas and design your text.

[CharlesTESOL]

Another good place to view and post adverts is Segundamano, but unlike LoQuo all of the instructions are in Spanish. http://www.segundamano.es/

Suerte,