Job Discussion Forums

[ruckus49]

My best friend and I just graduated with bachelor's degrees (not in teaching) and are looking to teach in Latin America next year. I decided I want to paypal 4 people $5 each if you can give us solid advice on what we need to do to make this trip a reality. I know this site is founded on doing this out of the goodness of your heart, but I really need to figure this out now and I don't have the time to sort through the myriad of information on teaching ESL. I'm swamped with work and I really need to start making plans to shine some light at the end of the tunnel. So if you want to post some thorough advice, please leave your email address that has a paypal account and I will happily send you $5.

I tried to present our situation in the clearest way possible.

me:

Spanish skills: poor
experience: starting to tutor a Mexican student 1 on 1 in ESL this month
certification: none

him:

Spanish skills: almost fluent
experience: studied abroad in mexico and picked up the language quite well
certification: none

Time and money constraints:

time frame: we would like to be in LA from 3-6 months between march and september

budget: $2 grand each (includes both plane tickets and spending money)

ideal salary: enough to get by and have money for entertainment

Target locations:

Buenos Aires
Mexico

Please help!

We can't afford to pay any program to find us jobs. We planned on just showing up and possibly staying in a hostel or with someone from couchsurfing until we find an ESL job. My friend is very outgoing and is comfortable with his Spanish, so we are assuming we will be able to find jobs by talking to employers directly, instead of applying beforehand. We figure this will be the best way to go considering our budget constraints and lack of experience/credentials.

Where do you recommend we go? (Needs to be fun and have a lot of young people)

What steps should we take to prepare?

Is between March and September reasonable time to do this?


Is this feasible?

[naturegirl321]

Knowing Spanish won't help you in the classroom, you'll be speaking English. ONly being able to teach for 3 months will limit your jobs.

I know about Peru and could help you if you want to teach here.

March and September is a feasible time.

See my PM for info on Peru

[Justin Trullinger]

I don't use Paypal, so thanks, but no thanks. Buy me a drink if you pass through, though.


I'm speaking in general, as the countries I know aren't on your list. $2000 would be a decent budget- just be sure to:

Get a round trip ticket.

Arrange a job as quick as you can.

Mexico seems to offer a LOT more in terms of teaching than Buenos Aires.


best,
justin

[ruckus49]

Cool. I know speaking spanish wont help in the classroom, but it will finding a job lol.

3 months was the minimum amount I wanted to go for.

Thanks for the tips

[kingkristopher]

Ecuador has decent prospects for you. When I was there we always had backpacker types coming through (I don't mean that in a bad way). There were lots of young ex-pat teachers and even more opportunities to mingle with locals. I've heard the same about Costa Rica though I don't have first-hand experience there. Argentina would be a long shot for sure...

[Guy Courchesne]

[john_n_carolina]

...yes, Ecuador has changed; i've been thinking of coming out of retirement and looking at some options. i've got permanent residency in Ecuador and an EC / US double passport.

when i left in 2005, there were already undertides of this going to happen. in addition, there was a very strange move to learn more French, as Ecuadorians were giving up on US-EC relations and looking towards Europe??

this visa change will be good for me, as i'll up my wages to at least 1K now, with health insurance.

[naturegirl321]