Job Discussion Forums

[andrewm]

I'm currently completing my CELTA and am keen to move to Rio in August with the hope of finding work in a private language school. Can anyone advise what the situation in Rio is for inexperienced/qualified teachers who are native English speakers? How easy is it to find work? And how many teaching hours can one expect to obtain per week?

I have a Bachelors and Masters from top Australian universities and 5 years of professional work experience. Not sure how much value the language schools will see in this though?

Would greatly appreciate some advice. thanks.

[icehockey23]

I might be able to give some advice but before I make some huge generalizations could you give a bit more info?

It really depends on how long you plan on being in Rio and your reason for coming to Brazil. How is your Portuguese?

[andrewm]

Thanks Icehockey. I plan to be in Rio for 6 months i.e. duration of tourist visa. My primary reason for coming to Rio is to experience living and working there, while improving my Portuguese. The move is not financially motivated as I have sufficient funds to get by without working, however I thoroughly enjoy teaching and feel this would be a good use of my time.

My Portuguese is weak at present though I'm studying hard and plan on doing intensive classes when I arrive. From what I have read on the forum I understand that Portuguese skills are not required (though desirable) as language schools are more concerned whether the candidate is a native English speaker or not (which I am). Has this been your experience?

In terms of work experience, I have one year of teaching experience gained as an eCommerce tutor at the University of Sydney, which involved tutoring around 20 students at once. I also have 4 years of corporate and institutional banking experience.

I'm currently completing the CELTA but I also have a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Finance. Are the language schools concerned with degrees?

Thanks in advance for any advice.
Andrew.

[icehockey23]

I think its fantastic that money is not really an issue and you are just trying to gain experience and enjoy Brazil. In that case Rio should be fine.

OK basically being a native Eng speaker you could walk into any language school here and be hired. Might not be quite that easy and I havent really tried but every time I venture near a school Im offered a job. The CELTA wont make too much of a difference at most of the schools in Brazil, they will just be thrilled that you are a gringo.

Also, working in a language school you wont really need any Portuguese but will have chances to practice with the admin staff and/or trade Portuguese lessons for Eng lessons if you wish.

There are many many chain schools here which have their own methodology which may or may not be good - I will not judge or name them here. If you are motivated by trying to hone your teaching skills, and money is not really an issue I would advise you to try and find a smaller more specialized school which would probably appreciate the fact that you have some credentials and allow you some input into curriculum. Hopefully you can use some of what you got out of the CELTA rather than just mindlessly doing drills all day.

You could also position yourself as to enter the "Business English" market but that is something else and as long as you are not motivated by making money I wont get into it here.

As I have said before - "Finding a job teaching English in Brazil is not difficult, making decent money is."

Cheers

[dove]

In Sao Paulo, the language school chains (Wizard, Wall Street) wouldn't even consider me because I didn't have a work visa. They certainly don't sponsor visas either. From what I heard, they don't pay very well, so I wasn't too disappointed.