Job Discussion Forums

Moore · Joined: 25 Aug 2004 Posts: 730 Location: Madrid

What do you think? - please add to this list...

Madrid: pro's...

Bigger market for teachers
Cheaper rent (slightly), general cost of living a bit lower
Easier for Americans to find work
Central (geographic) location in Spain
Sunnier, more stable weather
Easier to learn Castellano Spanish
Friendlier people (in bars, parties etc.)

Barcelona: pro's...

The beach (major pro!)
Better conditions for long term teachers: some schools even pay over summer
Culture: much more art, design, events etc.
Mountains just up the road
Bicycle culture (and skate and surf too)
Close to France for trips and skiing in Pyrennees
More loyal people, once you finally get to know them
Milder weather in winter
Cosmopolitan, international city

_________________________________________________________________________
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Pigeon_85 · Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Posts: 23

I visited both of these cities last week for interviews and handing out my CV and thought they both seemed fantastic places. Madrid was very hot though!

A teacher that I met in Madrid said to me she reckons there is loads of work in teaching at the moment. Would you agree and if so what is the best way of actually getting this work??

Cheers.

carmo85 · Joined: 15 Nov 2009 Posts: 45 Location: Ireland

How did you get on Pigeon? I am thinking of doing the same. What's it like over there? How much money did you take with you to do your job hunt and was it successful?

Thanks

Pigeon_85 · Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Posts: 23

Hi Carmo,

Well I had a great time but it didn't go well in as much as I didn't get a job from it. BUT. The problem was I had limited money and came back after a week and then received a few emails asking for interviews, but that was not possible for me as I had already returned home.

So now from what I have learnt the best thing is to just go their and get a place and look for work. I am now saving up to head over in January which is supposed to be the next best time to look for work after september.

I hope this helps a little!

Cheers

carmo85 · Joined: 15 Nov 2009 Posts: 45 Location: Ireland

Yes it does. Unfortunately, I will be in the same place as you were originally. I am very limited in funds. I have to pay �500 for a TEFL in 2 weeks.Then I gotta save my social welfare for Spain (yes I'm a recent unemployed graduate - there's lots of us in Ireland).

How much do you reckon you'll be taking over with you? Do you have a TEFL/CELTA etc? Any experience? I have no experience and only TEFL cert.

ESL-head · Joined: 08 Nov 2009 Posts: 9

I will tell you hands down that Barcelona is better. I've lived in both.

The problem is that human nature being human nature, people who end up in Madrid will retrospectively justify their decision to live there. They basically force themselves to believe Madrid is better because nobody's going to lay roots down in a city and endlessly say "Yes, I live here but Barcelona's much better." So, despite the God-awful climate, the land-locked waterless landscape, they say to themselves that it's great.

Madrid is cool but you can not seriously compare a meditarranean beach filled chill-zone with a featureless dust bowl. True, Catalan is annoying and work is harder to find etc etc... but when you're on the beach with a cooler full of tinnies, you forget about all that.

Even better, move just out of Barca to Castelldefels... we have a great community here.

carmo85 · Joined: 15 Nov 2009 Posts: 45 Location: Ireland

Sounds good aswell.Always good to have options. That place with the good community: Is there scope for a newbie?

SirKirby · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Barcelona, Spain

ESL-head is right that "people who end up in Madrid will retrospectively justify their decision to live there..."

As will, of course, people who end up in Barcelona...

Unlike most people who make such comments, I've also lived in both, and can say they are both great places to live.

What jars is that "Catalan is annoying" line. I assume you'd say the same about, say, Welsh, if you happened to be living in Wales...? Like Welsh, Catalan is, after all, the first language of a very significant proportion of the local population. Barcelona is a bilingual society -- and you're "annoyed" by one of those languages.... ????

That "featureless dust bowl" is also a pretty dumb line, if I may say so.

mozzar · Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 339 Location: France

SirKirby · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 261 Location: Barcelona, Spain

In fact, at least 1 in 5 of the population of Wales speak Welsh, and in Catalonia, at least 50% have Catalan as their first language.

Can language teachers really be describing other languages as "annoying" and "bloody annoying"...??????

Chris_Crossley

Pigeon_85 · Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Posts: 23

Hi Carmo,

I'm trying to save up as much as poss (�1000ish) and I know a few people over there so hopefully I can save some money and stay at theirs:)

I do have Trinity Cert. TESOL qualification which I got over the summer in London, but no experience apart from the 7 hours of Teaching Practice on the course.

Let me know when you arrive and perhaps we can meet for beers and share success stories of job hunting in Madrid!

Ciao

jonniboy · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:29 pm Post subject:

Agree with SirKirby and ChrisCrossley above, I find the hostility of some teachers to Catalan really bizarre. Going to Catalunya and complaining that people speak Catalan is as bizarre as going to Seattle and complaining that people don't speak London English. No skip that, it's like going to Estonia and complaining about the lack of Russian speakers, i.e. that a dodgy dictator didn't succeed in stamping out the local language and supplanting it with a different one.

I'll admit to a certain vested interest here as I'm possibly one of the only posters here that's studied Catalan to any degree (three months with a native speaker) though it's since declined to a scratch elementary/pre-pre intermediate level. However overall I'd support the Generalitat of Catalunya in their efforts to keep the language afloat, to me it's just redressing a historic imbalance.

jonniboy · Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 9:33 pm Post subject:

Pigeon_85 · Joined: 28 Aug 2009 Posts: 23

Sorry about not being very clear there. I was thinking �1000ish to keep me going for just over a month or more, not a year! I feel that considering rent is about �350 + �350 deposit and food, beers etc and a credit card then I should comfortably be able to live/survive for at least a month.

If that doesn't work out then I think I'll head to Japan.

Any thoughts?

Cheers.