Job Discussion Forums

fieldsofbarley · Joined: 12 Nov 2010 Posts: 47 Location: Mexico City

Adam,

With regards to taxes, keep in mind a couple of things too: you will be taxed according to your marital status and to whether you have dependents or not. BUT, unless things have changed, you do not have to pay tax if you spend less than 180 days per year in the country, or if your annual salary is below 22,000 euros.

Double check this with the school if you�re set on going to La Coru�a...you don�t want to be ripped off in this respect.

jonniboy · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:28 pm Post subject:

Hod · Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home

Without being disrespectful to Latvia, Estonia or your good self, jonniboy, we have to recognise that Spanish is a world language spoken by 427,440,053 people (Wiki). Latvian and Estonian aren�t. I�m embarrassed to say, even though I speak exactly one foreign language to B2 level, English speakers are the same.

I hope adamjames reports back. He sounds a genuine sort who deserves better. I�m jealous of the Spain gig, adam, but not the money, so good luck and let us know how things go. And look on the bright side, if you make the effort, Spanish could soon be spoken by 427,440,054 people.

(I'm an ex-teacher now engineer wishing to learn Spanish and am considering doing so by spending a year in Spain working as an English teacher. Hence, my interest in this thread.)

jonniboy · Posted: Wed Jan 26, 2011 6:36 am Post subject:

Hod, oh I understand the reasons why - Ireland and UK also score pretty poorly in foreign language knowledge in the Eurostat surveys. My point was in response to the Mexico based poster above who said that foreign language knowledge in Spain was poor and therefore that meant there was big demand. I don't think that's a given, a lot of Spanish simply don't feel that they need English to progress in their careers and in many cases that's fair enough. Also while there's demand there, it's not comparable to Mexico for two reasons. Firstly the proportion of Spanish who'd like to work in an English speaking country is, I'd hazard a guess, much lower than the proportion of Mexicans who would like to work in the USA say. Secondly, the supply of teachers to meet that demand is much higher meaning that in an already lower wage country it's a competitive market.

Perilla · Joined: 09 Jul 2010 Posts: 792 Location: Hong Kong

IMO seven euros an hour is taking the piss, and if seven euros is all the school can afford there must be something wrong. If you're really keen on the job perhaps settle for 10 but lower than that is bad karma. If you have some money your best bet would be to go to Spain and look around.

adamjames · Joined: 14 Sep 2010 Posts: 10 Location: hull, england

Thanks for continuing to reply guys, this forum has really helped over the last couple of days, I could have easily have walked into something I would have regret!

I asked for more money, and they did sound like they were willing to offer a bit more, I reckon I could have got them up to 9euros. Unfortunately they seemed really desperate to fill the post by Monday which was unrealistic for me, so we left it at that. With a vague offer of a job in September (with a bit more time to settle in and a slightly higher wage!)

I mentioned a few other schools had expressed some interest and after looking through a few of my lesson plans another school has offered me a job. It's in Seville and pays 5euros per hour more than the La Coruna, 18-25 hours per week. This seems a lot more reasonable to me! Its mainly teaching kids, although I havn't done this before they are talking about giving me some training. I'm going to talk to them over the next couple of days and shall report back :p

Interesting debate going on about the willingness to learn English in Spain. Something that has immediately hit me is the recession in Spain and the huge levels of unemployment. A teacher I talked to today has said numbers of adults being given lessons has dramatically increased recently, because of more adults having time on their hands and wanting to improve their job chances through education.

Anyway, cheers for the continued support and I'll get back to you soon!
Adam

adamjames · Joined: 14 Sep 2010 Posts: 10 Location: hull, england

Hey guys,

just to update you:

I'm flying to Seville on Saturday and I've got a job teaching in the Canadian Language Institute there. It pays quite well, I've got 18-25hours a week and I'll be working there until term ends in June. It's mainly teaching kids but they offer some training and induct you with an observation week. So things are looking a lot better than a couple of weeks ago, so glad I didn't take the other job!

Couple of questions though. I have a european health insurance card, but in terms of healthcare is there anything else I need to sort out??? I don't want to leave it until I get ill, so if anyone could explain how the Spanish health system works for people from UK that would be great!

Secondly, do I need to open a Spanish bank account?? I currently have a Natwest account and I'm wondering whether that will be okay for my wages to go into?? If anyone could help me out with this query that would be great!

Thanks for helping me out guys, this is my first time living and working abroad as well as my first real TEFL experience, so it's been really great! I would really appreciate it if anyone can back to me as well! Any advice about teaching English in spain, teaching kids, living in Seville, if you've heard anything about the school or you're living in Seville and fancy saying hello, that would be great!!

As I'm sure you can tell I'm really excited guys!
Adam

jonniboy · Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2011 9:36 pm Post subject:

Adam, firstly congratulations on the job and I hope that works out for you. Let us know how it goes.

I can only really comment on the bank account thing. It's very unlikely that the school will pay your wages into a natwest account due to the higher transaction costs involved in them paying into a bank located in another country and a non Euro area country to boot.

More importantly it's much better for you for them to pay it into a local account. Natwest as far as I know don't do multi currency personal accounts (?) thus you'd lose cash anyway when it's converted to pounds. Also, this is one thing to consider: you'll need to draw the money out in Spain and if you're using a Natwest card for that you'll be royally ripped off by Natwest for doing so. Back in 2003, for drawing out 150 euros, Natwest typically charged me �5.20. If you figure that over the course of the year, you'll be making 40-50 such withdrawals, that quickly mounts up.

This is another thing for you and others to think about: as you'll need to support yourself for the first couple of months until the first pay arrives, there may be cheaper ways to do this than constantly withdrawing from the account back in the UK. One way would simply be to convert a wad of cash into Euros and open an account as soon as you get there. If you're not comfortable carrying a few thousand around with you, then simply do a bank transfer for about 3000 - 4000 euros when you get there. It typically costs somewhere around 20-25 quid but will save you money in the long run.