Job Discussion Forums

[noselicious42]

Hello! This is my first post, but I�ve been reading this forum for several years now. I�m always so impressed by the time that experienced teachers put into giving newbies like me advice!

Going abroad and teaching English has been a dream brewing in my brain for years, and this summer (July and August) I�m hoping to finally make it a reality. I�m a freshman at Columbia, but my hometown is Florida. I�ve done a lot of traveling, including half a year in South America, but I�ve never been to Central America. Since I speak very good intermediate Spanish, I feel more confident looking for my first teaching job in a Spanish speaking country. I know this is a broad question, but does anyone have country suggestions? Or perhaps a better question would be are any schools in Central America that you highly recommend? Since I have no experience in Central America yet and eventually plan to see it all, right now my priority is being in a great school rather than which country it�s in.

I�m hopefully going to get some funding from Columbia so I�ll be able to look for a volunteer job. I feel this would be good to start with, since I have very little formal experience (albeit a lot of spunk), and no ESL degree so far. I don�t have the time or money to get an in-class ESL training yet, and by everyone�s collective tone I�m guessing the online ones are not worth it. Am I wrong to assume this? Are there any good online courses?

If for some reason I am unable to find any financial aid from Columbia, what are my chances of making a minimal wage without any experience?

Last thing: My parents are rather sexist and/or protective and, despite my extensive travel experience, insist that I travel with a man. Thankfully, my wonderful partner is also interested in doing the same summer work. What are our chances of finding work at the same school? I�m assuming it would be nearly impossible to find paid work at the same school (and probably not even the same city, right?), so would schools have any issue accepting us as a dual volunteer team if we were unpaid?

Thank you so much for reading all of this! I�m so excited to finally be an official member of this great site!

[TeresaLopez]

What is your primary motive? To live in one place and then travel in the area? Or to experience one culture in depth? Perfect your Spanish? Do you prefer a city or a smaller town? There are not a lot of jobs in Central America outside of larger cities. Have you considered Mexico? Probably the easiest place for someone with no experience to get a job. For someone with no teaching experience at all an online course will at least give you a general idea of how to teach. Without a pratice component it won�t help you once you are in the classroom, but might give you an idea on how to procede. Of course, you can do the same thing on your own, read books and magazines about different methods of teaching, and I would recommend you do at least that.

[noselicious42]

Teresa,

My primary motive is to live in one place and travel in the area. Much of my life has been spent in constantly mobile travel, conducted like an exhaustive survey of a place (organized by my father). As a family, we have covered an amazing amount of ground in (sometimes agonizing) detail, but never have we paused to really "feel" a place. This is what I'm looking for. Of course, working on my Spanish would be nice, too.

I am happy working in a larger city, and would probably prefer that. Mexico was the direction I have been leaning in so far. Any advice of places to teach there?

I will research more into your advice concerning the courses and supplemental self-education methods!

[naturegirl321]

You should be able to make minimum wages. For volunteer work, I think that volunteersouthamerica.net has very good info.

I think Mexico and Ecuador are good places to start. As to Central America, maybe Costa Rica? Since I think there are a lot of foreigners there.

ONline certs aren't that good, though CELTA plans to have an online one out next year.

If you want to find work at the same school, you probably could. Keep in mind that you may have to work for a couple schools in order to make enough money.

You said you grew up travelling, how did you do that? Were you a military kid?

[ellecbee]

If you are keen to go back to South America, there is a program called English Opens Doors that places teachers (qualified and unqualified) in a Chilean Public school where you co-teach with a local teacher. I participated in their 10 week summer program and it was great experience. I lived with a host family and received a small stipend. I did it mainly for the teaching experience as I wanted to bolster my TEFL certification before applying for a true bona fide position in Asia. Some people had great experiences, some not so much, they will place couples together. I loved my host family and my school, director and my town, so mine was a good experience. Got to travel all over Chile and Argentina on our break and facilitate an English camp for a week in Patagonia.

The downside: It was VERY cold!

As far as the TEFL, if you want to teach, you really should participate in an on site program, some schools don't value online's as true TEFL certification. Truth be told, even after my certification program, which took about a month, I was still clueless until I actually started teaching full time.

My Chile experience was impressive enough to land me a full time well paying job teaching for a year in Indonesia.

Good Luck!

[naturegirl321]

[ellecbee]

When I say "well paying", take that with grain of salt as it's all relative. Cost of living in any particular country, your own personal living standards etc, differ. I'm going to say most teachers that have spent any time abroad will tell you the same thing. Teaching doesn't necessarily pay well, aside from Asia and parts of the Middle East and that's a fact. You're not likely to find much money in Central or South America, but they tend to be places that people want to go. I think I read on here once "make your money in Asia and spend it in South America".

I hesitate to ramble too much about Asia in a LA forum! I think I speak for all when I say we appreciate topics being kept in the right place. You can pm me though if you want info and I'm happy to give you some insight about Asia.

Anyway, back to your initial inquiry: The summer program that I participated in was free and only 10 weeks in duration, try sending them an email to see if they still offer that. There is another volunteer program that I am looking at, but I need to bolster my Spanish a bit before I am ready for it, with your Intermediate level, it may be of interest to you. Its called the Sarapiqui Conservation Center (I think) in Costa Rica and they have a few opportunities. I believe they want you to have a tefl, but if you want to teach, it's well worth the investment. I'm seeing a lot of stuff in Mexico, so if you want to teach sans the tefl, that's probably where you should look, but I think your school, lodging could end up a bit dodgy?? You will find a lot of useful feedback in these forums, just make sure you are able to discern between a teacher who is ranting, or one who has a legit grievance. If you see a school or organization pop up on here frequently with a lot of negatives, that's usually your red flag.

Did you say you are in Florida? I'm in Tampa plotting my next move.

[noselicious42]

Hi! Sorry for the long delay in my response. School has been really crazy lately!

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately the Chilean program requires a BA, which obviously I don't have since I'm still a freshman!

The Costa Rica one also looks very interesting. Do you know what the $350/month fee covers?