Job Discussion Forums

delal · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 251 Location: N Turkey

OK, it's time to own up: Which one of you out there is actually earning over 6,000 tl (4,000 CDN$) a month teaching English in Turkey?

This is part of a job ad posted in the "Plans for native speakers in state schools" post and the recruitment agency appears legit so someone must be super rich (by my standards anyway):
"Contract Terms: Minimum 1 year contracts starting September 2010, includes a monthly salary ranging between (CAD$1500-CAD$4000) average pay CAD$2500-$3000. Paid in Turkish Lira or CDN$."

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

C'mon, they're not lurking around here. They're off living the high life!! Cool

delal · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 251 Location: N Turkey

Good point!
Heard any rumours though? Very Happy

bulgogiboy · Joined: 23 Feb 2005 Posts: 803

I should think there are very few TEFL teachers in Turkey earning 6000 YTL per month, if any at all. When I was there, just a few years ago, teachers were extremely lucky if they could earn half of that.

I suppose if you were in Istanbul, had a good basic salary of at least 2500 YTL and managed to find a large number of private students, with deep pockets, then 6000 YTL is possible. Having said that, so is space travel.

In any case, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Laughing

delal · Joined: 04 Oct 2005 Posts: 251 Location: N Turkey

I live in Turkey and so I'm more than realistic about pay...
I am curious about which school/college would pay that much. An embassy school? Robert College?
Anyway, we should locate our rich colleague-the drinks are on them! Laughing

coffeespoonman · Joined: 04 Feb 2005 Posts: 512 Location: At my computer...

The trick to making that much in Istanbul is keeping your fingers in more than one pie - or whatever that saying is.

I've never heard of a single job that pays 6,000 for an EFL teacher, but ones that pay 4,000 - 5,000 certainly exist. From there, it's not too difficult to take on a private or an evening class or two. That could put you over 6,000. You can also get involved in other things like teacher training, test preparation, oral examination, editing, voice-over work, etc.

Of course, you'd better have a full range of qualifications and good experience.

Otterman Ollie · Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 8:17 am Post subject:

I know one or two who pretty close to that, quite simple really, the day job pays 4 big ones ,, then as someone mentioned an involvement with exam testing like Cambridge, a couple of privates a week plus, now hold your breath...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Wait for it.......................... they............................... collect............................................... a................................................. Turkish......................................... ......................................................pension............... on top of that. Easy init, now you try!

CallieWho · Joined: 16 Jul 2008 Posts: 25

I haven't heard of that kind of money at all from one school, either. I'm sure that real professors at expensive private universities are pulling that kind of money. But they've got PhD's in English Literature or Linguistics or something like that. They're probably teaching English Lit or whatever but not basic EFL classes.
I know University teachers making between 4000-5000TRY per month in Istanbul so with some privates they could make that. But you need a Master degree to make that kind of money.

toyiki · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 39

When I was living in Istanbul till summer 2008 I was earning around 10,000tl per month for 10 months of the year and between 2-4 thousand per week during July and August depending on how many hours I wanted to work and which of my students were in Istanbul.
I know quite a few teachers who are earning over 6000tl and it is the combination of $2500 + salary plus private teaching jobs.
Preschools like teis, papatya, bosphorus international people with a+ clients tend to have teachers who are not necessarily qualified but are earning over 100tl per hour for etaching jobs.
There are also A+ primary schools like enka, hev, uskudar amerikan, aci to name a few. Most of these parents are paying huge fees for their native speaker teachers, including road money (taxi not bus) or driver.
The advantages of teaching children is that the parents are paranoid that the kids dont miss any lessons, and children don't get as bored as adult students who figure out after a while that they are not going to be native speakers and give up.
The disadvantages are that parents are competing so the kids have to speak very well and do well on their school quizzes, tests, homework and cambridge tests. I also tended to put up my prices one every couple of years, so they were happy about that as well..