Job Discussion Forums

[johnnyenglishteacher]

I know this topic is a bit old but...

I�ve just finished working in Slovakia. I was paid 10,500 per month for working in a provincial town - this was my first long-term TEFL contract. I think in Bratislava my colleagues got 1,000 more. Accommodation was also thrown in.

This was quite enough money to live on and travel a bit in the region, although it won�t do much for pension funds. I wouldn�t accept any less than this (18,000 per month without accommodation would be roughly the same).

[svenhassel]

may i recommend living in southern poland, on the border with slovakia.

polacks often go to slovakia for shopping as it is so cheap for them.

maybe you should check out the zloty/korona conversion rate.

one word one on bratislava though, it is the capital and a rather attractive destination for euro zone dwellers so on the cost of living/ earnings scale is much higher than in eastern slovakia.

i live in south east poland and often go to slovakia where it is cheaper.

sven

[booty]

Bratislava's an OK city that has a fair amount of nightlife and everything else you would expect from a city this size. On the plus side, it's great if you want to be between Budapest and Vienna. It's also pretty compact, and things are getting better all the time. Also, the British Council library is excellent and has a wide variety of books, DVDs and helpful staff.
However, it's hard to survive on the average monthly salary as you would have to drink in local dives rather than touristy bars like the Irish pub. If you want to travel to other places and have an active social life, you need to do private lessons.
On the social front, Slovaks are OK but reserved, and most of the English are stagdoers.

[scot47]

What is a 'stagdoer' ?

[spiral78]

Scot, you must be aware of the notorious British stag party 'dos' that give Brits a bad name in all places where low-cost airlines fly and beer is cheap!!

[scot47]

A new phenomenon. I suspect most of these @rseholes are English.

[guangho]

An accurate guess. From SE UK to be exact.

[TheLongWayHome]

[booty]

[scot47]

I see. Exactly the sort of phenomenon I would expect as we live through the "Last Days", the "End Times".

Hordes of unspeakable English tossers making themselves bigger @rseholes than they already are !

[hughesie]

[roywebcafe]

And the Scots, Irish and Welsh are just tea-sipping gentlemen i suppose.
If a crowd of Brits behaved badly they would all have the "English" tag although in England the majority would be english

[newsygirl]

If you enjoy seeing grafitti on every single building, Slovakia is the place for you!!!
500 CAD/USD is not enough to live off of in Slovakia. I was earning that much too and had to eat noodles every night for dinner, because that was all I could afford. It was difficult to go out and have fun at night, because I was always broke. Trust me. I am very thrifty with my money, but I couldn't get my 500 CAD/USD Slovak salary to stretch.
Having a job teaching on the side, is what saved me from starvation. I was only in Slovakia for a few months, and when I returned home, everyone was stunned by my weight-loss.
If you are on the heavy side or want to lose weight for fun a TESOL job in Slovakia could be for you
*WARNING ABOUT VALENS* If you are offered a job by a company called Valens, DO NOT take it.
If you are still looking for work in Slovakia, I suggest that you avoid working for Valens at all cost. They are very unprofessional and take advantage. They promise you a bunch of stuff like internet, health insurance, covering the cost of visa and some other B.S., but in the end all you get is bunch of broken promises and have to pay an expensive plane ticket back home. Unless you enjoy being taken advantage of, this is a Slovak company you should avoid.

[Pelican_Wrath]

[Pelican_Wrath]