Job Discussion Forums

[mozsmith]

I am currently doing CELTA in Seville and I wanted to know if it was worth heading down to BA. Because I am Australian I am having trouble with EU working laws. What is it like in BA - is it easy to get work?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

[Marcethebest]

Hello!
I don�t live in BA, but I live in Argentina. If you are a teacher of English I am almost sure you can get a job in BA as a teacher, mainly at private institutes where English is taught. I am telling you this, because my own husband is American and he is teaching English in conversation classes in private institutes (he�s not a teacher of English, he is such "someone who happened to be a native english speaker" ). Students here love to hear native speakers speaking English, and test themselves to see if they can understand a native speaker and be understood as well.
I live in a smaller city, so I hope you can make it happen to come and try teaching here. If you would like to contact me, just do it, my email address is [email protected].
Regards,
Marcela [size=18][/img]

[loibadee]

hi y'all..my name is abby- i am new to this and i have a couple questions about BA..
i want to go to BA for 8 weeks, july-end of august, to learn spanish, but i also want to teach english or even french on the side. i speak french fluently- so i can often read spanish and understand it, but i cant speak it, or understand it that well- and i need to learn enough spanish to have a decent conversation in spanish on serious topics for graduate school in september. does anyone think this is possible? also would it be better to just show up in ba with say like 1,000 dollars-and then just find a spanish program, and an esl job and apt once there?
furthermore- i am a female- american of east african descent- how will it be for a single black woman in argentina? i know there are other countries i can go to to learn spanish/teach english..but i am drawn to argentina for many reasons..also anyone have any advice on cordoba?
thanks i'd appreciate any help

[Rice Paddy Daddy]

do celta and ba!

[matttheboy]

Abby,

First up, as you'll only be here for a couple of months it's unlikely you'll find teaching work. I mean, you could lie at your interview and say you'll be here for months and months then just up and leave but i'd personally feel somewhat guilty about that. You may get some private work by putting an ad in the 'paper though.

As for learning spanish, it depends how hard you work. Speaking French is a huge advantage due to the fact that you already understand the concepts of verbs having different endings depending on the tense, masculine/feminine agreement etc. I spoke pretty fluent french about 7 years ago and it was still pretty good when i went to ecuador in 2003 and i found it a great help. In 3 months i could have a half decent-ish conversation as long as the other person didn't speak at full speed. And i wasn't studying that hard either.

In 2 months i doubt you'll be able to have a proper conversation but it is possible if your aptitude for languages is good. I met someone who spoke almost fluent spanish after 6 months for example. Also, the spanish you'll learn here is very different to the kind of 'standard' spanish spoken in countries like mexico, ecuador, peru and bolivia. I love argentine spanish but it's not necessarily the one i'd recommend you learn as your 'base' spanish.

Finally, in Argentina there are very few black people. It's a very european race. I can count the amount of african people i've seen in a year here on 1 hand. Argentina can be a fairly racist country due to the fact that it is so european, there are very few indigenous people or mestizos here. Bolivians and Peruvians get a fairly raw deal here. It's unusual to see non-european looking foreigners on the street so i honestly don't know how you'd be treated. I'd like to say that it won't be a problem as i find argentines to be really friendly and open but i'm a white englishman. I can't guarantee that as a black american you won't have any issues.

Good luck with everything,

matt

[loibadee]

matt
thanks for the help! i have met some argentinians who all tell me that my ethnicity wont be a problem..so we'll see..does anyone think private esl or u guess fsl (french as a second language) lessons will be possible? as for me- i do not consider myself..nor do i look like an african american.. i dont know if this will make things difficult, either way i have heard worse things for spain than for argentina... (for dark skinned people)

abby

[kid eh]

How's about South Asian people? I've been scared away from SE Asia because of this and thought SA/CA might be a better choice... plus I speak French which I thought would make learning Spanish easier.

Or would I better off somewhere like Brazil or Panama?

EDIT: Sorry, I'm of South Asian descent but I'm a Canadian native speaker.

[matttheboy]

Kid eh, i met an English-Indian last year and he had no problem getting work. I don`t think it`ll be an issue. Of course there are idiots everywhere but i think it should be ok.

Argentina has always had a big middle-eastern population, especially Syrians for some reason (Carlos Menem is of Syrian descent for example) so Asian looking people don`t raise too much of an eyebrow. There are also a lot of Chinese and Koreans in Buenos Aires so my comment in my other post on this thread may have been misleading. What i meant was that in relation to other countries, like Canada, Britain, The US etc, it`s not particularly common to see non-European/Latin American faces on the street.

Abby, you`re right about Spain, it has a terrible reputation for racism in Europe which has worsened (the reputation that is) in recent months due to `monkey`chants being directed at black footballers and receiving a lot of publicity.

In Argentina, if you were very dark-skinned, say like a typical Nigerian i think you`d get some funny looks but as you say you`re east african (i missed the `east`part in your 1st post, sorry) you probably won�t stand out that much at all.

If you need any specific info about BsAs then let me know,

matt