Job Discussion Forums

[rosie1973]

I am moving to Madrid in a month to begin a job(s) teaching. I will be teaching business English so I'll be hopping around from place to place. I would like to hear from those of you who do this kind of thing and tell me what a day in your life looks like.

What do you do in-between classes?

When (and where) do you lesson plan?

Do you ever have time to meet friends after work?

etc.etc.

[Moore]

In between classes: mooch around and wish I had a proper job, spending money I haven�t got
Lesson planning: eight years ago when I still gave a monkey�s
Meeting mates after work: more a question of me fitting lessons in around meeting my mates

....or more seriously....

In between classes: try and do private students / try for block hours to avoid problem
Lesson planning: as long as you do a reasonable mix of listening, grammar, reading, and above all conversation they�ll be more than happy with you here: they�re not a fussy bunch and most teachers here are so slack a tiny bit of professionalism will make them love you forever and ask for you to be their teacher forever: you don�t need to plan all that much
Do you have time to see your mates: of course, that�s the whole point about being in Madrid - you�ll never make much cash here, but you will have an excellent social life!

[rosie1973]

How many hours did you keep doing business classes? Does one generally need to suppliment a 20 hour work week with privates?

[Moore]

It�s pretty hard to get a 20 hour week when you teach in-company lessons: basically you got three slots - before work (an hour and a half max: 8-9:30); then "lunchtime" (an hour and a half, two if you�re very lucky), then after work (Spanish work late anyway, so it�s hard to get these slots, but you can pick up an hour and a half if you look hard enough). So that makes 4.5 hours x 4 days (Spanish very rarely want lessons on a Friday as they tend to go home early so they have to work hard that day to get things finished), so in total you�ve got just 18 hours there IF you don�t get cancellations (count on about 10 percent).

You can can live ok on this (if you demand 15 euros an hour, DON�T accept less for in-company, even if you�re inexperienced), as it makes about 1080 a month. But as I said, you need to factor in cancellations and ridiculously frequent public holidays (for which you probably won�t be paid). Basically you have to get a few privates, it�s nice to get a bit of cash in your hand anyway.

Life as a business teacher in Madrid, especially in your first year will inevitably involve a lot of running around on the metro - just take a good book and learn a bit of Spanish while you�re on the train and it�s not so bad.



....(and don�t forget to invest in a little dictionary so you don�t end up mis-spelling words like "suppliment"!)

[foss]

That sums it up really well, though let me add that you might be offered classes for children. Normally they come in a block of 2 or 3 hours between 5 and 8, which is handy, but it's undeniably harder work.