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Thomcat · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:28 pm Post subject: Need advice on Argentina?

Right now my plan is to teach English for approximately a year in a Spanish speaking country in order to gain experience in teaching as well as fluency in Spanish. After that time I hope to come back to the U.S. and get a teaching certificate specializing in ESL and second languages in order to teach Spanish somewhere at a K-12 level, and will probably teach ESL as well.

Right now Argentina is at the top of my list along with Venezuela, although I would love to go to Spain, but have kind of ruled that out.
I have so many questions. Do in need a TEFL certificate? I do have some experience teaching ESL as a volunteer (Approximately 100 hrs), and I have a bachelor's degree, but, that is in Spanish. Do I need a visa, and if so how would I go about getting one? I am thinking about departing in late August or early September, is that a good time of the year? How much money would I need after airfare?

Any help answering any of these questions would be greatly appreciated. Also, any personal experiences/opinions of working in Argentina would also be helpful. Oh, Buenos Aires is where I am thinking about in particular, but, I am still very open minded.

Thanks,

Thomas

veggieboy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Buenos Aires

Honestly, the questions you're asking have been covered a lot. I'll take a quick stab at some of them (mostly because I'm procrastinating), but you should also comb the posts on this board.

You do not need a TEFL certificate. The fact that you are a native speaker of English will be good enough to get in the door of SOME institute somewhere, however meagre the pay (US$3/hour is not unheard of.)

You do not need a visa. You will need to leave the country a few times (Uruguay is a popular destination) in order to start the clock over on your 3-month tourist visa.

It's very difficult -- nearly impossible at first, I'd say -- to make it entirely on teaching income. Even after a time it can be difficult or downright impossible. Both because the wages are nothing to write home about in many cases and because it can be difficult to round up enough hours. So you'll want to have some money to fall back on.

As for the amount of money you'd need to pay for an apartment, buy food, transportation etc., it's going to vary depending on the person, drinking habits, etc.

I'd say people probably spend between US$400-$900/month for rent, food, entertainment. Sharing an apartment is cheaper than having your own, of course. That last dollar figure is really pretty high, but it can happen if you don't eat at home, like going out, want to travel, etc. Also, keep in mind that this is a baseline and things won't be getting any cheaper. It's already all they can do to keep inflation in the range of 10-15% a year.

I should mention I'm basing this on Buenos Aires.

I hope this is a good start for you -- now go scour the other posts.

Thomcat · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:54 am Post subject:

Thanks for your reply. I have scoured a little and found some information, but, a lot of it is somewhat dated, which is why I posed the questions again. And, honestly, your answers are different from a lot of what I've read. Thanks.

veggieboy · Joined: 24 Aug 2005 Posts: 32 Location: Buenos Aires

Yeah. . . I can see where some of the info would be dated. A lot of it's probably scattered over threads that might not necessarily look like what you want, too.

The only other things that occurred to me is to be particularly careful with info on apartment prices. Because those have gone up quite a bit from what I see (I'm just going by the ads I stumble across). Any prices from 6-12 months ago will serve as a guide, but will probably be unattainably cheap right now.

And a lot of flat prices that might look great upon closer examination require a garant�a -- basically a security deposit consisting of the deed to someone's property. There are ways around this, but it's a devil.

I'd also say to plan to spend more money in the first month or two as you get adjusted . . . and overpay for things because of newcomer ignorance.

This is just my dos centavos. Ideally, a lot of what you read would be different from what I'm saying. Then you can average it out and arrive at something that might sort of look like the truth, if you squint.

vivaBarca · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:52 pm Post subject:

Veggieboy...�spot on.� I definitely agree with most of what you said. The prices I remember apartments being listed for, when I was planning my trip about a year ago, are almost laughable considering current rates.

Thomas - if you had more specific questions you could probably be helped a little better. I really think there is a wealth of information in this forum that could help you...you just need to dig a little.

About a degree - I say definitely don�t get it, unless you honestly want to make a long-term investment teaching here. That�s the only time I�d (cautiously) recommend it. The 2 or 3 peso difference, per hour, you may receive because of your degree could take over a year to recoup, especially considering that these TEFL courses cost around 1200 USD - which I believe is around 3 months, if not more, of teaching wages gleaned from a packed schedule. I took a course, and while I haven�t really had my heart in the whole teaching bit, I don�t think it helped me nearly enough to justify the cost...and I have more than my fair share of friends who have been doing alot more teaching than me, without anything more than a Bachelor�s.

Hope this helps. Good luck...

Ackerley81 · Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Posts: 49

also, keep in mind that you will be an English teacher here, so you will be speaking English all day long. If you really want to walk away fluent in Spanish you need to put some effort into speaking it every day. Try to make Argentine friends instead of hanging out with only expats, (living with expats makes it extra tempting to only speak English) get an Argentine boyfriend or girlfriend, dont allow yourself TV in English, read in Spanish...it takes discipline because so many people speak English here and want to practice with you. Its not the immersion program going to a less metropolitan city would be, but you can get your Spanish in if you work at it. Plus youll get that cool castellano thing going on that we all know and love Smile

Sarah

YanquiQuilme�o · Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 122 Location: Quilmes, Argentina

Whatever you do, don't waste your money on a "TEFL certificate" or a CELTA. Total waste of money ...

YanquiQuilme�o · Joined: 20 Oct 2005 Posts: 122 Location: Quilmes, Argentina

Also, if teaching Spanish in the USA is your goal, Buenos Aires is probably one of the worst places you can go besides Spain considering that American high schools use text books that mainly focus on Central American & Carribean Spanish. You'll get used to speaking like a porte�o, but you won't really be able to speak like that in a US classroom.