Job Discussion Forums

[JZer]

If anyone works at a school that would need someone sort term from December 15-March 1, let me know? I will be between contracts in Korea and would love to spend a few months in South America. Thanks for any help in advance.

[lozwich]

Work? Schmerk!

Everyone keeps telling me that Korea is one of the places to go to earn great big bucketloads of money. If that's the case, why not have a nice 2 1/2 month holiday and see lots of South America?

[naturegirl321]

Would be difficult to get legal work. That's our summer, however, if you're willing to work under the table, there are plenty of positions, though the pay is much less here, In Peru, it averages around 5 dollars an hour.

[JZer]

[Henry_Cowell]

[JZer]

[lozwich]

Hm. Ok, now that we've examined your financial status, I'd say it might be a little difficult to get work at that time of the year in many parts of Latin America because its holiday time. Maybe you'd get some work in February and March, but not much before that.

Like Naturegirl says, you could probably come and get some work under the table, but you couldn't find that out until you came here, and then there's the risk of not earning enough money to cover your airfare and other expenses.

How about short-term volunteering where your expenses are covered? You won't be earning much money, but you won't be spending much either.

[Guy Courchesne]

Jzer, if you aren't averse to it, why not hit one of the holiday spots, like Mar del Plata in Argentina? I've heard it's possible to get some very limited and short term work on the beach at a language school, or within a large hotel. It's chancey...unlikely you'd be able to pre-arrange something before going...

[jesshiggins]

I just left Wall Street Institute in Ambato, Ecuador, and they are looking for more teachers (I left for a health-related issue). They accept short-term contracts, but they close for the holidays and reopen in January. If you don't find anything else and can hold off for a month, that's an option.

Pay is $600 a month for around 30 hours, materials are provided. No airfare allowance. If you're interested you can e-mail Carlos Rubio Mera at [email protected].

Good luck!
Jessica

[JZer]

Thanks Jessica. I am still looking for a job. I may start my new job in January or March. If I start in March I would love to go to Chile from December 19- March 1. If there is only work from January 2- March 1 that would be OK.

Do you think they would hire me for two months?

[Tiger Beer]

Its fairly easy to pick up parttime job in South America.

BUT.. Santiago is a challenge. My information is probably dated. But I traveled around travel/teaching in South America in 1997-1998.

Santiago was a weird fish. First, it was kinda expensive to live there.. not only that.. it was probably one of the more boring South American capital cities I went to.. plus the schools I went to, weren't hiring.. but a couple actualy only hired legally through the U.S. on one-year contracts.

Most other places I went to.. for example.. Cuzco, etc.. you could find teaching work the next day fairly easily. Same when I was in Sao Paulo Brazil.

Actually.. honestly.. I had more fun in Cuzco than Santiago. More to do in Cuzco.. and quite a few Peruvians in that little town want to learn English - major tourist destination - Macchu Picchu and Inca ruins in that area. I spent 7 long days in Santiago looking for work and felt repititious after awhile trying to keep myself busy. When I arrived in Cuzco, a couple weeks flew by so quickly.. it was real hard to leave when I finally did as well.

Santiago was relatively quiet at night.. and the Spanish is REALLY different than anywhere else on the continent. Many people I met from other places who knew Spanish, said they had to study a lot more just to understand the Chileans. There was even a famous book there called 'how to speak Chilean' specific for how unusually different the Chilieans speak Spanish.

In Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and even parts of Colombia.. they speak a very slow phonetic Spanish which is often said to be one of the most clear and most intelligible Spanish spoken anywhere.

On the plus side.. if you are really intent on Santiago and Chile. It felt to me to be a very safe capital city. A lot of parks and benches for sitting everywhere - I think I saw more couples making out in the parks there than anywhere else in South America. The people were genuinely quite interested in foreigners themselves, and not just their wallets.

[JZer]

Tiger Beer,

Thanks for the information. I would like to find work in a town similar to Cusco but I don't want to go back to Cusco. It is great but I would like to try something else out. It looks like I will probably heading to Quito December 19. Hopefully I will spend a week to ten days there and head to Ambato to work at the Wall Street Institute for two months.

Can anyone give me some prices on backpacker hotels in Quito or Ambato? I will buy a copy of Lonely Planet soon.

[melisssssa]

JZer,
search the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree. People post favourite hostels, restaurants, etc.

[Tiger Beer]

[pollitatica]

If you don't want to buy the LP, but have access to it where you can look at it (might be tricky since you aren't in the US), but I always just take a little notebook in to the bookstore with me and jot names and numbers of places down while I'm looking at it.

Again, that's very easy to do in huge Barnes and Nobles and Borders, less so in other countries.