Job Discussion Forums

Ontarioguy · Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Posts: 1

Hello everyone,

I'm 20 and I'm thinking about taking a year off from college to teach abroad. I went to Germany this summer and really enjoyed it. I have some friends in Berlin and would love to get back there somehow.

Here's my situation:
I do have a French Passport and ID Card, how much af an advantage would that give me?
I am planning to take a TEFL/TESLetc. course here in Canada (Oxford Seminars)

I would love to get back to Berlin, is that realistic or am I going to have to settle for a smaller city like Cologne? Berlin would be quite beneficial for me since I would have friends who could help me integrate better.

Anyways, I just want to know what kind of a chance I have and what kind of pay I'm looking at in Berlin and around Germany.

Thank's for your help in advance!

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Your French passport is vital, because it means that you are an EU member citizen and, therefore, that you have a legal right to work in Germany. North Americans and Aussies have an almost impossible situation these days within the EU - you can't get legal work.

However, my advice is NOT to take the GLOBAL course or any other course in Canada. You'd be much better off to come to Europe (Prague, for example, is a training centre mecca).
1. Most European schools want a newbie teacher to have a minimum of 30 days of an on-site course
2. that course must include at least 6 hours of supervised teaching practice with feedback from teacher trainers
3. the students you would be working with on your training course would be more representative of the ones you will actually teach (whether they were Czech or German - they'd be real learners in their own countries, not immigrants or refugees or peer trainees!!).

I can't answer the Berlin/Koln question, but I do think that your age is a bit of a drawback. Most newbie teachers have at least a four-year university degree before they start. You will need to be sure to present yourself as a reliable and professional applicant, to help offset your youth and lack of educational qualifications.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Two big problems :

1. YOUR AGE

2. YOUR LACK OF A DEGREE AND TEACHER TRAINING

There may be a cultural agreement between Geermany and France allowing French nationals to work as a 'Lehrassistent' but the last I heard that was for graduates or those doing degrees in Modern Languages.

That is how I got my intro to EFL back in 1968/1969.