Job Discussion Forums

[philbags]

Hi, i just want to solicit your advice on behalf of a friend of mine. What would be the chances of a CELTA trained lady, of asian descent who has been teaching for 10 years or so, specializing in business english, picking up work in prague? She is a non-native speaker but has very high fluency/accuracy.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Ta

[merlin]

oooh, that is a difficult one. It's really just too close to call either way. It's the non-native that will be the difficulty, not the race.

In the end I suppose it would depend more on her. If she really is better than the competition she'll be able to get some classes but a lot of people in Prague speak English *WELL* so she'd have to be pretty darn good and be able to convince people of it.

[philbags]

Hmm , i see what you mean, well its comforting to know its not a race issue, and yes , she is pretty well up there professionally speaking.
As another issue; are any of the language schools in prague teaching chinese? would she be abe to pick up any work that way?
just a thought and any advice here is crucial because if she decides to make this move,its going to cost her a lot.
Ta
P.

[merlin]

Chinese lessons:
Czechs are still catching up with joining the EU - so very few are planning to study Chinese.

HOWEVER, I think you're kinda asking the wrong question.

There are LOTS of companies doing business with the Chinese, so if a Czech company had someone on their team who could understand what the Chinese were saying and explain Chinese bahaviors/tactics/ etc. to Czech businessmen ... I'd say there'd be a lot of companies who would pay for this service.

So ask your friend if she has her heart set on teaching only or if she'd be interested in playing on the other team, so to speak, in Czech-Chinese business deals.

She may be expected to learn basic Czech after a period of time, depending on who owns the company.