Job Discussion Forums

[davechile]

Who Are the best operators in CR?
for a North American Native speaker white blue eyed American..not that matter to me, but it seems to matter to Ticos.
- Bachelors in Business - Finance
- CELTA cert.
- no teaching experience

John Hall has a pretty comprehensive list but, has anyone been able to update it and get a more current feel for wages/conditions?

I want to avoid split shifts as much as possible.
Is it common to work for two schools? 20/20?

Thanks for your advice and input!

Pura Vida

Dave

[OleLarssen]

Not working split hours, good fucking luck! I'm arriving at a schedu.. schedu... Mother Mary! I had my first Spanish class today and my English is shot to pieces! Anyway, I'm coming to the point where I'm teaching in the evenings only on Monday and Wednesday, but it's a luxury reserved either for those who don't need that much money or those, like me, working in a school with actual classrooms, which makes it possible to teach in the morning and throughout the day, whereas business teaching will only take place after work or before it. Most schools, as far as I understand, do business teaching, and that includes Idioma International which is probably one of the biggest actors here. Your best bet might be universities, but getting a job there with no previous experience ... you're asking a lot. :)

What I suggest you do is come here and talk to different schools and take whatever they offer, and don't aim too high. When you've a couple of years experience you can be picky. :)

[Gareth2000]

hey i got a degree, Certificate and more than 2 years of experience wheres the best place to teach? also whats it like working in the tourism industry do u know anyone who is doing that? im an intermediate at spanish and i have certificates and stuff for that too? im in venezuela at the moment and looking to leave in a month or so.

[OleLarssen]

I don't know anything about more "up-scale" ESL jobs in Costa Rica, sorry. Try John Hall. ;)

[John Hall]

Ahhh.... My spirit has been summoned

I mention the following places for the integrity of their English programs (IMO).

Good English Programs at Universities:

ULACIT, ULatina, Universidad Interamericana, UCR.

Good Company Class Providers:

Idioma Internacional, Pro-English.

Good Private Language Institutes:

Centro Cultural, Instituto Britanico.

Most (but not all) of these places are good to work at too. Of course, I am just giving my opinion here, which with regard to certain places is better informed than with regard to other places. If I am biased, it is probably about ULACIT, because I work there.

[OleLarssen]

Idioma Internacional has mistreated one of my friends and hates everything non-gringo. They do pay well, though.

Universities don't hire non-native speakers at all, as far as I know, unless they have like 3000 years ESL experience. Not that it matters to the vast majority of the readers of this forum, but hey.

[John Hall]

I put Idioma Internacional on the list because Brian Logan, when I knew him, used to insist on his teachers having very high standards.

With regard to the universities, I should have mentioned that by "Universidad Interamericana," I was actually referring to their English Learning Center, which, the last time I checked, was only hiring native speakers, and that by "ULatina," I was referring to their English Speaking Center, which also hires only native speakers.

ULACIT does not have one of these types of "private-language-institute-at-the-university," but there are presently five non-Costa Rican native speakers of English, four African-American native speakers of English from Limon, and a larger number of entirely bilingual Costa Ricans on staff. The five of us non-Costa Ricans all have our working papers, TEFL qualifications (of some sort), and at least one or two years of experience under our belts (although in most cases it is a lot more).