Job Discussion Forums

[clayjavierboggs]

I am currently living in Le�n, Guanajuato and teaching English at a language school. There are a lot of jobs here, and I'm happy with the one I've got, but I want to move to a more progressive city with a more vibrant cultural scene. I am thinking of Morelia, San Cristobal or Oaxaca (other ideas would be welcome).
My question is this: does anyone know if there are enough language schools in these places to make them viable as job markets? Or does it make more sense to go with Mexico City? I have been looking online a bit and haven't seen much....Thanks.

[thelmadatter]

if by cultural scene, you mean the arts... your best bet is DF or Guadalajara. If it is a kind of traditional Mexican lifestyle the other places you mention are better.

[MELEE]

Progressive is a term with a lot of different interpretations.

I've lived in the state of Oaxaca for almost ten years and am a frequent visitor to Oaxaca City, it is large it enough to be home to all sorts of people, some of whom are progressive, but there are also many who are not. I don't think the city as a whole is "progressive" but there is a lot of interesting stuff going on. It's hard to find full time work. The best langauge school seems to be the Cambridge Academy.

I also lived in Morelia but I had twinfants durning that time and didn't get out much. My husband spent three years there. Again, like Oaxaca it is big enough to house just about every type of person and I saw flyers for a lot of interesting events, but I wouldn't describe the city on a whole as "progessive" lots of very Catholic people in that town. Quite a bit of drug violence to if you wander into the wrong places.

I've visited San Cristobal about 5 times and it is so beautiful and if you are looking for indigenous culture that's where it's at. But it's very cold and so a lot of things happen behind closed doors--people socialize in private parties rather than in public places. Again just large enough to have a wide mix of people, it's attractive to activists, but I wouldn't say the average joe is more or less progressive than in most places.

[J Sevigny]

After years of research on the matter, I've come to believe that making a living in the city of Oaxaca as an English teacher is difficult, if not impossible. There are very few schools and very many foreigners who want to live there.

Local pay is very bad, which translates into a population with very little money for things like language training.

Morelia seems nice enough but it's gotten so big and congested that you might as well just live in Guadalajara where the job market is larger. I've heard people in Guadalajara say that the "cultural scene" in Morelia is bigger, better, faster, more progressive, less fattening, or whatever, but every time I've gone to Morelia I've been bored stiff so it may just be a case of the grass is always greener.

Good luck.

[GueroPaz]

I worked out of San Cristobal a lot, intermittently, from 1998 through 2001. We did peace work, not English teaching. As Melee says, it's cold (altitude 2100 meters). Lots of tourists and lots of Mayas, and progressive only if you hang out with the internationals who do human rights work. Old indigenous cultures everywhere. I have no idea if there's much English teaching work available.

[sarliz]

I worked in Oaxaca for almost a year, and was pretty much breaking even, money-wise. However, I was there during the heights of "las problemas", and there were jobs-a-plenty, and I got a great deal on an apartment, as most foreigners were fleeing. It does have a great artsy-lefty feeling, though.

I've heard (purely hearsay) that San Cristobal is incredibly difficult to find decent paying work, because of it's popularity. Some places do teach for lodging deals. Again, funky and artsy, but I was only there as a tourist for a few days before the cold ran me and my underpacked butt out.

Morelia, I've got nothing. I was there for an afternoon and found a cute wee cafe with cushions on the floor that was run by an aspiring designer, and I've been fantasizing about moving there since, so report back if you find out anything!

[robertpablo]

I like Oaxaca a lot but know little about the English teaching situation there. Only what I read from Melee's posts.

Three years in Morelia and loved it. Much better if you can live outside the city a bit (10 or 15 minutes with bus service to el centro) as in Santa Maria or Jesus del Monte. Morelia proper, because of the antiquity of the streets can get very congested with traffic, though the pereferico works well to get most places.

San Cristobal is a jewel. Yes, the cost of living is less than other places but I have found that the wages are even lower than the lower cost of living.

To each their own.

[jillford64]

Fifteen months in Morelia for me. I lived in the Centro Historico and the traffic never bothered me, but I walked almost everywhere because I didn't have a car. If I needed to go somewhere I couldn't walk to, I usually took a taxi rather than a combi. If there was traffic, I planned for it or walked far enough to get past it and then caught a cab.

There are a lot of university students in Morelia, which gives it a somewhat more progressive feel. My experience is the women were generally more modern in their thinking and attitudes than the men and accepted social change more readily than the men, except for the young men who were raised by a single mother. Probably it is similar in other parts of Mexico as well.

I would not describe the cultural scene in Morelia as vibrant, although you can certainly find cultural things to do. There are jobs in Morelia, but you need to plan your arrival to coincide with the hiring period before the school starts in August.