Job Discussion Forums

[Pyrite]

Hello! And be forewarned, this gets a little long...

I'm tentatively planning on moving to Latin America in August or September. I've been doing a fair amount of my own research, but I'm hoping to get some advice from those with experience on which country/city might fit me best.

I'm an American teaching in Prague, which is a fantastic city with terrible endless grey winters, and it's time for me to move on. By the time I leave, I'll have been here for a little more than a year and a half, and before that I've spent a year in Korea, so I can confidently put 2.5 years on the CV, along with a B.A. in English and a CELTA. I'm also an intermediate student in Spanish, and one of my main goals for moving to central/south America is bump that up to fluent in a year. Or two.

What I'm looking for in a city/country:

- Fewer English-speaking foreigners and/or tourists. Half my friends in Prague are American, and they're great people, but I didn't come here to hang out with Americans.
- No traveling all over the city, all day, to teach classes.
- Going along with that, I'd really prefer to avoid split shifts if possible. Or at least not something insane like a 7am-10am shift with another 7pm-10pm shift.
- I don't expect to get rich or save much, but at the same time I'm not a backpacker and I expect to be reasonably compensated for my time.
- The likelihood of teaching adults or at least mostly adults. I got my fill of teaching children who didn't want to learn when I taught in Korea.
- Good weather and/or lots of sun! Somewhere tropical would be perfect.
- The ocean or some large body of water within a reasonable distance. I'm an experienced sailor and windsurfer; I'd love a chance to continue these hobbies, and possibly even teach sailing part-time as I've done in the past.

Some places I've started looking into:
Trujillo, Peru. Medellin or Cartegena, Colombia. Peru and Colombia are attractive as I hear the Spanish is a bit more standard.

Thanks in advance! And if you think I'm being completely unrealistic, don't hesitate to say so. I know I probably won't get everything I listed, but getting most would be fantastic...

[naturegirl321]

First, it's hard to become fluent in a language when you teach English. Just my opinon. BUt I guess it depends on what your definition of fluent is.

Try going to conversationpartner.com to find people to talk with.

About Trujillo, Fleming is a school, they'll get you a visa, and some of the unis might as well, but don't expect to make more than 1000usd a month. Probably only about 700

Latin America is the king of split shifts, they're not that bad if you live in a small town. YOu get used to them. YOu can sleep, study or just relax.

[Atlan Training]

I was so pleasantly surprised by Ecuador when I first went there that I have started returning for a few months every year. You can find a job in a university in Guayaquil ( ESPOL ) or Quito ( Hemisferios ) that will relieve you of the split shift professional English grind. For more mature students, there are private language academies like the British language Institute in Quito and Guayaquil. PM me for more details.