Job Discussion Forums

[basiltherat]

This is an offer I have just recieved, most likely for around 22 contact hours a week. Sounds inadequate. Does anybodyelse have any opinion on this:

Salary $US 1000 per month, work visa sponsorship including all costs, assistance finding accomodations including possibility to share with another teacher for around $200 per month, one year renewable contract.
thanks
regards
basil

cc General Job Discussion Forum

[veiledsentiments]

Hey Basil,

From what I hear Beirut is very expensive - some say higher than the Gulf - and I think that amount of money would be slave wages. (especially for 22 hours a week!!)

VS

[Atassi]

Hey Basil, and everyone.

For Syria and Lebanon, $1000 is decent. Nothing more than decent though. I think that with your experience, you can command a higher salary than that.

Thinking of moving finally?

Regards

[veiledsentiments]

Atassi

I can see that $1000 is good in Syria with its low cost of living, but my friends in Beirut are making about 3 times that (and are provided with a flat and tickets and teach only 15 hours a week).

Everyone has told me that the cost of living in Beirut is closer to Dubai than Damascus. But, naturally it depends on what lifestyle you want.

VS

[Atassi]

VS

Very true. Wages are higher generally in Lebanon. If I wasn't clear, I do believe that $1000 a month is very low.

I was only referring to the normal salary for those without experience. But even someone without experience should be able to find a better package than that. Turkey is another country where the cost of living is higher than in Syria. Language schools there advertise all the time for positions paying $1000 a month.

For someone with Basil's experience, it should be possible to find a position paying $3000 a month. The offer he received can be laughed off, or taken as an insult.

I think he should laugh it off. Find something better. Put more money in the bank.

[basiltherat]

mmm. sounds like they were testing the water to see how little they could pay someone.
im quite happy here actually but its always worth keeping a look out for other options out there. oh well, me thinks i'll pass on this one.
regards to all
basil

[kernow]

$1000 is definitely enough to live on in Beirut even if you have to pay $250-$350 a month rent. Are those people earning 3 times that working in universities? I can’t imagine anyone in a language school earning that much.

Admittedly, you won't get rich on $1000 a month but by no means will you starve and never be able to go out. You can travel a bit (although a visa to Syria for Brits is $52 per trip! It was $16 for Americans last I heard…), eat out relatively regularly, go to the cinema, etc. GNI in Lebanon is just over $4000pa (compared to almost $18,000 in UAE) and Lebanese school teachers earn $400-$600 a month. A shwarma is $1, a beer $2-7, cinema $5. Service (shared) taxis are 70c for a ride in town and buses are 30c. However, if you want to spend $400 on a bottle of vodka in an exclusive club, that’s possible too! Lebanon can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be.

As for expectations of what you may earn in Beirut, I don’t know anyone who earns $3000 a month but I know a lot of people who earn an awful lot less. No reputable school is going to pay a teacher less than he/she needs to live on. I'm speculating but maybe the problem is the comparison between universities and language schools. Pay and conditions are rarely comparable. You choose the environment you want to work in and accept all that that entails.

[veiledsentiments]

Naturally the high pay is for universities for people with MAs and good related experience. The interesting thing about EFL is that we have two extremes - low pay language school work and well-paid university work - with little or no middle.

But, you get back to the US and even the MA with tons of experience gets to earn subsistance pay forever!!

What a field... but I digress... sorry...

VS

[kerrie]

Hi there Basiltherat

I was wondering how you went about looking for work in Lebanon from abroad. Did you contact the schools directly or follow up adverts? There seems to be nothing on any websites for jobs in Lebanon - yet lots of people say there are jobs there.

Do you have advice on how to get a job in Lebanon? I am an experienced secondary school teacher in the UK with some experience teaching english in summer camps. Would you advise going out there and looking or are there ways of trying to secure a job from home?

Im not particularly looking for a huge wage - just enough to get by and a different experience. Don't really want to do the training to get a CELTA unless Im sure Im going to redirect my career in ESOL. What do you think?

Cheers,

[drks91]

Hey everyone, i'm from Canada and ive been in Beirut for the past ten days.
I have dropped off my CV to a bunch of private language schools and im looking for something stable. 1000 US would be enough for me here. If anyone has any solid leads or recommendations please message me, it would be appreciated. I have TESL training and over two years teaching experience.