Job Discussion Forums

alexandracathlin

So, my boyfriend and I just completed our TESOL certification and I have so many questions, and it only seems appropriate that I utilize this community to help aid with my chosen career path. We both recieved our certifications from the American TESOL Institute and we completed TESOL for children, adults, and advanced. We also both have bachelor's degrees - mine is a journalism degree and his is Spanish. While my Spanish is somewhat proficient, my boyfriend is bilingual. I have also lived in Madrid, Spain to attend the Spanish school, Enforex last summer. Neither of us speak Portuguese though. Also, we plan to travel with two dogs and one cat, is this plausible? Upon completion of our certification, we decided we want to venture to Latin America. American TESOL informed us that we needed to come up with five to ten countries that we would be willing to teach in, they are as follows listed from most to least preferential:
1. Argentina
2. Colombia
3. Brazil
4. Venezuela
5. Ecuador
6. Chile
7. Guatemala
8. Mexico
9. El Salvador
10. Costa Rica
I'm looking for a slew of answers and I just have not been able to really locate any similiar interest questions so far in the forum, and I have been reading them for a few months now. I would love to have any general input regarding these countries and what we should be doing in order to prepare for an international move. I am looking to accomplish a few things with teaching English abroad, while my main objective is to teach English in one of these countires, I want to become bilingual and work on establishing myself as a freelance journalist as well. I also hope to use my teaching experiences to aid in my admission to graduate school or law school in the coming years. Besides the Spanish acquisition part - are these ideas too far-fetched? Also, while American TESOL Institute has guaranteed lifetime job placement, I have still been looking at posted job listings and pondering whether or not I should also be looking for possible job opportunities. I stumbled across a job finder website called TEXMEXCONNECT and it seemed like it could be a good addition for making my move to Latin America. Is this a good avenue to execute or should we just keep waiting until something that suits our needs comes along from within the American TESOL Institute? We have been approaced for a few jobs that are located in Mexico, but we'd prefer to land a job somewhere in South America. Sorry for the long forum, but I just feel in over my head at this point, and we are wanting to sign a contract for January (I believe that is when the school year is starting in that region.) Any insight would be greatly appreciated! Thank-you!

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

Yikes! Paragraphs please Smile

Travelling with animals without having a place set up when you arrive might be difficult, maybe send them later?

You want info about all those countries? There are some country specific boards, try posting there. In general, teaching in Guatemala and El Salvador will probably be more difficult than Mexico or Ecuador. As for Ecuador, try EIL and do a search about new visa regs. There are TWO Mexico forums and some very helpful people there, so take a look there.

I PMed you with some info, not sure if you can PM, if not, you can email me on naturegirl321 at yahoo.com

Also, teaching English is a funny way to become bilingual, just my opinion, I know others disagree. But if you want to learn the language, you're going to have to study it, not teach English.

Lifetime job placement: read the fine print, they probably aren't guaranteeing you a job, rather that they'll point you in the right direction. ie. tell you to go to Daves and TEFL.com and look for jobs.

Texmexconnection: do a search, lots of info. Do you have to pay? Don't do it.

Lastly, most jobs in LA are found on the ground, with exceptions of course, but I've probably only seen a handful of TEFL job adverts in South America and I know there are more jobs than that.

misteradventure · Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Posts: 246

Part of me was screaming PEACE CORPS while reading the post, as there seems to be lots of blind action and little contemplative research beyond posting to this one forum. Perhaps that route would be better?

alexandracathlin · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 6:19 pm Post subject:

Sorry, I don't mean to overwhelm, I was just trying to not leave any specifics for my situation out. I read through the links you sent me and they helped a good bit with a lot of my questions, thank-you.

I am just hoping for input on anything one might know about making the first international move.

MotherF · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:55 pm Post subject:

I have three main comments on your situation.

You mention you hope to go to grad school "in the coming years"- What does that mean? two years from now? five? ten?
How long do you think you want to live in any one country?
If you are thinking of coming to Latin American for less than two years--find someone at home who will keep your pets.

You listed your countries in order of interest. Now research around this board and other online places and rearrange that list in order of likelihood of finding jobs. For example, Mexico will probably come out in number one or two on such a list. Compare the two lists and find the countries that are highest in those two factors. I'm guessing Ecuador (note the spelling please) might end up in the top of the combined lists, but that's just a hunch.

You don't need to pay any company to get you a job in Latin America. If you have really been reading the forum you would know that by now. Certainly use your TEFL course's placement sercive--you've already paid for that. But do not send any other company any money thinking they will aid you in getting a job you couldn't get yourself.

kona · Joined: 17 Sep 2011 Posts: 188 Location: USA

I'll throw you a bone on this.

I have never worked in Argentina, but I would stay clear of it, at least Buenos Aires... the TEFL jobs there sound like they have the most horrendous pay vs cost of living of any place I've heard of. This might not be true of certain other cities (Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza); I'm actually not sure. Take a look through here and look for info on Uruguay, some have reported that there MIGHT be opportunities there, but you must be on the ground for them, and it's a long ways away.

Brazil is super expensive and work permits are practically impossible to get.

Venezuela is probably the most dangerous country in latin america. Caracas has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Ecuador has new visa regs, might wanna check that out.

Don't know about central america, although I have heard there are positions in Guatemala (Antingua, G City, I think Xela too) and someone posted about El Salvador some time back...

Best bet really is Mexico, probably followed by Colombia or Chile.

Maybe Peru and Ecuador would follow those other ones, but remember these countries are even poorer than mexico and colombia (Chile probably has the highest per capita GDP, but that's just a guess).

There really is a ton of info on this site, take a look around and get a feel for some of this stuff. Make some posts; after five you can do searches of specific countries that don't have separate forums.

alexandracathlin · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 2:44 pm Post subject:

Thank-you MotherF, I appreciate the insight. Whenever I mentioned going to law school or grad school in the coming years, I meant within the next two to three years. I am currently working on gaining professional experience until then. I am just curious what others think as to whether or not this is something that will likely help me with the application process.

Kona, thank-you for all of your input. Your insight is very helpful.

MotherF · Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2012 5:08 pm Post subject:

kona · Joined: 17 Sep 2011 Posts: 188 Location: USA

alexandracathlin · Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:05 am Post subject:

Kona, I definitely want to improve my Spanish. Lucky for me, my boyfriend is from Spain and is biliingual, so he's great help. I also lived in Spain last summer and I laughed out loud when you said I should always carry a dictionary around - that is what I always tried to have on hand and especially while I was hanging around with the locals in Madrid. I agree with Naturegirl's point as well, but I may have been a bit unclear whenever I stated that I planned to teach English abroad in order to help my language acquistion. I meant that I plan to help myself with the language acquistion by immersing myself into the language by living where Spanish is the primary language being spoken.

My boyfriend is planning to drive his motorcycle from Mississippi to wherever it is that we end up landing our first job. What was driving through Mexico like? Did you have a vehicle while you lived there?

MotherF, I am looking into a few different aspects - I recieved my undergraduate in Mass Communication and Journalism and my emphasis was in Public Relations and I minored in Anthropology. Throughout my undergraduate career I focused heavily on environmental issues, human rights, anthropological issues and various other social and political issues. I completed my degree with student loans and I am just in limbo deciding whether or not to tack on more money to my student loans. I have also considered getting my masters degree in journalism or anthropology. I am not interested in getting a MBA, at all.

Also, we have started applying to jobs now, but I have noticed that many of the jobs that I locate state that they require experience (i.e. at least two years or more.) I read in one of the forums that this isn't something that should deter you from applying - is this true? I have also noticed that some job listings state that they want the applicant to hold a CELTA, ESL or TEFL, can I apply? Actually, I had never heard of a CELTA before I started reading forums on here.

alexandracathlin · Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:07 am Post subject:

Kona, I definitely want to improve my Spanish. Lucky for me, my boyfriend is from Spain and is biliingual, so he's great help. I also lived in Spain last summer and I laughed out loud when you said I should always carry a dictionary around - that is what I always tried to have on hand and especially while I was hanging around with the locals in Madrid. I agree with Naturegirl's point as well, but I may have been a bit unclear whenever I stated that I planned to teach English abroad in order to help my language acquistion. I meant that I plan to help myself with the language acquistion by immersing myself into the language by living where Spanish is the primary language being spoken.

My boyfriend is planning to drive his motorcycle from Mississippi to wherever it is that we end up landing our first job. What was driving through Mexico like? Did you have a vehicle while you lived there?

MotherF, I am looking into a few different aspects - I recieved my undergraduate in Mass Communication and Journalism and my emphasis was in Public Relations and I minored in Anthropology. Throughout my undergraduate career I focused heavily on environmental issues, human rights, anthropological issues and various other social and political issues. I completed my degree with student loans and I am just in limbo deciding whether or not to tack on more money to my student loans. I have also considered getting my masters degree in journalism or anthropology. I am not interested in getting a MBA, at all.

Also, we have started applying to jobs now, but I have noticed that many of the jobs that I locate state that they require experience (i.e. at least two years or more.) I read in one of the forums that this isn't something that should deter you from applying - is this true? I have also noticed that some job listings state that they want the applicant to hold a CELTA, ESL or TEFL, can I apply? Actually, I had never heard of a CELTA before I started reading forums on here.

Xie Lin · Joined: 21 Oct 2011 Posts: 731