Business English in Germany
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
I am a native English speaker. I have a TESOL Certificate from The School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT. I also have a BS, Economics and an MA, Liberal Studies from Northwestern University as well as an MBA, Finance from the University of Chicago. Can you suggest places to seek teaching ESL/EFL - Business English in Germany? Thanks, [email protected]
Some general advice about teaching in Germany - ignore what's not relevant to you. Specifics about business English follow.
Do I need a TEFL cert?
If you have never taught English as a foreign language before, some form of certification is certainly desirable. At the moment, officially, no one type of certification is *required* and some schools will take native speakers with little or no experience or qualifications. The situation however is slowly changing. Due to increased competition, many schools now advertise with “we have QUALIFIED native speakers!” The Bavarian Volkhochschule (Adult Education Community College) Group undertook a Quality Management Survey last year and discovered that the image of their schools was suffering from the number of unqualified teachers employed – now they say that their teachers should hold at least a CELTA or equivalent.
What sort of qualifications are open to me?
If you have specific questions about certain courses, you should post them on the Teacher Training board in the discussion forums of the eslcafe. There the merits of various courses are discussed – torn apart – in great depth. In general, the following options are available (and please take note that these are my own personal views)
Teaching unqualified – after all, it’s not rocket science, is it?
True. But it is a lot more difficult than you expect. Your students will have paid quite a lot of money for their course and the least they expect is that you know what you are talking about. While – like driving a car – you will only become a good teacher through practice and experience, it is nonetheless necessary to have a grasp of the basics. Buy a copy of a grammar book for students of EFL/ESL (I personally like Raymond Murphy’s ‘English Grammar in Use’ and ‘Essential Grammar in Use’ – also an invaluable classroom resource. The explanations are on the left page, written in a clear and logical fashion, with good examples and pictures, and there are exercises on the right – and answers at the back of the book. You will be amazed at how much you learn about your own language just by going through this book!) Also recommended is a book like Jim Scrivener’s ‘Learning Teaching’ which will give the would-be teacher a few points to think about – how to deal with error correction, classroom management, class structure, etc. However, I would really urge anyone thinking about TEFL to GET QUALIFIED!! I have seen too many really catastrophic classes with useless teachers to recommend anyone trying it without even basic training.
Getting a qualification – which one?
Unfortunately there is no one central governing body that issues certs or diplomas, and many of the grand-sounding acronyms that certs boast (affiliated to IATGWEU! A member of IGEFLTW!) mean little or nothing. In general, many people in the TESOL industry believe that the least that should be expected from a certificate course is: approximately 100-120 CONTACT hours (i.e. time spent with tutors in a classroom, not ‘self-study’ time – some courses try to bluff by advertising a 100 hour cert course but in reality there are 20 contact hours and the trainees are expected to make up the remaining 80 hours reading books about the subject) and sufficient teaching practice. At the moment two of the most recognized courses are the Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) and the Trinity TESOL Cert. These certs are well-recognized in Germany. Preferable - but unfortunately not often asked for - is an MA or MEd.
Can I teach at a public school or university?
The short answer is: no. I studied German at university and spent a year on scholarship at my local university in Bavaria. Nonetheless, my degree is not recognized by the Bavarian state as a ‘real’ degree … because I didn’t get it from a Bavarian university. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. You could probably get short-term work as a substitute teacher at one of the secondary schools but unfortunately, schools are obliged to give preference to people who studied the Lehramt (the teacher training course at university). I was told – and I don’t know if this is actually true – that foreigners can’t even study the Lehramt because it leads to an official ‘Beamter’ (state official/public servant) status, which is only open to German citizens…
You could get work at a university but they look for at least a Masters in English, TEFL, TESOL etc and you will most likely be offered only freelance part-time work…
Where else can I teach? How do I start?
Start by targeting the area you wish to move to and look up ‘Sprachschulen’ in the area on the internet. Send them a copy of your CV. Emphasize your teaching and group leadership experience – not necessarily in TEFL, but in general.
If they can only offer you freelance work, politely ask how many hours a week they could offer you. Freelance work requires quite a bit of juggling: your ‘peak hours’ are the evenings – usually Mon to Thurs – and the mornings, when most business classes take place. Seen this way, you have approximately 13 ‘slots’ to fill at these peak times – in other words, you will probably be able to hold courses from (for example) 8.30 – 10.00 am from Mon to Fri, 5.30- 7.00 pm, 7.15 – 8.45 pm from Mon to Thurs (based on the presumption that you will generally be holding 90 minute courses) Try to bear this in mind when you’re planning your timetable, so you leave enough time for travel between courses or try to have courses situated in the same building if they come one after another. It is very difficult for a school to make a teacher a firm offer in advance – very often it’s hard to tell if a course will take place till shortly before it’s starting date. If it doesn’t, and you’ve kept this time free, you’ll fall flat on your face – no work, no money. Of course, if the course takes place, the school director wants to be assured of a teacher – as a result, it requires a little strategic planning. I demand honesty from my employers and my very frank way of doing business has paid dividends. I am always polite but politely firm. I tell them that I have time on this day, at this time; will the promised course take place? Could they give me an answer by such-and-such a day? Otherwise, I’ll have to make alternative arrangements…
The practicalities – what should I take with me to start off?
Before you leave for Germany, you can start putting together some materials for your classes. For example: a folder from home with pictures of friends, family, local buildings of note, a map of your home town, brochures from local sights, info or pictures about public holidays and/or festivals in your native country, notes and coins in your currency etc. Not only is it nice to look at on the sad I’m-so-far-away-from-home-friends-family-civilization days, it’s interesting for your students to see ‘realia’, see how you celebrate e.g. the 4th of July or St Patrick’s Day or Pancake Tuesday, or whatever. Other items are also good teaching props – money (photocopy it to make money for shop dialogues – so students get used to working with the currency of your country), map (more exciting to do ‘ask-for-directions’ dialogues or games with a real map), pictures of family (depends on culture/group – students often like to learn a bit about you and you can ask them to bring photos of their family, too.)
Take photocopies of all official documents, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take certified copies as well. Be sure to bring passport photos, too. As you will have to pay a deposit on a room/apartment (probably a month’s rent in advance and a month’s rent as deposit), make sure you have plenty of money to start off because you are paid at the end of the month over here.
But please note…
I really couldn’t recommend working in Germany at the moment. A difficult economic situation means that a lot of companies that previously offered their workers English courses are no longer doing so in an attempt to cut costs – a major blow for those of us working in the industry. Another point to remember is that in Germany you are obliged to have medical insurance (and it’s not cheap), as well as pay taxes, and after tax submit 20% of your earnings to the state pension scheme. You don’t have to be a math genius to realize that this doesn’t leave a lot left over. As a freelancer you have relatively few rights – if there are no classes held in July and August, you don’t work and you don’t get paid … that’s the way it is, tough! So be prepared to live off your savings, unless you are one of the few lucky ones that gets a contract - and they are few and far between...
Do I need a TEFL cert?
If you have never taught English as a foreign language before, some form of certification is certainly desirable. At the moment, officially, no one type of certification is *required* and some schools will take native speakers with little or no experience or qualifications. The situation however is slowly changing. Due to increased competition, many schools now advertise with “we have QUALIFIED native speakers!” The Bavarian Volkhochschule (Adult Education Community College) Group undertook a Quality Management Survey last year and discovered that the image of their schools was suffering from the number of unqualified teachers employed – now they say that their teachers should hold at least a CELTA or equivalent.
What sort of qualifications are open to me?
If you have specific questions about certain courses, you should post them on the Teacher Training board in the discussion forums of the eslcafe. There the merits of various courses are discussed – torn apart – in great depth. In general, the following options are available (and please take note that these are my own personal views)
Teaching unqualified – after all, it’s not rocket science, is it?
True. But it is a lot more difficult than you expect. Your students will have paid quite a lot of money for their course and the least they expect is that you know what you are talking about. While – like driving a car – you will only become a good teacher through practice and experience, it is nonetheless necessary to have a grasp of the basics. Buy a copy of a grammar book for students of EFL/ESL (I personally like Raymond Murphy’s ‘English Grammar in Use’ and ‘Essential Grammar in Use’ – also an invaluable classroom resource. The explanations are on the left page, written in a clear and logical fashion, with good examples and pictures, and there are exercises on the right – and answers at the back of the book. You will be amazed at how much you learn about your own language just by going through this book!) Also recommended is a book like Jim Scrivener’s ‘Learning Teaching’ which will give the would-be teacher a few points to think about – how to deal with error correction, classroom management, class structure, etc. However, I would really urge anyone thinking about TEFL to GET QUALIFIED!! I have seen too many really catastrophic classes with useless teachers to recommend anyone trying it without even basic training.
Getting a qualification – which one?
Unfortunately there is no one central governing body that issues certs or diplomas, and many of the grand-sounding acronyms that certs boast (affiliated to IATGWEU! A member of IGEFLTW!) mean little or nothing. In general, many people in the TESOL industry believe that the least that should be expected from a certificate course is: approximately 100-120 CONTACT hours (i.e. time spent with tutors in a classroom, not ‘self-study’ time – some courses try to bluff by advertising a 100 hour cert course but in reality there are 20 contact hours and the trainees are expected to make up the remaining 80 hours reading books about the subject) and sufficient teaching practice. At the moment two of the most recognized courses are the Cambridge CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) and the Trinity TESOL Cert. These certs are well-recognized in Germany. Preferable - but unfortunately not often asked for - is an MA or MEd.
Can I teach at a public school or university?
The short answer is: no. I studied German at university and spent a year on scholarship at my local university in Bavaria. Nonetheless, my degree is not recognized by the Bavarian state as a ‘real’ degree … because I didn’t get it from a Bavarian university. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. You could probably get short-term work as a substitute teacher at one of the secondary schools but unfortunately, schools are obliged to give preference to people who studied the Lehramt (the teacher training course at university). I was told – and I don’t know if this is actually true – that foreigners can’t even study the Lehramt because it leads to an official ‘Beamter’ (state official/public servant) status, which is only open to German citizens…
You could get work at a university but they look for at least a Masters in English, TEFL, TESOL etc and you will most likely be offered only freelance part-time work…
Where else can I teach? How do I start?
Start by targeting the area you wish to move to and look up ‘Sprachschulen’ in the area on the internet. Send them a copy of your CV. Emphasize your teaching and group leadership experience – not necessarily in TEFL, but in general.
If they can only offer you freelance work, politely ask how many hours a week they could offer you. Freelance work requires quite a bit of juggling: your ‘peak hours’ are the evenings – usually Mon to Thurs – and the mornings, when most business classes take place. Seen this way, you have approximately 13 ‘slots’ to fill at these peak times – in other words, you will probably be able to hold courses from (for example) 8.30 – 10.00 am from Mon to Fri, 5.30- 7.00 pm, 7.15 – 8.45 pm from Mon to Thurs (based on the presumption that you will generally be holding 90 minute courses) Try to bear this in mind when you’re planning your timetable, so you leave enough time for travel between courses or try to have courses situated in the same building if they come one after another. It is very difficult for a school to make a teacher a firm offer in advance – very often it’s hard to tell if a course will take place till shortly before it’s starting date. If it doesn’t, and you’ve kept this time free, you’ll fall flat on your face – no work, no money. Of course, if the course takes place, the school director wants to be assured of a teacher – as a result, it requires a little strategic planning. I demand honesty from my employers and my very frank way of doing business has paid dividends. I am always polite but politely firm. I tell them that I have time on this day, at this time; will the promised course take place? Could they give me an answer by such-and-such a day? Otherwise, I’ll have to make alternative arrangements…
The practicalities – what should I take with me to start off?
Before you leave for Germany, you can start putting together some materials for your classes. For example: a folder from home with pictures of friends, family, local buildings of note, a map of your home town, brochures from local sights, info or pictures about public holidays and/or festivals in your native country, notes and coins in your currency etc. Not only is it nice to look at on the sad I’m-so-far-away-from-home-friends-family-civilization days, it’s interesting for your students to see ‘realia’, see how you celebrate e.g. the 4th of July or St Patrick’s Day or Pancake Tuesday, or whatever. Other items are also good teaching props – money (photocopy it to make money for shop dialogues – so students get used to working with the currency of your country), map (more exciting to do ‘ask-for-directions’ dialogues or games with a real map), pictures of family (depends on culture/group – students often like to learn a bit about you and you can ask them to bring photos of their family, too.)
Take photocopies of all official documents, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take certified copies as well. Be sure to bring passport photos, too. As you will have to pay a deposit on a room/apartment (probably a month’s rent in advance and a month’s rent as deposit), make sure you have plenty of money to start off because you are paid at the end of the month over here.
But please note…
I really couldn’t recommend working in Germany at the moment. A difficult economic situation means that a lot of companies that previously offered their workers English courses are no longer doing so in an attempt to cut costs – a major blow for those of us working in the industry. Another point to remember is that in Germany you are obliged to have medical insurance (and it’s not cheap), as well as pay taxes, and after tax submit 20% of your earnings to the state pension scheme. You don’t have to be a math genius to realize that this doesn’t leave a lot left over. As a freelancer you have relatively few rights – if there are no classes held in July and August, you don’t work and you don’t get paid … that’s the way it is, tough! So be prepared to live off your savings, unless you are one of the few lucky ones that gets a contract - and they are few and far between...
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yorugua-teuton
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:50 pm
- Location: Berlin, Germany
"Business English in Germany"
I'm no native english speaker, but have done years ago my TTC (Teachers Trainig Course) in Uruguay, South America, both from Cambridge University and from Michigan University.
I'm teaching Business English in Berlin, Germany, and have always done it with the approach "Grammar Review" + "Business Correspondence" and it has worked always fine. My students were always unemployed persons sent by the Arbeitsamt (employment exchange) with Classroom english level, having seen english for the last time at school some 15 to 20 years ago.
The place where I'm teaching now makes special emphasis on readymade sentences. Have just placed a new thread on that...hope to get some answers...
Bye
I'm teaching Business English in Berlin, Germany, and have always done it with the approach "Grammar Review" + "Business Correspondence" and it has worked always fine. My students were always unemployed persons sent by the Arbeitsamt (employment exchange) with Classroom english level, having seen english for the last time at school some 15 to 20 years ago.
The place where I'm teaching now makes special emphasis on readymade sentences. Have just placed a new thread on that...hope to get some answers...
Bye
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hulagutten
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Sun Nov 28, 2004 10:26 am
- Contact:
German <-> English Translation Crosswords
The daily Translation Crosswords at http://www.innolyse.com/translate.jsp can really be of help since they introduce the students to english newspapers, and also entertain the students while learning english.