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Are there any English teachers in Bogotá around?

I wanna ask some questions :)

With the CELTA, a year´s experience and near fluent Spanish what wage should I be negociating?

How is it with the travelling between classes? I had to do this a lot in Santiago but they have a metro.

How much should i be looking to charge for private classes per hour?

Would you recomend that I stay here to work or move to a smaller city?

Where should i look to live? el candelaria? are all the schools spread out across the city or in the central business district, if there is one?

Thanks a lot

Christian

By sirwhale on Jun 10, 2009, 17:26 in Friendly Talkzone.

Bill Turley (Moderator) (Trustee board) (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jun 10, 2009, 18:48:

Annual Salary should be about $1,600,000COP, that would be full time in a school
Most of the better schools are in the North
Thuink about living in CHia if you get a job in one of the schools in the North

Mr. Bill Somondoco

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sirwhale says on Jun 10, 2009, 19:04:

do you mean monthly wage would be 1,600,000?

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bradk says on Jun 10, 2009, 19:12:

yes he does

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roflandr says on Jun 10, 2009, 19:15:

lol i doubt bill meant 130k pesos (60 dollars) a month :P

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excavator59 says on Jun 10, 2009, 21:11:

I'm teaching English in Pereira on a trial salary of $1.000.000 a month when they get round to paying me a full month in one go,had the same problems with the last Academy they always seem to pay the teachers last and generally f**k you about.
Seems to me they should be treating the teachers better as if you don't have a good teacher or a teacher at all you lose students then there's no academy.
There should be lot's of work at the moment for English teachers with Uribe's Colombia Billingual programme.
I only have the TKT(Teaching Knowledge Test) done online with Cambridge at Cedir (Centro De Idiomas Risaralda) as you need this to teach in schools ,even though I'm a native speaker. It cost me $400.000 plus $40.000 for the book .
Hope this helps anybody who wants to teach regards Alan.

Life is like a Pubic Hair on a Toilet Seat (Sooner or Later you get Pissed Off)

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span_colombia says on Jun 10, 2009, 22:56:

International House, Wall Street, high schools, universities. Yep, lots of travel with International House, but they're the only employer I know of who will help you get a work visa/pay for it. I've got a friend who works for Wall Street and they don't sound too bad (a bit less money than IH, but no in-company classes).

North of Bogota is a good place to look for colegio work. I don't know about pay with them, but with a CELTA and being a native speaker, it shouldn't be too hard to get a job offer with a second tier private high school. 1.5 - 2.5 million is the range of pay you'll be looking at with widely varying benefits.

Private lessons: 30.000-50.000/hour.

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jbd777 says on Jun 11, 2009, 06:47:

There is work all over. Unfortunetly, most will not help with a work visa. There is alot of travel around the city and it takes time to learn the Collectivo and Transmilienio system. Thankfully I had help. The pay from companies is from 15.000 to 25.000 cop per hour. But beware, some companies are not honest and will lie outright promising you a visa then telling you they have a job for you right now and we will send you there with no intention of giving you the visa. Also, many do not pay on time. I am compiling a list of bad companies to avoid. If anyone can contribute, great. Three companies to avoid are, Peterson's, Smart Training Society and Personal Growth International. They will lie to you, not pay on time or just plane jerk you around. I was a teacher in the States for 10 years so with my experience I am applying to all the good private schools in the north, Cologios and Universities. Their salaries vary from 700.000 to 3,000.000 cop per month. Yes, quite a gap. A good site to check is www.computrabajocolombia.com. Good luck

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sirwhale says on Jun 11, 2009, 09:08:

Yea the work visa situation really sucks, in chile i worked for a year on a tourist visa at 3 different places. No problem. I'm going to print off my CV now and look to find the addresses of the Universities in La Candelaria. I really like the area and would love to live here, although I'm pretty sure I'll have to live somewhere more convinient due to the amount of travel I'm expecting to do. I like the idea of wall street if i don't have to travel around as it really affects your life. I mean i was fed up of it in Santiago which has a great public transport system. I'm going to look at all opportunities here. I've learnt my lesson in Chile, I'm not just gonna accept anything, now i have room for manouver and a bit more patiences. I got speaking to a costeño in a cafe yesterday and he said he wanted classes and his coleagues would as well, so I seem to be off to a good start. Lets hope i can find somewhere that´ll get me a visa...

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span_colombia says on Jun 11, 2009, 09:18:

yep, la candelaria is a great place to find private students - lots of university students and 2 of the most prestigious/expensive universities in the country are right there.

jbd - I've heard nueva granada pays a bit more than 3 million. If you're certified to teach in the US and with your experience I would think you should be making more than 3 million/month.

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jbd777 says on Jun 11, 2009, 10:21:

I have sent my resume to 15 schools so far with no response. It is getting frustrating because they are advertising for teachers and they do not reply. So for now I am stuck teaching CEO's and managment types who cancell often due to buisness trips......It sucks

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corporalgator (☼Travelguide writer) says on Jun 11, 2009, 15:32:

Call and harass them. They get hundreds of resumes and don't pay that much attention to them. The best high schools go to recruiting fairs in the US and then just look to fill in the last few spots with locals. Also, take your resume in person and try to get an interview on the spot.

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span_colombia says on Jun 11, 2009, 16:52:

umm, I've never done this cause I'm not qualified to do it, but...I think you'd have better look looking for work in Colombia if you moved back to the US and visit recruiting fairs. supposedly you have leverage when you're in the US and then you get the high salary offers, flights and all the stuff that international schools offer. just what I've heard. or maybe you could send an agent to a fair to talk for you.

you could also look in la universidad externado (I really don't know how they'd view a B.Ed. degree, I know they respect the DELTA and a masters in tesol), los andes, and if you want to move north, la sabana. but, I think the real money is at the good high schools. externado will pay 4.5 million/month to someone with a DELTA.

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