Being realistic about Teaching English

caslug says on Mar 21, 2006, 09:28:

cali/teaching english... A furnish flat in cali near aveinda sexta goes for $650-700k peso(2bd)/mo, unfurnish in zona flora(estrat 5) goes for 400k peso/mo. Sounds like you're going to col for a girl, good as reason as any.. the teaching market in cali is MUCH smaller than BOG(which ISSO has office). If you only plan on teaching english for a year then taking a class is probably not worth it. If you want to do this for several years(travel world), then get a CELTA/Trinity.

The big money in teaching abroad is NOT english, but teaching regular subjects in a private school. Example, certified teachers from US/CAD that teaches in private school in COL make about $2500USD/mo! PLUS free housing/transportation/bonus/airfare/medical/vacation/etc., English teacher average $500-1000(HIGH end)USD/mo, typically little or no perks. Teaching english is good way to live in col decently, if you're fortunate then you'll pick up private tutoring which can add $200-500USD extra/mo.

Bogota has both ISSO and British council(CELTA) and more job opp't. I would recommend BOG over cali for it.

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caulfield2 says on Mar 21, 2006, 13:07:

$2,500 per month is pushing it, although it might be true for the bigger cities like CTG, Cali, Bogota, etc.

Part of that money is for rent...athletic club...health insurance...restaurant-meal plan. So it's probably closer to $21-22,000 in actual take home pay.

They pay airfare down and back, the back part is at the end of your second year of teaching...you work on a one year contract but the unofficial obligation is to stay for two one-year contracts.

We have a bus that takes us to school...but I have to get up at around 545 in the morning to make it on time. And I don't get home for 45 minutes...I was used to just jumping in my car and flying home in 10-15 minutes in the US, but it's not so bad. A lot of teachers buy cheap (if there is such a thing in Colombia) cars and motos.

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caslug says on Mar 21, 2006, 13:16:

my friend is a teacher at colombus in MED.. they give him about that much and other perks, like rent subsidy is extra subsidy(700k/month). one year contract, etc., Female teacher for christmas gets jewlery from parents, while male teachers like him only get exp swiss chocolate. The student at his school are spoil rich kids...his words not mind... They have over 60 foriegn teachers and equal number of COL. The COL teacher get aroud 1.5 million peso/mo.

actually he said that s. america/latin america pay for international school is actually on the low side compare to asia. In asia, you can get upwards of 50-60k take home, country club memebership, and the normal perks. He's canadian and goes to thoese int'l job fair for teachers in US/CAD.

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caulfield2 says on Mar 21, 2006, 17:30:

I know the pay in China, Vietnam and Thailand isn´t so great. Still, lots of people, especially male teachers, want to go there.

I would think Japan, Hong Kong...maybe Taiwan and South Korea, but Japan is known for the best salaries.

Not sure about Indonesia, Phillipines, Malaysia. Gringos aren´t so popular there...I guess the Phillipines and Vietnam would be the most similar to Colombia, maybe Cambodia as well.

My fellow teacher saved about $10-15K per year teaching in the Ivory Coast. I think his salary was close to $40K.

We only have 7 foreign teachers, probably 80-85% are Colombia. Nowhere near half.

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englishsettler says on Mar 21, 2006, 18:15:

Yes but the reason there is so few foreigners is because governement regulations say they cant have more than 20 % in any institution.

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caslug says on Mar 21, 2006, 18:39:

top institution get exception to the 20% rule.. Columbus school has about 60 foreign teacher and 60-100 or so COL teachers, so the foreign teacher are MORE than 20%. But this school parents are the creme de la creme of MED society, so i would guess they can get exception.

Caufield, my friend taught(not english) in vietnam and china and got paid high 30's/40's w/ perks. Actually teaching english is best in japan, vietnam pay LOT more teaching english than COL, so does korea or taiwan. ALso, getting company to sponsor work visa in COL is lot bigger hassle than those asian countries. My friend told me the BEST paying school in COL is in BOG, they pay alittle better than his school in MED.

For example, in MED only ONE University will sponser work visa, all the other expect you to have visa already. They pay is 18-20k peso/hr, decent pay, BUT they dont give any benefits. Colombo americano pays their english teacher about 15k, but they give you benefits.

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rmleon says on Mar 22, 2006, 04:13:

Japan Hi
I live in Japan, and they pay newcomers here around U$1800~U$2000
Considering that it costs U$2000 to live here decently its b....t
I make X times that amount and I still complain :-)
The trick is to find lots of private students U$30/hour... might be hard thou, too many gringos here...
After some time, maybe you can expect somewhat between U$2500~U$3500 depending on whether you have the right qualifications.
Also, it is not unheard that some people get into Visa problems due to their lazzy boss that does sloppy work with the paperwork. Mainly newly-funded English schools.

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caulfield2 says on Mar 22, 2006, 05:03:

I know there is a former teacher from here (Armenia) who likes China a lot but she was complaining about the money.

Maybe it's a universal complaint of all foreign teachers.

I know the salaries that I was quoted from South Korea for the University of Northern Iowa Overseas teaching fair were not SO outstanding...some were even less than here.

And you also have to take a long, hard look at cost of living. Colombia still has something of an international image problem, so the schools here have to pay a little more compared to other Latin American nations because of the so-called "risk" factor of going to Colombia.

I know some teachers who have done the "Jet" program in Japan and really emjoyed it, but, once again, the money was not outstanding and there's a much bigger cultural transition to live in Japan IMO.

I would imagine there would be SOME schools that pay better in those countries, but that the average pay (public-private-Catholic-Christian) is not SIGNIFICANTLY higher, with the exception of Japan.

And, as mentioned, you have a lot more competition for private tutoring opportunities. In addition to the fact that you can get valuable resume building and experience teaching university classes here in Colombia.

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jcgd77 says on Mar 22, 2006, 14:26:

.........moving to Cali, columbia to have........
With all the due respect. Make sure you know how to spell ColOmbia before to travel there, otherwise ColOmbians would be offended.
Columbia is a state of the U.S. as u must know and has nothing to do with ColOmbia.

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