Goodbye Medellin

Bill1243 says on Jul 12, 2004, 11:53:

I am surprised This is surprising. I always thought native english speakers had a huge advantage there. After all, I have met a lot of Colombian-born teachers there and their accent is terrible for english... you would think the students would prefer a native speaker.

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kiwi says on Jul 12, 2004, 23:54:

bummer dude Shane,
Sorry to hear that u didn't score any good jobs in Medellín. Kinda scary to hear that cause I'm in the process of doing a TEFL course part time now in London so I have a better shot at finding work when in Colombia later this yr...but sounds like it's gonna be tough for rookie guys like me considering you've got 5 yrs exp?
Am planning on being in Cali or Pereira so perhaps the situation is slighty better in those cities. Anyway good luck in Bogotá! Keep us posted.

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bjorn says on Jul 13, 2004, 00:43:

native speaker is not always best Shane: It's good to see that a native english speaker acknowledge that non native english speakers also can be excellent teachers of English. Unfortunately, many native english speakers seem to think that beeing a native is a qualification in itself. It's not. The best spanish teacher I had back home in Norway were a guy from Tjekkia. He had been living in latin america for years and were doing a PhD in spanish. A far better teacher than the native Peruvan teacher that owned the language school

Only in advanced courses is a native teacher usually a better choice
In basic language courses beeing a native is not necessarily an advantage, other factors like teaching skills, education and personality is of far more importance

I agree that many non native speakers have a accent which is difficult to understand. But so do many native speakers. An uneducated aussie, kiwi, brit or an american with a thick Texan dialect is not the best choice as a teacher. When living in Medellin last year colombians told me that my english were far easier to understand than the English my two kiwi buddies had. Not because my english is error free (it's definitely not), but because it's quite neutral without any strong accent.

Another reason to choose colombian english teacher is the fact that they speak spanish. Yes, in basic language learning it's always an advantage that your teacher speak your mother tounge, although as a rule one should avoid that as much as possible in the classroom


Bjorn

Bjorn

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Lorenzo de Australia says on Jul 13, 2004, 03:54:

Medellin, teaching Shane

Obvious question.. but how did it go with El Colombo Americano? i think thats what they were called? or had they all filled thier spots?

damn.. thought it would be moderately easy in Medellin.

Later


****** ******
"...don't let life get in the way of living..."
Lorenzo 2004

Also, if you want to email me directly... as I'm not always that good with forums... email me at lorrytrippin2 at yahoo.com

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****** ****** "...don't let life get in the way of living..." Lorenzo 2004 Also, if you want to email me directly... as I'm not always that good with forums... email me at lorrytrippin2@yahoo.com ****** ******

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Andrew says on Jul 13, 2004, 14:20:

Can anyone else here confirm Shane's findings? Are there any native English speakers who post here how have landed jobs in Medellin?

Andrew

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Hunter says on Jul 13, 2004, 16:40:

Foreign English speaking teachers in Medellin I have met several foreign English speaking teachers in Medellin.

Also I have some Colombian friends who went to differant University/schools to learn English, they said there was a number of foreign teachers there.

Hunter

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Roncita says on Jul 14, 2004, 07:18:

my experiences A month or so ago I wrote the following post about my experiences of trying to get work in Medellin but I think it got lost in the depths of the website (apologies for its length - but I had a lot to get off my chest!).....

I'm British and I lived in Medellin with my paisa fiance (who is now my husband) for 2 years, returning to London last September. I'm a journalist and I found it incredibly difficult to find a job. When I first went (November 2001) I was on a year-long student visa, so I spent the first 5 months doing a Spanish course.

After that I worked on the "Actualidad del Mundo" pages at El Colombiano, unpaid, for 6 weeks - doing interviews in English that the staff reporters couldn't do and then writing them up in Spanish for publication. I asked for a job there but they refused, saying I wasn't Colombian, so why should they go through the hassle of helping me get a work visa when they could give a Colombian the job? So that was that.

A few months on I got some (unofficial) translating and editing work from the English department at the University of Antioquia that i could do at home. But it didn't really fill my time.

Then the university decided they wanted me to run a course teaching scientists how to write academic articles in English, and be a proper, salaried and taxed, part-time employee. But I needed to get a work visa, and I couldn't change my visa status within Colombia because you have to leave the country to do it - but as I was earning next to nothing and we were both living on my partner's salary, I couldn't afford to. So, I had to wait another 3 months until December when I had a ticket booked to go home for xmas with my fiance.

So I got the work visa in London and returned to Colombia the following March. Once there I started work. At the beginning I had about 8 students, but one by one they all dropped out until I was left with just two - one of whom was my boss, and the other created the job for me. The reason for it was that they just couldn't, or didn't want to, find the time to learn English.

I even went back to El Colombiano to ask them again to give me a job. The editor decided I could have a whole page "teaching English" to readers every week. It was a good idea, but he failed to turn up for any subsequent meetings we had scheduled, so I decided to forget it.

In September last year, I had finally had enough, so I decided to come home. I had to leave my partner as he has a permanent job in the university there, but he is coming back to live here, hopefully in January. I'd had a bit of a Colombia-overdose at the time, but I miss it now and I want to go back for a holiday soon.

I found that the only job I could have done, and the only one anyone really needed me for, was to teach English. I even phoned up the multinational and national companies in Medellin to ask if I could do PR or translating work for them or similar, and they only ever offered me teaching work. But I didn't want to teach English. So my experience was almost the opposite to Shane's.

The main places I came across to teach English at were the University of EAFIT (www.eafit.edu.co), Antioquia (www.udea.edu.co), the British Council and the Colombo-Americano. But the BC office has since closed down and the Colombo-Americano said they only recruit people from their home countries, arrange their visas, travel, accommodation etc for them. They don't find you work once you're already there. I did know foreigners (a Czech and a Canadian) who taught English at Montessori (don't know the spelling), the bilingual school in Poblado, but that was nearly 3 years ago now so maybe it's not so easy to get work there any more and both eventually left anyway.

Perhaps I had a particularly negative experience, but after battling it out for 2 years I think I gave it my best shot.

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Roncita says on Jul 14, 2004, 07:25:

Berlitz ps - sorry there's more! Just remembered I had a British friend out there who got a job teaching English at Berlitz in Poblado. He told me they were looking at opening another branch in Laureles soon so were looking for teachers. Don't know if it's gone ahead but that was about a year ago now so it might be worth looking into.

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Hunter says on Jul 14, 2004, 11:22:

Berlitz Medellin My friend is the director of Berlitz in Medellin, when I go to visit him at his office I met one British guy who has been working there for about a year now as a English teacher, probably the same person Roncita knows, but he is married to Colombian women, so didn't need a work visa arranged for him.

The last time I spoke to the director a few months ago he said that he needed more English teachers but didn't want to arrange visas for them and was only interested in taking on foreigners who already were eligibale to work in Colombia. I don't think Berlitz Medellin would have changed that policy, but no harm in looking into it.

Hunter

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Andrew says on Jul 14, 2004, 14:25:

Wow, guys. This is incredibley depressing. I plan on going to Colombia when I graduate college (si Dios quiere), and Medellin was where I had my heart set on.

A lot of articles that I have read have made it sound that Colombia was one of the easiest places in the world to get an english teaching job. I guess not.

If Medellin is so bad, are there any other places where it's easier to get English teaching positions?

Thanks,

Andrew

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Roncita says on Jul 15, 2004, 08:37:

I'm surprised the Berlitz director said that. It's such a vicious circle! Yes, that sounds like my friend Hunter is talking about - he's married to a Paisa. Anyway the language school itself doesn't have to arrange the visa for you - they just give you a contract and you can get the visa yourself. I don't know why they're all being so short-sighted. Colombia (well, Medellin, anyway) is in desperate need of native-English teachers as the level of English teaching in high schools is terrible and most people can't speak it.

Andrew why don't you try the University of Antioquia English dept (www.udea.edu.co & go to Idiomas), or failing that the university of Medellin? I know an English teacher (who's Colombian) who works at both these places and she told me that UdeM was looking for teachers to teach Business english - at least, a year ago they were. If you want, email me at: mede11 at hotmail.com and I'll give you her email address.

I am still convinced that getting a job teaching English can't be as difficult as all that. There are loads of language schools in Medellin esp in the Poblado area - they must be crying out for teachers. At least, they seemed to be when I was there...

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Hunter says on Jul 15, 2004, 13:22:

I couldn't agree more with you Roncita, I may see the director of Berlitz Medellin again next week, I will ask him his reasons, he did tell me them before, but I will double check.

Regarding short-sightedness, I see this all the time in Colombia unfortunatly.

Hunter

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Lorenzo de Australia says on Jul 19, 2004, 07:51:

Wow, that really is depressing.... This is all very interesting... I too have spent some time in Medellin, but never really looked for work properly, although I think you can get work tutoring english if you really wanted... or if you didnt want it, in my case ( I was trying to improve my spanish).

Roncita, you said that it was hard to get work with multinationals... That is a shame... as that's what I am wanting to do...but was also what I expected...

Hunter, you seem to know your way around Medellin, where and how should I look for work in Medellin, in a multinational company, or otherwise?

Regards
Lorenzo

****** ******
"...don't let life get in the way of living..."
Lorenzo 2004

Also, if you want to email me directly... as I'm not always that good with forums... email me at lorrytrippin2 at yahoo.com

****** ******

****** ****** "...don't let life get in the way of living..." Lorenzo 2004 Also, if you want to email me directly... as I'm not always that good with forums... email me at lorrytrippin2@yahoo.com ****** ******

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Hunter says on Jul 23, 2004, 14:19:

Berlitz Medellin Lorenzo de Australia, sorry I work for myself on the internet for UK based companies, so I don't know about much about looking for work in Medellin or Colombia.

Regarding Berlitz and it employing foreign nationals for employment, I spoke to the director of Berlitz Medellin and he said that Berlitz as a whole follow the rules set down by the goverment that only allow 30% of employees to be from overseas. So any individual Berlitz school might have more or less than 30% foreigners employed there, but as a whole Berlitz Colombia would have no more than 30% of their staff from overseas.

He also said that many other English Language schools in Medellin and Colombia may not employ foreigners on a work visa, but would pay them cash.

Also another problem with employing a foreigners is that the work visa is for one year, they normally only give a 3 month contract to a local English teacher to see how he works out, then renew the contract with him or get rid of him. But if the foreigner doesn't work out they are lumbered with him for a year, or if they get rid of him are responsable for him in Colombia until the visa expires.

Hunter

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Hunter says on Jul 26, 2004, 06:19:

UK Consulate One correction to my post, after some research on the web I found the following information out.

EU nationals, with the exception of The Republic of Ireland, can ask for a 180 days stamp on entry to Colombia for their tourist visas.

If you go down to the bottom of the page, you will see other types of visas and the information required for UK citizens to apply for them, I would guess that the this information would be the same or similiar for US citizens etc.

http://www.colombianconsulate.co.uk/

Hunter

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Hunter says on Jul 26, 2004, 07:39:

Sorry the post above was meant for another thread.

Hunter

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