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I arrived in Bogota a week ago

Hello pbhites,

I said I would only paste another email if I got a response. I lied. I can´t help it, I´m a posting junkie. I´m sure someone´s going to want to read it and it might generate a lead or two while I´m looking for work.

paste begins below.

Hello all,

No real news, just an ongoing puzzle with a few more peices. As promised I went back to Centro Colombo and asked to speak with Louis. They sent me to the same office across the street which meant I would have to face the same person who told me sorry no job here. Determined, I went anyway and talked with the gatekeeper, telling her what I had done since I had last saw her, mentioning a couple names. This time she goes to the back office talks in spanish for a few minutes and comes back with an application and a grammar test. This is good. But no louis, she comes in only once a week, except not this week. I fill the thing out. The grammar is easy. From what I understood the gatekeeper(well I learned her name, by this time, Lena) was talking about a job in a collegio which is ages 12-17, not exactly what I was looking for. Still I´m curious how its going to turn out.

Monday I also went to la universidad de las Andes, which is supposed to be the best private university in Bogota. I spoke with a dept head, almost perfect english, and she wanted me to have some experience before hiring me. It was interesting to hear about the program there. To graduate, all students must pass the toefl which would allow them to go to a us university. They can take the english classes there or somewhere else. She didn´t have much to say on quality, non university, private , adult schools other than centro colombo and the british council. She thought I might be able to get a job at the universidad externado. She also concurred that I might be best off trying the other centro colombos in other cities.

Although I spoke with someone at externado today, she only designed the program so she gave me a name of the person running it, someone to see tomorrow. She also gave me a name of someone to talk to at the british council, where I also went. This guy informed me that I needed two years experience to work there and that they could only hire 20 percent foriegn workers. He also said that centro colombia and british council had interaction with their respective affiliated countries but no flow of money. He said that a union of some sort was in charge of hiring teachers at centro colombo and he was surprised to hear that there were no foreign teachers there. He seemed to think schools with some kind of professional development in place would be few and far between. He suggested some private schools in Bogota but from what I know of them, they would be plan B. British council has a deal where a teacher could use their facilities for a reasonable fee.

So a pattern is arising here. The best places want experience. The also want my native speaking ability, my BA and the CELTA. I don´t regret getting that last one. For one of the universities it was a requirement. We´ll see if my incomplete package can keep me out of the less prestegious places.

On the other hand I don´t know for sure what the demand is at the many private language schools here(plan B). I have a pretty good idea though, which is I could get a job pretty easy. one, even the best places don´t have any or alot of native speakers. two, there´s ads in the classified for native speaker teachers, which don´t mention experience. three, there´s a bullitin board ad for native speakers which doesn´t mention experience and the employee there said, yes, they were definitely looking for someone. I spoke to a current employee but he was stoned, didn´t really know or care although he was friendly enough in manner. He makes 8 dollars an hour under the table. I told this last part vaguely because of the illegal references. reason 4, On a whim, I went to another school which a student recommended to me., the natural learning corporation. He like the school as a student, maybe I´d like it as a teacher. The person I spoke with there seemed very interested because I was a native speaker(the ba and celta weren´t even commented on) and said she would let the person in charge of hiring know tomorrow. Though I don´t want to go to a formal interview because I´m not ready to take that job. It might be an interesting experience working there but actually I think it would be just plain wierd.

I´d like to move on to other binational centers in other colombian cities but it seems each day brings a couple more people to speak with the next day.

By Jon on Mar 1, 2005, 16:21 in Friendly Talkzone.

fzrdan says on Mar 1, 2005, 17:44:

Jon Have you looked at Instituto Meyer? http://www.institutomeyer.com/directorio_sedes_meyer.htm

My novia is learning English at the location in Cali. I went there with her one day and I spoke with the director and one of the teachers. The director grew up in San Andreas so he has been speaking English (and Spanish) his entire life but none of the instructors are native speakers. I spoke with the director about getting a job and he thought it would not be difficult at all for me to get a job.

They have locations all over Colombia but maybe this type of place is not what you are looking for.

0 funny, 0 helpful.