BEFORE YOU GET HERE
The best thing that you can do to prepare yourself is to study up on grammer and teaching techniques. If you are not familiar with the basic concepts of english grammer I recomend taking an online tefl course with the modest cost of $300. I recomend an online TEFL course as opposed to the month-long in-person one because the month long courses are a waste of time and money. It will take you at least 2 months of teaching here in order to break even with the $1000+ that you would spend on the course.
BUSINESS ENGLISH IS BORING
Through an institute you will be teaching students who work for large companies like Verizon or Tide Bleach. The students´classes are therefore paid for by their employers.
Business English is really boring. You have to teach vocabulary words that have to do with their jobs, the economy, how to write emails. Students are sometimes technical writers who have you proofread work they’ve done which explains to another technical writer in the united states how to navigate their compay´s Intranet.
Business students generally prefer conversation-based classes. They will be satisfied with their classes soley for the fact that you are a Native english speaker and can hold an interesting conversation. Business english classes are usually 1:1.
YOU WONT GET RICH WITH AN INSTITUTE
You should expect to make anywhere between 18 and 25 pesos per hour if you are employed by an institute(1 usd = about 3 pesos). For Argentinian standards this is a decent hourly wage, but keep in mind that with each hour that you spend teaching and getting paid, you should plan on spending an additional hour for lesson planning and traveling between classes. These things you dont get paid for. The majority of teachers choose to work for no more than 30 hours per week. It can be done though- a friend of mine teaches for 60 hours.
If you are planning on staying here for 6 months and show that you can speak English proficiently, institutes will probably hire you. There is clearly an under-supply of English Teachers here in Buenos Aires. If you know where to apply to the institutes listed below, you should have no trouble in finding a job.
TEACHING PRIVATLY
If you have the materials and experience to do it, private teaching is a much better option than working for an institute. You can carge anywhere between 25 and 40 pesos per hour and problably won´t be doomed to teaching only business english. You can also choose which types of students you would like to teach by being wise about how and where you choose to market yourself.
Get outside of Belgrano, Palarmo, Downtown and San Telmo. There are tons of people in this city who are passionate about learning english who live outside these sorts of neighborhoods that are gentrified. Engage yourself in the porteño lifestyle by getting to know the people in your neighborhood. Your students tend to be the same people who you have also met as friends. Simple paper ads on telephone poles can help you find students and internet marketing is also an option.
YOU HAD BETTER BE IN LOVE WITH THIS PLACE
Despite the simplicity of finding work, I do not recomend teaching english unless you are planning to stay at least in Buenos Aires for awhile. You are wasting your time and your students´time if you treat english teaching as a pastime acitivity to partake in between cities.
English teachers should excell at week-long drinking spells and scraping by during daylight in order to work. If you are an idiot who has the tendency to walk into street without looking both ways, you will get killed. You have to sit for lengthy hours in office buildings that are open and large and cubicle filled, quiet, vacumed hotel carpet, floor by floor elevator entryways.
WHERE (NOT) TO APPLY
Good Institutes
ABS: info@abs-international.com.ar
English Training System: englishtraining@ciudad.com.ar
LenguaLab: eugenia@lengualab.com.ar
LV Studios: victoria@lvstudioweb.com
Professional Language Service: pls@pls.com.ar
Warick Consultancy: karina_neira@warwick.com.ar
Shitty Institutes
American Forum: direccion@american-forum.com
Dublin: info@dublin.com.ar
EuroLanguages: info@eurolanguages.com.ar
Language Affairs: languageaffairs@fibertel.com.ar
3 comments:
Why is American Forum "shitty"? I'm thinking of working there...
Oh no! I thought this is a nice place to work and live. I never thought this. Now, I need to think twice before going there.
Very informative post, thanks for sharing!
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