Hello

mankyank77

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Hi I'm new to this forum. so far i've found it informative, loads of helpful resources.

My girlfriend and I are English teachers, coming to BA in late October. We're doing the one month CELTA course in Belgrano, and looking to find English teaching work after that.

We are qualified teachers in the UK (PGCE), speak Spanish and have been teaching English in Seoul for this past year.

We will gladly accept any and all advice on how to find a job, good areas to live in, and how to rent an apartment and anything on living and enjoying life in Buenos Aires.

Thanks!
 
I would postpone your trip to febuary 2010. It will probally almost impossible to find a job in november/december
 
If you chose to move here and teach English, I can assure you as surely as dawn begins the day, that you both will never be so poor in your life, or malnourished or as baffled when the big pocket expats go on about maids and "coin shortage! what coin shortage?'

But the key word from all of the above is p-o-o-r, should you move here to teach.
 
Thanks Winston,

very helpful, I'll bear that in mind. but i have to address one thing you mentioned.

I emigrated with my family from the Balkans (Serbia, specifically) as a young boy, and I can assure you that the malnutrition and suffering we sustained while locked inside refugee camps will be hard to top. Even in a city quite so unliveable and unaffordable as Buenos Aires, as you mention .

By the time we got to the UK, we also lived on government handouts until my parents learned English. We lived on 60 pounds a week for a family of four. I used to cry when I saw other children with toys, because we could never afford any. But, anyway, I got used to being poor.

Thanks for spelling P-O-O-R for me, by the way. As you could imagine, my education suffered during that time and i never lerned to spel so well.

Thanks again!
 
You will do just fine, good luck and enjoy your stay.

mankyank77 said:
Hi I'm new to this forum. so far i've found it informative, loads of helpful resources.......................advice on how to find a job, good areas to live in, and how to rent an apartment and anything on living and enjoying life in Buenos Aires.

Thanks!

.....advice on how to find a job, I leave that to the experts in this forum, some will be negative as you found out some will be okay and some will be great and helpful, all will depends of the writers' mood on that day.

.....good areas to live in. All depends on your lifestyle (close to de city) Palermo, Belgrano, all handy areas to live, (away from the big smoke) Vicente Lopez, Olivos, San Isidro, Martinez (between Ave. Libertador and Ave. Maipu inside that corridor), to name a few.

...... how to rent an apartment. Pericles in this forum is the man, check his postings.

......enjoying life in Buenos Aires. Relax mingle with locals if you can speak castillian and just enjoy yourself and with your girlfriend it will be just great.

Wishing you two the best.
 
winston said:
If you chose to move here and teach English, I can assure you as surely as dawn begins the day, that you both will never be so poor in your life, or malnourished or as baffled when the big pocket expats go on about maids and "coin shortage! what coin shortage?'

But the key word from all of the above is p-o-o-r, should you move here to teach.

I think you could be fine if atleast one of the 2 can find formal employment in a institute or private school.
 
All the advice given so far is good, Pericles will be your best bet for accomodation, and if you keep out of the touristy or expat areas, then things become much cheaper. Belgrano is OK or Nuñez close by, travel to Recoleta or the centre of Palermo and you will soon find out what they mean by tourista prices.
The one thing I would add is, as has been said, there are more English teachers than cucarachas, which means that with supply and demand you will have problems getting a decent income, so please have good exit strategy, then you can enjoy your time here without too much worry.
Good luck.
 
mankyank - you get the man of the hour for that comeback. Priceless!

People moan a lot here, but with the two of you earning, you should be absolutely fine moneywise. San Telmo is a fun area to live, is central and is fairly cheap.

Palermo is very pretty but more touristy, expensive and full of reasonably expensive bars and restaurants. Belgrano is cheaper but a bit more out of it.

Depends on how long you want to stay out here, if you aren't here for long I'd recommend san telmo, and try lookout for anyone offering a flatshare. Plenty of people in similar situations to yourselves. If you can keep accommodation costs low, and eat in normal places and cook you can live well without any probs.

Approach as many institutes as you can when you get here, and just network with other english teachers. Find out if any people are leaving, or have jobs / students they can't take on.

Good luck! Am sure you will love it here.
 
thanks for the specifics Tango Bob and Lucas. I'll keep those neigborhoods in mind and also check out Pericles. I'd heard a few of them mentioned already, along with the tourist prices so i'll take heed. In fact, Belgrano is where we are doing our course initially and we saw some decent places/prices there, or not too far from there. I will look into the others you mentioned.

As far as lifestyle, we're pretty chilled. Definitely not big spender types, so we're not looking to go out several times a week and drink champagne, shop at exclusive boutiques for the latest European styles or be part of any kind of "scene' so to speak. We just like to cook nice food, have good coffee and enjoy our surroundings. BA sounds good for that.

Teaching in Seoul all year, we've been able to save a good chunk to travel on...the money's really good here. So the idea is to be frugal with that nest egg and spend a bit of it (for set-up costs, air tickets, exit strategy) but not to burn through it frivolously. That's where teaching comes in.

We know about the reality of earning in BA, and that's not the primary reason we're going. We don't want to set up camp long, long-term and make a financial killing. It's just a place we've always wanted to see. As long as we can pull in just enough cash to spend on the basics, that's good for us because it will reduce what we need to pull from our savings.

Cheers for the constructive feedback!
 
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