Teaching English Certification?

[mayra_seattle]

Is teaching English really only my job option here? For those of you who teach in schools, did you get a certification or what have been the typical requirements?

 

[BaltRochGirl]

That's a hard question to answer without additional information.

Getting a job here depends on several things, you residency status, your language skills, your local connections, and your work history/educational background.

If you're on a tourist visa and speak little Spanish the main options are teaching English or working in a bar/restaurant.

If you want to teach English in a local secondary school you will need a background in education. If you want to teach English to ESL or mainly adult learners a certification can be a plus but is not always required.

 

[mimyr]

I came here teaching English, but after a few months I was picked up by a little IT company that works with only US clients. My salary is quite decent and I have a good health plan with Swiss Medical Group. And right before I landed this job, I had a job offer from another small start-up company that wanted me to do some web-based work. I came here barely knowing how to introduce myself in Spanish, and my Spanish is still shit. I don't have a visa either. So basically, it depends on your skills, but there's a lot of tech work here if you have a background in that. Be tenacious. But don't expect to pay the bills with teaching English, because that probably won't happen. If you don't have a certification, you're SOL.

 

[John1017]

I'm teaching English with several companies. I looked on Craigslist and several other job sites and had interviews pretty quickly. The problem is getting enough classes as you have to wait for the companies to assign you classes and usually they can be all over the city. I don't have a teaching degree or certificate but they hired me anyways. Normally the classes are conversation classes which are really easy to do. You just chit chat.

The problem is that they don't pay very much. I think I make around 70 pesos per hour, which in this economy doesn't pay the bills. I imagine if you somehow you manage to find classes to fill up your day, which I think is impossible, you may be able to break even on the cost of living. You would need at least 5 classes per day, fairly close to each other. If you have a class downtown, and another in Belgrano and another in San telmo you won't be able to fill up the day with classes as you will be traveling.

Can I ask you mimyr how you were picked up by an IT company? I am looking at getting out of teaching English and moving into something more serious, and better paying. And would love any advice on getting a better job.

 

[sergio]

There are neat jobs selling things on trains. Just as long as you know enough Spanish to give a little speech in a loud voice. Gets you out of the house. Great way to meet people and earn a few pesos.

 

[Davidglen77]

The only way to really make any decent (for BsAs) money teaching English is if you have residency and can issue facturas. You can then market yourself to companies who need a factura to prove the expenditure to the tax authority (AFIP) and charge the same rates that institutes charge the companies (usually double what the teacher is paid) and get blocks of hours in one place. And, if you also speak spanish you can even earn better money because you can be a much more effective (and students appreciate it much more) when their ESL teacher can explain concepts to them that a monolingual person cannot (at least as clearly) e.g. - difference between blink and wink, how do you say "inside out, upside down, backwards, overturned", how do you explain (translate) "brand new", difference between broken and broken down, etc.