Hello everyone, glad to have found this board! I apologise if this question has been asked many times here before, but here goes anyway... My situation - I have just completed my CELTA course here in the U.K. and I am now looking for my first teaching position. I hope to return to university in september '04, so if I come to Madrid it will probably only be for approximately 6 months, starting in january. Given this timescale I would like to know your views on whether or not Madrid is a viable destination for finding work. I have friends in the city and I enjoyed visiting there, but I have heard some discouraging stories about availabilty of work, wages, accommodation etc. I would love my first teaching experience to be in a vibrant city like Madrid where I can improve my (elementary) Spanish, but if I am going to wind up broke and disillusioned then I guess i'll have to think again. What kind of wage can I realistically expect to make as an inexperienced teacher? I spoke to an agency called EES, who were helpful and estimated the average teachers income at E1000 per month - is this accurate? Also has anyone here had experience of dealing with EES? Any ideas on these queries will be gratefully received, gracias!
The short answer to your main question is yes, you can. MANY do it.
Indeed this topic has been very discussed on the board.
Your friends may have had their salary expectations too high (happens a lot to those coming from USA and UK) and that may be why they had a negative work experience.
I recommend you do a lot of SEARCHES and reading of past threads.
There is a ton of info on all that you have asked here (availability of teaching work, wages, etc...), it is all here but you have to put a lot of reading into it and do some reasearch.
When coming to Spain to work as an English Teacher Madrid has every other place in Spain beat hands down. (Largest amount / volume). Yes, you have an advantage being an EU citizen. You will be able to accept contracts for a better combination of classes and money per hour than most of the non-EU / illegal teachers. Is the money good? This depends on what you are comparing it to. They pay twice as much for the same thing in Asia and other less desirable places. Then again they are not Spain. Again, it depends on the contract or the combination of classes you get. The overall cost of living is lower in Spain. Groceries are cheap, but accommodation and night life are expensive. You would do best to find the cheapest most decent shared flat you can and remind yourself you will only be there for 6 months. As far as learning more or working on your Spanish goes, that will depend on how disciplined you are. Remember that you will be interacting with English Speaking people most of the time and speaking mostly English everyday while you are teaching. You will only be able to practice Spanish if you take classes, meet people for language exchanges, and force yourself to speak as much Spanish as you can While you are here. I have heard both good and bad stories about this where a couple of people work for the British Institute or the British Council and have a good combination of classes all in the same few places and for a fair enough salary. Then I heard of other cases where people kept cancelling on the teachers and the teachers were running around all over Madrid chasing private and company classes and could never get enough to be satisfied. Anyway, to bottom line it, can you survive from January to the end of June as an English teacher in Madrid? Yes, but you will need to contact a lot of people and be financially sound and strong willed enough to hold out for the best contract / jobs that will get you through to when the work slows down in the end of June. Rocco.
To answer your question briefly - Yes you can get by as a teacher in Madrid.
Since you're an EU citizen, your pay will be higher than non EU citizens and you'll have access to better teaching positions. You can expect to earn anywhere from 10 euro an hour to 16 euro (or more in rare cases).
Thus, working a full work week (25 hours of teaching), you should have no problem earning 1000 Euros a month. That is enough to live on if you share a flat with someone.
And those horror stories about not finding any work during the summer are exaggerated. I had no trouble getting 25 hours a week during the summer, ever. You can do it, but you'll have to look harder and you'll have to be a good PR person.
Please do let us know if you have any more questions
Since you're an EU citizen, your pay will be higher than non EU citizens and you'll have access to better teaching positions. You can expect to earn anywhere from 10 euro an hour to 16 euro (or more in rare cases).
Hi Endrigo.. I beg to differ with you here. Just because he is an EU citizen does not mean his pay will be higher than non-EU citizens. What it *may* mean is that his teaching possiblities will be more stable.
The fact of the matter, for someone like Shane who is only coming here to teach a 6 month stint, EU citizen or not, he has a much greater possibility of being offered a "contrato basura" than anything else. Which is fine if he is only looking at teaching for a short term solution for some "fast money" and not looking for a job that will help him in retirement. What he needs to take into consideration are the following:
1. If teaching for an academy or consultancy, he will only be paid once a month. And his first payment might not be made until halfway through his second month of teaching.
2. If teaching through the month of July for an academy or consultancy, he runs the risk of not being paid for July until September, if at all. If the consultancy or academy is not reputable (and there are many of them here) and knows that he isn�t returning, he runs the risk of not getting paid, period.
3. If teaching in-company classes (in businesses) he is looking at roughly an hour commute each way per class he teaches. (generally the demand is for 1st thing in the AM, over lunch, and last hour in the afternoon: 8-9:30, 2:30-4 and 6-8:30pm respectively... or thereabouts). That means 6 hours of commuting to teach 4.5 hours of classes earning between 10-15 euros an hour.
The situation might be different in Italy, but quite frankly here in Spain it�s downright pathetic. He would be better off posting signs about his neighborhood and trying to land a few private students to fill up his hours.
Chica is right, being an EU national or legal resident here WILL improve chances of getting work but will not necessarily bring a higher wage.
quote:
2. If teaching through the month of July for an academy or consultancy, he runs the risk of not being paid for July until September, if at all. If the consultancy or academy is not reputable (and there are many of them here) and knows that he isn�t returning, he runs the risk of not getting paid, period.
EXCELLENT POINT!!! This happened to a friend who was here for 4 months (Spring - Summer) and then went back to UK. The school knew he was leaving and did not give him his last pay. He was not about to fight for it as he had to go back to UK it could take a long time to get the money out of them.
If the school does this (keep 600-700 Euros) to 10 teachers, the money really adds up.
This is a risk that "floating teachers" run.
Good points all around Chica, thanks for the input
My girlfriend and I have been in Madrid since September, and have found it very hard to make ends meet.
The often quoted 1000E a month that is quoted is possible - BUT:
1. Holidays are unpaid. There are a lot of holidays in Spain. 2. It will take a good few months to build up to that kind of income. 3. That will generally involve working 5-6 days a week with hours scattered from 8am until 10pm.
If you are looking for an easy life I would suggest going elsewhere. Spain definately has its plus points - but good living on a teachers wage isn�t one of them.
No one on this board is being negative and just because you are legal by no means makes your life easier here. Let's get rid of that myth now.
I am finding it interesting teaching English here. Do I regret my decision to move here and do it? NO. The only thing that I would change is the way that I feel about it.
There are days when I become very frustrated with the entire profession and the low pay and really want to cry. Sometimes I do and other times the anger stops the tears from flowing.
When you really think about it, even those who are here legally have to put up with low wages, so at least I am not the only one suffering and that makes me feel really good deep down in the bottom of my heart.
The instability within the field can give one the appearance of regretting the move to Spain, but there is one thing that can be done to combat this. When you have a really good month, hang on to the extra money because there is no certainty that you will make the same amount next month. It may be more, it may be less.
For example, I am working with 2 private students tomorrow and where does those 60 Euros go? Straight in the bank. I cannot play around with them at all. I don't even want them entering the piso at all.
What am I doing to combat my frustration? I am staying positive and getting excited knowing that my situation won't be like this forever. It can't rain for 365 days a year.
I am also shopping in D�a and buying things can make meals.
Garbanzos Lentejas Tuna Cereal Bars Yogurt Mueslix Tomate Frito Pasta Spinach Whole Wheat Bread Fruit
As long as my rent is paid and food is in the house, I can be happy with that.
Would more money make me happier? Of course it would. It would allow me not to have to worry about my bills and would give me a chance to focus on other things.
What am I doing to combat the worries? I am really throwing myself into my work. I am preparing lessons which are dynamic and moving away from worksheets and me just talking. I am using video clips, powerpoint presentations and cultural presentations which makes the students really get interested in the class.
Where I work, the management team is really impressed with what I do. As long as they, my students and I are happy, that's all that really matters in the end.
What also helps is to have a lot of private students so that you can have money in your hand to pay bills, buy groceries and do some things for yourself. Getting paid once a month does take some getting used to and it still gets on my last damned nerve, but that's the system and what can you do? DEAL.
In general, you will have your ups and downs in the English teaching field. I am giving myself 2 years to teach English and then I want to leave teaching all together. Looking for something different to do.
Come to Spain and make the best of what's given to you.
As far as summer teaching goes, IT IS SCARCE and just because one person claims that you won't have any problem finding summer work, they are talking about their OWN PERSONAL experience, which varies from person to person. In other words, don't believe the HYPE.
Shawn
"Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" - SONG OF SOLOMON, Toni Morrison
Posts: 1264 | Location: Richmond, VA but in MADRID now | Registered: 10 February 2002
originally posted by Redwood: [qb] What am I doing to combat my frustration? I am staying positive and getting excited knowing that my situation won't be like this forever. It can't rain for 365 days a year. Shawn [/qb]
Shawn. I now know what I am going to get you for Three King's Day... An Umbrella
Yes. It can rain 365 days a year in Spain. But this is okay as long as we all understand that none us really belong here and that we are all just fish out of water, accept it and learn how to adjust. This is to say that we are trying to live our lives here in Spain by our idea of how things should be rather than the reality of how they are. It is so easy for all of us to forget that in Spain we are meant to be living with our parents until we our in our 30's. The average salaries in Spain are low and designed for people still living at home with there parents, having fun and permiting them the luxury of saving up for them to move out in their early 30s. The idea in Spain seems to be that from ages 20 to 30 you would have been working at the same job or series or similar jobs and have a high enough position by the time that you are 30 years old to move out and get your own place. This usually coincides with marriage. You move out of your parent's house when you get married and buy your own house. Anyway, we as more transient people with more diverse backgrounds and who venture out of the safety of our houses earlier to seek our fame and fortunes are not the same as the Spaniards and do not fit as easily into the puzzle that is Spain. We need to either come here with this in mind and prepare for it by saving up enough money to live off of until we can come here and get something started / going or change our current way of thinking and learn to be satisfied with a whole lot less or be rich / a good looking girl that Spanish men will fight over and do cool stuff for like subsidize you in the hopes of impressing you and sleeping with you. Of course if you already have money or know the right people disreguard what I have just said above as this does not apply to you. You will be fine wherever you go. Rocco.
Trust me when I say that I totally understand where you are coming from with regards to making a living off a teacher�s wage. It is rough going... particularly if you are teaching for someone else, and not yourself.
I just worked through my monthly projections for 2004 and came up with an average of 892� income per month for the in-company classes (4 different groups averaging about 50 hrs/month) that I teach Mon-Fri. Granted, that is a net figure as I backed out the IRPF that I pay for being registered freelance. And that income is based on a higher hourly rate than the current going rate of 15� per hour for in-company classes.
It�s good to plan ahead and not be caught with your pants down so to speak. If you haven�t already, consult a laboral calendar for Madrid such as the one found HERE so you have a heads up as to when the holidays are. Keep in mind that the popular thing here is to take a puente (long weekend) when the holiday falls close to a weekend.
As has been suggested in this thread and others, the best way to supplement your income is by teaching private classes. I strongly recommend that you consider charging a month at a time up front for private clients. This advice is coming from personal experience. Not only is the student paying for the time that you are dedicating to his/her class, but also paying to reserve that same time each day/week with you. Any rational human being can understand that. If the student is not interested in committing that up front, chances are s/he will not be a committed student.
I think everyone here has some good advice to offer you, but the last piece of advice I can give you is to assure you that you can find work during the summer, if you look hard enough.
I never had a problem finding work in the summer, even during July and August. Yes I had to knock on doors and be very proactive, but you need to do that anyway if you want to survive in this crazy world.
But don't expect to go to Madrid and work as a teacher and save loads of money - it just doesn't happen. If you're concerned about making money you should try Japan or Saudi Arabia.
As an EU citizen I still insist that you can get paid more than illegals....mainly because schools know that an illegal American or Canadian doesn't have as many choices and as much bargaining power. As a Brit or Irishman if you don't like a school's offer there are loads of others out there....you have more leverage.
If you're illegal, that certainly decreases the number of schools that will hire you.
The bottom line is that if you work hard enough, you can make it happen!
You can insist all that you want, but just because you are legal here, you want make THAT much more than a person who is not. Sure, bigger companies pay more, but smaller ones can't pay that much more.
Shawn
"Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down" - SONG OF SOLOMON, Toni Morrison
Posts: 1264 | Location: Richmond, VA but in MADRID now | Registered: 10 February 2002
originally posted by Endrigo: [qb] But don't expect to go to Madrid and work as a teacher and save loads of money - it just doesn't happen. If you're concerned about making money you should try Japan or Saudi Arabia.[/qb]
I just want to back up what Endrigo is saying. There is enough work in Madrid for anyone certified or not and legal or not to find jobs. Only the pay is low (less than half of Korea or Japan) and you will need to hustle and run around all over Madrid to get enough hours. Also you will not be able to save any money working here in Madrid. You will only break even or just barely survive as an English Teacher. Do not come to Spain if your plan is to make money as an English Teacher. Only come to Spain if your plan is to enjoy yourself and the surroundings while barely eeking out a living. You should be the type of person who knows how to take advantage of very frequent unexpected days off and how to still have fun while other people are getting paid for these vacation and holidays while you are not. Rocco.
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