which your potential students can call and then pay another
euro for your phone number (Segundamano is changing all the
time, but the last time I used it, they had a "906" pay-per-use
number, which is terribly unpopular with the Spaniards who I
know, given the number of cons they think they're subjected
to with it), or you can pay very much more for a one-off (not
a popular option for most English teachers teaching in Madrid,
I think, but you might want to do so in September and/or January
as those are very critical times for picking up new English
students - and indeed the newspapers fill up with ads at that
time of year.)
Probably one of the cheapest and most effective method (apart from advertising on my own site ;) ) is to take out an advert
in local English language monthly newspaper "In Madrid". It only costs 10 euros per month and though, I can't say if I've ever gotten an
offer from them, I sure as héck have gotten plenty of people to come to my English speaking Meetups from there.
Also, if you live and are teaching English in the suburbs,
also have a look at the local "Segundamano" variants available
at their webpage at http://www.segund@mano.es (swap @ for a)
like "Mercado de Alcorcón" which will probably be much more
popular with the locals as it's delivered free to their doors
(at least, in my case). For the city of Madrid, you can also
have a look at putting an ad in http://www.elpais.es
although you might find it a bit expensive (and less effective,
I might add, if at all).
"Teach English in Academies": (This article's
a few years old.)
If you want to teach English in an academy or school in Madrid,
you really "need" just any University degree and a TEFLA, CTEFLA,
CELTA
teaching certification (whatever they’re calling it these days).
Do I need a CELTA?
- Yep!
- Absolutely!
- Sure do!
The correct answer is...? (I don't know how else to get it
across to you any better.)
Well, then again, if you're a "short-term" teacher or a wiseguy maybe
you can do without it, but remember, your academy will get what they
paid for, which, unless you've got other teaching experience, is likely
to be very little. Remember, the bigger and better English academies
have a lot to choose from at key times during the year so, without a
CELTA you'll have to move down-market to an academy that doesn't have
much to choose from because they pay so little or so badly (actually,
most academies pay very little - nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
In any case, you owe it to your students to have more than just
any at-a-distance ESL or EFL certification and you should take
your time and do it right on-site because a teacher learns how
to teach English by watching other teachers teach. Things like
the CELTA
and TESOL
Spain are about the "light side" of English teaching.
Plan to teach really rigorously. Prepare your lesson plans perfectly
and spend your days learning just how to teach that one class perfectly
as well. Afterwards, even though you've still got lots of doubts about
how best to teach, forget them. If you try to apply all of those techniques
and methods all at once when you teach in the real world, you'll just
drive yourself crazy.
If you want to survive in the "teach English Madrid" business very
long, just remember to do whatever it takes to get the work and keep
it. The students and clients are the most important part of this equation.
Keep them happy with the way you teach and forget everyone else because
no amount of sticking to the boss' plans will save you if your students
aren't happy with how you teach or with how or who you are as a person
(which can vary widely and wildly).
Just think it over. To teach, generally speaking, is a really tough
business, to teach English is ten times more complex than, say, to
teach math, and to teach successfully in this jungle of a jobs market
in Madrid is the maximum of accomplishments. We often don't teach
on just one job in one academy. We have four or five different "filler"
jobs in different places and with different company cultures. We will
also have to teach to up to five or six distinct levels and perhaps
we will have to teach with different methods and techniques for different
age groups and also teach English for special purposes like Business
English.
If, on top of it, you have a boss that doesn't like using textbooks,
like I did one year, you end up with a wonderful little formula
that adds up to: "loads-of-work-and-stress-for-incredibly-low-pay."
Divide your pay at the end of the month by the total number
of hours that you teach, prep your classes and travel to and
from your classes and what do you end up with? When I taught
with this boss, for example, he paid me just over 10 euros an
hour which added up to just over 1,000 euros per month, as I
recall (with taxes and social security deductions), but that
had me working away 75 hours a week all told (teach, prep and
travel). Divide 1,000 by 320, more or less, and what are you
left with? 3 euros an hour! No joke (that's the "dark side"
of it all). However, my transit time added up to about 25 hours
a week of that total.
To teach is not your only problem in Madrid. You have to rent a place,
buy food and have a life. Even a dank, dark cell-of-a-room can run
you 350 euros nowadays. A teacher acquaintance of mine got evicted
from a small one-bedroom place (see: Apartments
Madrid) with a closet kitchen whose owner obviously wanted to rent
it out for more as it's a business to him and he can now re-rent it
and make a lot more money off it. I think he was paying more or less
300 euros for it, but is now only able to find places starting at
600 or 700 euros. On top of it, prices on food and other consumables
have also skyrocketed. Green beans used to cost about a euro a kilo
a couple of years ago and they're now going for about 4 or 5. Dental
floss can cost you from 4 to 5 euros for 50 yards (less than a dollar
in the States). I just don't know how teachers can make ends meet
with what schools are paying in Madrid these days.
It's still manageable, but, apart from being very flexible
with your work schedule to begin with, you have to learn to
be a mercenary with a "disarming smile." Either, learn to say
"no" or learn how to "mislead" very well, depending on the situation.
When considering company classes, your morning schedule, for
example, is sacred. Try not to let anyone give you a student
to teach that only wants an hour class unless it fits in with
a total package that pays well. Why? Because a lot of English
students want that time slot and every teacher that wants one
will get a one and a half hour class for sure. Also, think about
how you want to work out your afternoon English classes before
you teach them. You can possible fit two to three hours in,
if you're lucky and work at it. The lunch period in Spain varies,
but you can get English classes between 13:00 and 17:00. If
you take a class from 14:30 to 16:00, you're seriously damaging
your chances of getting another class earlier or later. Try
and move it back or forward even if you have to bluff. I.e.
"Let me check back with my other student and see if I can move
him back." Actually, this is all far easier said than done,
but if you could manage to do it, it would be an admirable achievement
and you'd probably notice it in your checkbook.
When looking at classes to teach in an academy in the evenings, getting block hours is a definite plus because of the "opportunity-cost" expense of travel time ("time is money") and because of the added value of "social security." But if you don't get block hours to teach and the academies offer low pay on top of it, then it might be worthwhile to consider teaching private classes instead because a high percentage of them end up being conversation classes anyway, which would likely cut way down on your "preparation" work load.
Of course, if you teach private classes instead of in academies, you've probably come round to the fact that instability on-the-job is a way of life in Madrid. There are a few really stable, but low-paying companies and even fewer stable, but decent-paying companies. Early on in your career, you have to expect and factor instability into any of your jobs finding strategies, especially if you want a better than average pay.
I could ramble on, but I think you get the idea.
Steven Harold Starry
MadridTeacher.com
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