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Published: March 8th 2012
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Christmas in Santiago
Our tree and pressies - booze and chocolate Part of the plan in coming to Santiago was to work. I needed to work in order to supplement our money and extend our stay as long as possible. Santiago seemed to be a great place to do that - a thriving economy, OECD status, a demand for qualified native English speaking teachers all of which I assumed would give the best chance of financing our adventures such as they are. hmmmm, not quite.
All the websites I visited before we arrived extolled the virtues of coming to Santiago and working as a teacher. You'll earn enough to live like a middle class Chilean, they said. You can work the hours you want, they said. We provide the visas, they said. All of this, for me, proved a furphy.
Currently, I'm working illegally (yet again) in a small but very well organised and run English institute owned by 2 Americans. I asked for 10 hours per week and got 23 which has turned out for the better as it has supplemented our rent.But really that's all it has done. I'm away from home for the best part of 12-13 hours per day earning a grand total of $50 per
Chrissie presents
I love Lindt chocolate day! There's no way we could survive without having extra funds. Ok we are living in an apartment in a central part of town, but it is quite a run down area which is being rapidly redeveloped but not in a mindful, sustainable way - just tons of concrete thrusting up 20 storeys way. Yes, we have a roof top pool and a gym (which incidently Dee and I have been using - now don't laugh - I'm developing biceps for the first time for years!!) and we not only pay rent and gastos commune, but also a finder's fee to a company because as we are tourist gringos we don't have a RUT number which is essential to conduct any business in Chile. Without a RUT, you are screwed. To get a RUT you need to be contracted to an empresas, which I've been trying to do for last 6 months!
Now, don't get me wrong, there is an abundance of work for TEFL qualified native English speakers, just be prepared to do a demo lesson or at the very least complete a grammar test. Sometimes this can be a little bit daunting and certainly not for the
La piscina
Our roof top pool and views towards Las Condes faint hearted. Hello, I've been teaching for the best part of 30 years and you want me to do what? and I failed one interview!! It has been a humbling but an enlivening experience. I think I've become a better teacher by having to eat a bit of humble pie.
I first strarted to work with norteamericano in Moneda. Now all was kinda of going well, except for the fact that they were slowly going bankrupt and were using every trick in the book to get their dedicated, underpaid and often overworked teachers to stay and teach and not get paid. The experience was unpleasant as people, mainly the managers, were anxious, fractious and tempers were fraying. The teachers were generally great to work with. However, there was really poor communication also between the departments.
It seems from what I can gather that 2011 was not a good year for English language Institutes and many were feeling the pinch. Most were trying to squeeze their teachers by offering less and less pay. Some institutes were only paying their resident teachers about $3,500 CLP ( about $7US)/ hour. If you are on a visa contacted to an institute you
should expect about $6,000 to $7,500 CLP (about $15)/hr, depending on your qualifications and experience.
Now it is very true that in Chile it's not what you know, but who you know. From the debacle of norteamericano where my pay arrived late and I didn't get renumerated for 2 weeks work and refused to sign another contract, I did make a connection with one of my students. When he returned from a vacation in Europe, he looked me up and I got my first private student. He was also kind enough to recommend me to his friends and I was getting quite a lot of private work through word of mouth. Now this where you can make some money. The problem with me is that I'm the worst business woman in the world and of course undercharge. I hate negotiating! arrggghhhh. However, many of the teachers I've met have made money from this and have even manage to save. They charge between $10,000 - $17,000. I charge $7, 500!.
When working for an Institute, you get to work with business professionals, sometimes in small classes, often one to one. Coming from a background of working in large teaching
institutions like schools, I found this intimate setting less stimulating. And, sometimes I found myself being treated like 'the help'. Often classes were cancelled without warning, you could be kept waiting for 30 minutes or more, or summarily dismissed. This becomes annoying when you have to pay to get there and also make up the class at another time which is difficult when you have a full timetable.
Overall, the students I had were quite interesting and I had a laugh with a couple of them. Although after 6months I'm well over the commuting about 5 times a day in the crowded metro and making up cancelled classes.
I'm really looking forward to travelling to Peru and Bolivia soon.
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Jo Willmott
non-member comment
Good Lord, Education Queensland is starting to sound like a model employer...
Hi Deb & Dee, Can understand why we haven't heard from you guys recently - Maslow's hierachy demands that you find food and shelter first! We complain about disorganisation and whinge about bureaucratic meanderings in Aust. - maybe we'd better stop... Glad to hear you are seeing some sights and making the most of it but we'd wish for things to get a bit easier on the daily living/affordability front for you. We're just back from 12 days in Adelaide for Alister's (brother's) wedding to the lovely Helen - he got the better end of the deal I told him. Do you know what you're doing? I asked her. So James has been nudging the red wine as well at Uncle Edd's place in McLarenVale - I stick to whites. Hope you're both well - thinking of you. love, Jo