Heyya, so I'm wondering what you all know about online TEFL courses. Can anyone recommend one? I'm going to take one, I think it would be sooo great. I looked at the "i-to-i" one and it cost between $200 and $300, depending on the material I wanted. I checked out taking a TEFL course at Bridge Linguatec and this other place in Santiago where you go to classes. It costed *cough cough* $1500 for two weeks. Are you freaking kidding me? I s'pose if I had money to throw around I'd think about it. A semester at La Católica in Valpo was cheaper than that, like two thirds the cost, for A SEMESTER. Wow, I guess that's the business to get into, charging gringos for TEFL certification. I imagine, for some people it's worth it, but not for me. Anyway, so I'm looking into the online thing, I've spent many years of my life in classrooms and don't need the extra classroom time for $1200.
The other thing I was wondering...I've been on a student visa all this time, and I wanted to know what kind of visas do you all have? I'm not married. And I'm 6 months short of the 5 year mark when you can request a visa de residencia. So I'm looking at the visa de residencia temporaria which allows you to work and live here. Is that what some of you have? Is it difficult to get? Do I need a contract from a business to get it?
Okay well thanks for having a look at this.
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Hmm, I'm really not the one to ask since I have a visa sujeta a contrato, for which - shockingly - you need a contract. I know Emma has some kind of non-contract related visa (I believe for a year?) so if she doesn't get back to you in the comments shoot her an e-mail.
Thanks, sweet. This shouldn't be too difficult.
Hmmm, I have no clue cuz I'm maaaaaaarried. Before that I just went to Argetina every 3 months and before that I had a student visa. I'm useless, sorry.
As for TEFL, don't do it. Anywhere will hire you without the certification.
My interest in TEFL certification is more for the knowledge than the certificate. Because I've never taught like a structured English class. My classes have always been more conversation and help with homework. So I'm looking at online TEFL classes so as to put some structure into my teaching, develop a bit of curriculum, class plans, ideas and relearn basic grammar and whatnot. But perhaps it's not worth it... Anyone know any websites where I can get curriculum and class plans for free?
emily's right, i have a visa temporaria for 1 year. if i were you though, i'd see what you could do for that 6 month period to go from student visa to residencia temporaria, that might be better. but yeah, my visa was not hard to get at all, it allows you to work or not (which is great!) and you don't need a contract. what you do need is an offer for a job which is basically a letter a business writes for you saying they will hire you and pay you so much and you will have such a schedule. it could be bullshit in the end, which mine was, but they never know. and that letter has to be notarized. if you want more details let me know, i spent months figuring all that crap out. and about tefl, you could go for the online thing if you really wanted to, i decided against it since i knew i could get a job without it and was like, whatever, i'll figure it out. you can teach yourself pretty much anything on the internet these days, although it's not all planned out for you or organized in a coherent manner. I do wonder about the online certificates too, like if they are as legit. but yeah, those tefl classes are some BS!!! do people actually pay all that money??? so unnecessary. now if i were planning on doing tefl teaching in a bunch of different countries for a few years, yeah, i'd get it just for ease and security, but if it's just for here, think twice.
long comment. sorry!
Hi girls
This question is sort of aditional to the visa question....Is it utopia for me to find a job in Santiago. I have a BA in Spanish and International Studies and a MA in International Relations and three years of experience coordinating EU-LA cooperation projects and speak spanish fluently. Also, would I perhaps be able to start out teaching English despite of the fact that I am not a native speaker (I am Danish)
Your comments, immediate reflextions and suggestions are greatly appreciated
& Kyle,
I did see you "Xpat moving to Chile" post so sorry for raising the question again ;o)
Hi Caroline,
Not utopia to find a job (although English teaching is the easiest, and I don't know what the options are for non-native speakers), but you will probably have to wait until you get here to start looking. Also, keep in mind that it may be hard, you'll need to really try and may end up taking a job that you're overqualified for, but it definitely can be done. Good luck!
Dear Emily
Thank you ever so much for your reply....must admit that I am also reading parts of your blog and taking in all information and reflections. I am prepared that finding a job wil be no ride in the park, but I am so ready for the challenge, but also realizing that my savings won't last for ever (and not at least the fact that I want to work) As far as I understand you landed yourself a prettey good and very important for me ( as least in the long term perspective) a relevant job - how did you manage to do that?
I am native Danish speaker, pretty fluent in English and Spanish (if not entirely fluent) can work in Norwegian and Swedish and have some knowledge of Frensh and German plus an academic degree behind me. What do you suggest that I do and do you perhaps have some more concrete recomendations for me?
Thanks and take care overthere in the cold
Caroline
So I found a manual I was looking for, for free. Yupi. Like Emma said, there's tons of TESL info on the internet (so great!). I was specifically looking for a class on how to do TESL classes and here it is, in the form of a book, elaborated by the Peace Corps. Yay Peace Corps!!
http://www.teflbootcamp.com/
PCManualTeachEFL.pdf
Also found this:
http://www.ejercito.cl/admin/uploads/
file_44352d96d5300.pdf?PHPSESSID=
ff5209ca7631...
It's a short course in English for adult students sponsered by the Chilean Army. What a nice gesture to give back to the public.--menos mal ya que han recibido el 10% de las ventas del cobre desde la dictadura de Pinocho. Hecho que puede cambiar en el futuro. http://selvasorg.blogspot.com/
2008/06/chile-ejercito-ya-no-
recibir-10-del.html
Hmm... I also have been blessed with three year long student visas. La-di-da. Considered getting married just to not have to deal with the other visa (of course we are planning on wedding anyways), but now I am going home and will come back with tourist which will give me another 3 months of time to plan.
http://claresays.wordpress.com (since this site won't let me post as that)
THe i-to-i certification is fine if you only want a certificate, and only want to work in areas that are very relaxed about certification. If you want to work in any higher-paying context (eg, Japan, EU, Tahiland), or you want to really know what you're doing, then the full month long courses are unbeatable.
Having said that, i-to-i is one of hte best for what it is.
HTH
Sorry, Emita, having read the other comments I have to disagree that a tefl isn't worth it.
I employ english teachers in a neighboring country, and we get quite sick of one particular type of foreigner who think sthat simply being from another country makes them god enough, they don't need to actually give a good service. The children in SA deserve good teachers, not lesson plans cribbed from google.
Dude, Letrice, the demand for English with a native teacher here in Chile is so HUGE, it doesn't matter that you are not certified. Not all, but LOTS of the Chilean teachers are terrible!!!! Or so my students have told me. And if they don't like the quality of the classes, they don't need to hire us. Even so, I get asked to teach English ALL THE TIME. I've turned down SO many people. The institutes here charge an arm and a leg and provide okay to sucky service. It's ridiculous. Thus employing a native who's willing to come to your office is much better than having a structured lesson with someone who kind of knows English, but talks to you in Spanish for half of the lesson.
I haven't taught any children here; the demand comes from business people.
Unfortunately, your averagely-trained Chilean language professor is a far cry from a personable, untrained native speaker, who will learn on the fly. That said, I've worked my ass off planning lessons, looking for resources, making photocopys, printing stuff off the internet and conversing with other language teachers. I'm getting okay at teaching English after just a few months of part-time work. And I probably wouldn't work this hard if I thought this might be the only time in my life that I were going to teach English. But I might do it in the States too. I'd like to anyway.
But it's still important to teach well, for the sake of the people who are paying pretty high prices for your services. That doesn't change simply because native teachers in your area aren't that good. It makes it a good market to sell your services, but it doesn't remove the onus on you to do the job well.
Does it?
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