Teaching english in Europe with no degree but TEFL certificate?

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 18:42:11 +0000, Padraig Breathnach
wrote:

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 11:35:06 +0100, B wrote:

On 10 Jan 2006 14:34:55 -0800, "flyingdutchman"
wrote:

Hi All,

I was wondering if it is feasible to teach English in Europe with only
a college diploma and a TEFL certificate. I also have a EU passport.

Any suggestions would be great!!

In Italy, those qualifications might get you a job in a private
language instruction school, but the pay is really miserable.

In your parts, how much per hour would you expect to get? Here it's 12
- 18 Euro/hr. If you can land 20 hours a week, that's not a miserable
income.

Twenty hours teaching a week is essentially a full-time job, as you
have to allow time for preparation of classes and materials, for
correcting students' work, and for bits an pieces of extra involvement
with students. To me, between €240 and €360 p.w. does not seem a great
income for somebody who probably has a high level of education.

It's not a big salary, but the work is plentiful, and low stress.
Certainly the pay cannot be considered 'miserable', as you can have
quite a reasonable standard of living in these parts on that money.
You also have plenty of spare time to figure out how to get other
money - if you are so inclined.
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On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 21:13:27 +0100, (The Rev Gaston)
wrote:

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:40:14 +0100, Mxsmanic
wrote:

DDT Filled Mormons writes:

In your parts, how much per hour would you expect to get? Here it's 12
- 18 Euro/hr. If you can land 20 hours a week, that's not a miserable
income.

That depends on the cost of living. In Paris, €18/hr is €9/hr after
taxes and social security, and at 20 hours a week, that's only €780 a
month net.

I make it only EUR 720

That's enough to make a rent payment, but it leaves
nothing for anything else.

You need something to occupy you that earns money for the other 20
hours most people work a week.

And to move to a flat you can afford.

Château de cardboard box...
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 18:44:13 +0000, Padraig Breathnach
wrote:

DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:02:49 +0100, Earl Evleth
wrote:

snip

Why did you change the subject?

You ask such a question as that in usenet?

I can't see any good reason why he would add those extra spaces,
except to create a new thread. Why would you do that?
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 08:42:18 +0100, DDT Filled Mormons
wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:15:45 +0000, Padraig Breathnach
wrote:

Mxsmanic wrote:

Translation usually pays very poorly, too, although that depends a lot
on the language and the translator's subject specialties.

Often in the region of €150 per 1000 words. For quality work, that's a
poor rate.

You can translate 1000 words in a couple of hours. Pretty good money
really. It would certainly help pay for a nicer apartment in somewhere
like Paris.

It depends on the type of material. Most of what I've been asked to
translate is pretty technical and I've had to consult a technical
dictionary for nearly every sentence.

Also I'm much more frequently asked to translate English to Italian
than the other way around, and that takes a lot longer.

I really wouldn't do translation except as a favor to someone. I
translate stuff for our local tourist office without charging them, as
a civic service. I think they feel guilty about asking me too often,
but that's fine with me! It's too annoying. I always want to throw out
half the sentences because they're redundant or poorly written or just
stupid. They don't stop to think that half the things they think are
interesting about our town is of interest only to someone local and
wouldn't have the least interest to a tourist.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:13:57 +0100, B wrote:

I really wouldn't do translation except as a favor to someone. I
translate stuff for our local tourist office without charging them, as
a civic service. I think they feel guilty about asking me too often,
but that's fine with me! It's too annoying. I always want to throw out
half the sentences because they're redundant or poorly written or just
stupid. They don't stop to think that half the things they think are
interesting about our town is of interest only to someone local and
wouldn't have the least interest to a tourist.

Like an unremarkable monument or a tiny library? I have been shown
both recently in Le Marche. The same thing happens here too!
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On 11/01/06 23:40, in article , "B
Vaughan" wrote:

On Wed, 11 Jan 2006 18:59:05 +0100, Earl Evleth
wrote:

Note that off-scale salaries might not cost the University anything.
If a top research has lots of research grants, the University will
collect enough in "overhead" on the grant to pay for the extra-pay.
I don't know what overhead rates are now in the US but 20% is not
excessive. 20% on a million dollars of grants per year would
be $200,000. So upping the pay by $50,000 is a way to keep the star
at a particular University. The net profit is still $150,000.

Virtually everything you say applies only to science faculties.

And med-school faculties. Note that often doctors can run a practice
along side their educational duties. In many systems, one is allowed
to consult one day a week during the regular school year. Since
salaries are on a 9 month scale you can do anything in the other
3 months. However, the rule was that you could only charge your
grant 2 months in the summer, if you had one.

I suspect that some of the other disciplines, such as business school,
engineering, have off-scale salaries.

You mentioned teaching load in a previous post. The other non-scientific
disciplines have higher teaching loads, perhaps double. So if a top
University has a 3 hour week load for their science faculty, a prof
of English literature would have 6. Even within the science faculties
the load might reflect the research activity of the individual.
Some mid-age faculty research activity will fall off to nearly zero
for some individuals and they are called on to teach more. The problem
with the tenure system at the best universities is that it was designed to
select people who showed they were in the process of becoming top people
in their fields, scholarship wise. But the effort of getting tenure is
exhaustive and afterwards some people slack off to zero. This is seen if a
particular person is stuck at the Associate Professor level. Even so,
sometimes departmental politics can screw up advancement.

flyingdutchman:


I was wondering if it is feasible to teach English in Europe with only
a college diploma and a TEFL certificate. I also have a EU passport.

1. Bear with me, I haven't read the whole thread yet (I'm quite busy at
the moment).
2. I have no clue what a TEFL certificate is.

Having said that, almost everywhere in Europe you can start your own
business teaching languages without teachers diplomas (although it helps
having one).
Several friends of mine are conducting private courses (Spanish, Dutch).
Example: I'm in the 'Dutch for German speakers business'.

Holländisch lernen - http://hollaendisch-lernen.ardane.com

Martin:

I take it that you don't live in a broom cupboard.

Nope. I have a luxury carton box behind Central Station.
Don't forget to bring beer when visiting me there.

--
Holländisch lernen - http://hollaendisch-lernen.ardane.com
WebWax Webdesign - http://webwax.ardane.com

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:12:50 +0100, Martin wrote:

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 05:33:25 +0100, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Martin writes:

Occupied working?

Sometimes, but often it is dead time between classes.

Time to do some translating.

Given his stated IT skills, he could do well at this. The only issue
being that he as useless as tits on a bull.
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:07:30 +0100, Erick T. Barkhuis
-o-m wrote:

flyingdutchman:


I was wondering if it is feasible to teach English in Europe with only
a college diploma and a TEFL certificate. I also have a EU passport.

1. Bear with me, I haven't read the whole thread yet (I'm quite busy at
the moment).

You can skip it for the most part.

2. I have no clue what a TEFL certificate is.

It's a fairly worthless piece of paper. I don't know any English
teachers with one (this thread prompted me to ask a couple of
questions to some friends here). Having any type of diploma is likely
to be enough if you look like you would make a good teacher.

Having said that, almost everywhere in Europe you can start your own
business teaching languages without teachers diplomas (although it helps
having one).
Several friends of mine are conducting private courses (Spanish, Dutch).
Example: I'm in the 'Dutch for German speakers business'.

Are you Dutch? If so you are technically not mother-tongue English,
although you probably speak it so well that no-one would know/care.

(Sidenote: I have heard it said a few times that the Dutch speak
better English than the English!)

If you have (or say you have) spent time in England/USA etc, you can
just bull**** your way through.

In fact, with this type of work the ability to bull**** reigns
supreme, given that English is a pretty indefinable beast, and
students are unlikely to be really fluent.
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DFM - http://www.deepfriedmars.com
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