Laughable wages

digger · Post by **digger** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 1:27 pm

I’ve done a bit of English teaching in the past here in Portugal…..10 euros/hr working from home and I’m not qualified. No fortune to be made but it’s a bit of fun….cash in hand nowhatimean

Thanks for those links Guest and Tiko…..I’ll check them out…

Thunderbolt · Post by **Thunderbolt** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 2:08 pm

Definitely an interesting idea but before I can teach English or French to anyone in Portugal, I'm going to have to master the old Portuguese language.

petermeachem · Post by **petermeachem** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 3:03 pm

Here you are nosey_parker, first customer, someone by the name of Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt · Post by **Thunderbolt** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 3:57 pm

It would be useful!

I understand a lot but I just can't speak it. Haven't quite got the accent right yet but I'm working on it.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:24 pm

Strangely enough I am qualified to teach English as a foreign language. Unfortunately I can't speak a foreign language

Will have to learn to speak Portuguese soon! So I may be looking for lessons too!

Debs G · Post by **Debs G** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:26 pm

And that was me above not logged in (again)

Thunderbolt · Post by **Thunderbolt** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 4:40 pm

Hi Debs,

Have you moved out to Portugal yet?

I'm moving in February. I'll do courses here before going but if you find anywhere or anyone who will be willing to do conversational lessons, I think that it will be very useful.

Debs G · Post by **Debs G** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 5:09 pm

Hi Thunderbolt

I'm hoping to move at the end of Sept if things go to plan. I want to learn Portuguese asap and have bought a course as well as other books so that I can but I am so busy trying to finish off other courses so that I am as qualified as possible that I haven't had time to start the Portuguese one yet.

I may well take some lessons once I move though.

digger · Post by **digger** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 5:33 pm

...debs..if you are qualified EFL you can teach in PT no prob (providing you can find the work!)….the students wanting a professional native English teacher would speak pretty good English already and would not expect you to know any Portuguese…

(…or am I getting confused with ESL? Never did know the difference)

Tabitha · Post by **Tabitha** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 5:50 pm

believe you mean T E F L Digger?
Teaching English as Foreign language.
My nephew has done this in a few countries..for example in North Africa (Muslim country) but hasnt needed the language of those countries.
Not sure about Germany

He tried for work there but was told he would need the language.

Debs G · Post by **Debs G** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 6:17 pm

That's useful to know, thanks Digger. I thought it would probably be best to know at least enough to get by of the native language. If all does not go well on the beauty front then I may have that to fall back on.

kteee · Post by **kteee** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 6:24 pm

When I did my TEFL training about 10 years ago, we were told that it was better if we didn't speak the student's native language - the onus was on us to teach and them to understand without resorting to direct translation.

When I taught in the UK I had students from Japan, Germany, Russia, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic etc etc - it would be impossible for me to know all the languages of my potential students.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of call for EFL teaching in the Algarve - all the language schools are reporting falling student numbers, perhaps it is better nearer Lisbon/Porto

nosey_parker · Post by **nosey_parker** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 7:45 pm

Thanks for the links. I'll check them out.

Debs, let me know when you move to Portugal. I'm in need of some therapy and maybe we can swap Portuguese lessons for Indian Head Massage.

I'd love to open a holistic shop here in the Algarve and would want someone to do therapies there, but it's finding the right place and consider very carefully if it's worth the risk...

Some advice: should I offer to go to people's houses for Portuguese lessons or should I expect them to come to me? (I'd prefer the latter). How much should I charge? Is 15 to 20 euros an hour a very high price?