as a job i'm considering teaching english. I'm gonna talk to people at state, but anyone have any first hand experience with this or any good links of programs that would set you up with a decent job?

4/12/2007 10:20:30 AM

i know several people who have done this in various countries.

http://www.eslcafe.com

has all the job listings you will ever need, and make sure to go to the board/forums for discussions about particular schools/countries/cities, etc.

that will be your source of the most first-hand info.

good luck.

4/12/2007 10:23:39 AM

thanks man, you think this will pay decent enough?

4/12/2007 10:24:28 AM

pay varies greatly from country to country, and from one type of institution to another:

- summer schools for children
- english institutes for adults (berlitz, etc)
- corporate teaching
- teaching the military, etc

i mostly have experience with people who have done it in the middle east in universities and companies, and in europe in summer schools.

pay has ranged from $2,000/month to $4,000/month for the people i know. and then the level of additional perks varies greatly. in the middle east (and i believe also in south asia, and far east), you are almost guaranteed furnished free housing, in europe, probably not.

but that website is very vast, and will help you a lot.

do you already have an offer or offers from places? if so, where, and what kinds of institutions?

4/12/2007 10:34:04 AM

yea that website looks good, thanks again.....nah i haven't talked to anyone about it, i mean i decided that i'm moving to barcelona, and i figured this could be a pretty decent way of earning some money, that's as far as i've gotten. I'm planning on talking to someone at state when i get back to raleigh (end of april).

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 10:54 AM. Reason : if only i could edit this thread title....]

4/12/2007 10:53:38 AM

where you're moving to within spain?

4/12/2007 11:05:18 AM

barcelona

4/12/2007 11:08:50 AM

might want to brush up on your catalan...

4/12/2007 11:10:07 AM

yea, hopefully i'll pick up the differences pretty quickly.

4/12/2007 11:10:57 AM

there are more differences than similarities from what i understand

4/12/2007 11:12:31 AM

^indeed...you should definitely buy a book or something

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 11:16 AM. Reason : the only thing i remember is "benvinguts a barcelona"]

4/12/2007 11:14:42 AM

oh shit really? i mean i figured it was spanish with a local twist, it's not spanish at all? you have to be kidding.

4/12/2007 11:16:02 AM

yeah, it is more of a mixture of spanish and occitan french

4/12/2007 11:17:45 AM

you'll get by just fine with spanish.

it's just one of those areas where the original local dialect is still used in addition since they're so proud of their catalan heritage.

4/12/2007 11:17:59 AM

wow, i guess i might get some tapes or something then

4/12/2007 11:18:21 AM

^^

Quote :

"The Catalan autonomous government has been promoting the Catalan language since its comeback in the early 1980s to date. Thus, public education is mostly given in Catalan and partly in Spanish, while government bureaucracy is entirely in Catalan. Businesses are required to display all information (e.g. menus, posters) at least in Catalan under penalty of legal fines"

...from the Wikipedia article on Catalonia

4/12/2007 11:22:11 AM

this leads me to my next question.....anyone have a book or tapes of el catalan?

4/12/2007 11:26:53 AM

^^ yeah but day to day life can be made through spanish

unless he needs some governmental dealings, it would be ok

4/12/2007 11:29:32 AM

^^i actually just checked the rosetta stone and pimsleur websites--they've got nothing...try amazon

^but he's not trying to "get by" as a tourist. most catalonians speak catalan as their primary language, so if you're trying to teach them english it would be most helpful to do so in catalan or atleast know some catalan

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 11:33 AM. Reason : ^,^^]

4/12/2007 11:29:53 AM

fuck the gov.

4/12/2007 11:30:02 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language

dialect spoken in barcelona is called barceloni.

Quote :

"Catalan is very similar to Occitan. Although Catalan is often thought of as a transitional language between the Iberian Romance languages (such as Spanish) and Gallo-Romance languages (such as French), this characterization is not accurate. For instance, phonologically, Catalan is more similar to Italian than Spanish or French. The ascription of Catalan to the Ibero-Romance languages group is not shared by all linguists, since others prefer to group Occitan and Catalan in the Occitano-Romance branch of Gallo-Iberian languages."

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 11:31 AM. Reason : ]

4/12/2007 11:30:10 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language#Learning_Catalan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language#Dictionaries_and_phrasebooks

4/12/2007 11:32:45 AM

I know that youve already mentioned that you are dead set on Barcelona but a friend of mine in grad school here in sweden teaches english at all of the local schools while working on his masters. He's getting a free education taught in english plus making money on the side by teaching english. From what I understand, since english is spoken by nearly everyone here, he pretty much holds conversational classes and teaches the nuances of American English.

4/12/2007 1:00:50 PM

also, if you're not familiar with distinción in spanish, then you may want to get some audio lessons that use it just so you can become accustomed to hearing it b/c most spaniards outside of andalusia practice it

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 1:16 PM. Reason : thought about it on the way home]

4/12/2007 1:15:27 PM

visited barcelona last month. everyone that speaks catalan is going to speak spanish. you will be fine.

4/12/2007 2:18:29 PM

You're moving to Barcelona...apparently have never been there, and don't even know what language is spoken?

Sounds like a winner to me.

4/12/2007 2:28:08 PM

^^my spanish is pretty good--atleast conversational--but i wouldn't want someone to try to teach me german while speaking in spanish. if he orders his food or speaks to the bank teller in castilian, that's one thing. but if he wants to teach, then it's best to have atleast a fundamental knowledge of catalan, and the difference is big enough that he shouldn't try to "pick it up along the way"--that's my opinion

^there are a lot of people that assume that french people speak french, spaniards speak spanish, etc. although it seems to be something that he was aware of...just not familiar with

[Edited on April 12, 2007 at 2:49 PM. Reason : ñ]

4/12/2007 2:36:14 PM

^^i knew they spoke catalan, i just assumed it was a lot closer to spanish than i see it is.

4/12/2007 3:24:37 PM

they also speak alot of english there.

4/12/2007 4:21:17 PM

you'll be fine with spanish in barcelona, but if you really want to hit it off with the locals you need to speak catalan. it could be the difference between paying for your drinks and getting them for free...(even if you just know a little)

4/12/2007 4:56:28 PM

yea i figure speaking catalan will be helpful with meeting people and stuff, i'm gonna get some tapes.

4/13/2007 7:41:55 AM

a friend of mine got mugged in barcelona

4/13/2007 8:55:32 AM

a friend of mine got mugged in ny



actually a few of my euro friends have told me it's like the pickpocket capital of the world or something like that, i don't keep shit in my back pockets anyway though.

[Edited on April 13, 2007 at 8:59 AM. Reason : lkj]

4/13/2007 8:58:42 AM