TEFL in Argentina

[liybaa]

Hi, I'm doing a CELTA course this summer with international house london and would like to teach english in Argentina. Does anyone have any general advice/experiences regarding tefl in Argentina? i.e.best time to go out there, quality of life for tefl teacher, difficulty of finding a job, etc.

Also, i am concerned that Argentina might be the kind of place i may want to go with to with some money already saved up. Therefore i am considering doing a year in a well paid tefl country first.. and then heading off to argentina for my 2nd year once i have some money saved up. Can anybody recommend any countries where tefl teachers are generally paid well? (i.e. enough to save). I understand that tefl is not a lucrative career but i thought there might be a location where it may be possible to save...

Thank you for taking the time to read.

 

[The Dude]

I have no experience of Argentina, apart from a long-ago girlfriend.

But I would sound a warning. Your CELTA certificate won't amount to much, in my opinion. It's a ridiculously short course, trying to cover an enormous subject. I'm not impressed by colleges offering their very expensive courses to young people with the promise that, with this certificate or that, they'll have a passport to a great life anywhere in the world. Remember that these colleges are businesses and their literature is commonly called 'advertising'.

With that rant over, I'd encourage you to go ahead and enter a new world, but understand that to teach well involves a lot of hard work, preparation, frustration and late nights - working up the next day's lessons, not dancing in the club. As you know, it's not well paid anywhere and you may be badly exploited in some places, so don't complain when it happens, because it's your choice and your eyes are open.

Nonetheless, such a career can be very rewarding indeed and lead you to some wonderful places and people all over the world. I hope that you actually like teaching, because that, for me, is more important than anything.

 

[Tdol]

Does anyone have any general advice/experiences regarding tefl in Argentina? i.e.best time to go out there, quality of life for tefl teacher, difficulty of finding a job, etc.

There are several teachers working in Central and South America posting on ELT World Discussion :: Index who may be able to give you direct advice on practicalities.
There are jobs in Asia to be had that pay reasonably well. I gather Europe is not such a good prospect for starting out, but haven't worked there for a while.

Your CELTA certificate won't amount to much, in my opinion.

I can't say that I agree with this; it's still the benchmark entry-level teaching qualification, so whatever its weak points, it will open doors to many teaching posts. The live-the-life-of-Riley adverts are tosh and I'm not a CELTA fanboy, but it does what it says on the tin IMO.