Yesterday I got a call from my travel agent. "I'm so sorry to tell you this, but your flight to Los Angeles has been cancelled. Varig is no longer flying to the United States due to bankruptcy complications."
I am truly the best client a travel agent could have. No screaming. No blame. Not even a sigh.
See, I've been on the caller end of this conversation before.
"Sorry to bother you Ms. Murik. This is Carly, your travel agent. I'm calling you to tell you that Bankrupt Airlines has cancelled that ticket that you so responsibly bought months and months in advance for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, Bankrupt Airlines is no longer flying that route, but the good news is that they are prepared to offer you a full refund without penalty."
Rarely does a greater injustice occur in the world of commercial aviation than when an airline cancels a route. Sure they offer a full refund in this situation, but not an immediate one, and more often than not, fares have risen considerably by the time you get the bad news. Most times, you have absolutely no recourse. Who takes the brunt of the passenger's anger? That's right, the travel vendor.
And of course, your agent's airline rep vanishes into thin air at this time. "Hi, this is Scammy Greedmonger. I'm in Barbados right now, but if you leave a message after the beep, I'll be happy to return your call once I cash in on my golden parachute and get over my jetlag and this nasty Mai Tai hangover...or not." *beep* Bankrupt Airlines is never going to offer you anything more than your money back, no matter how unfair it is that you now have to pay potentially hundreds of dollars more due to their poor business practices.
That's why I scolded myself all the way home yesterday. I knew better than to book with Varig. Last I knew, they were a shaky carrier. Questionable service. Late flights. And wasn't there some issue with their finances? Heck yeah! Varig had their planes seized not too long ago. What the hell was I thinking?
I was thinking I didn't want to pay $1300 to fly home. Three months ago, five months before I planned to fly, I sought out a ticket. I knew that due to the Thanksgiving holiday in November, prices could be higher than normal, especially for American carriers, so I decided not to dally. After visiting with Alejandra at Delfino Travel (San Martin and Corrientes), my options were Varig for $970 or everyone else for $1300 plus. Varig it was! (For my former fellow travel hockers, that was an RG W-class fare...damn, gas got expensive!)
As I walked home from my last class, I began to freak out about what prices would look like now. Angry as all get out, I plotted to chain myself to the door of the Varig office in Los Angeles until they paid me for the inevitable "difference in fare". And worse yet, what if I couldn't afford to get home before Thanksgiving? Stupid Varig! (stupid me.)
This afternoon, I cruised by Delfino Travel to resolve the situation. My agent, Alejandra was really worried about my refund. She kept trying to reach someone at Varig who would promise a prompt refund, rather than the 6 to 10 week process that most cancellations go through. I finally told her to drop it. I couldn't take the suspense of the new ticket prices anymore. Plus, I knew that I could always do a chargeback (Oh God, I hope Lauren reads this...the queen of the chargeback smackdown! Lauren, you know you're my hero, but I hope that Varig isn't near as good as beating chargebacks as you are!!!).
Alejandra got to searching as I stared at the reflection of her booking engine in her anti-glare screen cover. I resumed my role as the Neo of the Airfare Matrix...
$D01NOVEZELAX
L)(LA/A20NOVEZELAX
LA601 F9 A9 J9 Y9 B9 H9 L9 ....
"Did I see S-class seats?! Did I?? Oh God, she's scrolling!"
*MD
*MD
"Please god oh god oh god! Q-class! Q-class! Q-class! My right kidney for Q-class!"
$D20NOVEZELAX=LA
"Why is she rechecking the fare sheet??? S-class! My first born for S-class!"
L)(LA/A19NOVEZELAX
"She's so damn slow! Faster woman! Faster! Use shortcuts, damn you! Let me do it already!!!"
01Y1Y2
$BB
"Oh sweet Jesus! I'll do anything! ANYTHING!"
"I've got Lan Chile for $830*, taxes included." She continued to bang away at the keyboard, checking the fare sheet for a third time, as her deadpan intonation rang in my ears. "Wait a minute. That fare is lower than my crappy Varig ticket," I mused. "LOWER!"
"So, I can reserve this flight for you until September 23, and in the meantime I'll call Varig to try and speed up the refund process...." Man, she's a bad salesman. Close the sale, sweetheart. "I'll take it," I retorted, digging in my bag for my Visa Card.
I am the Ferris Bueller of airfare.
So what happened here? Don't I always say "Buy your international tickets four to six months in advance"? This is an anomaly in the travel industry. Sometimes, just every so often, you have to wait until two to four months in advance to get the very best price. As Alejandra put the finishing touches on my booking, I remembered that LAN was always late in releasing its good fares, while to get a good price on Varig you had to book way, way in advance. When I came to Delfino the first time to check prices, LAN was super expensive. I bet you anything, they released this new lower price a month or so after I bought my ticket.
Of course you should never, EVER follow this rule for travel in the summer or during Christmastime. Barring terrorist threats, there are no summer/Christmas sales...EVER.
So for those of you who keep asking, I'll be home the week of Thanksgiving. Just remember...Carly's a turkey.
Traveling mercies, y'all!
*That's right kids, I got a LAN Q-class fare, and I get 100% credit on my AAdantage Miles account. Excuse me while I go celebrate...
Friday, September 29
Wednesday, September 13
teaching english in BsAs
Let's see...you're not independently wealthy, you don't own your own software company, and you're not a hypnotist who can sell his recordings online...well, how in the world do you expect to support yourself when you move down here to Buenos Aires?! The answer is simple: you're going to teach English. With the exception of the examples above, almost all of my ex-pat friends and I teach English to pay the bills down here. In case you're interested in joining us, here's what we've learned. (Warning: all $ prices are in pesos because that's the symbol they use here. Dollars are denoted by U$S.)
To TEFL or not to TEFL?
If you haven't heard already, you can get a certificate to teach English abroad. It's called a TEFL certificate, which stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. You can go to online schools, brick and mortar establishments, or some combination of the two to get it. It can take as little as four weeks or as many as six before you get a little piece of paper that says you're qualified. Of course the question you're dying to ask me is "Do I NEED a TEFL certificate to teach in Buenos Aires?" Well my friend, the short answer is "no", and the long answer is "yes". Short answer first...you can teach English here either through an institute or on your own without a TEFL certificate. There, I've said it. Now, let me tell you what you'll be missing out on if you decide to go it alone.
In any TEFL course worth its tuition fees, you will learn novel things like teaching methodology. Anyone know what the dominant method is for teaching languages these days? Hands...anyone? Okay, here's more free info (I'm way too nice!): it's the Communicative Method. Anyone know how to use it in a classroom? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah well, it's worth checking out because it works. (Okay, the free TEFL course material stops right about...here.) Of course, TEFL courses don't just teach you how to teach...Hmmm, let's see...how's your grammar? Do you know the difference in meaning between saying "it will rain" vs. "it's going to rain"? Can you explain that to a non-native speaker? Can you give an example of a Second Conditional and explain how and when it's used? Do you know the difference between "may" and "might"? Do you think that I'm a sadistic grammar nazi? Don't answer that. I'm just bringing up grammar points that most of the advanced English students in this city already know. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then take a TEFL course or only give conversation classes here to avoid having your porteño students grammatically kicking your butt.
Now, if I had to tell you what the single most essential part of my TEFL course was, without a doubt, it was the eight practice classes that I got to teach. My institute advertised free English classes in most of the offices in the neighborhood. The people who showed up were our students. We taught two classes a week, and we prepared our lessons completely from scratch. This meant not only picking the topic for the lesson, but also finding and/or making all the materials necessary to teach it. We never knew how many students would show up or how proficient they would be. We just knew that at a certain hour we had either a beginning, intermediate, or advanced class to teach (and those divisions were very loose). This was Commando English Teaching 101, and now I'm prepared to face all kinds of uncertainty in the classroom and do it completely on my own without a textbook or any other materials. I am basically the English teaching version of MacGyver, if you will.
But wait, that's not all! What else do you learn? How about creative ways for dealing with problem students? How to ace an interview for a teaching position and totally win over your new Argentine boss. And, perhaps most importantly, if your TEFL institute is anything like mine, then they will send your resume to 100 plus language institutes in the city so that they call you, rather than you cold calling them. When my TEFL institute sent out my resume, not a day went by that I didn't get requests for interviews (At one point, I was averaging 3 calls/emails per day).
So how do you go about finding a TEFL institute, you ask? Well, I'll let you know the name of mine because I was at least 80% satisfied with their service. It's EBC Servicios Lingüísticos. They're based in Madrid but also have a school here. The big TEFL company in town is Bridge Linguatec. (If you want to know the differences between EBC and BL, drop me a line because this post is too long as it is.) And, before you ask me...TEFL courses that are done purely online are a waste of money. If you don't get classroom experience and a team of people on your side, you might as well not do it at all. The only real drawback to any TEFL course is the price. Before you all go rushing to EBC's website to see how much they cost, I'll tell you. My TEFL course cost 1050 euro or about U$S 1260 in October 2005, and that's about par for the course in BsAs. (I paid another 100 euro to get a TESOL certificate with no extra work involved). Before you start kvetching about money, think about what you're looking for down here. In my case, I'm starting a career in education and language. For other people, they wanted to be trained to do their job better than their bosses expected. The rest were just lazy and didn't want to do a lot of footwork in finding a job. Of course, I do realize that TEFL courses aren't for everyone. In fact, my instructor at EBC taught English in Japan for a long time without a certificate (until he wanted to work for a better company). It's doable, you just have to really take stock of who you are and what you're planning on doing down here.
Pesos and Work Schedule
The big question: How much can I expect to make as an English teacher in BsAs? Answer: Between $12-20* an hour at an institute, don't take less than $15 if you've got your TEFL. If you're really hot stuff and you get some well-to-do people to pay you for private lessons, then you can bump that up to $30-$35 an hour. Now before you start estimating how much you'll be making per month, know that you will probably be working between 20 and 35 paid hours per week (lesson planning is done on your own time). If you're working for an institute that caters to companies, then you'll work between 8-9:30 a.m., midday, and/or after regular business hours. If you're a real workaholic, then you can pad your down time with private lessons. Really though, when you start out teaching, you're going to need a fair amount of lesson planning time so don't cram a lot into your schedule until you get your sea legs.
Okay, now let's figure out what your salary will buy you. To help, I'll break down my current income. I work for three different institutes that pay me between $15 and $18 per hour. I also have a few private students of my own who pay me between $22.50 and $30 per hour. Working more or less 30 paid hours per week, I earn around $2000 per month. That salary affords me a nice standard of living. I have my own studio apartment (for $750 pesos per month, not an easy thing to find for a foreigner). I go out about twice a week for a nice dinner and/or to hear live music in cafes or bars. I eat out for lunch about three times a week. But I don't buy clothes, books, or music. I'm not sure where it all goes, but I know that at the end of each month, I have virtually nothing left. So, my standard of living took a small dive since I used to regularly buy books and music at home, but I'm not suffering here. Of course, in the States I could also save money with this standard of living. So, if you need to rack up dollars in your bank account, then go teach in Asia or in the Middle East.
When to Come
If you want your job search here to be like shooting fish in a barrel, then I suggest you get on a plane in February or March. The main hiring season starts sometime in February and extends through March to parts of April. You'll notice some TEFL institutes claiming that you can get work down here all year long. While that's not completely untrue, it's not a fair depiction. If you come down here when I suggest, you have better negotiating power on your wage because institutes always need to hire native speakers then. If you try to find work at other times of the year, it can be done, but you might not get paid as much because the demand is lower. One time that I do not recommend looking for work is December through January. That's summertime down here as well as Christmas time. Porteños all go on vacation, and some take a hiatus from their regular English classes. It's pretty slim pickings then. Of course if you have dollars in the bank, you'll be just fine.
Commute
Most institutes here don't teach in house. Instead, they farm their teachers out to students' offices. Be sure to ask about how far you will have to travel, because while you can make an extra peso or two per hour for far away jobs, you won't be compensated for your travel time (which can be an hour or more each way). I'll put it this way, I've turned down every job offered to me outside of the City Center and I have never had trouble finding work.
Getting Paid
Ask when and how your pesos are comin' and if they don't pay you on time, then politely go on strike until they cough up the cash. Also ask about class cancellation policies. Usually you get paid only for student cancellations within 24 hours of a class, otherwise, you have to try to reschedule. Also, sometimes a contract states that the student has to pay for 75% of the classes no matter what. Be sure you know if there's a clause like that in your employer's contracts. In addition, if you get paid by check, you will need to go to the main branch of the issuing bank to cash it. One of my institutes occasionally pays me by check from the Banco Galicia. The main branch of the Banco Galicia is on the corner of Reconquista and Peron. They open at 10 a.m. and they close at 3 p.m. My advice: get there early or bring a good book. And don't forget your passport.
Teaching Materials
"Do I get my own textbook?" Most likely not. You'll get a photocopy of the book your institute uses. (Copyright infringement what!) Sometimes you have to pay for your copies, sometimes you don't.
"Do I need to bring my own tape recorder to class?" Majority of the time, that's a resounding "yes". The rest of the time it's "highly recommended".
Also on the textbook note, if an institute uses a textbook that its director wrote herself...Run away! Run away! Trust me on this one. I myself prefer Oxford's American Headway series because in my classroom, British English is just a footnote. One more tip: buy a grammar book in the States before you leave, because they're very expensive down here. I use Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. It's pretty standard.
I'm a One (Wo)Man Show!
Sooo...you're going to ignore my advice, eh? You're not going to take a TEFL course, and working for an institute chafes your free spirit. Okay, now what? Where are you going to find students? Are you going to advertise? How much does that cost? Once you get a student, you know that you have to negotiate your own rate and assess their needs and skills. Then you have to build a curriculum for them. Are you going to use a textbook? Because you'll have to buy it yourself (little hint: If you're going to do that, buy your textbook in the States, because they too are awfully expensive down here). If you need lesson planning ideas or guidance, who are you going to turn to? If your student doesn't show up one day, what are you going to do? If they never show up again, how are you going to deal with that? I hope you weren't counting on them to help you pay your rent (given enough time down here, this will happen, trust me). I'm not saying teaching purely on your own can't be done (I'm too much of a rule-breaker myself to do that), I'm just giving you very realistic problems to consider beforehand.
Interview
Just as a TEFL certificate helps you get your foot in the door, nice interview clothes can keep you from being quickly ushered out. This means no jeans, no T-shirts, no sneakers...NO flip flops. Appearances matter here. Get used to it. And don't be late!
The First Day of Class
One hint they might forget to tell you: bring your passport. You will probably have to check in at a security desk at your student's office, and they need to see your passport the first time. After that, you can carry around a photocopy just in case someone asks. Also, although I usually don't like classroom games, I always do the one where you write three sentences about yourself that are true and three that aren't. Students have to guess which ones are true. Then I make them write true and untrue statements about themselves. They love it, what can I say? If you've got any other questions, drop me a line!
Buena suerte!
* The exchange rate on the peso is about three to the dollar, in case you're not a loyal reader of my blog. Check out "budget and the value of the peso" for more details on how you can get by on 20+ pesos per day after rent.
To TEFL or not to TEFL?
If you haven't heard already, you can get a certificate to teach English abroad. It's called a TEFL certificate, which stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. You can go to online schools, brick and mortar establishments, or some combination of the two to get it. It can take as little as four weeks or as many as six before you get a little piece of paper that says you're qualified. Of course the question you're dying to ask me is "Do I NEED a TEFL certificate to teach in Buenos Aires?" Well my friend, the short answer is "no", and the long answer is "yes". Short answer first...you can teach English here either through an institute or on your own without a TEFL certificate. There, I've said it. Now, let me tell you what you'll be missing out on if you decide to go it alone.
In any TEFL course worth its tuition fees, you will learn novel things like teaching methodology. Anyone know what the dominant method is for teaching languages these days? Hands...anyone? Okay, here's more free info (I'm way too nice!): it's the Communicative Method. Anyone know how to use it in a classroom? Anyone? Bueller? Yeah well, it's worth checking out because it works. (Okay, the free TEFL course material stops right about...here.) Of course, TEFL courses don't just teach you how to teach...Hmmm, let's see...how's your grammar? Do you know the difference in meaning between saying "it will rain" vs. "it's going to rain"? Can you explain that to a non-native speaker? Can you give an example of a Second Conditional and explain how and when it's used? Do you know the difference between "may" and "might"? Do you think that I'm a sadistic grammar nazi? Don't answer that. I'm just bringing up grammar points that most of the advanced English students in this city already know. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then take a TEFL course or only give conversation classes here to avoid having your porteño students grammatically kicking your butt.
Now, if I had to tell you what the single most essential part of my TEFL course was, without a doubt, it was the eight practice classes that I got to teach. My institute advertised free English classes in most of the offices in the neighborhood. The people who showed up were our students. We taught two classes a week, and we prepared our lessons completely from scratch. This meant not only picking the topic for the lesson, but also finding and/or making all the materials necessary to teach it. We never knew how many students would show up or how proficient they would be. We just knew that at a certain hour we had either a beginning, intermediate, or advanced class to teach (and those divisions were very loose). This was Commando English Teaching 101, and now I'm prepared to face all kinds of uncertainty in the classroom and do it completely on my own without a textbook or any other materials. I am basically the English teaching version of MacGyver, if you will.
But wait, that's not all! What else do you learn? How about creative ways for dealing with problem students? How to ace an interview for a teaching position and totally win over your new Argentine boss. And, perhaps most importantly, if your TEFL institute is anything like mine, then they will send your resume to 100 plus language institutes in the city so that they call you, rather than you cold calling them. When my TEFL institute sent out my resume, not a day went by that I didn't get requests for interviews (At one point, I was averaging 3 calls/emails per day).
So how do you go about finding a TEFL institute, you ask? Well, I'll let you know the name of mine because I was at least 80% satisfied with their service. It's EBC Servicios Lingüísticos. They're based in Madrid but also have a school here. The big TEFL company in town is Bridge Linguatec. (If you want to know the differences between EBC and BL, drop me a line because this post is too long as it is.) And, before you ask me...TEFL courses that are done purely online are a waste of money. If you don't get classroom experience and a team of people on your side, you might as well not do it at all. The only real drawback to any TEFL course is the price. Before you all go rushing to EBC's website to see how much they cost, I'll tell you. My TEFL course cost 1050 euro or about U$S 1260 in October 2005, and that's about par for the course in BsAs. (I paid another 100 euro to get a TESOL certificate with no extra work involved). Before you start kvetching about money, think about what you're looking for down here. In my case, I'm starting a career in education and language. For other people, they wanted to be trained to do their job better than their bosses expected. The rest were just lazy and didn't want to do a lot of footwork in finding a job. Of course, I do realize that TEFL courses aren't for everyone. In fact, my instructor at EBC taught English in Japan for a long time without a certificate (until he wanted to work for a better company). It's doable, you just have to really take stock of who you are and what you're planning on doing down here.
Pesos and Work Schedule
The big question: How much can I expect to make as an English teacher in BsAs? Answer: Between $12-20* an hour at an institute, don't take less than $15 if you've got your TEFL. If you're really hot stuff and you get some well-to-do people to pay you for private lessons, then you can bump that up to $30-$35 an hour. Now before you start estimating how much you'll be making per month, know that you will probably be working between 20 and 35 paid hours per week (lesson planning is done on your own time). If you're working for an institute that caters to companies, then you'll work between 8-9:30 a.m., midday, and/or after regular business hours. If you're a real workaholic, then you can pad your down time with private lessons. Really though, when you start out teaching, you're going to need a fair amount of lesson planning time so don't cram a lot into your schedule until you get your sea legs.
Okay, now let's figure out what your salary will buy you. To help, I'll break down my current income. I work for three different institutes that pay me between $15 and $18 per hour. I also have a few private students of my own who pay me between $22.50 and $30 per hour. Working more or less 30 paid hours per week, I earn around $2000 per month. That salary affords me a nice standard of living. I have my own studio apartment (for $750 pesos per month, not an easy thing to find for a foreigner). I go out about twice a week for a nice dinner and/or to hear live music in cafes or bars. I eat out for lunch about three times a week. But I don't buy clothes, books, or music. I'm not sure where it all goes, but I know that at the end of each month, I have virtually nothing left. So, my standard of living took a small dive since I used to regularly buy books and music at home, but I'm not suffering here. Of course, in the States I could also save money with this standard of living. So, if you need to rack up dollars in your bank account, then go teach in Asia or in the Middle East.
When to Come
If you want your job search here to be like shooting fish in a barrel, then I suggest you get on a plane in February or March. The main hiring season starts sometime in February and extends through March to parts of April. You'll notice some TEFL institutes claiming that you can get work down here all year long. While that's not completely untrue, it's not a fair depiction. If you come down here when I suggest, you have better negotiating power on your wage because institutes always need to hire native speakers then. If you try to find work at other times of the year, it can be done, but you might not get paid as much because the demand is lower. One time that I do not recommend looking for work is December through January. That's summertime down here as well as Christmas time. Porteños all go on vacation, and some take a hiatus from their regular English classes. It's pretty slim pickings then. Of course if you have dollars in the bank, you'll be just fine.
Commute
Most institutes here don't teach in house. Instead, they farm their teachers out to students' offices. Be sure to ask about how far you will have to travel, because while you can make an extra peso or two per hour for far away jobs, you won't be compensated for your travel time (which can be an hour or more each way). I'll put it this way, I've turned down every job offered to me outside of the City Center and I have never had trouble finding work.
Getting Paid
Ask when and how your pesos are comin' and if they don't pay you on time, then politely go on strike until they cough up the cash. Also ask about class cancellation policies. Usually you get paid only for student cancellations within 24 hours of a class, otherwise, you have to try to reschedule. Also, sometimes a contract states that the student has to pay for 75% of the classes no matter what. Be sure you know if there's a clause like that in your employer's contracts. In addition, if you get paid by check, you will need to go to the main branch of the issuing bank to cash it. One of my institutes occasionally pays me by check from the Banco Galicia. The main branch of the Banco Galicia is on the corner of Reconquista and Peron. They open at 10 a.m. and they close at 3 p.m. My advice: get there early or bring a good book. And don't forget your passport.
Teaching Materials
"Do I get my own textbook?" Most likely not. You'll get a photocopy of the book your institute uses. (Copyright infringement what!) Sometimes you have to pay for your copies, sometimes you don't.
"Do I need to bring my own tape recorder to class?" Majority of the time, that's a resounding "yes". The rest of the time it's "highly recommended".
Also on the textbook note, if an institute uses a textbook that its director wrote herself...Run away! Run away! Trust me on this one. I myself prefer Oxford's American Headway series because in my classroom, British English is just a footnote. One more tip: buy a grammar book in the States before you leave, because they're very expensive down here. I use Practical English Usage by Michael Swan. It's pretty standard.
I'm a One (Wo)Man Show!
Sooo...you're going to ignore my advice, eh? You're not going to take a TEFL course, and working for an institute chafes your free spirit. Okay, now what? Where are you going to find students? Are you going to advertise? How much does that cost? Once you get a student, you know that you have to negotiate your own rate and assess their needs and skills. Then you have to build a curriculum for them. Are you going to use a textbook? Because you'll have to buy it yourself (little hint: If you're going to do that, buy your textbook in the States, because they too are awfully expensive down here). If you need lesson planning ideas or guidance, who are you going to turn to? If your student doesn't show up one day, what are you going to do? If they never show up again, how are you going to deal with that? I hope you weren't counting on them to help you pay your rent (given enough time down here, this will happen, trust me). I'm not saying teaching purely on your own can't be done (I'm too much of a rule-breaker myself to do that), I'm just giving you very realistic problems to consider beforehand.
Interview
Just as a TEFL certificate helps you get your foot in the door, nice interview clothes can keep you from being quickly ushered out. This means no jeans, no T-shirts, no sneakers...NO flip flops. Appearances matter here. Get used to it. And don't be late!
The First Day of Class
One hint they might forget to tell you: bring your passport. You will probably have to check in at a security desk at your student's office, and they need to see your passport the first time. After that, you can carry around a photocopy just in case someone asks. Also, although I usually don't like classroom games, I always do the one where you write three sentences about yourself that are true and three that aren't. Students have to guess which ones are true. Then I make them write true and untrue statements about themselves. They love it, what can I say? If you've got any other questions, drop me a line!
Buena suerte!
* The exchange rate on the peso is about three to the dollar, in case you're not a loyal reader of my blog. Check out "budget and the value of the peso" for more details on how you can get by on 20+ pesos per day after rent.
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