A guest piece from John of Rogers is (Soon to Be) in Qatar blog, who is soon not to be in the Czech Republic and so very kindly agreed to write a summary of his experiences for TEFLtastic:
“The Czech Republic- a place that was both strange, dreary, and, somehow, magical when I first arrived many years ago. I came here largely on a whim: I didn’t know anyone here and I certainly didn’t speak the language, I simply signed up for a TEFL course, bought a plane ticket, and came , confident that I’d find some kind of job when I arrived.
The earlier blog post on TEFLtastic about the modernization of the Czech Republic got it right. Not only Prague, but also much of the rest of the country has quickly modernized, and I think this can best be seen in the prevalence of English all over the country. When I first arrived, it was difficult to find a restaurant outside of the center of Prague with an English menu (needless to say, there was a lot of hoping and pointing when ordering), nowadays, it’s hard to find a restaurant where the servers don’t speak to you in English when they hear English being spoken at the table.
All of this is good for new arrivals who haven’t yet picked up enough Czech phrases to get by.
Other changes have made it much more difficult for new teachers.
While being a native-speaker was once enough to get several job offers even without any relevant qualifications when I first arrived, Prague has become what some call a “mecca” of initial teacher training courses. At my last count, there were four schools (could be more now) running teacher certification courses, many of these running multiple courses simultaneously in the summer months.
This, along with the fact that many teachers (such as myself) have not moved on after a year, means that the market is saturated with teachers with the same level of qualifications every year. This means that full-time jobs for new teachers are difficult to come by, and many teachers end up having to pick up part-time work from several different schools or agencies. I even heard a rumor that there were over 200 responses to an ad was placed last year (fall 2009) by a Czech looking for private lessons. There are also rumors that many recent graduates of one of the TEFL courses packed it up a few months after arriving due to the fact that they couldn’t find work.
The teachers who do find full-time employment find that most of their hours are going to be teaching in-company courses. This means a lot of teachers spend a lot of time travelling back and forth across the city, often working split-shifts as well.
I’ve painted a pretty bleak picture of working in the Czech Republic. Living here still is a wonderful experience, but earning enough to get by (without dipping into your savings) just isn’t as easy as it used to be.”
Any questions for John, comments on his comments or volunteers to “do” other countries? Comments below please:
Interesting read and great guest post. Shan’t imagine I’ll ever get to teach there, but informative nonetheless.
This is very interesting. Is it all of the CR, do you think, or really just Prague? My first stop when getting back into teaching ESL was Mlada Boleslav, about an hour north of Prague, home of the Skoda factory. I’m talking about eleven years ago now, and it seemed then to be quite easy to get a job.
Even then, Prague was a different world. EVERYONE wanted to work there. Being out in the uncool zone was a great place to be. Life was cheaper, it was easier to make friends, and the teaching (expat) community was a strong support network – life, especially in winter, was sometimes bleak (and VERY cold!).
That being said, if I hadn’t moved to Italy, married an Italian, and settled down, I’d certainly consider moving back there.
Does anyone working in the CR now but outside of Prague reading this, want to comment?
Hi Adam and Jo,
thanks for the comments!
Re: whether the situation is dire simply in Prague or all over,
I would completely agree that being out of “the uncool zone” as you called it made (and still does to some degree) it easier to find a job / friends / etc.
But there has been a residual effect as well on the larger cities.
I know from experience that times are hard in Brno, which is mostly due to the fact that most teaching here happens in-company, and as we all know, language lessons are often the first ‘perk’ to be dropped by the company when they need to save money.
Due to this, there’s been kind of a ‘rats leaving the sinking ship’ effect with some of the smaller agencies as they have literally abandoned all hope of finding work in Brno and focused their attention on some of the smaller cities nearby.
Granted, those who come to Brno with experience as well as the requisite qualifications do find jobs, but the problem is is that they often end up having to work part-time for several language schools / agencies, which means, for North Americans at least, that there will be minimal support in getting a work visa.
I’d be interested as well to hear from anyone located in any of the other cities (Olomouc, Ostrava, etc).