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how to move to the czech republic to teach english
i get a loooot of questions about how best to start teaching english in the czech republic and steps you need to take to be able to do this and be successful at it. so, i’d figured i’d help y’all out with this big honkin’ post! if this is not your thing, welp, then i’ll see you back here in a few days! first off… GET TEFL CERTIFIED if you get your TEFL (teaching english as a foreign language) certificate in prague, it’s going to help you big time with not only the connections to schools you’re going to need later, but also just helpful day-to-day things (like which bins to…
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things to know before moving to the czech republic
let’s just get into it, shall we? the things they just don’t tell you… you’ll probably have to leave the country to get a visaif you are a non-eu passport holder and unless you have a pre-existing arrangement with a sponsor of your new job, mentally prepare that you’ll be headed either to berlin, bratislava, or vienna to get your visa. why? nobody knows. oh, and you’ll be going back there again to pick it up. nobody in immigration will speak english to you. even if they know english.you’ll likely be spending a lot of time in your local immigration building which probably looks straight out of a kafka novel.…
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i’m on a podcast!
hello, friends. we’re enjoying a beautiful end of the week (mostly) off from teaching due to the october 28th holiday (czechoslovak independence day). i just wanted to let you know that my expat interview as a guest on the abroad podcast is out this week… just in case you ever wanted to hear me telling my entire expat story. it’s like the audio-book version of this blog. why i wanted to move abroad (and how i did), why we decided to leave prague, how our transition to budejovice was, and a little about expat life now, travel tips + some real talk opinions (fair warning!). also, apparently i’m really chatty and…
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things you have to explain when you’re an ESL teacher
a response to the all too true, “11 things you have to explain when you’re an esl (english as a second language) teacher”. number one: “our job is more awkward than yours.”well, if that ain’t the truth. being an english teacher can sometimes seem not so far away from prostitution. your services are in demand, you go back to your place, receive cash afterwards, they leave, the next client comes in. it involves acting like a total extrovert, and oh, there is a load of acting involved. it also involves telling a forty year old man , oh so gently, that the “n word” is not the most acceptable term…
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how i travel often (on a teacher’s budget)
it’s not a secret that ESL (english as a second language) teachers in europe aren’t the wealthiest lot (although i have heard a different story about asia– that’s where you can really rake in the $$). no, for us here on the european continent, the job is a labor of love, but one that puts us very near many intriguing and interesting new places to visit. my travel list is always a mile long and it never ends. a day after returning from a trip, i am already thinking of the next destination! in my three years abroad (yep, i just hit big three! hooray!), besides getting acclimated, settled, and…
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i heard it at summer camp
ahhhh, summer camp. the obligatory summer job that helps keep the lights on around here in those slower months when people aren’t exactly jumping at the idea of having lessons, but it also brings us great joy… when summer camp is administered in small doses, of course. we almost missed out on summer camp this year entirely because of our back to america travel plans but managed to teach one week of it right after we came back from greece. one thing i love about it, besides tasting all of the czech meals at lunch time, is it’s not so much just teaching as it is hanging out with kids.…
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how TEFL changed my life
i never thought that i would feel supremely confident that i could hold down a job in many different countries on any continent, especially with the economy still in recovery. having a TEFL certificate gives me this freedom.i decided it was time to stop struggling to pay rent in expensive seattle and see the world while working– something that has always made sense to me. since i was in high school, i would think about how people work so they can go on vacations and stay in exotic locales. but my line of thinking was always just, “why don’t you work where you really want to be?” whether that’s in…
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i was inspired to take part in the day in the life project because i’m one of those curious individuals that loves to take a peak into the daily routine of someone else. also, i think it would be really nice to look back on sometime and hopefully, interesting or insightful for you! for this day, i chose friday, july 25, 2014, the last day of summer camps. all events take place in either české budĕjovice or český krumlov in south-west czech republic. … 5:40am: the alarm goes off. since it’s summer, it’s light enough to get ready without having to turn on a lamp. shower & get dressed in red…
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march noms
a low-key, windy weekend here in south bohemia: i focused most of my time and effort on planning the epic slovenia trip in june. and have realized, dang, slovenia is AMAZING! a country half the size of switzerland with so much to offer: alps, adriatic beaches, caves, glacial rivers, countryside, karst plateaus, national parks…. i am really looking forward to it. and with the recent acquisition of a blender last month, i tried my hand at making delicious creamy almond milk– a drink which i would buy exclusively instead of milk while living in the states but never have been able to find it here. fortunately, it is so easy…
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risking it
us ESL teachers are a transient bunch. it’s common for people to teach english for nine months to a year before heading back to wherever they came from. i always thought that i would share this fate… until things greatly improved financially, we met more contacts and realized– hey, we could totally stay here for longer. life is good! i certainly didn’t anticipate my life abroad teaching english to be much more lucrative than a life in seattle slinging coffee and interning for positions that will never materialize into jobs, but hey. living in the czech republic is a bit different than the rest of western europe, but it’s also…
