Advice on Teaching English in Poland

A public school teacher of English must speak Polish, first of all.

In private language schools, it's more or less what they expect here. There's so many variables that it's impossible to say what's desirable - however, a decent job will demand the CELTA as a minimum.

In public schools, maybe. It depends on the attitude of the school director - however, you'll be working for really, really low wages without a Masters degree.


I think this depends very much on the attitude of the school director. I know a couple of schools here that have native teachers working there without speaking Polish to any decent level.

I think Pawian is right here, delph. There are plenty teachers (qualified) that should be filling those positions rather than native speakers. I think PO could be doing more to put more Poles into teaching positions in state schools.

Wow! That is amazing. Can you tell us the types/names/addresss of schools? :):):)

I worked in a public school back in the day when I didn't speak Polish at all. It was a college prep school, located in a small town. I can provide the contact info.

My friend (Polish) who is a school teacher has a native speaker teaching at her school. He doesn't know any Polish (even after a year). The school is in a large city. I can provide contact info.

It was hard for me because I didn't know what was going on half the time but I could easily tune-out in the teachers' lounge and admire the hot, young priest who taught catechism ;) (I'm female btw)

What PO should be doing is more to attract well qualified individuals into teaching - the current system is an absolute farce. It's nonsense that someone can become a teacher after scraping their way through university - and equally nonsense that nothing is done to attract people from business and industry into teaching.

But the amount of native speakers working in public schools is minute - perhaps 5 in Poznan at the most?

I agree with that. They should have sth like the JET system in Japan whereby the native of the land and the native speaker work in tandem. I operated that way in Profi Lingua and it was one (of the only) plus from the school.

College prep school ? I can roughly guess what it is, but what is its name in Polish?

Liceum

I have lined up an interview with a English school in Warsaw and they have asked me for my rate (per 45mins) I'm not sure what to say and I was wondering if anyone could help me with this as I need to email them back asap. Thanks in advance for the help.

Eddie

How long is a piece of string?

It's impossible to say without more information - what's the job? how many hours a week? where? how much travelling is involved? what kind of students?

However, general consensus is that anything less than 60zl/hour in Warsaw and you're being screwed.

English teacher in one of the big schools in central Warsaw so not much travel. Don't know about students or hours yet.

1PLN per minute is often fair but Warsaw is a bit more expensive. It also depends on the size of the school.

Without a doubt, 60PLN/hour as a bare minimum. But ask them what they can offer - however, for negotiating, start at 75zl and go no lower than 60zl.

That sounds good, thanks for the replies guys. I will email him 75zl depending on the amount of hours of teaching. Would anyone know the standard amount of hours per week in Polish schools?

Hey guys, this is a great discussion with so much information but it's a little confusing to put together all the instances and opinions. Could you give me some advice on my situation particularly please? I have experience teaching Music, English, German... but this is from when I was in India two years ago and I suppose none of my experience counts. I am a native speaker (speaking English right through school and college for almost 16years). I also speak German and Polish upto the B2 level and Italian and French at the beginners' level. I wonder if this is good from me from the "teaching english" point of view. Now I am in Lodz, PL and I'm soon going to meet a school director here and discuss conducting conversation lessons for their highschool students. It'll probably be about 4 hours every week. What do you think I will be offered and what can I possibly negotiate for? I could possibly teach there for 2 years since I will be a student here for that long. Any replies will be appreciated.. =)

Whatever you're offered, it will be low. You will have to decide how much they have in their budget to pay for you. I recently walked from my job because the director decided to "re-work" the bonus part of my contract so that my bonuses disappeared. You have to examine how many other options (other teachers) the director has and how low they'll be willing to go.

Having said that, I'd walk away from anything under 50pln/60 min hour (netto- that's after taxes). Beware of weird offers where hourly pay varies depending on blah blah blah. Make sure you are sure of the hourly pay as it works out to 60 min hours AFTER taxes and then make sure you know the minimum of hours you're expected to work.

Whatever is offered, I'd think about it and get back to the director another day.

I didn't see this - but -

In an ideal world, you'll get between 20-24 hours a week. The reality is that you'll probably get between 15-20 - though it depends on what kind of school it is. However - one desirable situation is to have 12 from one school and 12 from another.


Sadly, probably next to nothing. You aren't on the "work path for teachers" - so it's unlikely that they'll be able to offer you anything more than the amount paid to trainee teachers - which is next to nothing.


From a high school director, I can't see her getting anything close to that at all - maybe 20zl an hour if she's lucky, unless the kids are paying.

Don't be silly Delphimomine, do you want this person to blow his chances of getting the job if he requests such an hourly amount?

There is a language school( with offices, employees etc) behind my house in Krakow and they charge their clients 65 zl per hour so tell me how a teacher can ask for 75zl per hour.

No way he ll get that ...

yeah that part was unclear, they wrote "school director" and classes for "high school kids" but yeah, if it is in fact for a high school, then I'll defer to your knowledge.

I really don't know what high school salaries are like for native speakers, in fact I didn't even know these positions existed.

Any credible school in Warsaw will be able to pay at least 60zl an hour without batting an eyelid. Asking for 75zl isn't actually that unrealistic there, especially if corporate classes are involved (with travel, etc).


It very much depends on the school - 65zl an hour sounds about right for Callan schools, but any credible, worthwhile school will be charging much more than that. I've actually got a list of what schools in Poznan are charging - and last year, the most expensive one-to-one class in the city was over 110zl an hour.


Maybe you're right and it's for a private school - I read it as public school, but who knows?

Anyway, in public schools, there's a set system based on the "work path" - there are always jobs for natives in public schools. But the salaries for someone without a Masters and recognised teacher training (ie, more than CELTA) are pathetically low.

and still make money ? ( remove all the functioning costs, rent marketing etc and see what would be left for the company)

A language school can charge 110 zl an hour or more but how many clients would it get? And for how many hours?

This candidate shoudl keep us posted about how much he was offered ( he can also look for himself if they have a price list on their website and see what they can afford to pay him and still be in business...

Like , pay depending on how many turn up for the class etc ??

Well, there's two things to take into account - in school, and in company teaching.

In company teaching in Warsaw is expensive - and the salaries reflect that. Sure, you can get a "native" without a clue for 50zl an hour, but any credible school which offers credible teaching will be charging close to double that. Take away even 75zl an hour for the teacher, and the school still gets 25zl an hour for doing nothing.

In school classes - let's say there's a group of 8, all paying 15zl an hour (which is about normal). That's 120zl an hour for the school - minus 60zl (school classes always pay a bit less) - still 60zl profit right there.

Then you consider that Polish teachers often work for far less money - so that subsidises the cost of a native, too. In Krakow, there's so many native "teachers" that the price has collapsed - but in general, schools can usually expect to take 25-30zl an hour profit from each class. It's not bad money if you think about it ;)


It depends on a lot really - if you want a Cambridge examiner teaching you, then 100zl isn't that expensive. But of course, if you just want a 'native speaker' and don't care about the quality, you can get one for 50zl an hour without a problem anywhere.


I always did that. I remember one amusing job interview (that I went to because I wanted some interview practice and had no intention of working there) - I already knew they charged 62zl an hour for classes with a native speaker, so I asked for 70zl straight off. The look on their face was rather amusing.. :)


Normal tactic of disreputable schools and should be avoided at all costs.

They have to get the clients ! that's not like doing nothing given the competition .
Also remove the Language company taxes on top of rent, marketing,books etc from those 25zl margin ,where is the profit ?

I am extremely skeptical that a school would be able to pay that much whether In company courses or school classes but maybe school classes with big volumes of clients/ at least 10 students per class would allow that.

Let's wait until we hear about what was offered to him ,i hope he won't follow your advice Delphiomine because what you did at your job interview was like a game but if he badly needs a job in Poland ...

From the Polish teachers - many of whom will be working for far less. I know one school chain that was paying natives 50zl an hour while paying Polish teachers 25zl an hour, for instance.


It very much depends on the school, but remember - just because the natives are getting 75zl an hour in Warsaw doesn't mean the Polish teachers are. But - let's hypothetically say that our company signs up for 4 group classes twice a week, plus private classes for the director and vice-director. The native may teach 6 of those classes, while a Polish teacher takes the other 6. The company pays 90zl an hour, the native gets 60zl an hour and the Polish teacher 30zl an hour. That, from one client, means the school gets (after labour) - 540zl a week profit. From one client. Then there's the in-school classes, where the Polish teacher earns 30zl an hour while the group of 8 pays 15zl an hour. Not bad profit, huh?

I can't name names, but I know one particular school which (this year, as a corporate policy) is paying no more than 60zl an hour to teachers, with Polish teachers being asked to take a pay cut. They're still charging 90zl an hour to corporate clients - and furthermore, they take payment up front for 40 hours from the corporate clients, to be used as the clients wish. That money sits in the bank, earning interest.

Alright everyone, so far I understand that I can expect:
atleast 50zl/60min hour, if I have a genuine good offer going for me
OR
less than that if I am being ripped (as well as if they put forth all sort of conditions and ifs and buts).

Any resources I could use to help me with the lessons? I am already prepared for the lessons and I'll have a meeting to work out the details of lessons with another teacher there but your input would help too.

I'll get back here and fill you all in on how it turns out... (sort of give back to the community).

Here's a little deviating from the original topic: I saw an advertisement on gumtree with pictures of a nice studio apartment with all the furniture (except a cupboard and washing machine, but there were other provisions for keeping your clothes atleast). It looked like an ad personally put up by the owner. I managed to arrange for the meeting, and saw that the bed was now missing, and there was no washing machine (anyway), and the place looked in a lesser condition and smaller than it seemed from the pictures. To top it all, the girl who I spoke with a couple of times on the phone to arrange the meeting turned out to be an agent who said I will pay 500zl for her services. Heck, I didn't even use her services. I searched the place up and went to look at it myself. She only let me in and wanted 500zl for it.

Needless to say, she was very nice about everything and the owner turned out to be a helpful and friendly guy and we even are in the same profession, but after first verbally agreeing, I just could not sleep that night, and eventually called off our meeting to sign the agreement the next morning. (one surprise deserves another I suppose.)

Lesson: Don't be shy, or try to be nice in return just because they are nice (unfortunate). Call each ad, and ask first if it's through an agent and look at the place thoroughly, write down the details and sleep over it before you decide to sign. Don't be in a hurry for fear of losing the apartment, because there are plenty more being posted by the hour, and some even prettier!

Please give me some pointers on the renting an apartment bit, I could learn more!

This really typifies how Language Schools operate. A big F*ck You goes out to all of them.
I worked for one school in which the director wanted me to drive out to a client and teach him 1/week and not pay me anything at all for it because I was "under contract." It didn't happen but now that I think about it, I don't know how that meeting didn't end in violence...y'know, it's not too late for that...

Firstly my English is minimal, so do not judge it. I have some thoughts on English teaching issue - I know young Australian guy with aspargers syndrome who can’t spell to save his life, I’m not sure what course he completed (if any) to prepare himself for teaching. Couple of years ago he decided to teach English in Japan - come back few weeks later. Next thing he wants to go to Poland where English teachers are needed, keen to meet some nice polish blond (hmmmmmm -who not understanding English, and “”“cultural””” differences will not realised that he actually is not a full bottle) I don’t know what he ended up doing, but I hope he did not go to Poland to teach us his English. I once met a frustrated takeaway cook ( aussie accent, aussie slang, never learnt English grammar) who was planning to teach “English” some unsuspecting students – this is the quality of “teachers” we get. I myself attended language course in couple of English speaking countries and was disappointed when to my grammar question teacher would answer “ I’m not sure, let me come back to you on that” – this is not the answer I use to get from my German, Russian or French language teacher in Poland. I also think that it is pretty bad when someone with my level of English has to explain to TAFE teacher why in past simple “ed” endings of regular verbs sounds “t”, “d” or “yd” (I dictated it to her so she could make note in her book) – so what can we expect from You. It is quite insulting in my opinion to have some people with total lack of basic knowledge of English grammar, with an uneducated English accents (UK or US)coming to Poland to teach or any other country for that matter, but specially to Poland where students pay a lot of attention to grammar, and do not realise that they might end up sounding like some low class UB recipient. So my advice to YOU is - do not blame you teaching inability, lack of basic English grammar on students not understanding ”eny English”, just do not plan to teach English if you don’t know it yourself or else, educate yourself adequately so that you can have something to offer. And have some self criticism as to how you sound - we do have standards and we do not wish to sound primitive, I guess it is up to the people who employ teachers.

^excellent post and excellent points.
Those who do understand and can do what a teacher is supposed to be able to do suffer as the native speaker you described lowers the quality and lowers the wages.

In my opinion this makes the market less attractive for the capable and qualified.
Now my question for you molat is who do you think employs those "teachers?" Is it other Aussies or Poles?