I am an female 27 year old American with a university degree. I have no TEFL or CELTA certificate. I have been teaching English in a training school in China for two years now. I would like to try to relocate to Europe some place. Poland seems like a really interesting place to do so. Where can I find available jobs? How much should I expect to make? Is there a big demand for it? How are foreign teachers received in Poland?
In a nutshell, without a CELTA, NOT a TEFL cerificate, your chances of finding a teaching job here are pretty slim. As you'll read on numerous threads on PF and on esl cafe it's the only accepted qualification.
For a number of reasons, teaching experience in Asia isn't given much credibility by the better schools here. Some don't even consider it valuable at all because so many "teachers" there have no qualifications.
I don't mean to rain on your parade even more, but as an American you'll have to hustle to apply for residency almost as soon as you arrive in Poland and to get a residency card you'll almost certainly have to have a job or your own company when you apply. BTW, I'm an American who has been teaching in Gdansk for almost six years and I know a little about the process.
Because the US isn't in the EU-thank God-it's very difficult for Americans to find legal work in many countries in Europe. See the threads on eslcafe for specific countries.
If you're really set on teaching English in Poland, come to Poland in the summer, take a CELTA course and start looking for work in late August/early September.
