Teaching English in Krakow -- how to find students?

Hello,

I'll be going to Jagiellonian University next August/September and I am wondering what you all would recommend for finding students for me to teach English? I am a native speaker, but do not have any other credentials. I know that I can still find someone to teach just being a native speaker, but I do not know exactly where to look.

Ideas? If you know someone who is wanting to learn can you make a referral?

Best regards and thank you in advance.

Hello k98_man,

You will like krakow, it's a great city.


I don't think being a native teacher is enough at all.
Perhaps you could get some quilifications between now and then? T.E.L.F. is the most basic and not really worth anything, CELTA is a good one to get according to people on here, DELTA I don't know much about.

There is lots of information on this site, just use the search box, top right corner.

There are many native English speakers here teaching English with qualifications, so I would not be surprised if you would get very little money not having any qualifications.

So do a course and you can make a few quid and have a good time is my advice.

Good luck.

Thank you for the info Sean.

Hmm, I have been told the same thing about the number of native English speakers who teach, but I have been told it is pretty easy to get 30 zl / hour to teach English without credentials. I'm just looking to give some private lessons while I attend school not work for a school / firm.

I'll have to look at the certs. Is there any forum or place to "advertise" in a way?

Thanks,

If its just for 2 months its makes no sense to get any teaching credentials, as a CELTA course itself takes a solid month to do.

The problem is that Krakow is filled with so called 'English teachers', most of which have fallen into disrepute and have depressed wages across the board. If you feel you have a knack for teaching, understand how an English lesson should look like, and have a good personality/sense of humor etc, then teaching lessons regularly should be easy. If youre some kind of troll, well...

A few places to advertise are gumtree.pl, gratka.pl, ang.pl etc etc

No, I will be in Krakow for about a total of 8 months or so. I arrive in either August or September. Either way a CELTA is out of the question considering one has to be 20 before you can even sign up for it.

I'm not looking for a ton of money, just enough to help cover some of the living costs. I will try some of these websites, thank you.

In all honesty, Krakow is full of natives that want to do just that. The problem is that no-one is likely to take a young (18/19) year old teacher unless you're dirt cheap - and by cheap, I mean 25zl/hr or less.

Your best hope would be to offer a free trial lesson and get them in that way - but be warned - people that pay for private lessons expect you to know your stuff. It's not enough to simply turn up and say "I'm a private tutor" - they will expect you to be able to explain stuff. For private lessons, credentials don't really matter (heck, I would argue that they're worthless in most schools) - but the ability to keep the student happy is paramount. If you find yourself struggling to explain something, they won't be back.

Basically, don't rely on the possibility of getting lessons. If you get them, it can be a pleasant surprise - but you won't find people calling you begging for lessons.

I think CELTA is the way to go. DELTA is aimed at people that want to be school directors. I think you have to have CELTA and a few years teaching experience before you can take DELTA. I took it at IH-Wrocław and recommend it.

Question for the english teachers around Poland. Does it make a difference if you are fluent in polish as well as teaching english (for example, being a US-born Pole)? As I am sure it exists the other way around, many native Poles teaching English but I was wondering how common is the case for the other way around.

If this is rare, does it make a difference in commanding a decent wage in saturated cities like Kraków, Wrocław, or Warszawa?

Personally I have a position doing project management so this is not in reference to myself, but a couple friends that I have back home that are finishing university and might be considering a move to Poland.

Well, you have the benefit of being a native speaker of both but play on the fact that you are a native speaker of English and you'll get more than your Polish counterparts.

I'm fluent enough in Polish as meetings are conducted in Polish. No, I don't get more for being fluent but I make their job easier.

I guess my question is also related to ease of finding work privately or through a school. I am aware that having the right connections are invaluable and creative advertising goes a long way, but then again - I'm not the one going for this as my career. This would be people who I feel are a bit less ambitious/creative than me and I'm just trying to seek out whether its a worthwhile effort for them to come out here and make 3000zl a month teaching english in Kraków without working an absurd amount of hours. Once again, I stress fluency in both languages.

Does it make a difference? I would say it does if you really are bilingual. How common is it? Very rare. Im one of them, born and bred American but speak fluent Polish since my parents were Poles. A decent wage? Well if thats all you can offer than maybe. If you have a uni degree, some TEFL certification, have a knack for teaching, are amiable and generally fun to be around with, and can put together a decent lesson, youre golden.

I'm talking about individuals with four year degrees (some related to teaching, even teaching certificate), completed CELTA training, real fluency in both, and fairly hard working. Would it be difficult to get a decent paying school (private school?) position or just better off trying to get private lessons in Kraków?

From what I have read, it seems a lot of Native english speakers are on beginning level of polish (making it harder to really reach out/teach students on certain aspects of the english language) and not at BSc level (but with some teaching course completed). Is this an accurate reading (I apologize if I am way off)?

Youre not even 20? Then quite honestly you will have serious problems finding work, sorry.


Then in that case no. You will have to look around for a decent gig but I doubt youll have a problem.

In a word, no. Polish is very rarely used in my classes and then only for specialized vocabulary. How do you explain "cod"? A fish that swims in the ocean? Use the Polish "dorsz" and you've got instant comprehension. In addition to my full time work at an accredited school (degree from a university in French plus CELTA) I've got plenty of private lessons, all from referrals. I don't advertise. They don't come to me because of my Polish.They come for English lessons. Period. And most of my students who come back to my school for the following year request me by name to teach them. It's not always possible because of scheduling, but it's nice to hear that.

Does speaking Polish help me in my teaching? Yes, without a doubt. When I read or hear a mistake in English I can explain to them not only HOW they should say it correctly in English, but WHY they made that mistake. You can see the "aha" light going on in their brains. It's satisfying for me to see it, and they really appreciate it.

On, not to nitpick, but there is a difference between polish and Polish. To the best of my knowledge, it's the only word in English that changes its pronunciation when capitalized.

yup, soft o in the first and hard o in the second, there is some phonetic explanations, but my keyboard can't type them :P

Pantsless is right. Rob, you imply that teaching English is not really creative. Upon what do you base that conclusion?

No. You should be using 99.9% English in your classes anyway. For the lower levels (the only levels where you can get away with using a bit of Polish) schools will prefer to use Polish staff over natives anyway (Poles are often cheaper and almost always less likely to be a complete fcuk-up, which is a common problem that native speakers have).

When I used to teach (these days I only do a couple of lessons a week) I told my students that I didn't speak any Polish at all: that forces them to use only English to communicate with their teacher. Frankly, an understanding of why students make certain mistakes is the only benefit knowing Polish offers.

Exactly, they are there to learn English, not to hear some more Polish from a gloating foreigner. Teachers discuss all kinds of topics. What makes you think you are too creative for that? Maybe an art school is the place for you. You know, warp your mind and pass yourself off as a genius ;)

I dont disagree, one of my cardinal sins as a beginning teacher was overusing Polish to explain tasks, it taught my students it was acceptable to use Polish with me or revert to it the second they had problems saying something in english. I learned my lesson.

But having the ability to instantly translate not just words but idiomatic sentences? Get real, it helps your students tremendously. Its nice some of you speak Polish, but are you fluent in it? Take any word, like lets say a student wants to say that tomorrow theyre going 'na rehabilitacje staw skokowy'. What would you say? Uhhhh? I just had a student ask me that an hour ago. And quite honestly you MUST have the polish definitions for specific vocab words. 'Cod' is just the tip of the iceberg here.

Btw, do any natives teach lower levels??? Like an A1 level?

I used to last year, using whatever I could to teach them. It's difficult, but if you have a group that's willing to learn and which doesn't have the attitude of "your job is to teach me and not my job to put effort in at home" - it's not *that* difficult. But my approach was to take the Callan books and use them as a basis for learning - it wasn't ideal, but with traditionally taught grammar mixed in, it did the job.

I'm sure there were better ways to do it than that, but for someone in their 1st year of teaching, it worked well.

I'd tell them to think of a word which is similar and that it is important that they think in English and think their way around problems rather than banging their heads on the wall of "I can't remember what this word means!".


I've taught complete beginners in the past. In some ways it can be very beneficial to the students.

My own experience says that it's a double edged sword.

But I had the pleasure to watch a very experienced teacher teach grammar to complete beginners - and without using a word of Polish, he managed to get them all to completely understand what was going on and why it was that way. Quite impressive stuff really, and makes a change from the usual native speaker half assed attempts at teaching this stuff.

I fail to see where I mention that I am too creative to be a teacher? I only stated that there is somewhat of a lack of 'drive' and hard work ethic when comparing myself to a few of my friends that potentially want to get in on teaching English in Poland. Their studies in the states aren't going the greatest and while they don't intend on teaching English in Poland, it may happen that they do. I apologize for not using capital e and p when referring to languages, don't normally type too formally on forums.

Okay I don't mind you all going off topic, but I did have one question to ask. Perhaps since I am so young and have no credentials I could advertise myself as just a cheap private lesson which is more for people who want to just practice speaking English. Therefore it would be someone with a decent command of the language who wants to just pay maybe 20 zl an hour to just have a conversation or something like that. I have heard there is a demand for this (though it is probably small).

As a native speaker of Polish living in Poland, I'm sure it's possible. But I wouldn't advise you to charge as little as 20 zł an hour. People may get suspicious as to your abilities to talk as a native if your price is so low. On the other hand, you may get uninterested to give conversations during which you have to follow closely what your student says and make corrections to his talk for that price. You will have to arrange topics for the conversations as well, since it won't be good just to say to them "Let's sit down and talk, what would you like to do talk about with me?" In my view, some 35-40-45-50 zł an hour should perhaps be fair for that. Anyway, it is just what I would have accepted for having some pratice in "guided" conversations at my level of English from an inexperienced teacher like you.

Great: more slackers who can't be bothered to get a 'real job' and so decide to teach English in Poland. Just what Poland needs.

I definitely wouldn't call them slackers, especially my brother who is finishing a degree in teaching and always wanted to live in Poland. For some, it would be temporary until they figure out what they really want to do in Poland, considering some have never been in Poland for longer than 3 months (a summer's vacation)? Why are YOU teaching English in Poland, is that much different?

I'm not teaching English in Poland.

We need to dispel the myths that teachers are just slackers. There are some here who professionally deal with a range of topics and show their knowledge. Besides, a teacher is much more than a mere disseminator (feels a Harmer type rant coming on). It depends on what method you teach but I see myself as much more of a facilitator now. TTT must be low in relation to STT.

A real job like a professor or doctor? LOL Professors and some lecturers make a career out of spouting BS and repeating drivel.

In other words, teaching pays the bills and allows them to drink beer and try the old tried-tested-failed method of "hi girls, I'm from America".

Sorry, but teaching "while you figure out what to do" just cheats everyone - yourself, students and schools. If you can't figure out what to do after 3 months, then...


The problem, I think, is more with the "beer, dreadlocks n English teaching" types - you don't see many of them in Poznan, but Krakow seems absolutely littered with them.

I think it's safe to say that the allure of native speakers has definitely gone - there will always be jobs for those suitably qualified and experienced, but I'm not seeing much of a market for those that don't have the abilities. No wonder wages in Krakow appear to be on a race to the bottom!

I wonder what the chances are of the brother in question here going to a small Polish city and teaching in a public school. Obviously, as he's so passionate about teaching, he'll be happy to accept the bones on offer. Or will he go to Warsaw/Krakow/Wroclaw and live it up like so many others? Hmm.... :)