English Teaching Opportunities in Szczecin

Hello all,

I will be spending the Summer months in Szczecin and would like be productive with my time there. As I am just learning Polish, I thought a job teaching English would be most appropriate.

Does anyone know of reputable English language schools in Szczecin?

Yours,

SB

Forget about it. There's nothing happening in summer, and what will be happening there will all be taken by people who are already 'in the know'.

Might not want to sign yourself "SB" in future, too.

Summer is not a good time to find a job as an English teacher. Most schools operate at reduced capacity, and pay only half wages for summer courses. Plus you should have been looking two months ago.

Here's a list of all the language schools in Szczecin. Look up their e-mail addresses and send cover letters and CVs to all of them. Avoid Callan method schools.

If you don't have a CELTA or TEFL certificate, you will have a hard time finding work. If you're from outside of the EU, forget it. They are not going to go through the rigamarole of getting work permission for you for a short term part time job.

Summer is a lean time for English teachers in Poland. Work is scarce and the pay is low, and most of the jobs are taken already.

Anybody thinking they can just rock up in Poland and land a job teaching English needs to think carefully before coming. You may speak English but do you know how it works? Can you explain it to people effectively? Are you trained in teaching? Can you offer more to a school than a Polish teacher with an MA in Philology and several years' experience.

I've been teaching English for nearly twenty years and have all the usual bits of paper, but I find out new stuff about English every day.

I sincerely wish you luck but think about it first. My MA students at the local uni are very, very aware of how the language works and are attractive to language schools. Are you?

In reality not having the ability to explain how the language works will often be overlooked by 'schools' as long as the 'teacher' can turn up close to sober and on-time every time. Appearing to have done a bit of preparation will usually seal the deal.

You pompous fool!

Twenty years you say - so you are one of the people we have to blame for teaching habitual mistakes in English such as using 'pursuant' no matter what formality the text is in. It is 'according', please use it.

This is just one example of why there will always be a need for native English teachers, as the standard of spoken English by these so-called experts with a MA in Philology and several years' experience is atrocious.

They sit in their classrooms all day teaching crap to Polish children and then try to do the same thing in a private school.
Every single school that I have worked in these so-called 'experts' always come up to you and ask how you should pronounce words that quite obviously they haven't been taught correctly in their Uni course.

No doubt this will be denied but we natives all know the truth.
To the others wishing to help out teaching in Poland, arm yourself with a qualification and you shouldn't have much problem finding a job as you are needed and still recognised as filling a gap that is lacking in English teaching in Poland by trained academics.

It doesn't depend on the formality: it depends on the context. Do you really need an example? OK, "According to the Civil Code Company X is required to ..."? Wrong, the Civil Code makes no mention of Company X!

Word.

PZPR should do the trick for winning friends and influencing people, though.

ZOMO FTW.

Both I would say, but see your point.
Although, when you see repeatedly, 'pursuant' to my friend, 'pursuant' to last weeks newspaper, it gets a little bit tiresome.

I can't remember insulting you but you feel free to insult me and then go off on a rant accusing me of misusing words without any justification on your part whatsoever. For your information: I was born, brought up and educated in London. Oh, and one other thing, your latest rant contains several English language errors. Who's pompous?

Fair enough!
It just bugs me sometimes when you see this, "I am a better teacher than you are rant", and they seem to wear it like a badge.

The guy was only enquiring about the possibility of earning a bit of money whist he was here and your post did seem, with respect, a bit too 'I know it all'.

All I can say is thank god I got out of teaching four years ago, terrible job, terrible money, and terrible hours. ;0)

To be honest, I wouldn't even waste my time sending off e-mails - about the only hope is to go see them in person and see what you can find. But there's not likely to be much - the schools I work for have filled all the positions for summer courses, for a start.


Many of the PhD's aren't much better - and as for some of the professors..well.

I've never understood the Polish obsession with "research" - wouldn't it be far more sensible to require all PhD students to spend a year in an English speaking country?

Better to get all Magister students to do it. Although that would mean I can no longer reply to Poles who claim that a Magister is equal to an MA with "Really? For an English BA in French or German or Spanish it is pretty compulsory to spend a year studying or working in a country which speaks that language. How many years do Polish Magister students spend outside Poland?"