Doing my course in Krakow, working in EFL in Poland (newbie questions)

Sorry, I was being pedantic. As a product of that poor British education system with sad linguistic skills I just couldn't let it pass.

Or possibly, pawing over them ;)

Tut, pedantry, that last bastion of the British ;)

I will try my hardest to avoid making any further mistakes to avoid your collective internet wrath.

Will having a foreign name help me or hinder me?

don't despair, there is still work for ESL teachers in Poland. Check Dave's ESL cafe for starters and prepare your CV ahead of time, so you can forward it to schools in Krakow and all over Poland prior to completing you CELTA. If you have any questions re: teaching in Poland PM me if you want. This is what I am doing at themoment. I am Polish but finished all my studies in Canada, including TESOL certificate, which I believe is an equivalent of CELTA.

Your best bet in getting into esl teaching is to avoid internet forums as they are host to a lot of unhelpful people. This forum has a few members that try to complicate things - same goes for esl cafe.. Instead, come to poland and hit the pavement with your CVs, ideally in the summer.


I don't think so.

I never had any problems, in fact my fairly good knowledge of the polish language helped me make connections and made a lot of administrative things easier after getting hired at a school.

For instance, i always had a plethora of students for private lessons as i was able to easily tap into people who could not speak a single word of english (imagine someone like that calling a non-polish speaker to arrange a private lesson).

Also, at the first school i at worked for, most of the administrative staff could hardly speak english so most meetings/communication was conducted in polish. I met many polish-americans/canadians/aussies during my time as an esl teacher, none of them had problems - even with first names like Przemyslaw;)

And remember, if you can't find work in the large cities, head out to smaller cities/towns.

What a superbly good idea: come to Poland at the exact time of year when there is precisely bugger all work. Got any more gems to share?

Read the whole sentence.

Besides, I came to poland several years ago after christmas. Everyone told me not to because "there's bugger all work" - much like you. I came anyway. I got lucky with a part time teaching gig at one school and went out to find students for private lessons to supplement my measly income. I found a cheap place to live so life wasn't all that bad. I also had some savings (my version of insurance), which is another thing i forgot to mention in my previous post -make sure you have some money saved up, just in case.

During the summer i completed the celta course and found work immediately (thanks to the celta & work experience).

What else do you have a problem with, grumpy?

Just out of curiosity, how much did you save up and for how long were you planning on surviving off it? In hindsight, did you over-budget, or under-budget?

I don't know about teaching in Poland, but I'm curious just how a nest egg in general helped you out. Ability to take more risk, less stress, etc.

Perhaps you could be so kind as to refrain from putting words in my mouth? Just after Christmas is actually a very good time to come to Poland: there are always a few teachers (usually newbies) who go home at Christmas and don't bother coming back. Same happens to a lesser extent after the inter-semester break. So it rather appears that you know somewhat less than you think.


So to you the ideal time to look for work is when there is none and most of the DoS population are as far from their school as they can manage. Genius!

I think - if you have the money to survive on, you don't need to take the first job that comes along. School directors can suss out if someone is desperate - I can talk about some rather nasty business practices used (threatening to revoke someone's work permit is always a favourite) on desperate people - and so it makes sense to have the money to live on while you find the "right" job.

The other thing is that if you have the money to live on, you can take small contracts here/there/everywhere. That's what I've done this year, and it's far less stress - no bullshit meetings, no bureaucracy - all in all, it's a far more pleasant existence. There's also the beautiful part that if one school fails to pay you - no worries, there's another 6 paying you every month as well.

The summer is the best time to look for work. It is best to approach school managers in may/june (early, but doesnt hurt) and august (usually beginning in the 2nd half of the month) through september. I did it for several years and it all played out well for me as i was able to get my foot in the door before all the turtles like you.

Several years? Guess you must have been a real catch for schools, given that you had to look for new places to work each year for several years! Those of us who are actually able to teach (and smart enough to keep the same phone number) just get called up by schools looking for teachers.