What is a good monthly salary for an English teacher in Poland?

Good morning! Sorry for using the "teaching game" phrase. I picked it up from the posters at dave's ESL cafe. They use that a lot. I shall not use it again. Anyways, you guys have opened my eyes. I must adjust my expectations. jon357, thanks for telling me what I need to know. As a young inexperienced teacher like me, I don't really know what the teaching profession entails. I love teaching and am excited to do so every morning I wake up. Enthusiasm isn't the issue, but experience is. I will get a CELTA in the future for sure. Uberwald, thanks for giving me the logistics of when Direct method schools are open. I was hoping to work for different method schools; one that uses Direct Method, one that uses traditional teaching, and one that does conversation. I realize that Direct Method is good for inexperienced young teachers, but for professional development I need to go to a school with real teaching school.

Should I go to a smaller city next year, such as Bielsko Biala, where there is less competition to build up my skills and save money to do my CELTA? Is this a better idea?

Not worth a damn for anyone except backpackers, slackers and EFL drunks. Avoid. It won't look good on your CV; quite the opposite.


You said you were pulling in 4K Net in a small town. Champagne habit?
While you are waiting to move to a city, you could profitably use your time reading. The following are a few EFL staples:

Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers ('Richards and Rodgers' is number one on any good CELTA booklist. Steal a march on your future CELTA course participants and impress your trainers.

The Lexical Approach, Michael Lewis.
English Phonetics and Phonology, Peter Roach.
Testing for Language Teachers, Arthur Hughes.

If you read only one, read the first one.

We have a trainer who once worked at a Callan Method School in Poland. It was years ago and he's got a DELTA now so nobody cares, plus employers in this region have no idea what Callan is. Fortunately for him.


A very very good one

Learning Teaching: A guidebook for English language teachers by Jim Scrivener is also handy.

Frankly, you're going to have to give up the "teaching game" altogether, return to real life in your own country, and get some salable degree or trade certification. Something useful that employers need, and not just in the imaginary world of a deluded slacker (not saying that you are one, just covering that base preemptively).


There is no point. It would be like flushing 5000 PLN down the toilet. Teaching English in Poland is a dead-end career choice for all but a select few, and you are not in that group. Save your 5000 PLN for tuition as I described above.


Your future spouse and children will hate you for that. Get of your lazy duff and do something about getting some real qualifications that will help your find a real job in the real world and earn some real money so you can take care of yourself and your family without being a burden or drag on your folks, friends and taxpaying citizens.

Sorry to be blunt about it, kiddo, but you really need to wake up and smell the coffee. You've lost a sense of proportion and a realistic perspective on the world and your place in it, and now you are desperately building castles on ice thinking that you can make the pretty, pretty polly in Wrocław. Not a good sign. Reassess and get back to action.

The guy's 25! Better to see the world as he's doing. And it's possible by the way to earn a high income teaching. Just not usually in Poland, though that is a good place to cut your teeth. The OP doesn't say where he's from, however I hope for his sake by the way that it's somewhere that people don't have to pay for tuition.

His future wife and kids will certainly think otherwise. He had better start now about thinking of making himself an attractive prospective spouse so that he can find likewise for himself. In just a few years, he's going to find it harder and harder to do so with each passing day. He's jerked around enough of for now, and it's time to go back to the real world.


Not for this kid. No way, no how, no where.

All the books recommended so far are very good. I'd like to add one more: How English Works, by Michael Swan. To be an efficient teacher, not only do you have to know grammar but you have to know how to teach it so that your Polish students can understand it. That's the trick.

Anyway, he's asking about achievable salary for a young, presumably graduate but so far non-CELTA qualified, language trainer in Wroclaw. How to go about it, how much is possible. Not about whether or not he should be a corporate clone with a gym membership and an ulcer.

Better than being a starving English teacher who can't afford a gym membership or food.

You also have a slanted view of engineers if you think they are all corporate clones with ulcers. The great advantage of having a good engineering or other STEM degree is that it gives you incredible freedom to shape your own career to your liking. And it opens up vast vistas of potential development for your kids, as well. At twenty-five, the OP probably hasn't caught on yet that the single best indicator of quality of life is lifetime savings potential in absolute dollars. When he gets to be my age, it's the only number that counts in his whole life.

Biblical :)

Hey again. The advice here have been very good. I am taking everything written here seriously. DominicB, many of things you say are very sound. But unfortunately, there is usually a cloud of unnecessary pessimism attached to them. I remember when I first posted on this website before I came to Poland, you said that I would not make enough money to break even after my first year because of the costs of my return flight, resident visa, and work permit. But now I am setting to have 15,000zl in the bank in just my first year; and this is after paying for visa and permit. By the way, the cost of a return flight would of been around 1,200zl. I understand where you are coming from. I believe you are offering me sage advice. But I think that sometimes you are too sure about your opinions. You assume that life is a simple equation--Big time engineer+big money=happy life. You suggest that we ordinary folks should just jump into petroleum engineering tomorrow so that we can be happy and dripping with money. Life is not that simple, I know engineers and other high paid professionals who hate their jobs and are miserable. There are my people who are raking in a boat load of cash but are stressed out by their career, debt, and personal problems. Life is complicated. What works for one person may not work for another. Yes, money is extremely important in this world. With money comes power. But it shouldn't be the end all be all.

For me, I am happier overseas and am willing to do whatever to improve myself as teacher to continue bringing in the money. As long as I can enjoy a good standard of living I will be happy. I will also consider doing what Jon357 suggested, which is that after gaining the ELT certifications to go to Saudi Arabia or somewhere in the Middle East to make serious money for a year or two and then come back to Poland a rich man.:) By the way DominicB, you touched a nerve when you said "get off your lazy duff.... so you can take care of yourself and your family without being a burden or drag on your folks, friends and taxpaying citizens." Excuse me sir, I payed my way here to Poland and have worked hard to provide for myself without any assistance from Mommy and Daddy. Matter of fact, I am a net benefit to Poland because I pay taxes, don't take money from the State, educate the populous, and am law abiding. When I saw that sentence you wrote, after coming home from a long day of preparing lessons and doing 8 classes, I was shocked that someone like you would say that about me without even knowing who I am. You should watch what you say (or type) about other people. As for having a family, I prefer to take a wait and see approach. I am not hurrying around to settle down and start a family. Having a family is not on my to do list now. It will be in the future, but I must continue doing what I feel is productive to me.

Change of topic, as for the books that were suggested to me, I will get the How English Works, by Michael Swan and Learning Teaching: A guidebook for English language teachers by Jim Scrivener. They have good reviews. I will read them this summer for sure.

Sorry for the bad grammar in this post. I am really tried. Good night!

Good lad. My learners often think I am Michael Swan because I am always referencing Practical English Usage - he is the man :) And when he guest lectured at the university of Silesia back in the 90s I was in the pub instead on a three dayer :((

To get to the point of the OP's question - the answer is 8000 zl after tax for an experienced hard-working bod - but I am too busy walking the labrador to obtain that.

So 8000 before stoppages of a kind is the go. Plus nice little earners Del-Boy style.

Glad I could be of service.


I'm thirty years older than you, and I have a lot of friends and acquaintances my age that regret not having been more prudent about choosing their careers and saving up for their kids' college funds or for retirement. Sorry about the lazy comment, but it was calculated to light a fire under you. I know a lot of people who are working their butts off in low-paying, low prestige jobs because they were to lazy to improve their qualifications, and with retirement on the way, they are biting their nails in despair.

If you really want to be a super teacher, get some education in a specialty like medicine, law, science or engineering so that you can teach high-paying clients without much competition. Speaking from experience, it is wonderful to work in a world in which you have no competition, and you hear the words "spadł z nieba" a lot.

And if you're planning to stay in Poland for a longer time, learn the language to a very advanced level so that you can translate. It pays better than teaching, especially if you have a specialty.

As for teaching English, my philosophy is very simple and effective. If you get your students to voraciously read real literature in English, you have succeeded, and so have they. If not, you have failed, as have they. There's basically nothing in any of the books listed above that adds anything substantial to that. That is the cake. The rest is just icing.

By real literature, I mean actual real books. Contemporary literature is best. Specialist or academic books don't count, nor do magazines or newspapers, nor anything on the internet, except as a minor supplement. Sci-fi and fantasy are best because of the huge range of vocabulary and grammar. Classics might seem like a good option, but not really because they are boring and dry if you don't have the language skills to appreciate the language.

CMC - DB is only trying to help, and having forbid that you stop posting Dom, but he (Dominik) is technically minded. He expects everyone to have the same aptitude, which is ridiculous.

I am a fan of his, but he is a one of those who can do - according to GBS - and the rest of us have to teach. And you, CMC, already know that one can still make a good living from teaching so don't listen to Dominics' patronising posts per se. I promise you I make as much money today in real terms as I did ten years ago - not more, 'tis true - so Dom is right there; things change - but if I don't like a certain scene, I decline, or in particular situations, I milk it. That for me is success. My freedom, my quality of life. Of course others need a greater challenge and may be more materialistic as well.

If you come to the Tri-city I would be happy to give you a few pointers and to learn new strategies from you at the same time. Better still, listen to experienced professionals like Jon and Harry, and the champion from Poznan, wherever he is lurking.

Time to bring back the last named back Mods. This forum needs him.


Mmm - and what happened to authentic texts? Contemporary work of course. But functional language is to be found everywhere. I have some of my learners watching UK TV via FilmOn - if they enjoy Polish soaps, why not watch Eastenders?

What if the learner doesn't read literature in their own language? And what is literature anyway? Bukowski? Agatha Christie?

Horses........

Sorry - I don't get why newspapers don't "count" - they are wonderful sources of language with purpose. Ask Tim Grundy.

That turns out to be pretty much baloney, except as a minor supplement. It's hard to read the immense volume you will require to achieve advanced knowledge if you rely just on short, sporadic texts. And the volume most students read is, frankly, pathetic.

However, I did have one student who I prepared for a conference in India. He came back with the big fat Sunday edition of the India times, and he read every single word of it: each article, each ad, each marriage announcement,He got the attention of the visiting world vice-resident of his company, who had done a long stint in India himself. He ended up applying for and getting a five year contract with his company in Mumbai. At eight times the pay he was making in Poland.

Honestly, though, people who have the patience and motivation to read that volume of tedious authentic text day after day are a very rare breed indeed.


Because they are rarely read in depth, and usually just skimmed. After "reading" a newspaper for half an hour, you might have the false impression that you have read a lot, when in fact, only a small fraction of your time was spent actually reading, and not too deeply at that. Exceptions as I described above.

As for films, you would be shocked to see how few pages the spoken text of a film takes up. Ten, twenty A1 pages at the most. Sometimes even less. Again, density is the problem. You will process much more material in two hours of reading a book rather than two hours of watching a film. And the material processed while watching a film is processed very superficially indeed.

Reading newspapers and watching films is fine as a supplement, but they can never be the core.


That is a big problem. It's pretty difficult to master a foreign language if you have not mastered your own. I was constantly shocked by how little most of my students read in Polish. Some haven't read any literature at all since matura, and they have masters degrees. That's sad.

I wonder if you really do think that EL trainers can't afford food. Yes, there are some who choose to work in nice pretty places for not much money, but also those who are, to use a crude expression, 'coining it in'. And most people somewhere between. It's a very broad profession.


I work with petrochemical engineers. They always seem to look older than they are. Sure some earn more than I do, but not much more and not always.


That's achievable if you're good at saving/chasing opportunities. Some can do it and some can't. I know people in both categories. When I was working in Poland however I mostly had a decent income but never really could save much. As Cary Grant said "They say money talks; all it ever said to me was Goodbye".


Exactly - one reason that textbooks for low levels start off with those topics that are easiest to speak about in your own language. If someone only ever reads Autotrader it isn't doing them any favours pushing them to read Jane Austin. An authentic text can be a pizza shop leaflet, a parish bulletin, a holiday brochure or a 'Now wash your hands' sign - all part of that balance between staying in a learner's comfort zone and going outside it. I use a lot of oilfield health and safety documents since that's a big part of my job. Understanding the English they see written perhaps on labels or signs or TV credits hear spoken every day but blank out or let wash over them is so important. Part of it all slotting into place. Neurolinguistically, that is.


Advanced knowledge? We're training not educating and in any case we should remember that for in-company training our learners have different levels of intelligence and ways of thinking/approaching the world.


One of the best sources of authentic text and almost always something in there to catch the learner's interest - this is of course vital.


That suggests America/Canada. If the first of those, think about South Korea as a step on your journey. They tend to slightly favour Americans over Brits, there are some lovely opportunities there, decent jobs aren't hard to find, and in a year you could comfortably save enough to give yourself a nice financial buffer to make things easier in a nicer place. Cambodia by the way may well be 'the next big thing' in TEFL (when oil prices start to go back up). They've struck black gold, thrown off a communist regime and the market is like Poland 20 years ago. Lovely place and people too.

Dominic, despite your impressive qualifications, one thing strikes me : you aren't actually well qualified in EFL/ESL/whatever you want to call it. You don't hold the DELTA, nor do you hold a Linguistics qualification. Perhaps your view of the English teaching market is skewed by that fact?

As an academic, I have almost complete freedom. I have to work within the structures of the department, but how I teach my courses is entirely my decision. No-one cares about my clothes, nor am I obliged to work within corporate ******** where you end up having to contribute money to a newly divorced colleague's private nursery fund. I have decent holidays, and the freedom to research whatever I please.

Unqualified people have it tough, that's true. But those with qualifications, experience and knowledge can earn a considerable amount of cash in Poland. I was offered the chance to work one weekend a month doing corporate training - from start to finish. Each course was worth a shade over 3000zl a time, and I'd estimate that the hourly rate came to around 120zl an hour once you consider preparation time. Food and transport costs were also included on top of that.

These opportunities are out there, but they require solid qualifications (HR directors need hard evidence) and an ability to not see English teaching as "a way to survive".

I have two bachelors degrees in languages: German and classical languages, and taught myself Danish and Polish all on my own. I also taught ESL for four years in Poland, and ran the largest English group in Wrocław for another eight years, so to say that I'm not well qualified is a hoot.

EFL/ESL as taught in schools is a joke. Five years to go from elementary to FCE? A truly motivated learner would never be satisfied by that pace, and those that are are not truly motivated, and will end up knowing English only superficially.

Look at any of the coursebooks. How much actual useful text is in them versus silly glossy pictures? Four or five A1 pages in a 70 page book? And the exercises are so short and superficial that they essentially useless. No power drills. And embarrassingly patronizing lessons aimed at teenagers that miss the mark with them and nauseate adults? And they're paying 80 PLN for the book? That's a disgrace.

Sorry, but FCE as taught in schools is primarily a money-making racket, and lousy as an educational tool. Those that do actually learn English learn despite the system, at home on their own. And a lot faster than the system makes possible.

You seem to be under the common delusion that learning occurs in the classroom. As an academic, you should know better.

Now I understand what you meant by "the main reason to go to University is to create a network of contacts". I kept wondering why you kept repeating it. Now I understand. When studying anything language related, I can certainly see your point.

That however makes me wonder why you keep talking about "solid" education in order to achieve something in life so your children can wear "real clothes" and your wife can eat "real food".

I must say that I find it quite cheeky to give other people advice on what they should and should not do while you carry two lousy language degrees in your pocket.

If that's all I carried in my pocket, it would be quite cheeky indeed. Those degrees were for fun and diversion while I carried on my more serious scientific studies.


It's even more true when studying STEM fields, if you were implying otherwise.


It breaks my heart when I talk to young students who are wasting their time studying worthless majors like psychology, economics or business. They don't realize that they are being ripped off to pay for the STEM students lab equipment while they get the table scraps, and then they're fcuked for life as no one is going to hire them except McDonalds, Tesco or Starbucks, or some sleazy English school in some backward country.

Some people (perhaps including the OP) prefer the arts and humanities and dislike science.

Great that you managed to take time out from your prestigious and ruthlessly focused career path to teach English in that great metropolis Skierniewice, but how exactly are these pearls of wisdom going to help the OP in his intended move to Wroclaw/Bielsko or his chosen career in ELT?

Do you life in the real world? I am asking because I am trying to figure out whether I can continue to talk to a normal person or adjust a little bit to meet your fantasies.

It seems to me that you have either been brought up in a privileged household, allowing you to study whatever you want because the Bank of Parents just kept increasing your overdraft facility or you come from an underprivileged family and you carry a massive chip on your shoulder.

Either way, you seem to be forgetting that it is perfectly fine to have an average economics degree without risking that your children need to be off sick on the day they discuss "My daddy is a ......." in school.

You need to get back to the real world because the last couple of threads in which you posted about qualifications make you look as if you are either angry with your own life or you have studied too much causing some kind of wiring fault.

Started university when I was 16, and never paid a penny in tuition. Always had a full-ride scholarship, fellowship or grant.

Family background is academic on both sides, so I learned the game early and well.


You are aware of the didactic value of hyperbole, right? And that I'm having a bit of fun here. Very serious fun, though.


No. I'm just dead serious earnest. And brutally realistic.

Brutally, yes! Realistic, no!

The advice that you give to people here, particularly when you say "go to another country because it will be hard for you in Poland" usually contradicts the experience I have made here in Poland. Once you told a Spaniard to go somewhere else or stay in his country because foreigners don't get hired as bartenders. When I told you about the Irish Bars and particularly the Irish Mbassy in Krakow which was managed by a Canadian girl, you had nothing to say.

When I told you about the SSC / BPO's looking for native speakers and are willing to pay good money (for Polish standards) despite of their qualifications, you responded with "I ran the largest English group in Wroclaw for eight years", yet you had no facts to support your stand apart from running some group.

The one thing you seem to have missed when you started studying at the age of 16 is that as long as you can not make a case, nobody is going to take you serious. So far, you have been unable to produce any evidence of what you claim here. You have no leg to stand on yet you keep telling people that what you say is fact.

When you say that "The main reason to go to Uni is to create a network of contacts" i start smiling because a network of contact is not going to get you anywhere unless you can build a case for yourself or your argument. Your contacts are not going to be of any use if you just keep repeating the same thing over and over again without the ability to convince the right people with facts and figures. What you produce here are posts about what you believe might be right, based on the fact that you ran some group for eight years.

To use your words.....

That's where your going wrong. "Good money" by Polish standards is lousy money by global standards. For example, a lot of the junior engineers posting here will be earning a measly 25 to 25 thousand dollars a year. That is how much they would be able to save each year if they got a job in a richer country. Why come to Poland to work for peanuts in some lousy call center in a job that will take you nowhere when you can get a much better paying job in a richer country and enjoy a much higher level of savings in absolute dollars, and have a job that is much more interesting because R&D dollars flow in rivers instead of trickles. There are PLENTY of much better opportunities outside of Poland, which is why young Poles are itching to leave in droves.


And you honestly think there are a lot of jobs like that, so much that a Spaniard should hop on a plane on the off chance that he might possibly get one in Poland? Advising someone to make a fatal career choice based on the lucky circumstances of some Canadian girl you heard about is irresponsible, and borders on cruel. There are already scads of British and Irish backpackers and assorted slackers in Warsaw as it is that are lined up to take these jobs already.

Sorry, but Poland is definitely not an attractive country for people who want to make money and further their careers. Not by a long shot, except for a select few (generally senior IT engineers). It's a fine place to goof off as a break from life for a year or two for a gap year, if you can afford it (and I am NOT a fan of unproductive gap years). Or for an extended vacation or retirement. Or, as in my case, a great place for an extended sabbatical/charity project. But as long as there are much better opportunities elsewhere, in terms of savings potential, it would be foolish to come to Poland under the delusion that you are going to make good money there.

Also, my advice to young people about staying at home and beefing up their qualifications is spot on. A lot of the young people who post here are thinking about dropping out, and they need a good kick in the pants to bring them back to the real world.

That's the question. Why do anything? But most importantly who are you to answer it for other people? Believe it or not, there are people who would just like to live abroad for a while and get some experience.

I pity you, i really do. You should learn to live instead of being consumed with doing everything "right".

Believe it or not, I'm one of them myself. I've studied in Germany, Denmark, Greece, Israel, the UK, Pennsylvania and California, and have lived in Chicago, Indiana and twelve years in Poland, in Skierniewice and Wrocław. But believe it or not, there are also people who think they can escape from the reality of life by coming to Poland where they delusionally think that they will land great jobs and make big bucks in spite of the fact that they have no salable skills, education, qualifications or experience, nor any plans to get any of the above, and that everything will somehow, someday magically work out.


Can't imagine why. I retired at 42 and was able to come to Poland to help teens, students and scientists further their careers, something which gives me great satisfaction. And before you mouth off again about what you assume I'm like, I'm an rather ascetic Buddhist, very happy, and committed to helping other people be productive and happy, too, thank you.

I've basically taught myself a lot of Polish for many years and then took a university course. However, I feel like I've kind of stopped learning and need to be immersed. Plus I love the country, I've been there a few times and it's my favorite place to visit! People say to be fluent in a language, one must be immersed in it

Again, people say stupid things. I learned Danish before I went to Denmark without any contact with Danish speakers, and that was before the internet even existed. Now, the resources available to you are legion. You can download tons of books, audiobooks and films online for free, and there are tons of websites to help you keep abreast of local affairs.

If you want to move to Poland, that's fine. Getting a job teaching English could be a problem, though, because few schools are willing to go through the hassle of hiring a non-EU teacher on a full-time work contract, which is what you will need to establish residency. Also, if you do not have a CELTA certificate, the better paying jobs will be mostly out of reach for you.

I am having issues with continuing my language studies which is why I want to move to Poland....I am losing the language slowly since here in Canada I am barely using it. I have a job offer with a company that will get me the work permit but it pays 18.7zł/hour and the hours aren't guaranteed so it's really not the best case scenario but I figure I'll save a bunch of Canadian dollars and move there. I have no teaching experience or Celta but a vast interest in languages and good command of the polski jezyk! I'd be moving to Katowice which is really not that expensive . I want to get experience in teaching and luckily I will have relatives near me to help.

I'll be making around 1870/month, at most 2805 zł/month. The places I've been looking at are 1000-1300zł/month so shouldn't be horrible. Not really looking to save money just live.