I'm retired teacher, age 69 - I want to teach English in Poland voluntarily, in return for Polish language

Hi,
I have been reading the many interesting comments and suggestions on the topic of teaching English in Poland. I am also interested in a teaching position but my situation is somewhat different.

At sixty-nine years of age I have long since retired form full time teaching of English but for the past seven years I have been providing private tuition from my office in Belfast. While I offer courses to beginners and advanced speakers I primarily provide tuition in IELTS, FCE, etc. I am academically highly qualified and my teaching experience is wide and varied.

However I feel now, at sixty nine years of age, it is the time for a change! Some of my friends and family think I am insane but I am looking for the opportunity to teach English while learning Polish. I am interested in offering my services, for a period of a month or two, free to a school or university in return for Polish language instruction. I am aware that my age may mitigate against me but hopefully someone will consider that my experience is more relevant; anyway, I consider myself a young senior citizen!

That's it in a nutshell! I am compiling a list of colleges in cities like Torun, Wroclaw and Krakow and emailing the institutions for their reaction.Meanwhile I would welcome comments or advice, positive please, that might help me find a suitable institution or if there is a member of the teaching staff in a particular college who feels that I may be of some use to them please do contact me.

If you found a school willing to help, it would have to be unofficial. A university or state school simply won't do it. You might find a private language school that would be interested, especially if you use the magic words "offering my services for free". It would, however, be much simpler to come over for a residential language course in Poland and see what happens.

I don't see you finding a job as being a problem. You say you're qualified and you've plenty of experience and you're willing to work for free.

Mate, you're a language school's feckin wet dream!

Problem though is that in your age bracket you're not going to meet many people who can speak English. Under 30s, yea, most have a few words at least these days, but anyone brought up during Communism won't have a word of English. I'm here 5 years and in that time I've met one man in his 70s that spoke English, just doesn't happen, they were taught German & Russian in their school days, English wasn't permitted.

Work-wise I think you'll do fine, but Jesus don't work for free. The other native-English speakers at your school won't be too impressed with you because you'll be either taking their work or you'll be forcing their price down and that's not cool, Christ knows, langauge schools treat their staff like crap anyway and the pay isn't great.

And y'know whatever city you end up in it's usually a pretty small community of emigrants (some of them even call themselves expats coz they're somewhat uncomfortable with the team 'emigrant') and there's no point in threading on toes because you'll eventually need them to help you out with something over your stay.

!00%


I know a few (and even older) in Warsaw, but all ex-diplomatic service, ex-WSI or retired English teachers.


That's really important - it can be quite competitive in the nicer locations. You'll also probably get a lot of requests (perhaps more than you'd want) for private lessons (experience and ability are highly respected in PL) so really you need only do a couple of lessons at a language school - most of them now don't recruit for full time posts anyway. You'll find IELTS rather rare here (just not marketed as much as, say, Asia) but plenty of FCE preparation.

It might be worth just turning up here first and seeing if the rest falls into place. If it doesn't, it's not too far to go back, if it does, all the better...

Just an idea for the short term, why not try this: angloville.com.

A friend who's a semi-retired language teacher does this. Most of the participants are apparently slightly older than the ones in the picture by the way - a lot of company people. I've heard it's good to do, all 1-1 teaching and you could make some very useful contacts in PL which could lead to something excellent. They don't pay but do put you up in a nice hotel (a great business model for them and one reason I haven't done it myself).

I've sent you a PM

Thanks,Jon, for the very useful advice. I'll reply at greater length to-morrow-haven't received the PM yet.

Thanks for you response, Roger, I didn't realise that state institutions could be so rigid. In ireland we would be considerably more flexible. Your suggestion of the residential course is one that I am still considering.

Hello Eugene,

I would be very interested in having you at our school. Could you please leave a contact e-mail and I will be in touch?

Thanks for the advice. The last thing I want to do is to tramp on someone else's toes! I'm long enough in the tooth to know the effect that can have. I was hoping that it would not impact on them so obviously. However, you are probably right, maybe at the end of the day it's not such a good idea to offer my services free. Perhaps I should offer one to one privately at a competitive rate and take some private language classes myself. Thanks again,I'll keep you informed on the response, if any.

If you want to contact me with more information, please do so to: patrickfleming@gmx.com. I would be interested in hearing about your school.

You'd need to square this with the tax and national insurance authorities by registering a business, just as you would in Ireland.

If you end up working for a school you'll need to do this, it's pretty easy but you'll need a Polish speaker to help.

If, however, you only do private work then you could just chance it and work for cash in hand. Not that I would condone that kind of activity at all at all. Oh no, never.

Get some decent travel insurance from home before you come too.

Do you have enough funds to support yourself for a period of time while you build up clients? If so, you could get your own company established while you are taking Polish lessons and slowly build you client list. The benefit of starting your own company - first 2 years ZUS (social, medical) costs are substantially less (in my case, from what I recall 254PLN for first 2 years, after that 900+). I would also suggest if you do come over to get a good accountant ASAP. I pay about 60 PLN/month for this service - money well spent, believe me.

If this is what you want to do, and you have some funds available to give it a go, go for it. Note: I am assuming that you are in relatively good health.

Dear Sir, may i say my opinion? Alright, here is what i want to say... What i know Poles are very friendly, hospitable and tolerant people. You for sure can found joy and happiness in Poland no matter that you are 69 years old. Just, in my opinion, you don`t need to teach them English. Why would you do that? Too many Poles already abandoned Poland thanks to availability of English language. You know, pressure on them is irresistible. Too many promises for better future, while we all know that is luck something individual, something that don`t travel with English language (culture) inevitably. After all, who can define `happiness, luck`

So, forget English language and come and just enjoy in Poland. If stay long enough you would anyway learn to speak Polish. Love Poles

Best regards

Dziękuję, przyjacielu, za komentarze. Of course I agree with you that the Polish people are very friendly. All those that I have met in the island of Ireland have been very pleasant and hard working and I have been very impressed with my Polish students.

Why do I want to teach? I l have been teaching English for forty years and although I am retired I am now enjoying teaching adults from different nationalities. I love teaching and this is why I want to do it. It is not all about the money that I might earn - I don't think it will be very much anyway!

Thank you again for you comments.
Kind regards

see? you already speak Polish. Its not hard


i know, i know. But relax man. You have money. Just relax and enjoy. If somebody insist, you teach him. But to promote your teaching is something wrong. you aren`t on some kind of missionary work in Poland. You are now retired

Eugene, ignore Crow (most people do). He doesn't know anything about Poland except what he gets from his fevered imagination. Good luck with the job search.

Eugene1 be my teacher. I live in Piaseczno city. I'm looking for a teacher for myself and my husband who is Chinese. ewelinajiao@gmail please contact me

Eugene
Another thing to consider in order to make your pension go the distance if you want to teach would be to bargain. For example, if a school takes you up on your offer, have them help you with the cost of accommodations. Or someone can offer you a couple of rooms to work out of and then you would have to help out with incidentals such as food. By having a sitting room included with the bedroom, then you could teach privately or assist students with their homework.

Nonsense Eugene. Or should I say poppycock? I'm 58, and just getting started. Come to Gdynia; the list of students/ academic challenges/ offshore workers/ IT staff etc is as long as your arm. Why would I advertise this? Because if you can teach, come to Tri-City. The best teachers thrive. Simples.

The winter wind is a pain in the arse though... :)


BS. Good language teachers never retire.... Like priests:)

Please contact me for english teacher or school administrator at gppaudyal33@gmail.com