Teaching English in Wrocław - TEFL, fair pay?

How do you know that? You made me puzzled by such statements. One day you say you don't know Polish, another you say that you know exactly how broad knowledge has a Polish shoe salesman. I doubt you chat about advance math in English, do you? :)

There is no rat. The advice given toTommyG by Delph was sound, small town with no competition, people that are willing to help, rather than criticise. If you want to live in one of the larger cities then be prepared for a lot of competition. I have no idea what money he is earning, but, if, he can make a better life here than in the UK, fair play to him. You hint as to if he is cheating the students he teaches which is strange, at least he IS an English native speaker, who has to pass some sort of criteria to fulfil the demands of his clients. He would not survive long by being a chancer,

From my experience, you have to fit into Poland, not, expect Poland to work around you.
I hope TommyG succeeds, and, maybe he can go on to advise/help others to persue their dreams here. I can think of many worse places to live and I think that our sense of well being is due to come under a lot of scrutiny very soon. The world is changing quickly, and not for the better.

I'm looking for an native english speaking person in Wrocław, who can work for my translation office. I look for persons, who are interested in correcting translations from polsih into english. More info annajuesten@progressiva

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I suspect you're referring to me. Six weeks to find a student isn't exactly "charming the birds from the trees", especially when that first student was only one class. What I tried to explain to you was that the paramount factor in regards to your success is not the paperwork. You focus too much on the 'should I / shouldn't I' of the CELTA. It's also a matter of luck and connections, but moreover it's the aforementioned determination and attitude. I know of excellent tutors with no qualifications becoming extremely successful in very short periods of time. Contrary to this, I know of two people who left Poznań and one in Kraków after failing to find work despite being highly qualified and coming prepared.

I offered to refer some students to you for skype lessons but you did not take me up on the offer.

I could say they were no more likely to materialise than your offer via personal message, which I instantly accepted, of help with my CV to produce what you called "a portfolio" to show schools. What is it now, about 6 weeks later, and strangely my inbox remains as empty of that as anything else you might promise.

I'd imagine your apartment to be quite warm in the winter months. Hot air has that effect.

Four actually. And you perhaps may have noticed that I have not been on the forums in that time (and if you haven't, feel free to check my profile) - coincidentally since I took my new position. My humble apologies - some of us do work and have very little time for ourselves, let alone strangers on a forum. Perhaps when you wake up at 3:45 in the morning, get home at 18:00 and see your fiancee for 45 minutes before you go to sleep while cleaning the flat for the morrows classes (if you're lucky), you may feel the same. I did offer you a great deal of advice prior to that in my own time and of my own will, did I not? Bit harsh to be such a twat towards me for something so minor.

And what have you done in the past month to celebrate the start of the academic year? Found yourself a job yet?

Don't offer what you aren't sure you'll deliver. Better still, don't post boasts on the thread about offering me Skype students when you never even took 30 seconds to email the example of how a typical portfolio should be presented - something you offered. It's not as if you were going to rewrite my CV, you were just going to send me a bit of text demonstrating a technique. That doesn't take 4 weeks, it doesn't even take 4 minutes. And here's a tip: when you deal with someone who you do have some respect or regard for (obviously that ain't me, just some bod on a board as far as you're concerned), how about a bit of courtesy if you can't respond to their email? Something like "Thanks I got your email, I'll get on with sending that example on just as soon as I can - might be a few weeks though, bear with me!" [Send] Took all of 20 seconds that did.

You had no intention of sending anything - as 4 or 6 weeks proves. You're right you don't owe me anything, but we all try to treat each other with a bit of common courtesy so we don't promise what we can't do and (as in my case) we don't say we can teach when we can't.

Good luck with your career, life and family in Poland, but that's all from me as I've no more to say on it here or anywhere - yes I do still have the common courtesy to let you know that if you post a reply I won't be answering it.

Wow. And you feel this is a badge of honor or something to brag about? How many hours do you work a week? And for how long have you been doing this? Probably a year or less. You're going to burn out and soon. Another overworked underpaid TEFLer.

Wow, you got me - I'm such an egomaniac. Thank you for pointing out that using a fact to illustrate a point constitutes bragging, you really showed me. I do love how people like to twist facts into an ad hominem attack - "I offered to refer some students to you for skype lessons but you did not take me up on the offer." Can't argue against it, BOASTING! Explaining why I was unable to do something in response to a personal attack against me - BOASTING!

In response to your first question: including teaching time and all work-related projects, roughly 40 hours. As for your second question: those particular hours? A month. However, I've been teaching here since 2010 and I'm no stranger to very early rises (read: 4-5am) and late sleeps (or none at all). Don't pull the "overworked, underpaid" bollocks on me, this isn't a sob story. Teaching isn't just my profession, I love it in its entirety and that includes the stress and fatigue. That said, I offer you my thanks for caring about my well-being, you are truly a gentleman.

As for you, Lee, you have an attitude incompatible with attempting to break into a competitive market in a foreign nation. You want everything to be served to you on a silver platter and throw a wobbly when you don't get it. I offered you free advice and referrals - something that doesn't come often in Poland. You were no worse off by my own lack of time and in some regards were perhaps better off. But, instead of capitalising on what I shared with you, or just - you know - sending me a message asking for me to send you this portfolio idea instead of expecting me to read your mind, you started throwing insults at me like a spoiled kid - in complete contradiction to this "common courtesy" rhetoric you keep spouting about. At the rate you must be burning through your savings while waiting for your knight in shining armour to ride in with a work contract and a year's supply of lesson plans, I'd suggest worrying about the warmth of your own apartment. Witaj w swojej pierwszej zimy