Teach Abroad in Venezuela Page
3Copyright © 2008-2010 Angela M. Arnold All rights reservedhttp://www.studyabroadsuccess.com3interns but the top schools are just looking for experienced teachers with at least two to four years in theclassroom.
Angela
: How did you decide on Venezuela this particular time?
James
: To be honest, it was because I didn't know much about international schools yet. My only personto go on was this one person I met at a party. I tried to research it, but until you... you have to go throughone of two agencies. One is a free online agency that just posts your resume but the other one is morein-depth and has a better screening process. All the schools just have their offers and their web sites but youhave no idea what you're getting into, so I pretty much just took the first job that sounded at least solid. Itwas only a year contract when most international schools ask for two years and I figured I could doanything for a year.
Angela
: [laughter] Now did you have to know Spanish in order to get into the program?
James
: Oh no, actually international schools are usually geared for parents of ex-pats, ex-patriots aroundthe world and also locals in whatever country you go to that want their students to be taught in English.
Angela
: So they're looking for an American system, American-type system?
James
: Exactly. There's Canadian international schools and British and American. I had the luck to workin an American system so far.
Angela
: Not to get too personal on it, but what's the income trade-off there? Do they pay you a comparablesalary and what are the types of perks you might expect? Let's take, for example, if you're teaching in anAmerican school or if you're teaching in a non-American school.
James
: OK. Well I guess I'll start with the best offer which is one I can't really touch yet would be, of course, from the British or European schools because they're going to be paying you in either pounds oreuros.
Angela
: Oh yeah, Yeah, nowadays with the dollar falling so fast.
James
: Exactly. So those are the offers that people are really gunning for. But since I don't haveexperience with British or European curriculum I'm more likely to only get employment at an Americanschool, at the time being. That pay is pretty much equivalent to living here. The perk and the reason why,even though I wanted to go back to LA this year... the biggest perks are your room and board are paid for,transportation and shipping. So while you're staying there you're making your salary that you would bemaking in public schools like let's say in Los Angeles, Arizona but it's tax-free up to two years and most of your expenses are paid for.
Angela
: So you can bank some serious money then if you're budget conscious.
James
: If you're budget conscious, yes.
Angela
: But now do you find that most of your fellow teachers, are they saving their money or are theytraveling or is there any way you can make a generalization about that?
James
: I'd say most are spending. You make enough and your expenses are pretty low, depending on whatcountry you're in, that you can do both. And most people would rather.. people who choose to do this arealready adventurous. It takes a pretty adventurous person to choose a place like Venezuela, so we spend alot of our money on travel. I saved about as much as I did in Los Angeles a month and not really muchmore. But that was my choice, to spend it on traveling.
Angela
: Yeah, because you only live once right, as far as we know. I know when I was your age I loved totravel. I still do. Getting those experiences were definitely important to me. I had people who, they had new
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