Teaching English in Santiago: 101

During my first month in Santiago, I treated Chilean pesos like Monopoly money that I could use in exchange for completos, beer and cover charges. I was going out every night, writing every day and yuckin it all up. Then one day I got the horrible idea to check my bank account and see how much of a dent I had put in the savings that I was supposed to live off of for the next four months.

Remember the scene from "The Royal Tenenbaums" when Margot is leaving Raleigh? They're all standing outside when a beat-up, piece-of-shit, about-to-collapse taxi pulls up to take Margot away and Dudley points and says, "That cab has a dent in it."

Well, I had made a similar dent in my savings and it was time to panic. So, like most gringos who need money overseas, I bit the inevitable bullet and started looking for jobs teaching English.

While I don't particularly enjoy teaching English, it definitely has its up sides and served me very well while living in Santiago. There is an exceptionally high demand for native English teachers down there and it's usually pretty easy to find a job for both the experienced and inexperienced, certified and not certified.

My English-teaching experience in Santiago was with institutes and private lessons. The institutes are abundant and come in all shapes and sizes. Many require some sort of training, certification and/or teaching experience, however many others don't. I have a CELTA and while at times I regret forking over all the cash and spending all the time on it, I know that it opened a lot of doors for me and was a major factor in securing a job at an institute.

It's kind of a tricky subject though, because there are times when inexperienced, untrained teachers land jobs because they were in the right place at the right time (i.e. teachers skip town, return home or are unable to teach in the middle of a student's contract and the institutes need someone to fill in. This is exactly how I got my job, by the way, but still, I wouldn't have gotten it without the CELTA), but having a CELTA/TOEFL/Whatever never hurts you and should definitely be considered if you're planning on making English teaching your primary source of income.

Some institutes recruit overseas and some only hire from Santiago. I've found that most of the agencies that recruit overseas pay much less, as they play off of the teachers' desires to have a job secured before they arrive. In addition, they take advantage of the teachers' unfamiliarity with the local market. Face-to-face is huge in Santiago, and spending a month learning the ropes while networking, interviewing and job hunting is the best path to landing an ideal gig, that is if you can afford it.

Most things in Chile happen in person, and references are many times the golden ticket to a new job or client. So, casting a wide net, putting yourself out there, actively exploring opportunities and meeting people are the best ways to get started. These gigs and new contacts will inevitably lead to private classes which pay more than institutes, are more fun and a great way to meet new people outside of your normal circles.

Teaching English may not be my main purpose or passion in life, but it's come up big in the clutch for me as a pretty painless solution to the all-to-common financial pinch while abroad.