# Teaching English



## Elyles (Aug 30, 2012)

What are the going rates for English instruction here for both individual and group sessions? Does anyone have experience with Skype instruction?


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Elyles said:


> What are the going rates for English instruction here for both individual and group sessions? Does anyone have experience with Skype instruction?


I teach Spanish classes face to face, groups & individual

my rates (on my website if you want to take a peek at the link in my sig) are middle of the road for where I live & I'm fighting students off atm - I've never been so busy

I do some skype classes, but I find it seriously hard going & now only agree to do it for students I already know & teach face to face, if they're going to be away


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Xabia just as a matter of interest - how sharp do you need to be to pick up the lingo?

I have a friend, called errrm, Fred no Bob, yeah Bob and he's not the worlds smartest. Do you think he would be able to have a crack at Spanish or would I , sorry he, need to be quite intelligent?


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## snikpoh (Nov 19, 2007)

I think it depends how old you (he) is - the older one is, the harder it becomes.


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## sunshine22 (Sep 15, 2015)

Sorry to spam your thread but don't really want to start a new one... I had an interview in mid August and a week later was selected for the position of an English teacher for the 2015/2016 academic year. I was to be placed in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz. I was excited to move back to Spain therefore I started looking for places to live in El Puerto & found a place which I then had to reserve, that cost me 115 euros. I was almost ready to go and almost booked my plane tickets. I then asked for the contract and was told to wait, of course I waited and was then sent a "pre-contract" with no specified working hours or salary. I was to start on Oct 5. When I asked why this otherwise important piece of information was missing, I did not receive a straight answer. I was told there were some delays and I needed to wait. I waited a couple more weeks and was finally told that the school in El Puerto didn't work out and they could offer me another school in Bornos. I said I needed a contract before I could make the final decision and was told a contract would be sent to me the following day. That never happened. I was again told there were "delays". This is their website: 
get brit (dot) es 
Can I sue?


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Elyles said:


> What are the going rates for English instruction here for both individual and group sessions? Does anyone have experience with Skype instruction?


I think rates (should) involve a bit a soul searching. What does the teacher offer the student? Examples
Is the teacher a trained teacher?
Is the teacher going to teach or only to chat/ listen to the student?
Will the teacher be able to correct/ guide the student?
Will the teacher contribute to the class by bringing vocabulary/ pronunciation/ grammar etc exercises?
How much preparation will the teacher be giving the class? A (good) exam prep. class for example will involve the teacher becoming familiar with the different parts of the exam and what is being tested in each part of the exam and to what level. The phrasal verbs needed for PET are not the same as what is expected of a CAE student for example. If the student is working in a multinational company his needs are probably different from someone wanting to go to the UK to do a PhD and classes need to be geared to that.
Does the teacher have to travel to the class? Where are you giving the class? If you're going to be on the terraza of a café you're probably going to be charging less than if you're in a classroom with proper facilities for listening for example.
Also to be considered is where are you as obviously rates for Madrid and Barca are going to be higher than Cuenca and León although there is a lot of difference within Madrid itself with contract hours going from 10€ the hour (normally non native, perhaps students teaching kids at home) to 32€ maybe 35€ the hour freelance qualified, experienced and very lucky company teacher.
Lastly but not least teachers have to consider if they are going to be doing this legally or not and the chances are that if we're talking about doing a few hours class a week that they're not going to be declaring tax and so they could undercut all the teachers who are working legally - like myself.
Personally I charge the same rate per for groups and one to one in company as I charge per hour not by how many people so in a group it's quite cheap, but one to one is expensive.


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## Lynn R (Feb 21, 2014)

Rabbitcat said:


> Xabia just as a matter of interest - how sharp do you need to be to pick up the lingo?
> 
> I have a friend, called errrm, Fred no Bob, yeah Bob and he's not the worlds smartest. Do you think he would be able to have a crack at Spanish or would I , sorry he, need to be quite intelligent?


Judging on the basis of my acquaintance, I think a lot of older people just aren't prepared to put the work in. They seem to think they can just go to a handful of classes, or worse still just "pick it up as they go along" because they're living in Spain (although they mix almost exclusively with other British people so how would they? When it doesn't happen, they just give up. My advice would be to treat it as you would have done something you were tasked with doing in your job, and take it seriously.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

sunshine22 said:


> Sorry to spam your thread but don't really want to start a new one... I had an interview in mid August and a week later was selected for the position of an English teacher for the 2015/2016 academic year. I was to be placed in El Puerto de Santa Maria, Cadiz. I was excited to move back to Spain therefore I started looking for places to live in El Puerto & found a place which I then had to reserve, that cost me 115 euros. I was almost ready to go and almost booked my plane tickets. I then asked for the contract and was told to wait, of course I waited and was then sent a "pre-contract" with no specified working hours or salary. I was to start on Oct 5. When I asked why this otherwise important piece of information was missing, I did not receive a straight answer. I was told there were some delays and I needed to wait. I waited a couple more weeks and was finally told that the school in El Puerto didn't work out and they could offer me another school in Bornos. I said I needed a contract before I could make the final decision and was told a contract would be sent to me the following day. That never happened. I was again told there were "delays". This is their website:
> get brit (dot) es
> Can I sue?


I would have become suspicious as soon as they asked for money up front, but this isn't much help to you now. 

You could try reporting them to the Spanish equivalent of the trading standards office (I think it's called CICC), at least to try and get your money back, but I don't know how easy this would be if you aren't in the country.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Lynn R said:


> Judging on the basis of my acquaintance, I think a lot of older people just aren't prepared to put the work in. They seem to think they can just go to a handful of classes, or worse still just "pick it up as they go along" because they're living in Spain (although they mix almost exclusively with other British people so how would they? When it doesn't happen, they just give up. My advice would be to treat it as you would have done something you were tasked with doing in your job, and take it seriously.


Yes, that's also my experience. People often use their age as excuse, but I think motivation is more important, plus the willingness to put in a lot of effort. I started learning Spanish when I was 55, not exactly old but no spring chicken. I help (on a voluntary basis) with an English class for beginners at the local Adult Education Centre, and some of the students are over 70!


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Rabbitcat said:


> Xabia just as a matter of interest - how sharp do you need to be to pick up the lingo?
> 
> I have a friend, called errrm, Fred no Bob, yeah Bob and he's not the worlds smartest. Do you think he would be able to have a crack at Spanish or would I , sorry he, need to be quite intelligent?


I don't think it's intelligence exactly and I find that if people equate learning a language with intelligence it can hold them back considerably as they feel"stupid" if they don't "get" something and that then turns into embarrasment and feeling inadequate and then we get into a whole different ball game of studying.
I do think it's true that some people have more aptitude than others , but that's only logical. Some people are better at gardening than others and some are better at IT - same for picking up languages.
Age can effect how quickly you learn of course as snikpoh points out, but I think that attitude as Lynn says, is going to be the make or break of a person learning a language.
Another thing to be conscious of is that learning a language is not like learning many other things. You don't "learn a language" and then cross that off your list as "done". I think you never stop improving with a language, but that does require a certain proactiveness on the part of the learner which not surprisingly, does not interest or enthuse all language students.


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## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

Alcalaina said:


> I would have become suspicious as soon as they asked for money up front, but this isn't much help to you now.
> 
> You could try reporting them to the Spanish equivalent of the trading standards office (I think it's called CICC), at least to try and get your money back, but I don't know how easy this would be if you aren't in the country.


As far as I understand the money up front was for the flat, not the job.


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Thanks folks. I will pass this info on to Rob....


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Pesky Wesky said:


> As far as I understand the money up front was for the flat, not the job.


Oops, sorry. You're right.

There are some scam companies that take money off you for finding you a (non-existent) placement - I assumed it was one of those.


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## sunshine22 (Sep 15, 2015)

Pesky Wesky said:


> As far as I understand the money up front was for the flat, not the job.


Yes, indeed. They never asked me for money but as soon as I started asking for the contract they almost stopped answering my emails. I think what they're trying to do is avoid paying social security or something along those lines. Like I said I was offered another school in a different town but no contract. I'm in my 20's and I guess they thought they could fool me just like that... It's been an awful experience but I'm glad I didn't go as I have no one else to rely on once there. 
I want to sue them, because I missed a lot of other opportunities and quit my current job here. Not to mention the stress & all the uncertainty...


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## Elyles (Aug 30, 2012)

Age may have something to do with it but not much. Intelligence has little to do with it. I use myself as an example. I am what I consider average intelligence and it never stopped me from completing 10 years in universities and achieving clinical licensure status for many years. I would like to think that desire to learn is the greatest factor. I am still studying and still learning at 64.


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## Elyles (Aug 30, 2012)

I do the same here as a volunteer but have a couple of private clients as well. Although I took a little Spanish in high school and at university level, I returned at 60 to retake the long forgotten instruction. I am 64 now and speak fair but understand well. My wife could not speak a word three years ago but speaks fair now age-66


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## Rabbitcat (Aug 31, 2014)

Well well well. I have just discovered I don't need you teachers.

The latest Seat models have the facility that when you speak as you drive, it puts your words into a text message and sends it.

Well, if I buy a Seat car in Spain it's bound to put my words into Spanish- hence anytime I need to communicate with a Spaniard I just invite them out to my car. Bartender, shop asst etc- just pop out to my car.

Job done. No need for haughty teachers just buy a 30k Seat car


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## Dedaneen (Jul 6, 2013)

I found that when I went on Hols with my ex she would be conversing nicely (basicstuff) with people by the second week, she put it down to having pitch perfect hearing, Ive also found out from my days in Ireland that if people were bilingual (Irish at home, English everywhere else) they could pick up a foreign language easily


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## Simon22 (May 22, 2015)

Lynn R said:


> Judging on the basis of my acquaintance, I think a lot of older people just aren't prepared to put the work in. They seem to think they can just go to a handful of classes, or worse still just "pick it up as they go along" because they're living in Spain (although they mix almost exclusively with other British people so how would they? When it doesn't happen, they just give up. My advice would be to treat it as you would have done something you were tasked with doing in your job, and take it seriously.


Where we are there are several "teachers" available. By pure chance we seem to have got a good teacher and even better everyone in the class is doing their best to learn each week. I'm surprised how true it is that people here think everyone should learn English to accommodate them!


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

snikpoh said:


> I think it depends how old you (he) is - the older one is, the harder it becomes.


that's generally true - though I'd add that having kept your mind active is at least as important

I have some in their 30s who haven't done so, who will find it harder to learn than one guy I'm teaching atm who is 70 & has always kept his mind active


Rabbitcat said:


> Xabia just as a matter of interest - how sharp do you need to be to pick up the lingo?
> 
> I have a friend, called errrm, Fred no Bob, yeah Bob and he's not the worlds smartest. Do you think he would be able to have a crack at Spanish or would I , sorry he, need to be quite intelligent?


no - you don't have to be intelligent, clever, or whatever you want to call it 

you _do _have to _want_ to learn though, & be prepared to put the work in

I've had a few students over the years who thought that they'd be fluent in 6 months just by turning up for an hour and a half once a week, chatting to each other (in English of course) when it wasn't their turn, & not doing any homework

they never last long, don't really learn anything & probably will never get beyond coffee con laychay & servaysa


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## xabiaxica (Jun 23, 2009)

Dedaneen said:


> I found that when I went on Hols with my ex she would be conversing nicely (basicstuff) with people by the second week, she put it down to having pitch perfect hearing, Ive also found out from my days in Ireland that if people were bilingual (Irish at home, English everywhere else) they could pick up a foreign language easily


it's very true to say that the more languages you know, the easier the next one is to learn


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## stefig (Jul 14, 2015)

xabiachica said:


> that's generally true - though I'd add that having kept your mind active is at least as important
> 
> I have some in their 30s who haven't done so, who will find it harder to learn than one guy I'm teaching atm who is 70 & has always kept his mind active
> 
> ...


And it's not just limited to the British, unfortunately! When I taught in Spain, I had several students who turned up for 2 hours a week, spoke Spanish throughout the class, refused to believe that the communicative method was effective, and then complained to the director that I was rubbish because they weren't learning anything. Such people are just closed minded.


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## xolo (May 25, 2014)

Fred no Bob, yeah Bob, and also Rob can learn. One huge factor is _motivation_.


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