Country info and advice - Germany
The following comments are from teachers who have taught, or are currently teaching, in Germany. If you are a teacher and have some advice to share, please add it here.
Germany is a great country to
live and work in, IF you are prepared for the rather unfriendly atmosphere, and
don't take it personally. Once you get to know the German people, however, you
quickly realise that the serious, unfriendly demeanour hides a caring and honest
heart. I have met the kindest people in the world in Germany, and the nastiest!
It it a country of extremes, but very well-organised, safe and one of the
cheapest European countries to live in. Food is cheap and good, as are
cosmetics, wine and cigarettes!! (this is liberal Europe, you know!)
You have a feeling of freedom here, eccentrics are well-tolerated ("Naked Jurg" is a
Frankfurt character I saw several times, who wanders around town stark naked,
and is permitted to ride on buses and trams provided he sits on a newspaper!)
The people in Germany are educated and interested in current affairs, and I had
some of the best, most interesting conversations ever during my time teaching
in-company business English. Not known for their tolerance in general, German
people seem to have rather a respect for English-speaking nations, and a great
respect for the English language. You do need to register at every address you
live in in Germany, and they will keep an eye on you. Once you have a job there,
it should be easy to get a residency permit, especially for European citizens,
but individuals in bureaucracy can make life hard for you, and often refuse to
speak English even though you know they probably can speak it, and well! All in
all, if you are resilient, you will love working in Germany and should be able
to save up quite well.
Stress the companies that you
have taught in (the better known the better) over and above your qualifications.
It's taken for granted that you are qualified to do the job. Germans tend to be
much more interested in who and for which companies/firms you have taught.
My advice is plain and simple.
Great place to live and work. It does, however, take some getting used to at
first. Germans tend to have very strong opinions sometimes about things going on
outside their country, and it is hard to make them realize that they are not
always right with their opinions. Once you learn to just let it slide off your
back you will do fine. It is very interesting to talk to people here because
they are interested in so many things. At first Germans tend to be rather
distant with people thy have just met and can sometimes even reach the point of
being cold. You have to have a bit of patience there, since they do take a
little longer to warm up to people, but once they do you can be certain that it
is genuine. I come from a place where everyone is friendly to you right from the
get-go, and that kind of "friendliness" makes you wonder sometimes where you
really stand and whether or not it is 100% honest. In Germany you usually know
pretty quickly where you stand with most people and I think that is rather nice.
No grey areas. Food is very cheap here. Public transportation is very well
organized and safe. There are many different types of cards that you can buy
depending on how often or how far you need to travel. Most of these cards are
very affordable. The government offices, or rather the government employees,
tend to be very bureaucratic so you do have to have a lot of patience there.
Whatever school or company you work with should offer help in dealing with all
the paperwork pertaining to work permits and/or residence permits. All in all it
is worthwhile to live and work in Germany. You just need a little patience and
it will work out just perfect.
I am working as a teacher in
Hamburg and have found it to be very rewarding. German people do tend to be cold
and serious, but they are generally very friendly. Be prepared to meet Germans
with absolutely no imagination. They even admit that they have no 'fantasy' as
they call it. When presenting activities don't expect them to be forthcoming
with ideas. Brainstorming can be difficult, but they just need a little
prompting. Once they are used to the fact that you expect them to do some
thinking on their feet they can present ideas more easily. The pay is OK in most
main stream schools, but if you want to make money get into a Business English
school. Private teaching is also quite lucrative. It is mostly freelance here so
expect to grapple with their German tax system. It's best to find yourself a
'Steuerberater' and let them do it. It cost about 200 euro and should be
submitted in May for the previous year. You can claim all travel expenses, any
materials you've bought and your rent - in most circumstances. Make sure you
keep receipts for everything. The weather in the north is pretty bad in the
winter. Expect rain and wind and snow (sometimes all the same day). Summers are
great in Hamburg because all of the city likes to sit outside on warm evenings
and drink beer and talk about everything. Hamburg is generally quite friendly
and has a unique character of it's own. It is known as the nicest city in the
world - to the locals and it's definitely the nicest in Germany.
I'm afraid I totally agree
with you - most language schools pay extremely badly in Germany... and don't
forget that as a freelance teacher you have to pay around 35% of your income
before tax for health insurance + social insurance and then you stll have tax to
pay. Finally, a lot of English teachers working in Germany are supported by
their partners, love their job and are prepared to work for peanuts.
It's taken a while but I now
realise that I'm doing OK here. As a part-time freelancer, my school pays 35+
Euro per 45 minutes and its a nice school in a cheap city. Thinking the grass
might be greener, I enquired about teaching elsewhere in Germany. I am disgusted
by most of the offers. Scot47 rightly says a family man would starve teaching
here. Let me add to that: How can free and easy singles survive on the pittance
some schools are paying?
First, I was offered a job at a well-known Hamburg school paying 13 Euro per
hour freelance (no extras such as medical insurance) binned. Next, a school in
Essen invited me for interview and sent nine pages of information. I was nearly
convinced. I could even sit an FTBE exam for free. Just as well the job was
tax-free because on page eight was the pay: 10-13 Euro per hour. Teachers are
guaranteed 80 hours per month as a safety net. Let's do some sums:
@13 Euro per hour, in one month you'd earn* **
80 hours a month = 1040 Euro Gross (752 Pounds or 1198 US Dollars)
20 hours a week = 1127 Euro Gross (815 Pounds or 1298 US Dollars)
30 hours a week = 1690 Euro Gross (1222 Pounds or 1947 US Dollars)
* plus travel expenses and they pay extras such as 50% health insurance
** minus about 15% for social and health insurance
You could live quite well working 30 hours a week teaching all over some city,
but then again, no thanks. I dont know if Germany has any Western Unions but
anyone doing 20-25 hours a week at that place can perhaps let us know. You can
write how nice your school is, and about the great courses you'll send your
valued teachers on, I'd prefer not to live in a lonely bedsit tucking into my
beans on toast. I'm an EU citizen and speak pretty good German. I could work in
the local McDonalds and make more than 13 Euro per hour.
I once popped into a Thailand branch of inlingua for a chat. For business
classes, inlingua Bangkok were offering teachers (qualified or not) 500 baht per
50 minutes, just over 10 Euro. Some of you Germany school owners are paying
exactly the same as a very average school in Thailand, where the cost of living
is many many times lower.
So, who's to blame, the schools or the teachers? Anyone naive enough to accept
10-13 Euro per hour, McDonalds money, really should be asking questions like,
all that money paid by the students or companies, where is it going? As for the
schools, my employer charges 40 Euro per hour. I could be totally wrong but I'll
assume that's the going rate. So, your teachers are taking home 25-33% of that.
I appreciate your admin costs and having to make a profit, etc. The figures,
however, dont lie. Ladies and Gentleman, you're paying peanuts.
I get five or six e-mails a week asking about teaching here. I'm normally so
positive and hated writing this message. School owners, please prove me wrong or
justify these low wages you're paying.
Big Mac anyone?
The wages are about the same
as a labourer on a building site.
Germany is a great country to
live in but getting used to the people and the system takes time. I live in
Düsseldorf and work for three schools on a freelance basis. I get 20 to 22 euros
an hour. It's not great but it's not hard work either. I have recently picked up
a contract to teach a company director one to one and that pays LOTS more. I got
his name from a student (his secretary), gave him a call and voila! I'll be
looking out for more of this from now on. Germany's probably not for the long
haul but it is worth a visit for a year or two.
A lot of English speaking
people turn up in Germany, especially Berlin, and decide that they want to stay
and turn to teaching (generally) out of desperation (it seems we English
speaking people tend to be mostly monolingual). It is this group of people who,
bless their souls, continue to drive prices down--especially with private
students and private schools. With companies it is (mostly) a different ball of
wax. Basically, they have a greater interest in quality. And if you are able to
produce results (their employees are learning from you), then they are more or
less willing to pay up. Sorry for the endless Redewendungen. My experience
teaching business english has been essentially positive. The pay is reasonable
but only if you are able to get in-house work with a company. I work once-a-week
with a company and make just under 40 euros per hour. I started lower and every
year have asked for between 2 and 4 euros more per hour. And usually get the
increase I request. But I invest a lot of time and money into continuously
improving and updating my course. And I have basic design skills so I am able to
layout perhaps more interesting lessons than some teachers. I also have a lot of
office experience. German's tend to want to learn English in German. And having
at least basic German skills is required if one wants to teach anyone above the
age of 18. By wanting to learn English in German, I mean, the students want the
teacher to explain everything to them in German and to give them German examples
for every grammatical term or phrase you present them in English. It is
important to not let the students manipulate you into going too far down that
path. You were not hired as an expert on the German language. And in order to
give such students what they want, you would need to know German grammar equally
as well. Also these students who insist on learning in this fashion, tend not to
progress very far. Ultimately, ESL in Germany should not be taken on as a
career. You will never make enough to cover your living expenses, taxes, and
save any money. I do it as a way to supplement my income. Plus, I'm married, so
I am not dependant on teaching to survive.
As a freelancer, you may also
consider finding yourself an agent. Myself and two other former teachers have
established an agency in Berlin for experienced teachers looking to top up their
income from their usual school work. We deal almost solely with firms, so we pay
considerably more than the going rate...as long as you combine top service with
great teaching. We are almost ready with the web launch (this month hopefully)
so one can see how the system operates, but it's quite simple and most
importantly supportive of the teacher. If anyone reading this would like to find
out more, you can contact us at tintservices.com. Even if you are not based in
Berlin, we'd love to hear from you.
Someone in one of the posts
mentioned the "donut hours". That is, starting at 8:30 in the morning, teaching
one, two, or even three classes, and then having an afternoon break for 1-7
hours before having to start teaching again...until 9:00 p.m. This might drive
one insane. It drives me mad! That, and the low pay for working at a chain school,
are the down sides to working here. But, I accept this situation, as I prefer to
have a contract with health benefits. However, in that I do not belong to the
younger generation who may be here for a year or two, I expect to stay in Germany
for many years. I just hope that along the way a company might recognize my true
value and hire me at a more respectable wage with reasonable working hours.
I am currently in the middle of a 7 hour break before having to return to work
until 9 p.m. See what I mean?
"Doughnut hours" are just the same
in other European countries - you could end up in Poland for the same hours at a
vastly reduced rate of pay, minus health insurance and other benefits. The grass
is always greener on the other side of the fence. I guess in Germany you just need
to keep your nose to the grindstone and things inmprove step by step. Language is
the key to progress. Probably.
When you arrive in Germany, you will of course need a telephone line and internet access (it's called DSL here). Anyway, just a word of warning - do NOT use Deutsche Telekom. They may appear to be the biggest and safest company but they are well known for screwing foreigners. Hidden deep in their extremely long contract is a clause which says that the contract runs over an entire calendar year - so if you are in a position where you have to leave Germany in (say) February, they will force you to pay line rental for the remaining 10 months. And there's nothing you can do about it. I got screwed like this and I know of two other friends who fell for the same trap.
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