Teaching English in Serbia and Montenegro

The following comments are from teachers who have taught, or are currently teaching, in Serbia and Montenegro. If you are a teacher and have some advice to share, please add it here.

Anonymous on 16 July 2008

quote One has to remember that NATO bombed Serbia within recent memory of people there. English is very much in need, but they are still aligned with their fellow Orthodox cousins in Russia. Serbia has not come as far along as Slovenia, but it is pretty much in line with the rest of the former Yugoslavia. Do not get into trouble, the cops are tough, and if you are from the US or the UK, even more so. Kids at school are normal, and generally well behaved. Money is still a little tight, students might only attend class once or twice a week, and you will teach all levels, kids and adults. Normally it is up to you to create the lesson plan. As a native English speaker, you will also be expected to teach the Serb English teacher, as well as your class load. Housing is either shared, or you can get an apartment in one of the old style communist apartment blocks. Forget about A/C , get a fan when you arrive, the buildings look like they were built from pre-cast concrete, and have joints that sometimes leak when it rains, but your little room, generally won't. Food has a little bit of Greek or Turkish influence - kind of spicy. Grocery Stores are easily within walking distance, many people have bikes however. The language is both in Cyrillic and Latin characters, the words are exactly the same, but in the written version one looks like Russian, and the other looks Slavic.

Nikola on 9 November 2008

quote You are 100% wrong about Serbia!!! I've been teaching here for 10 years and some of the Serbian teachers have more skills than the natives. You have to spend some time here if you want to talk about it :)... People have A/Cs... and do lead a normal lifestyle... of course some of them can't afford it, but isn't it like that anywhere else...??? Don't take the story above for granted! That's my advice!

Ron on 8 June 2009

quote In response to Anonymous's comments, I agree with Nikola. I have only visited Belgrade once and found the city to be very cosmopolitan, aware of its history, and very friendly to Americans. Of course, I wasn't doing anything that would cause contact with the police, so I can't speak about that. Anonymous's experience may cause him or her to believe what they have written, but one cannot generalize so much. The general political tide is more complex than Anonymous would have you believe. My taped interviews with Serbs contradict nearly everything Anonymous has stated. Belgrade is a well-developed city on par with Rome, Brussels, or Munich. They do have amenities like air conditioning, flush toilets, and everything else they have in, say, Madison, Wisconsin or Paris, France or even Nome, Alaska. They also have stunning architecture, a fascinating historical perspective, great food, and wonderful people. Nikola is also correct on the professionalism of the language teachers there. Like so many non-native speakers they are often technically more proficient in the language than many native-speaking English majors. Money is tight in Serbia for the aforementioned complex political situation. That doesn't make Serbs any different from many Americans in the current economic climate. Luckily, teaching language doesn't require a whole lot of capital, just some sense of compassion and the joy of speaking and writing!

DA on 13 December 2010

quote The anonymous post is from an idiot. Take none of that seriously. Perhaps you had a bad experience but that is not the norm. Serbia is not Utopia but it is completely modern and you can find almost anything you would in the UK, US or western EU. People are very eager to learn and English courses are a great opportunity to experience that. The standard, though, is highly varied but impossible to assume who will or will not be skilled based on age, job, etc. They are wonderfully warm to most foreigners and you can reasonably expect that if you ask a favour, someone will take care of you. Sometimes even if you don't ask!

Anonymous on 16 February 2011

quote Be aware that Serbia is going deeper and deeper into an extreme economic crisis just at the time when most countries are now in the recovery stage. There is an over-saturation of the private language school market here, anyone who cant find a job opens a language school (or drives a taxi). More than 100 English language schools in a city of 400 thousand (Novi Sad) and even in relatively good economic times this makes a problem.In bad times like now, with 10 percent inflation and 25 percent unemployment it is a catastrophe, with too many schools competing for fewer and fewer students (and those students, or their parents,often fall very far behind in paying)and they all keep dividing the pie into smaller and smaller pieces until there's nothing left but crumbs for everyone. At the moment it doesn't matter whether a school is good or bad,new or established, they are all going down. Some schools have been here 10 or 20 yrs but are now thousands of euro in debt. A native speaker is considered an unnecessary luxury when they don't have enough work for the local teachers already. In this year 2011 Serbia should be avoided. It wasn't so bad a year or two ago but it is now and there is no evidence it will get better anytime soon.

Micky zee on 10 October 2011

quote I agree with anonymous, that's the way, tell it like it is brother, stick it up em, fear no one and speak your mind. The people who don't agree with you are probably bored housewives whose hubbies work in an embassy and have no real contact with the common folk of this country. I've been living here for 6 years and have seen nothing but misery, confusion and extreme corruption all covered by very thick layers of pretentiousness and lies by the Serbian government. The only people who have prospered here are the criminals and the well connected Oh and Ceca but then she's both of those things, anyway as I was saying it's a downhill slide here in Serbia and so it's best to stay clear.

B on 2 November 2011

quote No, not true. Serbians are incredibly friendly people and really don't hold a grudge on what happened in 1999. I've spent a lot of time there and I've found that people are incredibly eager to meet and speak to Americans and to prove to us that they are not the "animals" that the western media portrays them as. I encourage those who believe otherwise to go for a visit and spend enough time to get to know someone.