Day Four

On this day the most interesting thing was discussing potential jobs for English teachers. In latin america you can make a living wage of about $700 a month, with contracts of about 6 months. There are jobs in costa rica and peru with this program Maximo Nivel and they are also scheduled to open a new site in Antigua, Guatemala in January. We have heard that while the TEFL program is efficient, teaching with Maximo probably is not the most enjoyable job. You can also look into private schools, institutes and public schools. The issue is that most of the jobs that are available here in Costa Rica are in San Jose. No one wants to live here because it is dreary and industrial, but there is the option of going to the beach on the weekends. Most of my classmates are going to look for jobs in the small towns along the coast, although they may pay less, you live on the beach and that is why you would be teaching here anyway!
The situation with teaching in latin america, is that you are Illegal! Thats right, all english teachers here are paid under the table and enter on tourist visas. because of this you have to leave the country every 90 days. While this isn't much of a hassle because Panama and Nicaragua are very close and you can cross by bus, it seems that the government is catching on. Two of my classmates and one of the teachers tried to enter the country with a one way ticket and were required to purchase a ticket for out of the country within 3 months. If you were to get in trouble with the law here, you could be deported. I enjoy the opposite situation of Gringos being illegally working in latin america when the USA has such an issue with latinos working in the US illegally.

Asia is the place to go to make money. Thailand and Vietnam pay descently. Japan pays well but it is also very expensive to live there. Korea = MONEY. Korea will pay for your airfare to and from the country for a year contract, they pay for an apartment and they even give you a starting and ending bonus! You make a couple thousand dollars a month of straight profit since your only expense is food.

We learned how to write an international resume, and Maximo Nivel will write us good reccomendations and help us with any connections they have.