The Goods on Teaching English in Europe

Europe may be the School of Hard Knocks for ESL teachers, but Troy Nahumko has some tricks to ease the trade.

Riding the Metro all day from class to class, you almost miss your station because you nodded off to the rhythm of your neighbour's iPod. You jump out at the last minute and emerge into the blazing sunshine and heat of Madrid's Plaza de Castilla in July, fragrant with the aroma of baking pavement. A policeman passes by—depending on your passport and legal status, you may sweat even more.

Your inbox is full of envious messages from friends back home, sharing their dreams of tapas, flamenco dancers and the Costa del Sol, but the closest beach to you is over 300 kilometres away. Visions of late nights eating churros con chocolate come crashing down when your first class starts at 7:30 am and your last class ends at 10 pm. On payday it's clear that all those classes and unpaid Metro hours haven't added up to much.

Europe, with some of the world's most colourful countries, is a popular destination for first time English teachers abroad. For native speakers, demand can be high, but so can supply. In September it seems like jobs are falling from the sky but in February the market feels colder than the weather outside.

Your inbox is full of envious messages from friends back home, sharing their dreams of tapas, flamenco dancers and the Costa del Sol, but the closest beach to you is over 300 kilometres away.

Desperate for work of any kind, one September, I found myself in an Irish pub in Madrid, pleading with the bartender to hire me. As he was laughing an acquaintance came up and asked, "You have a British passport, don't you?"

Curious, I said, "Yes?"

"Well, you start teaching tomorrow. I don't have papers and even though I'm a teacher they can't hire me, so they want you."

Thus began my career. I have taught at some of the worst cowboy schools in Madrid where the owner changes offices just ahead of the debt collectors. I've also worked for some good schools, like Language Solutions and International House. In Madrid most students are employees, their English classes paid for by their companies. In the smaller provincial capitals, if you get an adult class, the learners themselves are usually paying. They expect more but they work harder. Though, outside of Madrid most of your hours are spent teaching children's classes, where the focus is on keeping the kids happy.