Someone asked me about the ethics of working for a school and also doing private lessons. Well, first off the schools will never pay you enough to enable you to give up the private work so in a way, it's the schools' fault. If they paid teachers enough, they wouldn't feel compelled to go private. But this is what I did and I recommend you do the same. At job interviews, admit you do private work and make it clear you won't give it up if the school also offered you work. Insist on them including in your work contract a "non-competition clause" which will say that you promise not to steal the school's students away and if a student of the school approaches you for private tuition, you will refuse. If a student leaves the school of their own choice and THEN approaches you for private work, then to me that's different. If you were to refuse to take them then they would just go to one of your rivals. But while the student is enrolled at a school which you have a contract with, you must promise the school you won't poach them away. Otherwise they would be perfectly justified in firing your ass. One teacher I came into contact with stole each and every student of the school she worked for and when she got as many students as possible, she left and started her own school with the poached students! To me, that is highly unprofessional and she is a disgrace to the teaching profession.

Some foreign teachers seem to have a romantic notion of working in the state schools. Unless you are a German citizen, forget any notion of working in the state schools. State school teachers are civil servants (beamters) and only German citizens can be civil servants and therefore state school teachers. This is a totally unflexible law so don't think exceptions will be made for talented foreigners. The state education system varies from state to state. Berlin does not have overall control over the country's education system - instead each Laender (state) decides its own education policy and you will find that in most cases, Bavaria has the strictest policies.

The big cities (Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Munich, etc) are good for work but also quite expensive to live in. You can easily charge 30 Euros a hour minimum in these cities (and between 20-25 Euros a hour in smaller places and around 10-15 Euros a hour in the former East Germany) but that money will be before taxes, therefore you need to pay taxes yourself and a multitude of German insurance funds (trust me, there are MANY insurance funds you need to pay into, the biggest being health insurance). I was told by three government departments that it is illegal to live in Germany without German health insurance. Whether that's true or whether they invented that to scare me into leaving the country, I don't know. I was having a serious dispute with them at the time so it is quite possible they exaggerated things. But I do know that you definately need health insurance and if you apply for legal residency here, you will be asked to show proof of your health insurance (normally just showing the card is sufficient). So things will be tight financially at the beginning while you try to build up a regular paying clientele plus pay your financial commitments to the German government. The big cities are always good though for work because there will be a couple of universities you can tap into for possible students plus these cities always have English speaking communities you can go to for advice and help.

Someone asked me if age was a factor when the schools are hiring.....I don't really know to be honest. I guess that if you prove yourself reliable and good at the job, they will probably overlook your age. I would be more concerned about your permission to stay in the country if you are from outside the European Union. If so, your biggest problem with the schools won't be your age but your work visa papers to work legally in Germany. The German government is really cracking down on illegal workers so if you approach a school, they will immediately ask to see your passport and work visa papers (without exception). Since there are many EU citizens they can hire without any problem, they won't sponsor a non-EU person for work. So I would say that would be your biggest hurdle with the schools. No school will hire you "unofficially" or "black" so don't entertain the notion.

A lot of emails asked me if it was true that the Germans were terrible people to get along with and if it was true that Germans are very aggressive. OK, let's put this one to bed once and for all - German people are not really harsh in my opinion, that is a very old and very tested stereotype. It's like saying all British people wear bowler hats, that all Scottish people wear kilts and all Americans are named Hank and Peggy-Sue. After 12 years experience living in the country, I would instead say Germans are very serious people. They take life very seriously including their jobs, their home life and social life. They are so serious that things like humour is a real chore for them (this line has proved very controversial - I have had Germans emailing me arguing with this. A good English language article on German humor can be found HERE). Everything in their life is planned down to the last minute detail (like how long it will take to raise the money for a BMW!) so they are also extremely disciplined people (which I highly admire). As for dealing with other people, I would best describe Germans as reserved. It takes some time to gain their trust and respect. They don't suffer fools gladly and first impressions are very important for them - if you screw up in the first meeting then you may as well give up as they won't forget - ever. They take their country, nationality, culture and history very seriously and they are extremely proud of who and what they are and where they've come from. A foreign person living here needs to remember all that and heed by it. It took me a while when I first arrived. When I first got here, I was all cocky and full of Fawlty Towers' "Don't mention the war" and I was almost lynched. Over time, I got to know German people better and now I am more secure and happy here. It takes time but you get there eventually. It helps if you have German friends to guide you through the various minefields.

Lots of questions on the value of a TEFL course - I would say the only real value of a course is if you feel you are not a natural teacher then a course may give you confidence and give you ideas on how to teach more effectively. But all the schools I have come across, including a huge school in Stuttgart, were more interested in my past work experience, my personality, my ideas for lessons and my availability. They were more concerned about whether I had a car to get to outlying villages rather than how I got my TEFL certificate. When I asked one school why they were not interested in the TEFL certificate I got back in 1995, they were quite blunt - "we realise that TEFL certificates are being handed out like chocolate to every stupid idiot who can afford the course". So in other words, a certificate is useful but it isn't a guarantee you would be a good teacher. Any doofus who can come up with the cash can wing it through the course, get the piece of paper then go into a job and well and truly hash it up big time.

As part of the job interview process, the schools will ask you to teach one free lesson anyway which they will monitor (the Stuttgart school made me do a 1 hour telephone lesson with them listening in) so they will see right away if you can teach or not. So I guess my advice to you would be to decide if you are a natural teacher with a big larger-than-life personality who can manage without the TEFL training or if you feel you need the training as a confidence booster. But take it from me - the schools won't care one way or another as long as you can do the job and be relied upon.

One question on whether it's worth setting up a job in advance - you could try to set something up ahead of time - I can't guarantee you'll have success though. Applying for work in advance is very hit-and-miss as schools will probably want to see you in person first (and they will want you to do a free test lesson before deciding whether to offer you work or not). But you can go to http://www.telefonbuch.de and look up language schools. The other phone book website is http://www.gelbeseiten.de (both sites have an English version). In the listings, some schools list email addresses. Or Google for language schools in your chosen area and get the contact info that way.

Lots of questions on how much German you really need to work as a TEFL teacher in Germany. At the very least, you have to learn the basics so you can survive here. Yes, it's true that many Germans have a good knowledge of English (being occupied after the war by the British and Americans, a high standard of education, plus Hollywood movies, music and the internet ensures impressive language proficiency) but it is basic politeness and manners on your part to learn basic German. Many Germans may know English but they will refuse to speak it unless they see you attempting German first. It doesn't matter if you mangle it up. The fact you tried German speaks volumes and if a German sees you struggling with German, they will rescue you with what English they know. A German's attitude is "if they won't bother speaking my language, why should I bother speaking theirs?". You have to admit, it's an understandable position. If a German person came to your country and only spoke German to you, you would soon get pretty pissed off.

Now with relation to speaking German working as a TEFL teacher, it would be helpful if you knew some conversational phrases to introduce yourself to potential clients (in case their previous knowledge of English is non-existent or really bad). Introduce yourself ("Mein Name ist Mark und ich komme aus Schottland" - "my name is Mark and I come from Scotland" - is how I normally start then I would say something like "wie gehts?" which means "how are you?" or "how's life?". That is normally a good conversation starter and ice breaker and gently I would start to slowly introduce some English vocabulary into the conversation and see how much they understand and how they respond. This gives me an idea of the size of the task ahead of me if they decide they want me as their teacher.

So before coming to Germany, get yourself a phrase book and start learning the basics. If you can speak everyday "survival German", you'll go from being an ignorant "passing-through" tourist to being a respected guest. Germans really love other people who speak German. They look upon it as a mark of respect for their language. Germans are very protective towards their language and the best thing you can say is that you are learning German and you love speaking German.

Finally, a multitude of questions on teaching materials. If you get work from a school, check with them to see if they have a book they insist you use. If not, go to the local bookshops and see if you can find a good book. If the students are working towards a Cambridge certificate (or some other equivalent qualification) then there ARE specialised books for that and the schools will have approved titles for you. If however you are teaching privately, there are many places on the internet to get materials. Some recommended URL's are below :

http://www.handoutsonline.com

http://www.macmillanenglish.com/default.aspx?id=2056 (this links to multiple sites, all wonderful, especially Inside Out, One Stop English and MacMillan Business English)

http://iteslj.org/questions/ - good conversation questions

http://www.spotlight-online.de - website for Spotlight magazine, comes out at the beginning of every month and costs 5 Euros. Very good for reading texts.

Labels: ESL, germany, teaching