Teaching English in Brazil..

Hello Aido,

Actually most of the private English language schools are less interested in any certification or teaching experience than they are in the fact that one is a native speaker. This is not terrific for the profession because it tends to keep the standards low, but it appears that's the way schools like it so they can pay less. All of the schools will put their new hires through their own training programs regardless of qualifications, because they want teachers using only their material and methodology.

If you're not teaching private students that you recruit yourself you can actually reach a point where you are over-qualified and this can make it difficult for you to find a job in many schools. Directors and Coordinators are very reluctant to hire anyone who is clearly more qualified than they themselves are for fear of being shortly replaced by the very person they've just hired. I know that over the years here I have faced exactly that problem because I hold a BA in English as well as a BEd in English. For private students the more qualified you are the better.

My recommendation to everyone considering teaching here is to start off working at a school or even a couple in order to fill your schedule, start recruiting your own students and as your student roster grows slowly wean yourself off of dependency on the schools.

Sorocaba is a small bedroom comunity of Greater São Paulo, it's rather small and quite. You would probably stand a much better chance of finding reliable and decent work in São Paulo proper.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team