Going to Brazil

Hello Cheyenne,



On behalf of everybody here at Expat-blog, welcome on board. I hope your experience here will be both enjoyable and informative.

I'm a Canadian who has been living in Brazil for almost 13 years now. I have been teaching English almost all of that time here, and 14 years teaching back in Canada.

You'll be able to find a job immediately at any of the established (commercial) language schools in Brazil like FISK, Wizard, CCAA, CNA, Cultura Inglesa, Wise Up, etc., that's no problem. You'll probably walk out of the very first one where you apply with a job. The problem here is the salary, which even if they give you a full schedule you will be hardly able to get by on. Depending on the city you can count on earning between R$20 - 25 per hour of classroom time, no paid prep time and usually no pay if a class is cancelled. You might even have to take a job at a couple of schools just to fill your teaching schedule.

The pay is a bit better if you work for a school that gives "in-company" or residential classes again depending on the city between R$25 - 30 per hour and if you're lucky they'll give you a bit of an allowance for transportation costs (usually only equal to one way fare).

The big money is in private students, who will pay significantly more for qualified teachers, but it will take some time to recruit a student base sufficient enough to support yourself well.

What I always suggest is to start off at a school (or two) and begin recruiting through creating your own website, pamplhets, leaflets, newspaper ads, etc., and as you start building a sufficent student base of your own then start to "wean yourself off" of dependency on the schools until you can devote all your time to your private students.

One big tip, and a point of ethics... while you'll probably have students at the schools ask you to teach them privately, don't ever accept a student from a school where you are teaching (or ever have). A lot of times this can backfire and get you blacklisted. Sometimes the students even do it just to "rat out" somebody they don't particularly like, so be very careful on this point. I make it a habit of only accepting former students once they've been away from a particular school for at least a year. That seems to keep everybody happy and certainly doesn't pose any ethical questions for me.

If you're going to teach privately get your boyfriend to check out what other teachers are charging for private classes and price yourself accordingly. Brazilians, while they always want a bargain, are very funny about this point. They don't seem to grasp the concept of somebody undercutting the price of competing teachers, they think if you charge less then you mustn't be too good or have no experience and they shy away. If you charge the same as the rest you'll be fine, too much and you scare them off. Trust me, I know these things.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Hi William,
Thank you for this very detailed and valuable information. i'm in a similar situation as cheyenne but the difference is (1) im in sg and (2) that i've yet to take up certification. so is tefl more widely acceptable certification in brazil than tesl?
Thanks!
Jasmin

The "Top 5" (not necessarily in the following order) here in Brazil, that students are looking for are Cambridge First Certificate (FCE), TOEFL, TOEIC, IELTS, Cambridge Proficiency in English (CPE) any certification in preparing students for these exams will put you head and shoulders above other job candidates.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, EB Experts Team

Perfect! Thanks William! This is very helpful.