Volunteering as a teacher?

Is your husband a certified English teacher in Canada? I ask, because the entire TEFL thing I consider a bit of complete nonsense unless one has a BS in English. And if one has a BS in English and is a certified teacher, the TEFL issue is silly. Just an international scam for expats that may not provide the best English instructors for locals.

Rather, simply do consider becoming an independent contractor (contact a local Hungarian attorney* how to do this -- the easiest is KATA, but that is not always the most tax beneficial). Then your husband can just go around with a contractor status and better than TEFL credentials to get a better paying job.

*You are not a US citizen, but feel free to use my tax dollars to help yourself out as the US Embassy has a list of local Attorneys:
https://hu.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-se … attorneys/

Awesome info. He is a certified teacher with specialty in Social Studies and Business. He also has two bachelor degrees as well - one is an honours degree in journalism, and the other in business communications.

Thanks for the link!

I know an American native American women who  taught here in Hungary last year.
She went home for the summer months but is returning for another year of teaching English here in Hungary.
She went through one of those programs TFEL and needed a degree in just about any subject to get hired .
Her pay is low but they give here a free apt.
She also teaches English with private lessons.
She was sent out to the countryside to teach as there was a high demand from many people to live in Budapest and she likes things quiet.
She paid a fee to an agency and paid for her own airfare to HU.
They had a 3 day  thing where they put about 100 new teachers in a hostel to review their program and then helped them all go to whatever they were going to teach.
I think her income after taxes is about $500, or $600. a month but don't quote me on that.
After she was here and settling into her new place though they moved her to another flat within a month and then added a few more locations where she had to take the bus about an hour from home to teach 2 or 3 days away from her school base job. She had been hired to teach at a new primary school only.
Sort of seems like they do whatever they wish with teachers here once they got you in hand.
She is returning however so who really knows.
I heard that there is a FB or some other social media app that helps find volunteer teaching jobs here in Budapest. I don't know more then that. Don't think they get paid but if they do it is under the table so it's up to you to decide if that's going to work out or not. I heard a figure of 10,000 forints for 8 hours of teaching with one of these links.Chump change for 8 hours.
Oh, most of these volunteer things seem to be after work hours or on weekends, might not work for a married person who does a 9 to 5 on weekdays to have their partner busy when they are off work.

Thanks so much for the response. I think that is the same one I was looking at - and it doesn't sound appealing at all. For the sake of a year I really don't think it is worth it, but the hard part for him is that he isn't someone that would enjoy being unemployed at all, so I definitely need to find ways to keep him busy haha.

I found a program online called Angloville that will pay for your TEFL if you commit to "volunteering" at 3 of their week long camps. I'm thinking he might like that since he could go even once a month to volunteer for a week and see a different country (the have camps in Poland, Hungary, Romania, etc). It seems pretty demanding but they put you up at a resort and your meals are paid, and you get to meet lots of new people.

ashleyr89 wrote:

Thanks so much for the response. I think that is the same one I was looking at - and it doesn't sound appealing at all. For the sake of a year I really don't think it is worth it, but the hard part for him is that he isn't someone that would enjoy being unemployed at all, so I definitely need to find ways to keep him busy haha.

I found a program online called Angloville that will pay for your TEFL if you commit to "volunteering" at 3 of their week long camps. I'm thinking he might like that since he could go even once a month to volunteer for a week and see a different country (the have camps in Poland, Hungary, Romania, etc). It seems pretty demanding but they put you up at a resort and your meals are paid, and you get to meet lots of new people.

That does sound interesting, I knew a lady , an ex-pat who did this too on the side to just meet people.
I never knew the name of the company, good to know for anyone new coming here.
The deal is, well hard to say really but this person I knew was an older gal like myself and she did mention that weekend hotel with free food thing was a bit much sometimes.
One had to have all meals with the paying clients plus they were expected to be social in the evenings with joining in on drinking and talking around in a group till after 11 pm. Up again in the morning hours. They had a few hours mid day to actually enjoy the pool and hotel services but some things they had to pay out of pocket for like a massage.
I thought it too might be interesting to try out but my husband of course put a big heck no on that situation.
It had mostly back=packer younger people volunteering, they got to see some places and didn't have to pay for a hostel, they had free evening drinks, lots of them and many people "hooked up" maybe you could stay overnight with your hubby just to check out if my info was correct or not, just saying why tempt anyone?
Everyone also had to share hotel rooms with another person.
They did put this person up in a private room but she was older and told them up front that she needed to be alone.
These trips were for 3 or 4 days usually as well.
Maybe  he can find something in Budapest at a public school?
Really though, I am not sure this was the same volunteer thing because I never heard about them helping one get a TESL certificate through them.
There must be several of these companies  who look for free volunteers in exchange for room and board.
Maybe he would enjoy volunteering at an animal shelter or hospitals instead of teaching English?

ashleyr89 wrote:

He is a certified teacher with specialty in Social Studies and Business. He also has two bachelor degrees as well - one is an honours degree in journalism, and the other in business communications

With degrees in business and business communications I would think he might be able to find a job a company in Budapest. There are some openings for English speakers, especially for firms dealing internationally.

Yes apparently they only started the free TEFL last year. It sounds like exactly the same one!

This is true - he previously held pretty senior jobs in communications for a city and a large corporation before he went back for his teaching degree.

I think we need to really work on figuring out the visa stuff. I haven't been able tot talk to HR for my job yet, but I'm thinking he might get some sort of status through that as well.

ashleyr89 wrote:

Yes apparently they only started the free TEFL last year. It sounds like exactly the same one!

That is interesting to know, guess the all you can drink and hook ups weren't cutting it after all...
No seriously best of luck.