I want to know what requirments are neccesary for teaching english in mexico?

Question

I want to teach english in mexico I would love to hear from someone who lived there as either a teacher or was a student any info would be helpful thanks

Answer 1

i did.  first, i began looking for schools on the internet.  i found several interested in me, so i set up some interview dates.  i went down to mexico and interviewed, and they offered me the jobs.  i chose the one i liked the most, and that school began the process of aquiring a work visa for me.  i paid for the visa, but they had to make the request, and they also completed all of the paperwork and provided the lawyer.  i just showed up with the money for the visa.  (all in total, i think it was less than 300 USD)

i worked a university, starting at 9 USD an hour, plus benefits, for 25 hrs a week of work, which i survived on just fine for my meager living.  at the second semester, i requested a raise, since i had proven myself to be a good teacher, and i was given 18 USD an hour.  i knew they wouldn't want to lose me, but i also knew they couldn't keep up with that rate of pay for long, and i was only going to finish out the year.  i think if they knew i was staying longer, they would have offered less.  i would say 12-15 is competitive in a small university, private or course.  and in a big city such as guadalajara or mexico city...you should go for 20-30 USD.

the catch is that i have a master's degree in teaching english, which justified my pay, and allowed me to work at a university.

if you have a bachelor's in english, with teaching experience...maybe you could also be an instructor at a university, but i'm not sure.

if you don't have a degree that goes with teaching...i guess you could work at a language school...but this kind of work is often done without a visa (illegally) and there are no benefits, the pay is around 7-9 USD an hour, the hours flux, and you may not get paid at all sometimes because you don't have any legal basis to fight if you don't!

the toughest places to get jobs are the "american schools."  these schools require the same, if not more experience, than a high school or middle school in the US.  the clients to these schools are often wealthy, and they demand the most experienced teachers.

Answer 2

The first thing to do is find a school that wants you and will communicate via email.  The link below is a good start.

http://www.teachabroad.com/Mexico.cfm

They should be willing to set you up with a work visa/permit but usually that is done after you arrive on a tourist visa.  A number of schools don't care much about being legal ... and they think they can pay less if you are not.  Be careful in that department

Keep looking and talking to people, try the Thorntree forum on Lonely Planet and especially try the Dave's ESL Cafe

http://www.eslcafe.com/