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Year Abroad

This will sound very naive, but when it states that you will/can spend your year abroad teaching English, does this mean as a job .ie. a salary? :biggrin:

Is it merely as some universities name it, a placement, meaning no money? :frown:

I know it sounds avaricious, but it dawned on me that any money gained then could go towards further study/shopping... :redface:

Just wondered if anyone had any thoughts/info.

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Reply 1

kellywood_5

If you teach English in a school abroad under the scheme run by the British Council, you get paid for it.

Reply 2

Piggsil

All my friends that are going on teaching placements will be getting paid for it. You could also consider getting a job abroad if you would like/need to earn money on your year abroad.
Now shush about year abroads because i am scared and i don't have anywhere to go in italy yet. :afraid:

Reply 3

dismal_laundry

Hi Diachrom- I don't know what languages you are going to be studying on your course. I am currently holding offers to do a joint honours degrees and French. The deal is that you have to spend the time living/studying/working in the country where the main language you are studying is spoken. In France, and I believe Spain, you can get an official position in a state school as an assistant(e). You work term time only and you teach English to French (Spanish) school kids. Your class load is about 12 hours per week, not too onerous. You are a regular, if junior, employee and you are paid a decent salary for this work- I don't know how much. This is a very normal thing to do and has been for years- many kids on years abroad do it. The down side for France is that you will not have control over where you are sent in the country- same deal as beginning graduate French teachers- you can put preferences down, but the Ministry of Education can send you where they need to. Others attend local unis. Sometimes, if you are lucky and get to work on it pretty soon after you start your course, you can stitch up other jobs, like in the cultural dept of the government, but don't count on this, also depends where you are in the country. Here's the good news, if you are an EU citizen, are not working (officially), spend a full academic year in an EU country, and have not had an EU grant before, you get an EU Erasmus/Socrates mobility grant of 2000 Euro for the year. Not a lot, but it helps. Google Socrates/Erasmus, also the web site of the unis you are interested in will have info within their languages depts. Basically, if you plan carefully and check out as much as you can in advance, it should be a real blast. Best of luck from Dismal

Reply 4

princessa

yes, asother people have said, if you work as a language assistant you get paid, and it is a decent sum of money (not sure how much, but i have a couple of friends doing it right now and its a tidy amount). you are also entitled to a higher rate of loan.

dismal_laundry

Here's the good news, if you are an EU citizen, are not working (officially), spend a full academic year in an EU country, and have not had an EU grant before, you get an EU Erasmus/Socrates mobility grant of 2000 Euro for the year. Not a lot, but it helps.

yes, but this is only true if you are on an erasmus exchange, which not all exchanges are. and you only get money for the time you are doing the exchange, eg if you spend a year abroad but only one semester studying on an erasmus place, you will only get money for that semester. i have gone to two countries this year, both for erasmus exchanges, and in total i will have recieved just over £2000, which as dismal laundry says, is a definite help! also you get a bit more if you go to countries like greece or portugal to help with fees for a language course or something. there is a similar grant scheme available if you doa work placement (not language assistantship) called leonardo, but i dont know much about that. but basically whatever you chose to do, you will probably be able to get some extra cash one way or another. assistantships are pretty competitive but if you get one it is probably one of the best ways to spend your year abroad, at least financially and in terms of what you will be doing with your time. everyone i know who is an assistant is thoroughly enjoying it.

Becca

Now shush about year abroads because i am scared and i don't have anywhere to go in italy yet.

oh it'll be fine! it will sort itself out. :smile:

i wish this time last year i spent less time panicking and more time looking forward to the unknown that lay ahead. ah. it all passed too quickly.

Reply 5

Piggsil

princessa

oh it'll be fine! it will sort itself out. :smile:

i wish this time last year i spent less time panicking and more time looking forward to the unknown that lay ahead. ah. it all passed too quickly.

Rokay.

Reply 6

paddy

Becca

Rokay.

Someone's been watching Scooby-Doo recently... :wink:

Reply 7

Piggsil

paddy357

Someone's been watching Scooby-Doo recently... :wink:

Zoinks!

Reply 8

paddy

Becca

Zoinks!

Jinkies*

*I actually used this a lot, and still do sometimes :redface:

Reply 9

Piggsil

paddy357

Jinkies*

*I actually used this a lot, and still do sometimes :redface:

Hehe, I do actually say rokay raggy instead of OK quite often too. :redface:

Reply 10

eleri

I was a language assistant in France last year and got about 750 Euros per month (after tax) for twelve hours work a week. So it's good money for the amount of hours you work, but not a huge amount for actually living on.

Reply 11

S-J

I have just finished working in Germany as a language assistant! I got paid VERY well and it was such a good experience!!! I would really recommend it! You have to be prepared to work hard though and your knowledge of English has to be good, but that's something you can sort out in the summer before you go. Highly recommended! And so much fun!

Reply 12

kashiya

Do you have to be a native English speaker for that? OR is it enough when you're at a university in the UK?

Reply 13

S-J

No, unfortunately, you have to be a native speaker or prove that you're fluent and have a completely English accent.

Reply 14

dismal_laundry

S-J

No, unfortunately, you have to be a native speaker or prove that you're fluent and have a completely English accent.

How do you know that a specifically English accent is required? Why would American or Canadian accented speech not be desirable or acceptable? After all, it's not as if those accents are going to be a novelty to French kids, due, for example, to media exposure. Also, I can think of English accents which are pretty difficult to understand- east end proletarian, or deep Essex estuarine...

Reply 15

Piggsil

dismal_laundry

We had a French-Canadian assistante at school, and her accent was pretty different from the regular French accent and it's not like it made a huge difference. Since English is your native language I wouldn't worry. :smile:

Reply 16

dismal_laundry

Thanks, I didn't really believe that N. American English would be a problem, especially for the purposes of working in France, with its heritage shared with a major bilingual city and province in N. America...I'm really looking forward to my language year in 2008...

Reply 17

S-J

What I meant was "English" as in the language i.e. I wasn't meaning just British English. When I wrote "English" I was including British English, American English, Australian English and so on. Sorry for the confusion! My fault.

And I totally agree that some British English accents are very hard to understand!