France or Germany

[pendles]

Hi,

I am planning on doing a TEFL course in February and will be organising 1 year work visa for either Germnay or France before I get to Europe, but I cant decide which one to get. My question is, which country is seen as more favourable for a TEFL teacher? Will I find it easier to find work in one country over the other? I have heard that in Germany it is difficult at the beginning to get enough classes to make a decent living. Is this correct? I guess I am hoping there is a clear winner here, to make my decision easier.

Thanks

[Alex Case]

Neither of them are the easiest for beginner teachers, to be honest. A good indication of how easy jobs are to get is how many ads you see, and apart from some very specialised business English jobs and things out in the sticks I rarely notice job ads for those two.

[Susan]

Alex, you may not notice job ads for France because the French tend to advertise in France, not internationally. I don't know about Germany

There are jobs to be had in France but they are often in private language schools that have businesses as their clients. A teacher will be required to go into the company to give lessons and may end up spending a lot of time on public transport. Check up front if there is any compensation for the time spent travelling. I've seen teachers doing 3 hours travelling and 2 hours teaching a day and being paid just for the two hours teaching!

[Alex Case]

Hi Susan

Thanks for the info. My point wasn't that those countries have no jobs (a surprising number of TEFL bloggers and ESP book authors work in Germany, for example), but the number of international job ads tends to be a good indication of the number of jobs for teachers with no experience, e.g, from my experience:
- East Asia most job ads and easiest for people with no experience
- Eastern Europe most job ads in Europe and easiest place to get jobs in Europe
- Spain most jobs ads in Western Europe and easiest place to get jobs in Western Europe

[Susan]

Hi Alex,

I get your point about job ads being an indication of jobs available.

I can only speak for Paris but there are a good number of jobs for teachers without experience but I only see them advertised in France (local rags, notice boards in bookshops or websites for the French and expat communities in France). Of course these ads don't state that they are looking for teachers without experience! I don't know why they don't advertise internationally; I guess it's because the French tend to have a different approach to work and business to other countries.

[CaesarTervel]

France is better than Germany in terms of TEFL jobs but I also agree with Alex that if you want to come to Western Europe the best TEFL market is in Spain, particularly in Madrid.