Teaching English in Romania

Hi Mr. Plutoman,
You might want to add to your list - a city called Cluj Napoca. Thought these links might be useful.

http://royalschool.ro/www.transylvania-college.ro/

Hopefully you have some awesome credentials. It's not like Asia, where as long as you are a native speaker they will let you teach

Another thing to keep in mind - I've been told that despite my advanced degrees and experience in my field, I won't be able to find a job because I don't speak Romanian. I'm sure this won't matter so much at a private institution, but I think it's a big factor in hiring for public sector - this is just what I've been told by my Romanian colleagues.

You may be better off doing independent tutoring where you set your own price and hours, and you could focus on preparing students for some of the entrance tests for university or whatever they use there (in America, it's the SAT). Since those tests are very competitive, if you are good, you could charge a nice fee

Teachers also don't make very much money in Romania

Thank you both (so far)!

Magnolia:
I'm encouraged in a way. I was a bit concerned that young Romanians now speak such good English that they wouldn't need someone like me anymore. It doesn't sound like that's the case.
It looks like the private route might be the best to go down.
Regarding the Romanian language, it's hard but learnable (unlike say Hungarian which is a complete nightmare) and it's totally awesome (imo)! I'd love to learn it.
Yep I'm aware that this job doesn't pay well in Romania, but the cost of living is low too, and my rental income should go quite far there.
Yes most people from NZ teach in Asia for the exact reason that you pointed out.

Estrellitam:
Cluj-Napoca is another city I like the look of, and thanks a lot for those links. Much appreciated. Brasov also seems to have a lot going for it, and as for Sibiu, well that's just beautiful. Timisoara seems the most "me" for whatever reason, but clearly there are lots of amazing places in Romania that most people don't even know about.

Hi plutoman,

You've already had some good advice. I don't really know the situation in other cities, but in Bucharest you have several options. The state system generally doesn't pay too well, but there are numerous bilingual high schools which employ native speakers (doesn't matter if you don't know Romanian). There are also international high schools which hire native speakers, and pay quite well from what I've heard. Again, I'm not sure how many of these institutions exist outside the capital, but it's worth looking into.

There there are language schools like Echo, Lexis and so on. I've been contacted by a few of them in the past but the pay they were offering was quite meagre compared to what I can earn privately, and they tend to have a lot of split shifts and weekend contracts, or just farm you out to companies for corporate classes. At the top of the pile is the British Council, who used to offer a decent pay package with accommodation included, but don't know if this is still the case. There are also some training companies (rather than bricks-and-mortar language schools) but they tend to only offer you contract work rather than a fix salary with benefits.

In addition, as magnolia15 says, you can just get your own students and this offers you the most flexibility. If you were to set yourself up as a company (or just an 'authorised person') you could also issue invoices and start trying to pick up corporate contracts. Most private students are professionals in their late twenties or early thirties who didn't bother learning English to a very high level at school and now realise that the top jobs are at multinationals, who need English speakers. As a result, they want to brush up on their skills, particularly communication skills.

The other lucrative subgroup of the private classes sector is exam prep. This is mostly for 11th or 12th graders looking to pass the IELTS or the CAE. Once they have an English language certificate, they no longer have to study it for the baccalaureate and a good score is often required by those applying to foreign universities.

I don't know what rental incomes are like in NZ, but I'd be fairly confident that the rent you could pick up from that would cover your rent here, and probably pay most of your utilities to boot.

There's no point in coming here unless you intend to work as a private tutor for those that want to improve themselves outside of school. Because in Romania the english language it taught starting with 1st grade, in most areas. And this has been going on for a few decades so we also have enough teachers that barely live by anyway, having 200 Euro salaries.

As a native speaker you obviously have an advantage and can ask for higher fees. We have enough rich people to afford you. The normal rates a romanian teacher tutors in private is at highest 50 lei /hour ~11 Euros (one can even find a tutor for 20 lei), and i don't think you'd enjoy working for that low.

Maykal:
Thanks a lot for such an informative post. It's given me a lot to think about. There are more options than I realized. I'd feel much more comfortable initially if I had guaranteed work, but in time I'd love the flexibility of private tuition.
I like your blog! Food is always one of the main attractions for me, no matter where I go.

Bogdan:
Thanks. It seems pretty clear now that I should be looking to teach privately, at least in the medium/long term.
"We have enough rich people to afford you." 50 lei is NZ$19, which isn't actually too bad. I appreciate though that for the average Romanian, that's a fair chunk of change. My biggest problem might not be with the hourly rate, but with drumming up enough business. I'd really want 30+ hours a week.

Hey Plutoman,

50 lei is at the low end of the market (for Bucharest, at least). Those charging 40-50 lei for a lesson are usually not native speakers, have no training or specific certification in teaching English to adults, and are mostly just uni students studying languages looking to make a little cash in their free time. Some I've encountered can probably only speak the language at a B2 level at best. A native speaker with many years of experience as well as relevant qualifications can obviously ask for more than that.

Also, it's not just the rich who will be able to afford you. In fact, the rich are not a particular good group to target as, in terms of private-lesson attendance, they are less reliable. The majority of my adult private students are middle-class professionals with regular schedules who would like to improve their English either for reasons of career advancement or just for personal reasons (self-betterment, ease in travelling, and so on).

You're probably very wise to look for a fixed-salary job on arrival, until you build up your private work. Although there are plenty of sites where people can advertise their private classes, I don't think I've ever found more than one or two students that way in 11 years. Romanians trust personal recommendations far more than advertising and I've managed to maintain my schedule this way without much difficulty. Obviously, you'll need a period of time to build up a student base, but assuming you do a decent job, you should find you start getting recommendations quite quickly. However, I would still factor in six months to a year for building up a good schedule.

Thirty contact hours a week is quite a lot, especially with private lessons. Don't forget, you also need to factor in time for travelling to students who want classes in their own homes or offices, and time for preparing the lessons. Also, I feel that part of the essence of private lessons in the ability to offer the student the scheduling flexibility which a language school course cannot, so you need to have enough time in your schedule to allow the student to move their lesson time around if needed. If you do corporate contracts, you could hit that target as you may well have several consecutive classes in one location, reducing travel time to a minimum.

I checked the prices before posting.
Native english teacher 50 lei/1h30m http://olx.ro/oferta/meditatii-limba-en … f;promoted
Romanian english teacher 35 lei http://olx.ro/oferta/meditatii-limba-en … d1de01c73b

Bogdan_P wrote:

I checked the prices before posting.
Native english teacher 50 lei/1h30m http://olx.ro/oferta/meditatii-limba-en … f;promoted
Romanian english teacher 35 lei http://olx.ro/oferta/meditatii-limba-en … d1de01c73b

For someone without credentials, that seems about right 

My wife just started teaching recently and charges 50 RON a session (90min).  She has no official credentials, but has 3 native American English speakers in the house, so I think she can justify the "native" level price

Romaniac

Bogdan, with all respect, this is exactly how I've made my living here for the last decade in this country. I know my prices, and I know those of my friends and colleagues in the business, and whilst there are obviously those who charge less, that doesn't necessarily mean there are no clients who are willing to pay more for someone more experienced and with relevant qualifications.

Those on a budget can call Raluca Cruceanu, the native speaker and dentist in the ad you posted, whose sole qualification in teaching appears the be the fact that she stood next to a British guy at a summer camp once.

Maykal wrote:

Bogdan, with all respect, this is exactly how I've made my living here for the last decade in this country. I know my prices, and I know those of my friends and colleagues in the business, and whilst there are obviously those who charge less, that doesn't necessarily mean there are no clients who are willing to pay more for someone more experienced and with relevant qualifications.

Those on a budget can call Raluca Cruceanu, the native speaker and dentist in the ad you posted, whose sole qualification in teaching appears the be the fact that she stood next to a British guy at a summer camp once.

Unfortunately, like I think may be the case with Raluca's ad....people wrongfully equate advanced or fluent with native ability.  They are not the same   Also from my experience, people will write anything and embellish ridiculously in order to make money via OLX.

Wow, so many replies. You've all been extremely helpful. In fact I'm struggling to think of any forum I've ever been on where people have been this helpful. Thanks

Maykal:
Yes I was probably being a tad ambitious with my 30+ hours a week, once you take into account travel time, lesson plans, and as you say, giving students flexibility around lesson times. That's one reason why I'd like to go to a smallish, compact city with good public transport so that I can get around easily. Going by one of the other threads, driving in Romania is a massive headache and is probably best avoided until you've been in the country a while. I've always liked smallish, compact cities anyway, both to visit and to live in. I live in one now.
It's useful to know that personal recommendations and word of mouth get you a lot further in Romania than advertising does. That sounds like a more extreme version of how things work in NZ.
In Bogdan's defence he did say 50 lei per hour, rather than for a 90-minute lesson, in his first post.

It's just me living in my apartment now, and it's far bigger than anything I need. So hopefully can I make a good income from it.

Yeah, the driving standards take a little getting used to.

50 lei would be fine if you were offering mostly corrected conversation classes in a provincial town or just working through a course book with the student. As you say, any travelling time would be minimal and anyway, a lot of students may prefer to come to you if you have a work space, as they might not have somewhere peaceful to meet at their home or office.

The big decision is, I think, which city. Have you had the chance to visit any of the places on your list of potential new homes?

One can easily test the market by placing an ad in the local/online newspapers with his credentials and whatever price he considers fare, then wait to see how many people call.