For all english teachers in Poland (who work for only $1000 a month)

Even if they pay 60zl an hour. It's unreal! Little or no competition and none of the big boys even interested in the market! What's more kids buy books, CDs and bags at over inflated prices. What's the strangest thing is that I am happy because she goes to English. She can't say a word, but can count to ten and tell me a few animals or food related vocab.

I am in a totally different line of work but if I were you I would seriously think about competition for them. It is a licence to print money.

A year ago I placed an ad on Gumtree here in the UK asking for a Polish teacher... I got about six emails from Poland asking me to come over and teach English in return for free accommodation and food but no pay. No mention of any Polish lessons in return either...

I would be really careful about anything like that, whether from Poland or any other country. There have been too many horror stories. I remeber one young teacher vanishing without a trace somewhere round Gdańsk a few years ago.

Though most are respectable, there are a few small-town language schools that are run by real chancers and something like that advert should be avoided at all costs.

it's true-this income is POSSIBLE but you have to hussle for it. This generally means having two or three places of employment, plus the occasional translating or private teaching gig. Generally, however (because the workload of a typical teacher changes from month to month) you average about 3000-4000 after taxes if you work more or less full time, and your earning potential drops significantly during summer, when many English schools pay less per hour. Note: these are earnings in Warsaw, in other cities it may be a bit less.

ha! that's another story!..but many of the crappy ones don't last long...

Sometimes (especially at an entry level) the teacher whose native language is the same as that of the students may be a better choice.

I said 3000-4000 but 5000 is indeed very realistic for a so-called native-speaker during the school year if you take on enough hours

I am teaching in Warsaw mostly conversational English with advanced business students. The work is fine its just the housing that is the problem and the rate of inflation is really increasing rapidly. But I would say that if people are worried about the money than teaching may not be your cup of tea. If its money you want and also to teach than why not Kuwait, Korea, Japan, or someplace such as that. I enjoy my job because I go on site and teach and dont feel like a zombie in the same place at the same time every day (no offense to office workers or regular school teachers). I think teaching should not be about the money but more about the concept of being a teacher. I was a bike messenger for 12 years in different cities and countries. If I wanted money I would have been a stock broker or investment banker. Teaching is in a sense a service job. You give the people what they want. 90 percent of my classes are about global warming or other relevant worldly topics and the students improve their english and get to express their opinions. Of course I am all for higher wages for teachers. Corporate wages went up 11 percent in the past month. These are my students. Should I ask for more money from the school?

On average (depending on holidays and canceled classes etc.) I earn a little over 5000pln per month after taxes. Decent schools pay good money for good teachers.

Anything less than 60 pln per 60 min is not worth my time (this is about $20 per hour after taxes).

I earned 35 pln per 60 min my first year in Poland which is simply silly!!!

I don't have holiday pay, sick pay, or a pension plan. Summers are difficult without much pay.
I have to travel to companies and teach seven days a week with split shifts Monday-Friday. But I only work five hours every Saturday and two hours every Sunday evening.

The pay doesn't have to be terrible in Poland. The security/stability is an issue for me though.
And the teaching can be quite boring.

I stay here because I am in love with a Polish girl and overall quite happy.

She is a bank manager and earns around 15,000pln per month. She would never earn that much money in an English speaking country. So she prefers to stay in Poland. We plan to move to Krakow in July. I will continue to teach for a few more years and then maybe open business with her. At least that is the plan for now.

Oh this is of course in the city. I teach for Empik school in Katowice. The school is very professional, warm, and friendly (at least in Katowice).

Combining 2 jobs is good if u can do it. That's the way 2 rise above 5,000PLN after tax. 5,500PLN is normal enough then

I am a Pole, and a proficient English teacher. As a beginner, I only earn 800 PLN which is $400. That is my basic monthly wages, for public school teaching.

If it was not my duty, I'd quit or go to the provate sector.

Combining more than 2 jobs is better. When I stopped teaching I was doing three mornings and two afternoons a week for one school, one morning and one middle of the day for another, one afternoon and one middle of the day for another, one middle of the day at a company and two afternoons for private students. All the schools knew I worked for all the other schools which meant that I'd survive much better without them than they'd survive without me (there's a shortage of decent native speaker teachers in Warsaw), so none of them gave me any hassle at all but they all paid well, the lowest was the place which paid a zloty a minute (after tax), the best was 62zl per 45 minutes before tax.

That's in hand?

Yeah, as a junior teacher I get only half the wages of the 'real' one.

A zloty per minute after tax was very much the going rate in Warsaw for in-company work when I got out of teaching in June 2006.

55PLN for 45 mins in hand is the going rate for a good school here in Gliwice. It depends on ur other contract. I have 2 contracts so the set up is a little different.

That's not bad. I wonder what the going rate is in Warsaw these days.

AGREED!
as well, maybe I'm just old fashioned but isn't putting your income up a little bit "gutter" or at least just bad form?

Not when it comes to letting people know what the going rate is for doing a particular job. Poland (and every other country in the world) is full of cheats who try to abuse unknoning people by paying them far below the going wage. Look at that b*tch from a certain school in Warsaw who was in a British newspaper claiming that 2400zl a month gross is enough to live the highlife in Warsaw!

ahh i guess we agree to disagree then. i guess i just see it as almost putting it in people's faces, but maybe i'm looking at this from a half-empty perspective. anyway i do see your point though.

I do agree that it is slightly bad form to talk about exactly how much one earns. But saying how much one can/should earn from doing a specific task (in this case teaching a 45-minute lesson) is rather different.

I teach english and I get 8000zl a month after tax.

finally some real numbers but a bit high IMO - I guess we wil never hear from you again

Another basic point, it's stupid to think in KANTOR terms. I was told early days in my stay in Poland to bash out that kind of thinking. As I've written elsewhere, think of it in terms of the minimum wage. 5.5 pounds in the UK and, let's say, the same in Poland (5.5PLN). 1 pound is 4.8PLN so let's say a 1:5 ratio. Now this doesn't mean that Poland is 5 times cheaper, a basic grasp of economics would tell u otherwise, but I really feel that my money goes much further here. I buy a lot of veggies which are EXCELLENT and cheap here. Getting over 5,000PLN after tax is really good here, esp without kids and a car

The question is how many lessons do you teach each week? For that kind of salary I'd imagine that you're doing in the region of 40 45-minute classes every week. That's quite a heavy load and not easy to timetable.
Are you working five or six days a week? Would you mind sharing with us the names of the schools you work for?

youtube.com/watch?v=sxcR-K1LWFg I found this hilarious

OK so its a bit off topic but I thought English Language teachers might like it.
This is a letter published from todays Guardian newspaper....
As head of modern languages in a comprehensive, I was interviewing a child regarding a piece of French coursework, which exhibited none of his normal sloppy grammatical errors - very suspicious, I thought (Schools sign up for software to tackle internet plagiarism, January 19). He was adamant the piece was all his own work, and he had not got it from the internet. When I said I was sure this could not be the case, he asked me why. "Because," I replied, "it is in Spanish, a language you do not study."

Debora Shaw
Norwich

I have heard actually that this is quite a con. There is a huge difference between a one hour lesson and a forty-forty five minute lesson because at the end of the week you have to prepare for far more lessons and have far more lesson plans. It sounds good having a forty five minute lesson but in fact its much more work over the full week. I am very pleased that I am not a teacher of English in Poland.

so am i, you wouldn't be a very good one

Pobably you are right and that is why I have never tried to take on such a thankless task.