Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller provides an honest and candid look at living, working, and teaching in Latin America. He begins by introducing the podcast as a platform that tells the real story of expat life, contrasting it with the idealized portrayals often found in travel magazines and websites. He acknowledges the growing interest among expats and expat wannabes in finding jobs in Latin America, particularly those with a background in small businesses. Johnny contrasts his own experience, where he did not come from a family of business owners, with those who do, highlighting the psychological and practical differences in approaching expat life.
Johnny then addresses an email from Richard, whose son is considering teaching English in Latin America. He questions whether the son genuinely wants to do this or if it's Richard's desire for his son to leave the US due to a perceived dead end in the film industry. Johnny suggests that teaching English could lead to a permanent move, which he sees as a positive outcome, but acknowledges the challenges of finding work in a foreign country with limited language skills.
In a broader discussion on career choices, Johnny reflects on the challenges of pursuing a career in the arts, such as film school, drama, or communications, and argues that these fields often lack solid job prospects. He contrasts these with more practical careers like engineering or medicine, which offer better financial stability. He also reflects on his own experience, choosing engineering over film school due to its job security, and expresses concern about parents not adequately preparing their children for the real world. He suggests that while following one's dreams is important, it should be balanced with realism and practicality.
Johnny further discusses the challenges of pursuing a career in film or television, emphasizing the importance of real talent and dedication over mere dreams. He argues that most people's dreams do not align with their actual talents, using examples like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan to illustrate the rarity of true talent. He highlights the importance of early passion and persistence, referencing filmmakers like Scorsese, Lucas, and Spielberg who started with home movies. Johnny then shifts to discussing the value of an MBA, noting that it has become less valuable in the job market, especially in the U.S., and often serves more as a decorative credential than a career booster. He contrasts this with the situation in Latin America, where MBAs are also being overvalued, and points out that even there, they do not guarantee career success due to oversupply and low salaries.
In another segment, Johnny discusses the perception and value of MBA degrees in Latin America, highlighting that they are not as effective for career advancement as they are in the United States. He explains the logistical challenges of pursuing an MBA, such as the need for a car to attend night classes and the popularity of weekend classes due to low salaries and work schedules. He also notes the lag time in adopting trends from the first world, suggesting that MBA degrees will eventually lose their appeal in Latin America. Additionally, he addresses the ease of finding English teaching jobs without formal teaching certificates, emphasizing the demand for native English speakers and the effectiveness of private tutoring as a method to teach English.
Johnny then discusses the process of finding an English teaching job in Latin America, emphasizing that it's possible without knowing Spanish. He explains that private schools often hire English teachers to market themselves to wealthy locals, and that most of the job search can be done through classified ads in newspapers. He also suggests that learning Spanish through online courses or immersion programs is more effective than traditional classroom methods, especially for expats who plan to teach English.
In a segment on learning Spanish through immersion, Johnny highlights that immersion involves living with a Latin family for a month or more, where you eat, sleep, and interact with native speakers who only speak Spanish. He advises against using immersion programs from the United States, as they are more expensive and less effective. Instead, he suggests finding immersion families directly in Latin American cities, which can be more affordable and offer a more authentic experience. He also mentions that immersion families may have some drawbacks, like cultural clashes, but it's easier to switch if needed. Additionally, he recommends combining immersion with a Latin American girlfriend or boyfriend for more language practice and cultural immersion.
Finally, Johnny discusses the challenges and attractions of teaching English in Latin America. He highlights the difficulties of working with entitled, wealthy students and the lack of financial reward, yet he explains why many gringo teachers remain in the region for years. He attributes this to the appealing aspects of Latin America, such as the weather, cost of living, cultural acceptance, and the respect gringos often receive. He concludes by emphasizing that while teaching English may not be lucrative, it is a way to survive and that the region can become addictive for expats.
Topics
Introduction to The Expat Files podcast, Expats and expat wannabes interested in finding jobs in Latin America, Johnny's personal experience with small businesses and expat life, Email from Richard about his son's interest in teaching English in Latin America, Johnny's perspective on the challenges and potential outcomes of teaching English in Latin America, Career advice, Economic conditions in the 1960s and 1970s, Education and job prospects, Realism vs. dreams in career choices, Career aspirations vs. talent, Value of an MBA in the job market, Overvaluation of MBAs in Latin America
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:24 What's it really like for expats living in Latin America? 00:00:36 Email from Richard about his son's interest in teaching English in Latin America 00:03:31 Johnny's perspective on the challenges and potential outcomes of teaching English in Latin America 00:04:28 The Economic Reality of Choosing a Career in the Arts 00:06:37 The Problem with Useless Careers in the Arts 00:08:35 The Importance of Practical Careers for Job Security 00:09:18 The Mismatch Between Dreams and Talents 00:09:36 The Early Signs of True Talent 00:11:25 The Decline of MBA Value in the Job Market 00:13:39 MBA Degrees and Career Advancement in Latin America 00:13:52 Weekend Classes and Logistical Challenges 00:14:38 Lag Time for MBA Trends in Latin America 00:16:36 Teaching English Without Certificates 00:18:21 Demand for Native English Speakers in Teaching 00:18:41 The Challenge of Choosing a Specific Location for an English Teaching Job in Latin America 00:19:31 Finding English Teaching Jobs in Latin America Without Knowing Spanish 00:20:48 How Private Schools in Latin America Use English Teachers for Marketing 00:21:47 The Cost and Effectiveness of Formal Spanish Language Courses for Expats 00:22:33 The Setup: Immersion Programs Are Everywhere 00:22:49 The Payoff: Immersion Programs for Spanish Fluency 00:24:52 The Setup: Learning Spanish Through Relationships 00:26:44 The Unappealing Nature of Teaching English in Latin America 00:27:07 Why Gringo Teachers Stay: The Appeal of Latin America
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:03] Hi everybody, I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America. The show that tells you what it's really like to live, work, play and or retire in Latin America. I tell it just like it is, not the version they give you in those glossy travel magazines or the picture they paint for you in those international traveler websites where they're only trying to sell you something. What's it really like for expats living in Latin America? Well if you stick around a while you'll find out. So, let's get started. Before we get talking about the usual suspects, let me get to a few emails, okay? And here's one that hits the topic about finding a job down here. And I know a lot of you expat wannabes are interested in this, because there's an awful lot of you that do want to come down here, but you're not the type that wants to start
[00:50] a business. In fact, here's what I find about a lot of expats I meet down here. If you come from a family who've had a history of small businesses up north, and it doesn't really matter what kind of business they ran or are running up there, a 7-Eleven, a dress store, a shoe repair shop, it just seems to me that expats and expat wannabes that have got that kind of small business activity in their blood, well they come down here raring the goal, looking for some kind of opportunity that they can jump into pretty quickly. They're always on the lookout for a business niche where that gringo advantage can hit really hard. Those kind of expats and expat wannabes seem like they have no fear at all. And to tell you the truth, in my case it was just the opposite. I came from a family where virtually nobody, even in my extended family, had their own business. They always worked for somebody else. So when I came down here it was kind of a hump I had to get over, a psychological hump really. The fact that I had no kind of experience running a small business and I couldn't even
[01:40] hang around and see one in action within my own family. No hardware store or candy shop to help out with after school or on weekends to pick up any of the basics, because no one in my immediate family owned anything like that. But I find with expats and expat wannabes that do have that kind of situation back home, well it kind of greases the skids for them and takes away some of that trepidation. I mean there's always that natural fear of failing when you first start up. In any business venture, big or small. Now imagine doing that in a foreign country where you barely speak the language. But what about all you expat wannabes up there who have no business background in you at all. And you have a great desire to come down to Latin America, but starting a business is the last thing on your mind. You just want to come down here and put in a 9 to 5, earn some money and live the good life in paradise. Because after all that's the point now isn't it? And I think I can explain this point a little better if I read this email.
[02:28] So here goes. And this is from Richard. It says, I'm a listener of yours via the Progressive Radio Network and I'm still on the fence about leaving the US myself. But I want to ask your opinion about teaching English as a second language in Latin America, as my son has recently expressed an interest in doing this. His situation is an increasingly common one here in the US. He's a recent college graduate with a degree in Film from the California State System, surviving on part-time temporary work and living with his mom. He's 24, a native English speaker with no teaching experience and no Spanish language ability. He's thinking of taking a 60 hour training course through a Canadian outfit called Oxford Seminars. They provide some sort of certificate upon completion. Given this scenario, what would be his prospects of landing a job down there?
[03:16] What Latin American countries would you recommend for someone like him? I have been encouraging him not to look at this just in terms of jobs or money, but as an opportunity to get out of a bad old USA and into a country where he has a chance to make a decent life for himself. Thanks much Richard. Well first of all I have to ask Richard if his son really wants to do this. Learn Spanish up north and come down to Latin America and teach English. Or is it you Richard who wants your son to do this because you can see he's headed for a dead end with that film career. Not to mention job prospects in all sectors up north are deteriorating. Well here's one thing you should keep in mind. If your son leaves the US and comes down here and picks up an English teaching job, or any kind of job, there's a good chance that he's going to be gone forever. I can't tell you how many expats I know who came down here for 6 months or a year and
[04:03] then never left. In fact that's exactly what happened to me. I haven't been back to the US for 2 weeks in the last 20 years. That could very well happen to your son, which I think is a good thing, however I don't know how you feel about it because you're his dad. Anyway, given the fact that the US is truly deteriorating, unlike in the past when we always ended up getting out of our crisis, it's not going to happen this time because we just don't have a manufacturing base. If you're realistic about it, there's really no way to go but down. What I mean is this, when you come down here even if you get a job that doesn't pay too much at all, like for example an English teaching job, the fact is if you're living and working away from the gringo tourist spots, even if you only make 500 bucks a month, you could get used to this low stress, slow paced lifestyle pretty easy. And the thought of having to go back to the United States one day, back to a place that's
[04:51] slipping into the abyss, day by day. Well that makes Latin America look better and better all the time, doesn't it? But Richard, let me first talk about your son and his film degree. Now there was a time when I was a kid back in the 60s and early 70s when the economy was really rolling along and the US had a huge manufacturing base, remember that? When unions were strong for better or for worse and wives and mothers did not have to go outside the house to get a job to make ends meet in the family unless they really wanted a career because to some of them, being a housewife was unfulfilling and boring. Back then, I remember when I was in my senior year in high school and that's the point when most kids make the decision what career path they're going to take in college. You know, that's when they decide to choose a major, though of course a lot of kids just went to college because that was the thing to do and they never did get around to choosing
[05:37] a major until they absolutely had to. Anyway, the counselors and my parents said the future is really bright, everything's booming, the economy is on a roll, go ahead and pick a major that you think you're going to like, something you think you're going to do well in and that you're really going to enjoy. And you know if I would have listened to that advice I probably would have picked film school too, but instead I picked engineering. Not because I thought I was going to like it, but because I knew companies were recruiting engineers right out of the local Chicago universities a couple of weeks before the engineering students even graduated. In fact, my high school counselor told me that the average electrical engineering graduate at that time had four job offers before he even got his diploma. And you know that was enough for me, I wanted a sure thing like that so I went to engineering school and it worked out fine for me. And sometimes I wonder what would have become of me if I would have pursued that film school
[06:25] degree. I probably would have waited tables for a couple of years too, got fed up with it and escaped to Latin America to teach English too. But you know my point is this, I really want to know who's telling these kids to take these useless careers, film school, drama, communications, journalism, radio and television communications. And speaking of radio and television communications, I've worked in radio and television for many years and in many different countries and guess what, I never took a single communications course or anything at all that had to do with radio or television, nor did I want to. And of all the people that I have known in radio and television, besides the engineers and the technical people working the boards and stuff, the guys in the background keeping the station on the air, I found that only about 5%, 1 in 20 people actually took a communications
[07:11] or a radio and television degree to get there. The rest of us all landed there by hook or crook, or through nepotism or family and friend connections or by dumb luck like me. Because the fact is never did I ever fill out a form or formally apply for a radio or television job. Somebody would just call me up and say, hey would you like to do a show? Yeah me, with a biomedical engineering degree and an MBA. Technically, degrees like those would never qualify a guy for a media spot. But here I am. Now I'm not advising you to tell your kids not to follow their dreams. We all have those, I mean I wanted to be a world class author and a Hollywood screenwriter. But come on, you gotta look at your job prospects realistically. Everyone would love to be a film star or a golf pro or have Roger Ebert's job. Expat Eddie's dream is to be a bouncer at the playboy club or the photographer for the
[07:58] Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. Not bad Eddie. I mean you can follow your dream if you want but you have to be realistic. In the last 10 or 15 years I think parents have just dropped the ball. You know if my kid said to me, and by the way I don't have any kids, and I light a candle every night and thank Buddha for that blessing. Anyway, if I had a kid and he said to me, dad I'm going to college next year and I know you said you'd help me out, well I'm thinking about going into drama or communications or radio TV broadcasting or African American studies or sociology or psychology or art or maybe film school. Well if my kid made that proposition to me, you know what I'd say, listen son, it's like this. You take a hard science career like engineering or medicine or biology or geology or genetics and I'll help you out with college alright but if you pick one of those other careers
[08:44] you're 100% on your own. But I'd also tell him if he picked a good career with solid job prospects, like the computer sciences for example, and after he graduated and worked for a while and found he didn't like it, he could still pursue that dream of TV, radio, acting, drama, art or whatever. Because he'd still be a young guy or girl of 22 or 24 years old, with his whole life ahead of him. Only now he'd have a good solid career to fall back on even if he didn't like it, but he'd be much higher on the food chain than his buddies who went to film school. Now I might seem a little pig headed and careless when I discuss this, but I only mention this because realistically, most of the time a person's dreams don't necessarily match his talents. I mean there's only one Tiger Woods and one Michael Jordan right? But there is a slim, I mean very slim chance that he is really so terrific and so talented
[09:33] in that area that he's going to make it become hell or high water. I mean Scorsese and George Lucas and Spielberg were filming little home movies when they were 8 years old and had their little super 8 camera strapped to their backs even when they went to the swimming hole. They got beat up and tortured by bullies for doing it, but that didn't discourage them, it just made them more persistent. And they were winning statewide and national film awards for their little home movies when they were still in high school. Now you don't tell a kid like that to go into engineering, but I'm asking you parents out there, when your kid says he wants to go to film school or be a network television broadcaster, does he have a backlog of a few hundred films in the closet that he uses his own allowance money for? That he produced and directed with all the neighborhood kids as extras? Is your kid so obsessed with acting that he or she has been in every single play and
[10:19] little theater presentations since kindergarten? You get my point don't you? You can't stop a kid like that who's got real talent and a real obsession, but you're talking about one kid in a hundred thousand. That is one kid in a hundred thousand that actually has a decent chance of making a living at his dream career. I mean I was a pretty good golfer in high school myself, but I wasn't deluded enough to ever think I could make the professional tour. And even if I were to wind and got my parents to send me to school in Florida where a lot of the campuses specialize in golf, the best I could have ever hoped for was having a career as a golf pro at a mediocre country club, but I didn't need anybody to tell me that. I kind of figured that out on my own, but I just don't know what happened to college kids. They're coming out of school and not getting jobs in their careers because they made some really bad decisions before they even got to freshman year. In fact I heard my brothers and sisters tell their kids that very thing.
[11:09] How many times have you heard this line, follow your dream and you'll be a success? Yeah, that might have worked back in the 50s, 60s and 70s, but it's a different world now. Man I think parents have seen too many Disney movies, you know? So let's get back to that email. But first I'd like to clarify something about my own MBA. In fact it's done me absolutely no good, and the diploma is only wall dressing really. I mean think of it, out of work MBAs are a dime a dozen. In the last few years Wall Street has laid off something like 10,000 of them, and it doesn't even matter if you have a prestige MBA from Harvard or Wharton. They still have one of the highest unemployment rate for any professional career. So why did I get one? Well I got mine about 25 years ago, way back when when MBAs really meant something. But even so it only served to open doors and not much else.
[11:54] To tell you the truth, these days I'd trade my MBA in a second for a better last name like Trump or Jobs or Gates or Buffet. Now that could open doors. Because really these days, 5 bucks and an MBA degree will get you a Frappuccino at Starbucks. And if you happen to be in Starbucks, forget about applying for a waiter's job, they've probably already got a few waiters of MBAs on staff. And speaking of MBAs, remember down here in Latin America I always talk about the lag time phenomena? That things that happen up in the first world trends and developments always eventually do get down here to Latin America, but it always takes some time. Well these days if you look in the papers and add posters and bulletin boards all along the streets in the big cities in Latin America, you'll see that all the universities down here are jumping on the MBA bandwagon.
[12:40] Everyone's offering an MBA and they're pushing it hard and heavy. Because down here it's every undergraduates wish to have an MBA under his belt. Down here it holds the same cache that it did some 20 or 30 years ago back in the states. You can tell by the big ads in the papers, get your MBA, get them while they're hot. But down here just like up in the first world it doesn't get you any farther in your career, it's just another framed diploma to stick on your wall. Because here's the thing I found out about corporations that are looking to hire business administration people down here. There are so many unemployed and underemployed business administration degreed people that companies can take their pick of these guys and pay a very low salary. Let's say a starting salary of 400 bucks a month for a person with a business administration degree, a bachelor's degree, which down here is called a la sensiatura, the same as a bachelor's
[13:30] degree up north. So anyway, corporations that want to hire a business administration person generally skip the guys with the MBAs because they know they're going to ask for a lot more money because they've got a master's degree. So it seems like down here in Latin America the only people whose MBA degrees actually help them in advancing their careers are people already working for a company who have a bachelor's in business administration. Then they elect to get their MBA degrees at night school or MBA courses on weekends. And yes, by the way, weekend school is very popular here in Latin America due to the fact that most people have to work five days a week and contribute to their families because salaries are so low. And only people with their own cars can go to night school because most bus lines quit running at eight or nine at night.
[14:16] And since very few people have their own cars, especially ones trying to get a degree, night school is out for them. So they have to take school on Saturdays. And every university down here does have weekend university courses and almost all the people who attend are middle class and don't have cars so they take the bus. Now up in the United States, MBAs were all the rage until the stock market blowout and the banking crisis, which started around 2006, right? Which means there's at least a seven year lag time for when MBAs start falling out of favor down here in Latin America. And they will because it's predictable. Just follow the trends and the fashions as to what happens in the first world and eventually that's the way it'll unfold down here too. But in the meantime, MBAs are all the rage. Which sometimes makes me wonder if any of the movers and shakers in these schools down
[15:03] here are reading The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, or The Financial Times of London. I mean those are the three big international economic rags now, aren't they? And anybody who's got a subscription to any one of those has definitely known that for the last few years, the first world's been laying off and firing MBAs, not hiring them. But such as lag time in Latin America, which sometimes makes me think that having a gringo advantage going for you can be a bit of a burden actually. Because you know sometimes I just like to drive into one of those business schools, the ones that are advertising all the time about their wonderful MBA programs, I'd like to corner the head of the department, slap him in the face, or dump a cold bucket of water over his head. Just to try to wake him up to what's happening in the real world. Because it's so obvious to us expats that they're going down the same road as we did.
[15:51] It's as if us gringos and expats had a crystal ball. It's so easy for us to predict the future and the lag time phenomena down here. Yep, the gringo advantage can be a troubling thing, but I wouldn't give it up for a second. Because that's why us expats do so well in business and every other aspect of life down here. But don't tell anybody, okay? We don't want all these gringos coming down and contaminating the rest of Latin America like they did Costa Rica now, do we? So mom's the word, okay? But back to that email. Richard says his son is 24 years old, a native English speaker, he doesn't speak Spanish, and he has no teaching experience. Well you know what Richard, that doesn't matter at all. There's so many ways to get English teaching jobs, you just wouldn't believe it. Now let me first explain about teaching English down here. First of all, you do not need a teaching certificate like you do up in the first world.
[16:40] You know, you get a degree in history up in Cleveland, but you can't teach history until you get a teaching certificate, which is an extra six months or a year I believe. And that's the way it is for all state certified schools up in the first world. But there's no such thing as a teaching certificate down here. But say you wanted to teach Spanish or French or Russian up in the first world, and you didn't have any degree whatsoever, but you knew the language. Well you could always put an ad in the paper saying you're willing to tutor Russian or French or whatever, or go on Craigslist or any internet advertising service, or post your name on bulletin boards around town, like grocery stores and schools and Walmarts and stuff. They all have bulletin boards, and try to round up some students that way, right? And that's a very good way to make money down here in Latin America, as an English teacher. You can make up a little ad in English and Spanish, run it in the big local daily newspaper,
[17:29] and they're dirt cheap believe me, about a third to a fifth of the price that should pay for a similar ad in the classifieds of a first world newspaper. And for a tutoring session, you can charge anywhere from five to ten dollars an hour. And Latins are more than willing to take private tutoring lessons from a real live gringo. Because you see, down here, off the tourist track like I recommend, everybody wants to learn their English, but very few people speak it well. And since there's very few gringos, Latins that want to learn English have to learn it In school or from lessons given from native Spanish speakers, who learn their English from books and teachers, who aren't really familiar at all with the way we speak conversationally. Simply put, these guys are learning their English from a native Spanish speaker with a bad English accent, and no knowledge of our common street words and slang.
[18:17] And just like you'd rather learn your Spanish from a native Spanish speaker, they want to learn their English from a native English speaker, like you or your kid. And another way to get an English teaching job down here in Latin America is to look on Google for what else but English teaching jobs in Latin America. But in that case, you won't be able to pick the place you go. Whatever organization you hook up with, they're going to tell you your options. You won't be able to tell them. So suppose you want to go to a certain town or department in Peru. Well chances are they won't have a spot for you there. They might have something in Peru, but maybe not. Maybe your only choices will be in Paraguay, Ecuador or Chile. But let's say you wanted to teach English in La Saba, Honduras, a beach town of nearly 200,000 people. Actually, kind of a dirty beach town, so I wouldn't recommend it, but to each his own. Anyway, if you want to hook up an English teaching job there, it's easy, even if you
[19:06] don't know a lick of Spanish. You just Google the biggest daily newspapers in La Saba, and you look in the classified help wanted ads. And usually one or two days a week, in any big daily Latin American newspaper, the won ads are thick and heavy. Monday and Wednesday, and sometimes Thursday, seem to be very big days for help wanted ads like that. And of course the bigger the city, the bigger and thicker the won ads. So check the papers for about a week and you'll see which are the big days. Now even if you don't know any Spanish, that doesn't really matter because most private schools will put an ad in when they need an English teacher in English. So you'll be able to read it and respond to it right away. And even though 99.9% of the rest of the paper will be completely in Spanish, those English help wanted ads will jump right out at you. And you know what? You get a job like that and you really won't need to know any Spanish, though you'll pick
[19:54] it up along the way. By hook and by crook, the way so many expats pick it up down here. Like me. Anyway, the school won't care if you speak Spanish or not, because they'll insist that you teach your classes in 100% English. And why would they want that? Because you see, it's great marketing for them. That's how they sell their school and their programs to wealthy Latins who are able to afford to send their kids there. Because remember, we're talking about private schools. Schools that only about 1 or 2% of the population can afford to send their kids to. And you see, the feather in a cap for a school like that is to have a gringo like you and they'll use you as marketing. And most times you won't be the lone ranger. There'll be one or two more gringo English speakers like you teaching at that school. The more the merrier and all the better for their marketing of that school to the rich folks. Because those wealthy parents know, if their kids learn English right from a real English
[20:43] speaker like you, that's one way they're almost guaranteed to advance in society. And here's how those schools do their marketing to the rich local Latin folks. They promote their school in ads and flyers, and by word of mouth amongst the rich folks of course, by saying, our school is 100% bilingual and we have real English speaking teachers from guess where, the United States. So Richard, I'm saying that your kid does not have to be fluent in Spanish at all to pick up one of these English teaching jobs at a private school. But if he wants to tutor on his own by way of putting an ad in the paper himself or putting up bulletin board ads, like I mentioned before, well then he's definitely going to have to know some Spanish. Because he's going to get phone calls and emails from Spanish speakers who do not know much English at all, perhaps none.
[21:29] So he's going to have to be able to respond to them in Spanish. And Richard, in regards to what you say about your kid taking an Oxford Spanish course, and you don't say, but I assume he plans on taking a Spanish course so that when he does come down he'll be able to converse properly, right? Anyway, you're probably not going to like what I'm going to say right now, but this is what I think. I know those classes must be expensive because you're in the first world so you're going to pay first world prices. And here's the thing, I don't know anybody who's ever taken a course like that who's learned how to speak Spanish fluently in less than a year. And if you're a real prodigy and you study your ass off, maybe six months. But here's what I suggest and I know it works. Have your kid buy one of those internet or CD-ROM courses which will cost about 200 bucks. Like the Pimsler method. And load it into your iPod and walk around all day just listening and listening and practicing
[22:16] and practicing. And if you really concentrate within a month, you're going to know a pretty good amount of conversational Spanish. And that's all you really have to know when you first come down. Then when you get down here, hook up with one of those Spanish immersion programs. But don't sign up with one or pay your money by looking at the internet while you're still up in the first world. Though you will find hundreds if not thousands of them on the web. And immersion programs by the way are when you live 24 hours a day with a Latin family. And as long as you're there, whether it's a month, two or three, you eat, sleep and you hang out with those guys and all they do is speak Spanish. And that's when you're really going to learn your conversational Spanish. Not from a class. So instead of hooking up with an immersion program on Google from where you are up in the first world right now, instead just Google cities in Latin America that have immersion
[23:02] programs. And there are some Latin American cities that specialize in just that. Where hundreds of families take in gringos like you, not because they want to teach a gringo Spanish out of the goodness of their hearts, but because you're paying them for the privilege. And off the top of my head I can think of a couple of cities right now. Antigua, Guatemala, Copan, Honduras, and of course all the big capital cities and the historic Spanish colonial cities. Like Tegucigalpa and San Salvador, and Medellin and Cali. Just to name a few. So the best thing to do is to actually hook up with your immersion program family when you come down to your city of choice. Let's say it's Cali, Colombia. Once you're there just go to any tourist information desk, or just check the bulletin boards around the historic sites, or just ask around. There'll always be people speaking English in those historic towns.
[23:47] And you'll find that by hooking up with an immersion family there, directly in the city, you'll save about half or more of the price than if you hooked up with them or some other group through Google in the United States. Instead of paying about $1,000 a month if you do it through the states, and the family gets about $400 or $500 of that, and the immersion hookup service gets the other half, anyway, you'll be able to pay the immersion family directly about $400 or $500 a month, which includes complete room and board. And the other great thing about finding an immersion family when you're down there is that if there's something you don't like about that family, maybe you don't like the way that drunken uncle in the room next door sings the national anthem at 2 in the morning. Or maybe you don't like the way one of the girls in the family is hitting on you. Who knows? Anyway, it's easy to get out of a situation like that, because you're going to be paying
[24:34] that family weekly. But if you pay your $1,000 up front to an agency up in the first world, then you're stuck with that family come hell or high water. And like I said in a past show, that's the second best way in the world to learn your Spanish, a full immersion course like that. And if that's the second best way to learn your Spanish, I'm sure you can figure out what's number one. That's to get yourself a genuine Latin American girlfriend or boyfriend when you're down here. Because in that case, it'll be 24 hour nonstop Spanish too. Plus you'll have the obligatory meet and greet and dinners and stuff with his or her family too, so you'll be thrown into the fire so to speak. And when you come out the other end, you'll be singed a bit, but you will know your Spanish. And sometimes after only a month or two of immersion, you are quite fluent. And you'll still have that web CD class that you paid $200 bucks for. So that's how you'll learn your grammar.
[25:21] And don't forget the best way to practice your reading is to scan a Latin newspaper every day. That really helps when you're learning, especially the WAND ads. And now the crucial question, how much can you make by teaching English down in Latin America? Well, believe it or not, even if you teach at one of those expensive private schools where most of the spoiled kids in the class are worse than entitled kids from the first world, that is they have blackberries and bodyguards and are driven to and from school in black limousines with tinted windows. Anyway, even in a high-end school like that, you're only going to make between $400 and $600 a month. Though I do know of a gringo English teacher who's been on the job 8 years who says he makes a grand month. And if you get a job at one of those international English schools like Berlitz or Palmer or that Oxford school you were talking about, they have those down here too in every big
[26:07] city. Well, they're always looking for expat English teachers too, but they won't pay you by the month. They'll pay you by the hour, which is usually around $5 an hour. And when you multiply that by a 40-hour work week with 4 weeks in a month, it would seem that you're making about $800 a month now, wouldn't it? But guess what? Every teacher I've talked to at one of those schools says they never get any more than half time, 20 hours a week, which means they're still only making about 400 bucks a month. So you're never going to get rich. In fact, you're probably going to live just a little better than a backpacker on that kind of money. And most English teachers I know down here end up rooming with other people just to make ends meet. And get this, most gringos who teach English down here don't like their jobs. Imagine teaching entitled rich kids who are texting on their blackberries all day, kids
[26:53] whose parents are so rich that they fly back and forth to Miami just to go shopping. You know, I was never much a kid lover to begin with, but I don't think I could take that for more than 10 minutes. So why do gringo English teachers stay on for years, even decades? Because they absolutely love Latin America. The weather, the cost of living, the fact that everybody loves a gringo. And of course, you get all kinds of respect that you never got as a teacher up in the first world. And all those other great things that go along with the gringo advantage. So even if it's an understatement to say there's no money in being an English teacher down here, it's a way to survive. And once Latin America gets its hooks into you, you just never want to leave. You've been listening to The Exped Files, living in Latin America, coming to you each
[27:42] week from somewhere south of the border. And don't forget, you can email me on anything at all about Latin America, The Exped Files at gmail.com. Once again, The Exped Files at gmail.com. See you next time. Nos vemos.