Logistics and Money Matters

In the TEFL world, there are various types of jobs. Here in Spain, (and it does vary greatly from country to country) the most common include teaching at a school, a language institute, or private classes. Then there is also the hybrid-type job that I have with what I call language organizations: The classes I teach are private classes in the sense that I do not work at a school nor a language institute. I teach small groups or one-on-one classes to various types of learners, whether it be a teenager after school in her residence hall, or a group of young professionals over their lunch hour in a conference room. I call it a hybrid because like a private class, I move around the city to teach many different types of classes. But, like a language institute, these classes are well-organized and supported. I have bosses who obtain, manage, and provide me with materials for the classes. 

Jobs at a school are quite official and normally harder to come by, particularly in this economic climate. A job in a language institute may be a bit easier, in fact my friend Mark from Liverpool has already had some experience in that area. However, for both of those types of jobs you almost definitely need legal work papers.

For the record, I do not have a work visa or working papers of any kind. And I'm guessing some of you are therefore wondering the logistics (and legality) of my life abroad. I have a student visa which allows me to legally live in the country and work up to 20 hours per week for 6 months. That will expire in May. Then I will live on my tourist visa (that you automatically receive) which allows me to legally live here for another 3 months. (I should add that during those last 3 months I probably will not be working much, and would never earn enough money for the Spanish government to care that I am conducting English classes out of my dining room.) All of that makes a grand total of 9 months of legal residency.

Now, I am not too familiar with the process of obtaining legal work papers. From my understanding, the most common way would be to find an employer who is willing to apply for them for you. And if I had planned on working in the country for more than 9 months, this may have been an option I would have looked into. But it just always seemed like too much trouble for only a semester's worth of classes.

So, yes, ladies and gentlemen. I have technically been working as an undocumented worker (gasp!). Although my student visa does allow me to legally work a part-time job, my employers have never bothered with any of that paper work. Instead I am payed cash-in-hand. Win-win, right?

Well, almost...

For me, one of the downsides of this type of job is the nature of a freelance profession. I get paid by the hour, and only for the hours I work. If a student or I cancel a class, I do not get paid. So if my student decides that they just don't "feel" like having English class this week, I don't buy groceries for the week. Okay, that's a bit dramatic, but you get the point.

And to be honest, sometimes this reality drives me crazy. The nature of being a freelance teacher compounded with the pressure to make it on my own provokes me to obsess over my finances. Instead of worrying about my lesson plans, I am counting hours and calculating my pay for the week. I want so badly to be able to support myself, financially and otherwise, that I stress out over balancing my theoretical check book.

My solution? Overcompensate my work schedule so that a canceled class does not dent my wallet.The result? I have more than 28 hours of class each week, which does not include time spent traveling to those classes or lesson planning.

Although I have stepped into the real world of paying for everything myself, I haven't quite made the leap to the life of a fixed salary. And that's okay for now. And to be honest, I suppose it does work better with my pick-up-and-go-oh-yeah-let's-try-that-job-for-a-while lifestyle I've got goin' on.

So for now I'll just suck it up and try to keep my calculations to a minimum. I am doing well here, after all, and I should remember that. (For goodness sake I had to get a Spanish bank account to keep all of the cash I am bringing in.) And plus, stressing out so does not go with my new Spanish outfit.