Language Jobs - Language Teacher

The last job in my little language jobs series (for now). I've started as language teacher for younger students when I was thirteen and have since helped many students in English, French, Spanish and German and have even taught some adults in business English. So, here's my overview of the job as language teacher:

Language Teacher

Description

A language teacher, well, teaches languages. Students reach from young children to school children to adults, depending on where you teach. A language teacher doesn't only teach grammar, vocabulary and punctuation but also cultural aspects, history and other interesting and/or important facts about the countries where the language is spoken.

Necessary Skills

First of all, a language teacher should know his language. Don't laugh, I've had teachers whose language skills were less than good...in fact, they were worse than the skills from half their language class! Apart from the obvious, a language teacher needs to be able to work with people (in the age range he is teaching), and excellent communications skills. Furthermore, a teacher needs to know how to motivate his students, and how to explain difficult language concepts in a way his students understand.

Income Range

The income range varies. Teachers at public or private schools (elementary schools, high schools, universities etc) usually get paid according to set income ranges (depending on qualification, age, and experience). Freelancers (tutoring teachers, for example) negotiate their own prices with their clients. Usually, hourly income for freelancers is on the lower side since most private clients don't want to or are not able to pay high prices. Private language schools, on the other hand, might pay a bit more for qualified language teachers (both freelancers and employees) since they generally ask high prices from their clients.

Where to Find Jobs

Depending on whether you have an academic degree as teacher or "just" know your language and teaching skills, you might be able to find employment with public or private schools, private language schools or as freelancer (tutoring, giving courses for private language schools etc).