A Postcard from... Bogotá, Colombia

I have been teaching in Bogotá, Colombia for almost a year now. I got my CELTA in December 2007 and headed down to Bogotá in the beginning of January. Bogotá is a great place to get started job-wise; tons of colegios (bilingual high schools), institution, universities and private work. I was able to get a job quickly at International House Bogotá. IH Bogotá is new to Bogotá (2 years in March) and has grown enormously in the past 7 months or so. When I arrived there were only 3 other teachers and now we have over 30. 

Marian, happy teaching in Bogotá

IH is a nice place to get on your feet and meet others in the city (with your CELTA at the moment you are more or less guaranteed work). However, know that working in a language institute means fairly cruel hours. For the first 6 months I was teaching at 6am and for a short period I was teaching again at 5:30PM. These are common hours in all of Colombia (you wouldn't believe how early people rise here! University begins at 7AM!). IH also has the majority of their classes out of the school and in businesses (I've worked in a wide range of places from Citibank to government-funded organizations), which may or may not require lengthy travel time.

That being said, I have cut my hours with IH to allow myself to have a more manageable schedule and have picked up private work on the side. It is very easy to find private students here and you can charge between 30-40mil pesos an hour ($15-$20US). International House pays between 22-24mil pesos an hour ($11-$12US).

International House, Bogotá

The students are just lovely here in Bogotá and it is a city where English is needed at some level in most jobs. University work is also available with only your CELTA but may be hard to come by due to visa issues (no one wants to issue work visas).

Colombia really is a wonderful place to live and the cost of living is affordable. Housing is much cheaper than in Buenos Aires or Chile (although with the current economic news from Buenos Aires that statement may not hold true for long).

Suerte!
Marian
Teaching House CELTA Graduate, December 2007