South America

mikelowri

Hello,

I have just finished college and am hoping to take a year out and spend 6 months minimum in a Spanish speaking city in South America. I will do a TEFL course soon and hope to teach English but am not limited to this.

Has anyone here lived or live in South America and have any advice on where to go? I basically just want to experience the south american culture.

I would be extremely interested in hearing the views of people in Santiago and Buenos Aires but anywhere would help. Is it difficult to find work teaching English and would or would I have a chance to get work in a bar/restaurant/hostel. Irish bars maybe?

All advice appreciated!

Thanks

lollipoplady

really disappointed no-one replied to this thread:( im looking into heading to south america in september. Im a primary teacher so was hoping to teach out there, but there is very little info online and from this it appears that not many Irish people head there!!

kevrr

Well South Americas a big place, there's all kinds of opportunites over there, so much to experience and see! There's a lot of Irish over there too.

I found that a lot of the stuff in that part of the world is still quite unregulated and things are not as pre-planned as back home. Forget searching on the internet, the best way to pick up the kind of jobs you guys are looking for is to be over there, and just try and be in the right place at the right time, talk with other travelers who are similar and are doing the same sort of thing as you, and find out where they came from/are going to/if they know of work etc.... just put yourself out there.

Speaking spanish (or portugese depending on where you want to go) is a huge plus in your favour but not 100% necessary. I met a lot of people (non south american) who were working in the tourism business, as tour guides, in hostels or even marketing stuff to backpackers. The best places to get those jobs are in the big tourist centers. Not exactly living in with the local culture but it's stuff like that where you'll have the edge over all the south americans who would be competing for the same jobs. As for teaching, I know some people who were teaching english, they usually got their work through living in an area and making contacts before finding out about the work. And they all spoke good spanish. But maybe that sort of thing is easier in Santiago or BA?, have never been to those cities. Oh yeah, and I saw more than one Irish pub that was looking for english speaking workers so that's a definite possibilty!!

Failing that you could try some volunteering, woofing or helpx where a lot of the time you would get a better experience in terms of living with the locals and seeing South American culture. You wouldn't be earning any money but you wouldn't spend much either.

I am pie

Buenos Aires is a fantastic city, but you should be aware that inflation in Argentina has been very significant over the last 3 years. It's no longer the cheap option it once was. If you maybe look at national papers and translate articles in the economics section using google translate you will get the gist of what i mean.

For Argentina look at the other large cities as well, Cordoba is the second largest and would have big universities and many companies where you might score some teaching english work. Mendoza is lovely but might be harder to get english teaching work..definitely worth a visit.

Dunno much about Chile.