(funky R&B music)
- (greeting in foreign language) Here I am in Madrid.
My name's Andre and I'll be taking over Instagram for today.
And I'll show you a day in the typical life
of a TEFL teacher in Madrid.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself:
"Hey, it's noon on a Wednesday,
"shouldn't you be working right now?"
And it's actually a holiday in Spain right now,
which is the most sterotypically Spanish thing
you could do is not work,
but I'll walk you through my day anyway.
Time, it's not a joke.
It's actually second breakfast time in Spain.
("I'd Give My Life For You" by Marvin Gaye)
♪ Of sensation of this wonderful creation ♪
- It's a beautiful day in Madrid today.
It's about 2:30PM.
And you know what logic dictates?
Lunch.
Now let me tell you legally how I got here.
I obtained a year-long student visa
through The TEFL Academy which involves
first taking a month-long course in TEFL,
then later working as you're taking Spanish classes.
Legally as a student you can work up to--
I was cut off in the last one,
but I wanted to say that as a student
you can work up to 20 hours a week.
And pretty much anywhere you want,
but typically for our qualifications,
it's as an English teacher or
as an English teaching assistant.
Unfortunately, it is actually quite hard to get
a working visa and I've only been able to
live here through student visas
and off working only up to 20 hours a week.
Spain is notorious for having difficult bureaucracy.
Yeah, that's the bad news.
I should mention that this is my third year living in Madrid
and that I originally came here as
a (speaking in foreign language).
So I already had a job here,
but just to answer the question,
I saved about 500 just to get myself settled in
because you only get paid once at the end of the month here.
Yes, very much so.
Public transport, food, you know, housing,
it's all very cheap here.
I live alone in the center of the biggest city
in Spain and it's the cheapest apartment
I've ever had in my life, so yeah, pretty cheap.
I have both, but generally you can just have
one or the other.
It's real easy to get jobs if you're from
a country that speaks native English
or that's to say a native English speaker.
For example, I majored in Spanish,
but to be fair that doesn't really matter.
I'm the only person I know who's working here
who had a degree even in Spanish.
So I think it's just any university degree will suffice.
Exchange student.
I first moved to Spain as an exchange student
when I was about 20 and I was admittedly
harder to get used to the way of life,
the bureaucratic system of everything, all the paperwork.
But after that you kinda learn to roll with it
and it gets easier.
It's generally year-round.
Spanish-English Academy is a school.
They have notoriously high turnover rates.
I've never been laid off or fired,
but I guess the highest season's obviously in early fall.
I know that sounds weird because
early fall is generally when the school year starts,
but I'm just speaking from experience.
I've never heard of that program,
but if you're paying a grand
and unless you're getting a degree,
I don't know why you would go with that.
Here's a look at my apartment.
This is decked out in Christmas decorations.
I do know non-native English speakers who work here.
They're usually from eastern European countries,
I'm not exactly sure how that process works.
I assume there must be some other kind of test
or something to prove your English prof--
("Frosty the Snowman" by The Ronettes)
♪ Frosty the snowman ♪
♪ Was a happy, jolly soul ♪
♪ With a corncob pipe ♪
♪ And a button nose ♪
- Although it's my day off,
I still give private classes in the afternoon,
which is to say I do tandems,
which means that I (speaking in foreign language)
and my friend speaks in English.
Say hello. - Hello!
- Adios.
Okay, now because it's Wednesday night
that means, or Wednesday all day,
that means movies are generally cheaper
in most cinemas across Spain.
I'm in, this is the Madrid Metro.
I had to use that card for buses,
trains, or long distance trains.
And if you're 26 and under, it is about 20 euros a month.
I think if you're over--
I brought my own phone which was unlocked in the States
and I just replaced it with another SIM card.
But, phone and technology stuff
makes no sense to me, so bring it up
with your service provider.
Actually a ton.
Madrid's very well connected
and all the flights are cheap.
The fact that a flight from Madrid to Rome
costs about a tenth of what it costs
to go from Vegas to Charlotte,
to me should be in violation of the Geneva Convention.
So, one thing about Spanish cinemas
is that they're usually dubbed.
The best ones in Madrid to go to,
that just have Spanish subtitles, are
(speaking in foreign language)
and--
I ended up seeing the Suspiria remake
instead of the film Cold War.
Another pro-tip that in Spain,
despite everybody arriving about 30 minutes late,
movies start right on time.
There are no trailers at the actual showtime.
(funky R&B music)