(upbeat music)
- Good morning, I'm here at my school about 7:40 a.m.
Waiting for the first lesson to begin
in about 15, 20 minutes or so.
So, Shelby and I moved here last year in June.
We took our TEFL course in person here in Prague,
one of ITA's partner schools which I'll be talking
a little bit more about later today.
And I've been here for the year,
went home for the summer and did some traveling and whatnot,
and, hello Misha. - [Misha] Hello.
One of my students came in.
English today?
The head nod of course, they love the head nods.
So, we've been here for about a year
and about four months or so,
so, it's been an awesome experience so far.
So, if you get the opportunity definitely come to Prague.
I'll talk a little bit about why Prague over some
other places and hopefully you can (speech cut off).
So, I teach English at a Czech public school
about 10 minutes north of Prague.
I teach grades five through grades nine
and I have them about once a week.
I teach 22 different lessons,
they're about 45 minutes each,
and then I also coach soccer at a few different
international schools at their after school programs
throughout the city.
Shelby teaches at an international preschool
where she is the main teacher for about 12 five year olds.
And she teaches them English but then she also teaches them
math and science and everything that you would go about
being a preschool teacher.
So, she teaches about 30, 35 hours a week
and it's enough for us to live comfortably,
to be able to travel and to also balance
our work and our free time.
So, the reason Shelby and I chose the Czech Republic
to come and teach English was because of how easy it is
for Americans to actually get a work visa here
compared to other EU countries.
So, essentially all you need is about
five to eight thousand dollars in your bank account
signed by your bank.
You need a lease signed by a landlord that has
a proof of accommodation for while you're staying here.
You need to go to the U.S. Embassy and do a background check
and you need to go to a few other Czech government offices
here in the Czech Republic as well as getting
private insurance for a short period of time
that's international, that covers you in different countries
for certain about of money.
And you also need to do an appointment
in a Czech Embassy in another country
and that's the tricky part,
is that you have to leave the Czech Republic
to apply for your work visa within the Czech Republic.
There's a few other logistical things
but essentially it's pretty straight forward
and if you hire a visa agency,
there's tons of them here in the Czech Republic
that you can use and they'll do majority of the work
for you and basically just tell you where to go, what to do,
and then they'll send you to the visa appointment.
And then you wait about three to five months,
you get your Zivno visa, which is a one year freelance visa
where you pay your own taxes
and you invoice for where you're working.
So, if you work for a school
you give them an invoice saying this is how much you charge
for your services and then they'll pay you that amount
and then you pay your taxes at the end of the month
for social taxes and health insurance.
So, you do get health insurance with those taxes
which is really nice.
And then after that one year visa if you wanna extend it
you can do another two year Zivno visa
and then some people actually
get an employment contract with the school.
So, here at our school we're the only two
native English speakers, myself, and here's Pedro.
- Hello everyone, I'm Pedro from Brazil
and I've been living here for five years.
I've been learning the language as well,
very hard to learn but it's a great place to live here,
it's very safe and you can find a job easily
and you have lovely colleagues we have here
lovely people with us.
Lovely ladies.
And I strongly suggest you to come
because it's a great place
and you'll make enough money to live and to buy things.
- Travel a little bit and balance work and pleasure, right?
- Definitely, yeah.
- Cool.
- [Child] It's almost 11.
(train rumbling)
(tram rumbling)
Hi everyone, I'm here at ITA's partner school
where you can get your TEFL certificate in person.
That's where Shelby and I
got our TEFL certificates last summer.
Here's Rodke, she works for the school,
she's gonna give you a few reason why you should
take the course in person instead of online.
- Hey, my name is Rodke and I work for the TEFL program
here in Prague full time.
I'm just gonna give you a couple of reasons
why you should come down here and take the course.
So, it is an intensive one month course
but you're spending a full month
with a couple of other people
and it gives you a great idea of,
not idea, but like immersion into the culture
and immersion into easing into living in the city.
You make friends, potentially roommates, classmates.
And another reason is that you get
a great teaching experience,
teaching face to face is so much better
and such a great experience for life.
Even if you don't have
or if you do have a teaching background.
So, it's a great experience no matter what.
Plus the culture in Prague is just so much fun.
And you just can meet so many people here,
so, come and meet your first Czech.
- Yeah, exactly, and also they get a few
Czech language courses and they kinda tell you
how to get around the city
and kinda what (horn buzzing) to look out for
and what to experience.
So, that was the bell, someone coming in
to finish their TEFL course right now,
so-- - I gotta go!
- All right, bye.
(children chattering)
Hi, I'm here with a few students who are
in the process of taking their TEFL course here in Prague.
They're gonna introduce themselves
and say why they decided to take the course
in Prague instead of online.
- Hey, I'm Nathaniel and I wanted to take this course
in person because I wanted to explore a new country.
- I'm Gena, I decided to take the course here in Prague
because it's a European city
and I plan on living here after the course.
- Hey, my name is Joel and I decided to take this course
to get a more personal, in depth teaching experience.
- Awesome!
And how are you guys liking the course so far?
(cheering)
They're only in week one, they'll learn.
So, MTV,
welcome to my crib.
We got the toilet room, which is pretty typical here.
It's just a room with a toilet, the door closes
and usually there's no sink or shower
within the toilet room.
You got the main hallway right here
with coats and shoe hangers and places to store your shoes.
Washer machine,
laundry,
and luckily our place came fully furnished
so we didn't have to buy the couch or the television.
Shelby came with the place, too.
Very nice.
Kitchen came fully stocked,
so we had all the plates, utensils, appliances.
Unfortunately we do not have a dishwasher.
Our last apartment did have a dishwasher.
But that's okay, getting pretty good at
using the old sponger-usky.
And, here's the bedroom.
Bed also came with the place as well as the dresser,
and then the wardrobe is a floor to ceiling wardrobe.
We're able to hang our clothes in there.
There are two heating units in here,
one right here, one in the living room.
No air conditioning but that's okay,
you just open the windows up.
And the strangest part about the whole place
is like the shower room.
It's just a, there's no curtain or anything,
no place for a curtain rod, just a shower room
and close the door and you got the sink in there as well.
So, it's just enough for the two of us.
We got plenty of space, it already came decorated.
"Can't touch this," super cute.
We added a few little touches of our own
but basically besides a few little things
everything came with the place.
So, it was really nice, really convenient,
we love it here and our landlords are super awesome.
The Czech couple that used to live here
when they had their firstborn
and now they live out in the suburbs and rent to us, so.
So, that's it from us here in Prague.
We're gonna sign off a little bit.
We try to keep it pretty serious on this
international TEFL Academy account.
But if you are interested in hearing about
some of our teacher stories
and just kinda just seeing our daily life,
or have any questions about us in Prague,
you know, just follow our main account,
ask us any questions, we love helping people out
And kinda getting to where they need to go.
So, that's it from us in Prague,
we're having some mac and cheese...
What are they, bell peppers?
Mac and cheese bell peppers.
- Mac o'lanterns.
- Mac o'lanterns is essentially a bell pepper
that you carve a pumpkin face into
and then you fill it with mac and cheese.
(clicks tongue)
All right, (speech cut off).
(upbeat music)