(energetic electronic music)
- Hey guys, welcome to ITA's takeover for Hamburg, Germany.
My name is Tamie and I will be showing you around Hamburg
today and giving you a glimpse of what it's like
to live and teach in Germany.
So I am from San Diego, California.
And, I have been living and teaching
in Hamburg, Germany for four years.
And the reason why I chose Hamburg, because after almost a
year of traveling this was the place I felt most at home.
So back in 2014,
I graduated from the Tuple Program through ITA,
at one of their partner schools in Florence, Italy.
So a week before my flight in 2014 back to the States,
I canceled it and stayed in Europe.
I moved to Hamburg, Germany,
and started a company called Speak Easy Language Academy,
because I didn't wanna work in a language school.
So I needed a professional platform to market myself
for private teachers. I didn't want to have a Gmail account
stuck to a Post-it somewhere saying "I teach English".
I wanted a professional platform to do so,
and that's why I created the company.
After we have Speak Easy going and teachers were able
to promote themselves under Speak Easy's name, we found that
because the visa process here is very difficult,
we needed to also help teachers in that sense.
So, we started Expat Launcher.
So, as shy as I am on camera,
I do know a thing or two of Germany,
I have been assisting expats for the past four years,
so please ask me your questions, either through here
or there, and I will be happy to help you.
- Hello there, this is Janis from Expat Launcher, your
registered health insurance broker specialized in expats.
Today, we wanna tell you a little bit about the difference
between private and statutory health insurance.
It's a question we get all the time, which...
- Hey guys, so today we're gonna talk about getting settled.
What to do after you apply for your resident permit,
next step's how to get your tax number, things to do..
- Hey guys, we are driving down to HafenCity
to show you around and we'll sit and talk more about
what it's like to live and teach in Germany.
And we are driving today, typically we do
take public transportation, but it's kind of cold today.
So I'm allowed to work as an
English freelance teacher/self employed CEO of my company.
My resident permit is for freelanced and self employed, so
therefore I do have two titles on my permit here in Germany.
So most teachers coming to Germany do prefer to work
in a language school, for me, I felt private teaching
was a better fit. I wanted to be more flexible with
my pay rate, my schedules, so I could travel, customizing
lessons for my student, was really big draw for me.
So most teachers coming to Germany do prefer to work
in a language school, for me, I felt private teaching
was a better fit. I wanted to be more flexible with
my pay rate, my schedules, so I could travel, customizing
lessons for my student, was really big draw for me.
To be able to market myself in that manner,
it does take more time, it takes a while to build a network,
and to create customized lessons for your students,
but for me, I find it much more rewarding.
My best advice for applying for your visa obviously
would be to well prepare.
What works for your friend, may or may not work for you.
In Hamburg, we have seven offices you can apply to and each
of them have very different requirements, believe it or not.
So the visa offices really like to see a well prepared
packet. They do charge based on administrative fees.
And you have to register, you need to have German based
language schools and you should have your health insurance
before you even consider going into the visa office.
So I'm about to head out to meet two other
ITA alumni teachers, that just recently arrived, so I wanna
get their first impression of what they think about Hamburg.
In the next two clips I will leave you more information
about apartments and what it's like to go grocery shopping.
(dramatic music)
- Hey guys, I'm here with Tammy,
my name is Murray from Charleston, South Carolina.
I'm living in Hamburg right now thanks to ITA.
Hamburg's a great city, it's clean
and there's a lot of stuff to do.
- Hi I'm Vanessa from Columbus, Ohio.
I've been in Germany for two months and I love Hamburg
because it's great for young people, it's easy to travel,
people are friendly, and there's a great nightlife.
- Hey guys so I just want to say that that's a wrap for me.
I appreciate you taking your time
to spend your day with me in Hamburg.
Please let me know if you have any questions,
and I'd be happy to help you.
In Hamburg, we say (speaks in German).
(upbeat music)