(upbeat music)
- Good morning everyone.
My name's Allie from Chicago and I have been teaching
in Rome, Italy for almost a year now.
So I'll be with you the rest of the day,
let me know if you have any questions throughout.
Alright, I have migrated outside.
We're almost in August,
which is when everything pretty much shuts down
not just in Rome, but in Italy.
So I have a lot more free time now
'cause a lot of my classes are kind of dying down.
I work at a private English school here
so I typically do one-on-one classes or small groups
and I also do some private lessons on the side.
Typically my hours would be like from noon-ish to nine-ish
with little breaks maybe in between, sometimes.
But now, like I said, I'm a lot more free
so I only work in the late afternoon and evening today.
So even though it is very hot and humid right now,
I'm going to take a little adventure
to one of my favorite parks,
which is pretty near my house, like a 30 minute walk.
Called Villa Pamphili,
maybe I'll get some reading or writing done
and I'll take ya with. (clicks)
(cicadas buzz) Alright, so I am here,
lots of trees, as you can see.
Lots of cicadas too, so I apologize if it's hard to hear.
But shoot me some messages as we go along.
I'll try to answer some questions.
Or if you prefer to shoot them to my personal account,
I'll leave that here.
Alright, some basic info, I took the online TEFL course
because I was working two jobs at the time
and it allowed me to save up a little more
and work with my schedule.
I chose to come to Rome because I had studied
during university in Siena, Italy
in Tuscany and I loved it.
So I actually wanted to go back there
but it's pretty small,
there aren't that many teaching opportunities
at least for a first time teacher,
so I came to Rome instead.
It's really nice living in a country and city
that's so central in Europe,
so I've gotten to do quite a bit of traveling,
mostly within Italy but also
to a couple other countries
which has just been so nice.
So if you're looking to come to Italy or Rome specifically,
that's definitely a plus.
But if you are looking to travel, this isn't exactly
a country where you can save a lot of money.
So if you're looking to do that,
I might suggest going elsewhere.
Unfortunately, my work hours aren't always super consistent
with students canceling lessons last minute or holidays,
but in general I probably work 35 hours
planning, grading, and teaching.
If you don't want to travel as much,
you can certainly work less.
But, I don't know, I definitely wanted
to make the most of my time here,
and even though that involved working a little bit more,
I think it was worth it.
Most interviewing takes place once you actually get here,
so I pretty much just went door to door
to every English school or school in general I could find,
handed out my CV, and eventually found something.
Gotten a lot of questions along the way about visa situation
and Italy is kinda specific
in that most people work under the table
and overstay a tourist visa,
at least most Americans who don't have citizenship here.
The reason for that is that it's very, very rare
for a school to offer a work visa
and a student visa is just kind of an extra expense.
So obviously it's a risk but lots of people do it.
So it depends on what you're thinking.
So we just moved from Campo de' Fiori to Piazza Navona,
which is one of the most famous piazzas in Rome.
Got a nice (speaks foreign language) over here.
It is a beautiful day.
So I had a decent knowledge of the language
before moving here just because I had studied
a couple of years ago and taken some classes.
But I was definitely a little bit rusty
but I would recommend at least trying
to learn as much as you can before coming here.
Most people do speak a little English in the center of Rome
but it's just more polite and people will
maybe, be nicer to you if you at least try.
Okay, so now I'm on my way to my first class.
We are in the middle of Piazza San Pietro,
which is part of the Vatican City.
Vatican's right over there.
I happen to live really close by
and I found my house through EasyStanza,
which I would recommend.
Alright, so I just got done with my short day at work.
I'm gonna make some dinner and then
probably meet up with a friend later.
So if anyone has any more questions
don't hesitate to ask me,
but I hope this video helped clarify some things
and answered some of the questions you already had.
One more little piece of advice
or little word of wisdom, or whatever,
if you don't have everything figured out
when you're about to leave to wherever you're going,
don't worry, you'll get things figured out.
I didn't know anything before I got here
and I figured out housing, my job, everything, so.
So thank you for joining me today, everyone.
I hope that wherever you end up going next year
is where you're meant to be,
and I wish you the best of luck with everything.
(clicks) Bye.
(upbeat music)