Archive for the ‘Language’ Category

Teaching English In Brazil – The Ultimate Way To Enjoy Everything Brazil Has To Offer

Monday, July 11th, 2011

As the largest country in South America, Brazil is big on business. Their geographical proximity to the United States, as well as their trade agreement with North America, makes speaking English a very important asset for Brazilian citizens. English is taught to all levels of Brazilian students, from childhood on up. Some Brazilian companies will hire English teachers to train their employees to make foreign communication easier.

With that said, Brazil is naturally a major destination for those looking to teach English in a foreign country. Teaching English in Brazil is a unique and enriching experience that anyone who wishes to travel should consider.

What is required?

Some countries require English teachers to be certified in any number of teaching courses. TEFL, TESOL, and the Cambridge CELTA are all certifications that are often required for foreigners wishing to teach English in another country. Brazil, however, does not consider this a prerequisite.

If you do have a certification, it may very well help you in the classroom. But chances are good that if you are hired by a Brazilian company or school, they will require you to go through an in-house training program regardless of whether or not you are certified to teach.

What is recommended is a BA in some subject and a working knowledge of Portuguese, the official language of Brazil.

What about a visa?

This is where the information can get a little sketchy, and keep in mind we’re not advocating one course of action over another. The truth is, getting a work visa for teaching English in Brazil is going to be very, very difficult.

The vast majority of schools in Brazil that hire English teachers are unwilling to sponsor those teachers for work visas. Sponsorship by an employer is required to get a legitimate work visa. It is also extremely expensive and complicated, and many companies steer clear of doing so for those reasons.

With that said, if you are planning on remaining in Brazil to teach English for an extended period of time, you may be able to find an employer who is willing to sponsor you. The catch is that you will probably have to pay for the process yourself. This is something that you should actively research and discuss with your employer if you’re interested in pursuing a work visa.
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Teach English in Japan

Monday, June 20th, 2011

If you’ve recently graduated from school and are at a crossroads in the start of your career Teaching English in Japan might be worth looking into. Believe it or not the English language learning industry is a multi-billion dollar one that employs over 65,000 ESL teachers.

What’s Needed to Teach

In order to get a job teaching English in Japan, you’ll need to be a college graduate from any field – (sorry but 2 year degrees won’t cut it.) You pretty much also need to speak English at native level fluency. There are some that do find teaching jobs in Japan even though English is not their first language but this is more an exception to the rule.

You’ll also need a working visa in order to work legally in the country. Most employers will take care of this for you. Working visas are good for one year with extensions being from 1 to 3 years for U.S. citizens.

Another very helpful trait is an interest in Japanese culture. When you fly 10,000 miles east things get pretty different pretty fast. So having a desire to experience Japanese culture is helpful. Not from the standpoint of getting a job but from the standpoint of enjoying the experience. Those who don’t have a natural curiosity or desire to experience Japanese culture usually don’t last that long.

What Isn’t Required

Contrary to what many believe a TESL or TEFL certificate is not required in order to teach. Although it does help getting higher paying jobs. The majority of the large recruiters, the ones that have recruitment centers all over the world, don’t require TESL certification.

Also because these large recruiters pay the minimum wage of 250,000 yen per month (roughly $2100 U.S.) they also don’t require much teaching experience. In fact the bulk of this industry runs on recent grads.

General Information About Teaching English in Japan

Let’s start with money. You should expect a wage of at least 250.000 yen per month. This is a entry level salary for those with little or no experience. However be warned this won’t go that far in large cities like Tokyo or Osaka. You should expect a bit more to compensate for the cost of living factor in these large cities.
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Study the Italian Language Abroad

Saturday, June 11th, 2011

The Italian language is one of ancient and historic roots. Today, it is spoken by approximately 70 million people, and is the official language of several nations, including Italy, Slovenia, and Vatican City. If you are interested in learning to speak, read, and write another language, consider the romantic Italian language. You could study at a college or University and receive your degree in Italian. You could take one of many online accelerated courses. Or you could experience the beauty, history, and culture of the Italian language firsthand. You could attend one of the many Italian immersion programs available in Italy.

Earning a degree in Italian from a college or University will provide you with a thorough knowledge of written and conversational Italian. If you earn a college degree in the Italian language, you will most likely be fluent in it. This can lead you to several interesting career options. For example, you can find employment as a foreign language translator, either in the United States or aboard. You can also work as a teacher of English as a second language to students in Italy. If you are already established professionally, and find that you must learn Italian as a job requirement, you can enroll in accelerated courses in Italian online. There are several reputable programs offered via the Internet that are convenient and fun. Learning Italian in this manner will give you a very basic foundation in the language.

If you have the time to devote (a few weeks to a month) and the financial resources, an ideal opportunity is to learn the Italian by enrolling in an immersion program. By doing this, you will not only learn Italian, but you will get a taste of the exciting Italian way of life. Learning Italian in the beautiful country of Italy, where the language has its ancient roots, you will be thrust into the life and culture, and you will learn to speak and understand the language quickly and with surprising ease. You will learn the conversational and colloquial styles of the Italian language. You will interact on a daily basis with native Italian, and they probably won’t be willing or able to communicate with you in English. You will be absorbed into the everyday life of Italy. You can choose to study in historic Rome, Florence, Milan, or even Venice. You will learn to understand and appreciate the mythic Italian culture: the art, the architecture, the food, and the people. You will also attend courses in which you will learn how to read and write Italian. Can you think of a more fun and interesting way to learn a foreign language?
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Spanish Love: Spanish Poets and Their Spanish Poems

Monday, May 30th, 2011

Love and its attendant passions has been the favorite subject of Spanish poetry since the time of the troubadours, medieval poets who earned their keep by singing for the people at the village square or for the nobility during royal gatherings at the palace. Composers in their own right, these court poets sang about courtly love and the bittersweet pain of unattained love for an idealized woman using the jarchas, a form of love song that was actually poetry written in very short stanzas.

It is important in the study of Spanish love poems to differentiate between poems that originated from countries outside of Spain including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, The Philippines, Puerto Rico, The United States, Uruguay and Venezuela which were written in Spanish but whose authors were not from Spain. All these poets and their respective poems have contributed in some way to the development of Spanish Poetry as a genre because they all wrote their work in Spanish albeit in the form of Spanish common to their country of origin. Although some of them wrote patriotic poems about their motherland, most of them utilized images of love to depict the sorrow of a country that has lost its freedom.
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