Re: Teachers Exchange Programs in Italy - Summer 2012

(4) Comments

Like

Share

Report

I taught in Italy last year. Honestly, just go to Rome, around
the hospital, university, and the corsico, and put up flyers.
Lots of people are looking for english and language tutors.
People make about 20€-30€ a lesson (about 40-45 minutes).
You can get a hostel for about 10€-15€ (Ive seen 8€) a
night. Summer is the hardest time to pull it off, because
everyone leaves on holiday and the place is flooded with
backpackers trying to do the same thing, so you see the
language lessons drop. However, you can often supplement this
with day labor/service industry type work (waiting tables, bar
back, dishwasher, etc), as much as tourists love the sound of
italian, they want to be able to read a menu, and order their
food without frustration (a cute waitress can make enough in
one weekend night to cover expenses for the week). Ive also
seen people do things like computer support (a tourists laptop
dies, and they want someone who speaks english to fix it) to
haircuts (all those back packers need a haircut at some
point).

My personal favorite that i do is wireless internet I would
just show up with my macbook and iPhone and using hotspot
software for the billing create a hotspot at 1-5€ an hour.
Id make 10-50€ in an afternoon at a cafe while grading
papers. Id do that once a week (not often), but it paid for my
monthly mobile service and internet at home. It worked because
infrastructure is so bad in Rome/Italy that your choices are
mobile internet or slow DSL (if its available), and outside
the hotels (which charge for their internet as well) everyone
just wants to get online. In fact if you jailbreak your iphone
you can do it without the laptop, but it runs your phones
battery down REALLY fast (incidentally, few places will let
you "plug in" to their electric, assuming you can find a
outlet outside that is convenient. The macbook is really just
a supplementary battery and runs the billing software. I did
all my own work from my iPad)

As for language tutoring, must people want to do it at lunch
time or after work. Try to do it afterwork, otherwise the cost
of the meal, is likely take up your fee. You will also see
better results (learning a language with your mouth full is
hard, and slows down progress). The best place to do it is
their office (many of them are doctors or medical
professionals). If your good, and personable, you will build
up a word of month clientele in a month or so. Some people get
good enough at it they stay into the fall (when the room rates
drop, everyone back from summer holiday, and all the tourist
backpackers have left). I know one girl who turned it into a
job at the university.

On 1/07/12, Lutece wrote:
>
> Does anyone know where I could find a summer job in Italy,
> teaching French, English, or Spanish, while practicing my
> italian. Also, I am willing to offer french, english or
> spanish lessons in exchange for room and board.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Lutece

Posts on this thread, including this one