Teaching English Offers Foreigners a Way to Fund Staying in Brazil: Sponsored

By Michael Malone, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Each year, millions of foreigners flock to Rio. Many become enamored, and would like to stay on awhile, to know The Marvelous City more intimately, and perhaps to explore further Brazil’s rich culture and impressive natural beauty.

But doing so of course requires money, and not everyone has the means to fund a long stay out of pocket. So, sadly, many must leave sooner than they’d like. There is, however, a way to fund an extended stay: by teaching English in Brazil.

Brazilians across the country need English for their careers, their degrees, travel, or simply to enjoy their favorite music and shows in the original English. But English teachers who are native speakers can be difficult to find in many areas – which presents opportunities for enterprising foreigners.

Still, many native speakers can’t see themselves teaching English. They may imagine the job to be conjugating verbs on a blackboard before a classroom of kids. Actually, teaching English in Brazil takes many forms. Most commonly, it’s one-on-one tutoring. Most students are adults, although a growing number are children or teens.

If you are considering teaching English, there is almost certainly a niche that you would enjoy, and be good at. It’s important to realize that teaching English isn’t all about teaching grammar.

Students want conversation. They want to learn idioms and slang. They want to talk about the culture of your home country. And you could help them with all of these things.

Knowing English and being able to teach it effectively, however, are two different things. John Clites, who has been teaching English in Brazil for more than ten years now, has just released a video-based course in which he shows you how to be successful teaching English in Brazil, while avoiding some of the pitfalls he encountered.

Clites arrived in Rio from the U.S. in October of 2008. Although he’d done only very limited teaching previously, he quickly found work due to high demand, and discovered that he truly enjoyed teaching Brazilians.

His new course began as an ebook. “The idea for the book first came to me when I met another American at a rooftop party in Rio. He had fallen in love with Rio immediately after arriving, and wanted to stay on. I had been working for some time as an English tutor and suggested he give it a try. We talked at some length about it, and I realized that others could benefits from what I’d learned.”

The book’s content has been expanded and converted to video. It is very comprehensive, and includes worksheets, as well as one-on-one coaching.

“I don’t want people simply to buy the course,” says Clites. “I want them to come here, build relationships, and immerse themselves in this wonderful country. Teaching English provides a means to do that, and I show new teachers exactly how to do [it, too].

Nick Ferreira of Toronto, says, “John’s a great teacher. I applied what he teaches and started working almost immediately after arriving… I’ve actually done two stints teaching in Brazil now, and really loved it!”

Learn more about the course here.

* This is a Sponsored article for How to Teach English.