So You Want to Teach in Prague (A Guide)

Ever since I moved to Prague–and really, ever since I announced we were moving–I’ve received many emails asking about my experience teaching there, how I decided on Prague, the visa process, and more. I can’t blame all of you for wanting to go to teach in Prague–who wouldn’t want to try living in my beloved Praha?!–so I put together a list for those of you considering making the move.

Before we start, take note that this is just my personal experience and in no way the only path you can take. There are more ways to become a teacher or to live in Prague, although my story is a common one, I found.

Also, as per the visa regulations, it of course depends on your citizenship. This is my experience as an American with an American passport–so make sure you check the regulations for your own country!

1. Why Prague?

I chose Prague because of its location in Europe, its cost of living, the ability for a non-EU citizen to get a job there, and because it looked like a beautiful, fun place to live. I was really pleased with my choice and grew to love both Prague and teaching. If you’re anxious to spend a year in Europe, Prague is a great choice–fairly central with transportation to anywhere you can think of, almost! Plus, it really is pretty cheap–say, beer is about $1–and that can help you save up to explore more of the Czech Republic and Europe.

2. Pick a school to get TEFL-certified.

I chose Oxford House because I had spoken to several people who had attended this school and gone on to become teachers, both in Prague and elsewhere in the world. It’s one of the few schools in Prague to hold international accreditation, which isn’t necessary to teach in many countries but is a bonus. Although I do recommend Oxford House, there are many other TEFL schools in Prague. I’ve also heard good things about TEFL Worldwide, for example. Just make sure to thoroughly research the school you are attending: ask a lot of questions during your interview, and contact graduates of the program to make sure you will be able to teach afterwards! In Prague, it is necessary for English teachers to have the TEFL certification, or equivalent, unless you have an Education degree from an English-speaking country. I knew several teachers that were elementary or high school teachers in the United States that came over to Prague to teach without getting TEFL-certified. However, if you don’t have this, and don’t want to get TEFL-certified, Prague is not the place for you, nor is most of Europe (although there are exceptions to this rule–such as Spain or Hungary). That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to teach–much of Asia only requires that you have a college degree and are a native speaker.

3. Before going to Prague, get in touch with a visa handler to make sure you understand the visa requirements and options.

For most English teachers in Prague, as an American, the primary visa you are able to get at the moment is the Freelance Visa, or Zivnostinkylist (Zivno for short–sounds like “jivno”). Unless you are lucky enough to get sponsored by a school–then good luck for you! This is a rare event nowadays, even teachers that are brought over for a specific job are tending to get the Zivno, to my knowledge. I won’t list the requirements here, but if you want to know more–please feel free to email me: amy [at] amyandthegreatworld.com. We found our visa handler through Oxford House, and if you are going through another TEFL program, they are likely to have a connection for you, as well.

4. Decide when to go.

Language schools tend to hire year-round, but the peak hiring times seem to be in the fall, around August/September, and in January. If you take a TEFL class in the summer, it can be very difficult to find a job then, as many of the language schools take summer vacations.

5. Save money.

It will take you awhile to start making money in Prague, and you will need money for your visa, for health insurance, for first month/last month’s rent on your flat, for beer, etc! So, it’s best to have a cushion when you arrive.

6. During your certification class, get in touch with your visa handler again, begin to look for apartments and scope out the job market.

A visa handler was key for our experience in Prague. She answered so many of our questions and held our hand through the complicated process. We loved our visa handler and asked her so many questions throughout the year on any legal or visa issue we had, even if it didn’t pertain to our Zivno. She even helped us with our taxes!

As you need an address before you can officially apply for the Zivno, I would start looking for a place right away. Often, you may not get paid at your job until your Zivno comes through–so it’s best to get it as soon as possible! Our school had some connections, but we ended up finding a place through the website: www.seznam.cz. We also didn’t want to use a realtor, which many people do, as we wanted to save the hefty fee. However, a realtor can help with the process a lot–especially with the translation and the signing of the lease!

7. Find a job–and keep the visa process rolling!

Now I wouldn’t say that it was absolute cake to find a teaching job in Prague–mostly because it is certainly easy to find a job but not as easy to find the right job. There are many language schools that charge their students a ton of money but only give the teachers a small percentage of this. This is a good way to get into the job market in Prague, though.

One thing with the Zivno, however, since it is a freelance visa, you are required to have more than one source of income. I worked primarily at an elementary school, but I also had a least one other business that I could invoice. One perk of Oxford House was their network–near the end of our course, we handed the business manager our updated CVs and she sent them to jobs all over Prague. We interviewed for a lot of jobs right away, and were offered them all–but we were picky!

8. Learn to say no.

You’ll soon discover that teaching in Prague is a kind of patchwork–you will probably have several different jobs and a lot of private clients! If you are lucky, that is. I found that I had too many offers of private clients to say yes to–although I made the mistake of saying YES! to almost everyone who asked right away, and ended up completely stressed out and swamped. One thing I did to eliminate this over-scheduling was to raise my rates–and learn to say no. It’s not feasible to have THAT many teaching lessons in one day, it wears you out!

9. Be flexible & creative.

Between private lessons, curriculum-focused lessons in the classroom, and lessons at businesses, I had to spend a lot of time thinking of interesting, creative things to do with my students. The internet is a gold mine for this sort of thing–use it! If you’re interested in the specific sites I use, let me know and we can discuss :).

Flexibility is important when it comes to your lessons and your schedule. I rarely had one week where a student didn’t cancel, and my schedule was never the typical 9-5, even at a school. It’s common for teachers in Prague, especially if you’re teaching at businesses, to have early morning lessons or late evening lessons.

10. Work your schedule so you can enjoy Prague and take advantage of the fantastic travel opportunities!

I was lucky to be working primarily at an elementary school with quite a bit of time off. E was able to arrange his time off when I had my time off–and I never took a sick day or travel day from my job, except when I had to travel to Berlin to pick up my visa. I didn’t feel the need to take extra days when I had a fairly decent schedule and so many built-in vacation days! I tried to take advantage of every holiday we had: we went to Austria during my fall break, had an epic Christmas vacation during my winter holidays, got engaged in Venice during my spring break, visited Karlovy Vary over Easter, went to Telc over one long weekend, Budapest over another holiday, and then Dublin over yet another, and arranged family visits during the summer, when school was out. Of course I had other lessons that I had to rearrange for these times off, but with private lessons I found that rescheduling or canceling was generally a possibility. One nice thing about private clients is that they often want a vacation during the national holidays, too!

So what do you think–are you ready to start teaching in Prague?! You won’t regret it 🙂