Teaching Abroad in the Czech Republic

February 21, 2021

Cynthia from Adventurings has done what most people only dream of. She left her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to move to Europe and hasn’t looked back. What started as a one-year adventure has turned into teaching in the South Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. Check out Cynthia’s story about her time teaching abroad in the Czech Republic below!

What made you want to teach abroad?

“I was working at a cafe job during the recession, post-university in Seattle, WA. And I realized living in Europe was something I really wanted to do enough to actually make it happen. I studied abroad in Germany and Switzerland during college, and I’ve always been interested in teaching. So it seemed like a nice, low-pressure way to dip my toe in and try something completely different.”

Where did you want to go?

I love Germany and had studied German language, so I really wanted to end up there. But when I saw an ad for TEFL Worldwide Prague in a local newspaper back home – I cut it out, circled it, everything. This is what I want to do. I had been to Prague a couple times as a tourist and knew it would be a pretty amazing place to be based at first, even if it wasn’t Germany.

When you end up in Prague at the end of a long trip “work-staying” around the UK with no money and no job, you probably are going to stay put! We applied for a couple schools in different countries, but we quickly found that living and teaching in the Czech Republic was so wonderfully relaxed. And we continued to learn about the intricacies of the visa and tax necessities of moving to Germany. So we decided just to stay here in the end. I’m really glad we did!”

What company did you apply through?

“My TEFL school was absolutely lovely in helping to connect us with schools and jobs, finding a place to live and generally just giving us excellent advice for living in a new country. My husband ended up getting hired eventually by a company who was present at the end-of-program job fair at our teaching school. Once we moved to our new city outside of Prague, I received a word-of-mouth recommendation for a school to apply at.

In our TEFL school, they really “threw us to the wolves”, so to speak! I almost hate to reveal this, but their big thing is that they have you teaching actual paying students on the second day of the course! There is nothing like a dive in head first approach for a new teacher to get more comfortable, is there? I have to say that it really helped with “the new teacher butterflies”. By the time I was applying to teaching jobs, I felt really confident jumping into that role with no hesitation. We were well-prepared, undoubtedly.”

What was your interview process like?

“I had a couple interviews with language schools which varied completely. With more corporate language schools, you’re going to have a more formal interview. They even asked me to take a grammar test! Yikes. Sometimes schools have you demo a lesson. At the school where I currently work, I created a sample lesson plan and simply ran it through with the director instead of actually being observed teaching it. The interviews were always conducted in-person as the directors want to know that you are present and available in the city where you want to work. But I imagine things could be a little different in our pandemic and post-pandemic age.”

What was your experience with moving?

“In Europe it’s a bit different than teaching in Asia. You are probably being hired as a freelancer and therefore you are completely on your own. No allowance for travel, accommodation or anything like that. Teaching in Europe is truly a labor of love. You do it because you love the job and you want to be there. With most positions at language schools, you’re not doing it for the salary, although it is enough to live comfortably on. We moved into a furnished flat in our new city (2 hours south of Prague) with only a backpack on our backs and have lived extremely minimalistically for many years. If we decided we needed certain things, we purchased them once here.”

What is your new country like?

“I’ve lived in the Czech Republic for over eight years now so it hardly feels like a new country. In fact, I catch myself using “we” and “us” when I talk about my city. I think I’ve fully transitioned!

There is such a thrill in moving to a new place, sight unseen and basically starting your life over. I think the excitement and thrill was the best part, but also slowly getting to know our new country and city, the culture, the food, the social customs, and the people. It has been really lovely and we haven’t wanted to leave.

It was admittedly challenging at first to meet new people and make friends. In a bigger city like Prague (where we initially moved), you end up in a ready-formed social group of colleagues from your teaching school and their friends or connections. Not so when you move to a smaller city of 100,000 people and don’t run into another person from your country for almost a year! I think it took us a good seven months or so before we didn’t feel so isolated. But after meeting a few expats and friendly locals, it was the missing piece of the puzzle, and we felt that we could see ourselves staying here for longer.

We live in Ceske Budejovice, the biggest city in the southwestern region of the country. It’s tucked in a little corner near Upper-Austria and Bavaria, Germany. It is a lovely medieval-aged city with an incredibly beautiful city center. But once you leave the city (doesn’t take long!) you are in the middle of farmland, rolling hills, and pure Czech countryside. It was a little difficult to adjust to moving here from Seattle and then Prague, but now I feel like it’s the perfect size.”

What is your new school like?

“Here in Budejovice, I work at both a language school, a university, and teach private lessons. I’m kind of all over the board as a freelancer. My students range in age from 5 to 75 and I teach EFL (English as a Foreign Language). Which means I teach grammar, reading, writing, vocabulary but especially speaking and conversation. You absolutely don’t need to know Czech language to teach here. But the more I have studied the language, the more I find that it actually does help me because I can understand the little whisperings of when students don’t understand, or sometimes am able to translate a word without them looking it up in the dictionary.

Schools here set you up with all the materials you need, so I’ve felt really supported! It wasn’t too much of a challenge starting with my language school upon arrival besides just getting used to Czech quirks and social customs which were completely unknown to me before arrival. I appreciate the autonomy and trust in what I want to teach. I form all my lessons to my students’ wishes, so there usually isn’t a rigorous academic plan to follow.”

Be sure to check out Cynthia from Adventurings over on her website to read more about her sustainable living, travel experiences, minimalistic lifestyle, and favorite recipes. Interested in finding your way to teach abroad? Watch our free video by clicking here or signing up below!