(Panama Gringo) When you’re sitting at home dreaming of adventures trying to scheme up a way to travel and make money, ESL jobs often come to mind. Choosing the country, finding a job and getting hired are the first massive hurdles, but once you have successfully completed these, what is it really like? Do you really just play with kids and speak English for a couple of hours a day then use your money to lounge in paradise?
If you haven’t read my article on how I randomly ended up as an ESL teacher in Panama City, please read this article so you better understand my story. The school that has chosen this gringo as their English language educator is a small, private K-12 school. I am responsible for grades 3 -5 which translates to kids aged 8-10. The school is very international and although Panamanians seem to compose the majority of the student body, there is a large percentage of Israelis, Americans, Canadians and kids from all over South America. This creates a challenge for an English teacher as many classes are composed of students who have a very low-level combined with native speakers. In my brief interactions with the school before employment I was told I would be teaching 20 – 25 hours per week, which sounded very reasonable for the generous starting pay of $1,500 per month. However, as I’m now in my 5th week of teaching I’ve come to realize that although I’m only spending 20-25 hours per week in front of a class there is a huge amount of work outside these hours that needs to be done. Teachers are required to be at school from 7:15 to 3 or 4pm depending on the day, so in all actuality I am spending at least the standard 40 hours a week at work. Also, my school being a fairly prestigious one, the curriculum is fairly complicated so I end up spending at least an hour or so after school every day, grading or preparing lesson plans for the following week. They did not require me to obtain a work permit, however they told me that if they like me after the first trimester I will need to become a legal Panamanian worker and a pay raise will come along with that too!
As I have chosen to live in El Cangrejo (one of the nicer neighborhoods in Panama City) it takes between 30 – 60 minutes commute to and from work every day. In general, during my daily schedule I find myself leaving my apartment at 6:30am and returning between 4 and 5pm. Teaching children between the ages of 8 – 10 can be very demanding from an energy standpoint so one of the most looked forward to events during my day is my regular hour long siesta (nap) after work on a daily basis. So if you take all this into account, during the week I don’t have a massive amount of time (or energy) for socializing, exploring, attempting to acquire a Panamanian girlfriend or learning Spanish as much as I had imagined back home. However, my weekends are free and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the large number of Panamanian Holidays that occur during the fall season. Prior to my preconceptions before I left Panama seems to be a better place to work and save for future adventures rather than just make enough money to sustain in a foreign culture. South Korea often gets ranked as one of the top places to teach English abroad (click here for an ESL location ranking) because they often pay up to $2,000 a month, fly you out there and pay for your housing, so it’s a great opportunity to make and save money while you travel. Although you won’t ever see this on a “Top places for ESL work list”, I think that Panama is secretly a fantastic place to make good money! The living is relatively cheap and the pay is quite good which translates to plenty of money for cervesas, traveling to islands or putting money in the bank.
Because I lack any prior knowledge of Spanish I encountered a lot of confusion at my job and in my Panamanian life in general. One piece of advice I would like to pass on to any of those considering ESL work or just living in Panama is the importance of patience, especially if you don’t speak Spanish!! Latin culture moves slower than the US or Europe and it often seems to take ages to get done the most basic of tasks. If you decide to venture down here be prepared to spend time waiting and make sure you never get annoyed by this because it’s just their way of life!