A little stymied - finding work in the Ukraine

[Hypiereon]

Hey all. I've been trying to find paid English teaching jobs in Ukraine - but specifically L'vov (more commonly spelled and pronounced L'viv) in Ukraine, but have basically run up against a wall.

I've searched the web and sent out a few e-mails to guesthouses and general schools asking for any information they might have about paid teaching positions in the area - still waiting to hear back on those - but was wondering if there was a European ESL site like this one is for Asia.

Anyone have any suggestions about websites or anything I haven't already tried I'd love to hear them. Remember though, I'm not just looking for any teaching position in Ukraine, I'm looking for one specifically in L'vov for a friend of mine whose asking. Thanks!

[gfell]

Hi Hypiereon,

This is a difficult search you are doing.

There is a school listed in wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_schools_in_Ukraine. It has 1 school listed in L'vov. You may want to contact them to broaden your reach. Am sure they will know of more schools in L'vov. If you don't get a reply via email, call them on +380322-723754.

Other than that, you may want to search "google blog" at http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch. You may come across some diary entries of travellers or those who work in L'vov.

Good luck with things!

[Hypiereon]

I didn't know just how hard it was going to be until I started it. The school you've mentioned is one I have already contacted via e-mail but I'm still waiting for a response. No crossed holding my breath though.

Thanks for the lead, and I'll try the tip on the google blog entries to see what comes up. This is actually kind of fun for me. Most of the times my internet searches for things usually give me good leads in under an hour. This by far has proven to be the most challenging! I always believed there were paid English teaching positions at any major city in the world - this is turning out to be an exception to that little theory for now.

[gfell]

Yeh, I'm like you, enjoy a good challenge to find the answer to a question. I also usually find my answer in under 15 minutes. Thought I had honed the skill of search engine usage, until I came across your question.

I wonder if any other's can find English teaching jobs in L'vov?

Am sure there are paid English teaching jobs in L'vov, but it seems these jobs are reserved for the locals. Perhaps L'vov just doesn't invite foreigners to teach English.

[Hypiereon]

Hey hey hey!!! In a very indirect and backwards way, I was able to get two good hits off of e-mails. It was a needle in a haystack scenario, but two is way better than none. In fact, there are schools hiring foreigners specifically in L'viv, but I think my guy had better take a long walk around the city when he gets there to find other opportunities. Of the two hits I got, one required a Teaching Degree, the other did not. I'm guessing hiring standards will be higher there, but anyway, at least I've two leads to pass on.

Basically it was a data mining operation much like you suggested gfell. I blitzed every e-mail contact I could find for any matches with L'viv at all. There were no returned e-mails from schools I pinged at the start. Schools referred by my e-mail blitz did respond though, so it was worth it to go through the blogs and basically cast a really wide net.

I'm not totally shocked that the results were so low, but I'm a little surprised I couldn't find hard contacts for schools without going through a second party referral. Strange.

On a sidenote, I did read a travelers blog that said the TEFL system has not really flourished in Ukraine yet, but is rapidly growing. (Insert subjective definitions for "rapidly" and "growing" here please) So, who knows how the country will shape up in the future, but it was an interesting exercise!

[Margy]

Yeh, I think the blogs have a great deal of secondary information nowadays. They give you a good perspective on things without coming across hard sell sites.

You know, in a blog you typically get quality information.

I think Europe in general has way less demand for English teachers than in Asia. Probably because many Europeans can speak multiple languages due to all the bordering countries.

Asian countries are more seperated by oceans and an education system that concentrates way too much on grammar.