WORKING FULL-TIME VS. FREELANCING IN HUNGARY

Teaching full time in Hungary does not mean teaching a class 40 hours per week. Most of the time, full-time teaching demands only eighteen to 24 hours of classroom instruction every week. With preparation time, though, a teaching job can easily consume forty hours of your time.

There are several advantages to a full-time teaching job. Employers are more likely to help out with the work permit process and even assist in your search for accommodations (though this is hardly universal). Also full-time teachers tend to develop close relationships with their students, fellow teachers, and administrators. Another advantage is that their lives are relatively settled because they have at least part of every day planned out and spend less time in transit than those with several part-time jobs or private students. The main disadvantage of full-time positions is that they often pay less per hour than freelance tutoring sessions.

Freelancing means searching out your own students and managing your own tutoring times and lesson plans. Freelancers might work part-time at small, private schools and tutor privately at the same time. Although this arrangement allows for greater freedom and potentially more money, it usually requires more initiative, patience, and dedication than most full-time employment. It can also become tiresome because of inconvenient and erratic work hours. Private students often feel less compelled to keep their lesson appointments because they feel that they have a closer, more casual relationship with their instructor. It would be wise to establish a policy regarding lesson cancellations and advance payment in order to protect yourself against your students' inconsiderate whims. After all, a few cancellations can affect your pocketbook as well as your schedule.

The best arrangement may be to combine a full-time job with a few freelance teaching sessions on the side (if they don't conflict with your full-time job). If you set things up this way, your workload will be varied enough that you will not get tired of either type of teaching.

English Language School in Hungary >>>