Olomouc & Šumperk Graduate Comment (Czech Republic)

Jason Prince, January, 2010

My advice to people wanting to come here to work is it’s a nice place to live, cheaper than Praha. I would advise them not to try Šumperk, as there is at least 11 native speakers there, even a Swedish native English speaker. The work is in Olomouc or Brno, I know nothing about Brno, but here in Olomouc, there is a fair scattering of schools. It is hard to get into a Czech school, as they have got their experienced native speakers already, it’s a dead mans shoes situation. There are loads of small language schools about, which is a good starting point, however, they can only employ you for up to 150 hours per year. this can be overcome by them paying you in the hand, or by giving you only 3 hours a week, which isn’t a lot and you would need to work for a lot of schools. Unless like me you can find a good school. Be prepared to start teaching conversation for the first year, I currently teach 4 classes conversation in 3 hour lessons, which sounds easy but it isn’t, trying to keep 19-20 year olds interested in each topic for 3 hours can be a challenge. Private lessons can be gained, but requires a lot of leg work and travelling. It is very competitive so prices are low.

There are plenty of places to live. I live in a 3+1 and pay only 5750kc per month. The best place to look for somewhere to live is to look in Profit, as people advertise in there and don’t use agents, who as you know charge a fee of a months rent if you take the place. There is everything you could need here, and as always never too far from anywhere with
the train system, Praha is only about 3 hours away.