Hello, hello!  I have been thinking about starting a new series for A Spoonful of TLC, and since many of my readers are current or future auxiliares de conversación (language and culture assistants here in Madrid), then I thought I would do a short summer series all about that.  For today’s topic, I am going to focus on 3 pros and cons to being an Auxiliar de Conversación in Madrid based on my own experience working from 2015-2017.  After this post, if you have an specific topic requests, questions, or ideas, please comment on the post or e-mail me at tlcohen91@gmail.com.

3 Pros and Cons to Being an Auxiliar de Conversación in Madrid, Spain

Pros

• You get to live in, not only Europe, but one of the best cities here, and get paid to do it

Sometimes people ask me how I chose Madrid, and the answer is that I Googled: “learn Spanish, earn money” and a program with CIEE came up in the results.  The rest is history!  Madrid is a wonderful city, full of entertainment, bars, restaurants, shopping, museums, night life, nature, and more- and YOU get to live here for an entire year and get paid to do it.  Not only will you be paid, but you’ll be paid well enough to live a decent life.  When you get the itch to travel, you have the rest of Europe at your fingertips since Madrid is so well connected (by train, bus, car, and plane).

• You get to work as a teacher, even if you don’t really have any experience

When I walked into my first day of work in 2015, one of the teacher’s said “everyone, this is the new assistant, Tamara.  Tamara, please say hello and then explain to them what a gerund is” and I was like ‘wtf is a gerund??????????????????’.  From there, things went up (lol luckily).  I learned to be prepared in the classroom, learned how to plan activities and lessons, and learned some English along the way.  This job gives you the opportunity to be a teacher, even if you walk in on your first day and think ‘wtf is a gerund?!’. Also, many schools and teachers are totally open to your ideas and WANT you to plan interesting lessons, like the time I taught the students about pb&j and then they all tried it (and most didn’t like it cause they don’t know about quality food…)

• You only work 4 days per week, 4 hours per day

(Drinks on a school night!)

One of the best things about this job is that you don’t actually work all that much, which leaves a lot of time to do things you enjoy doing.  Discover new hobbies, meet friends for drinks and tapas, give private lessons to make more money, travel, go to the gym, lie in the park, WHATEVER.  You will have a lot of time to build up other parts of your life, while maintaining some structure to your days and weeks via work.

Cons

• Sometimes your school will be very far away, and you may spend a lot of time commuting

Madrid, as a province, is very large, which means some schools are 15 minutes from home and some schools can be 2 hours from home.  Mine was an hour and at first I was like ‘what…?’, but this is normal, actually.  I have been seeing so many posts about people wondering why their school is an hour outside of the city center.  All I can say is: be thankful that it’s not more than an hour (my roommate last year traveled 2 hours each way).  My school was an hour to an hour and 20 minutes from home and while I didn’t love the commute, I used the time to read, answer e-mails, listen to music, or sleep.  You’ll get used to it.

• While the money is good, it won’t be enough to travel here, there, and everywhere

The money that will be paid to you will be enough for you to pay rent, buy food, have some drinks/ dinners out, and possibly travel a little, but you will certainly not be livin’ large.  If you have plans to travel, then you will need supplementary income, which you can get from private lessons, teaching online through companies like Vipkid (reach out to me if you want help getting a job), or through babysitting.  Also, saving money is not really a thing.  I might save a tiny bit, but at most, your year abroad will end in breaking even.

• There is a lot of bureaucratic BS to get through

I think this is normal in every country you visit as a foreigner, but it’s no different here.  You will have to fill out and print papers, make appointments for things, get fingerprints, wait in long lines, make phonecalls that will go unanswered, be confused, and on and on.  I have written a number of posts about how to apply for various documents you will need when you’re here, so they may be helpful.  How to renew your TIE.  How to check the status of your TIE.  How to apply for a regreso.

Being an Auxiliar de Conversaión in Madrid is an AMAZING opportunity and will open doors that you never knew existed.  You will have the time of your life here, and like everything else in life, you will realize the pros and cons on your own.  If you have questions or anything to add, please feel free to leave a comment!