|  Overview
With all its intrigue and historical and political past, South Africa is an fascinating place to be right now. As it continues to find a new order, you would be flung into the very heart of this eclectic, complex culture. There are 11 official languages in South Africa, although by far the most widely spread languages are English and Afrikaans, and English is understood just about anywhere.
South Africa is extremely popular as an English language learning location - amongst many countries of the Southern hemisphere, as well as those directly above it in Europe, where an overnight flight avoids any kind of jetlag, and the costs of English language courses are sufficiently reasonable to cover the extra cost of the flight down under when students stay for 8 weeks or more.
The country is also relatively new English language learning and teaching destination. International standard English foreign language institutes have only been operating in South Africa for the past 10 to 15 years. The vast majority of them are in Cape Town, but there are also very good language institutes in Durban and in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Most language institutes will hire South African TEFL qualified English first language speaking teachers first, as they don't need to organise work permits for them, and also, it has to be established that there are no locals who are qualified for the post.
Jobs in Africa tend to be almost exclusively of the voluntary kind, and any number of organisations can help you secure work there. The most famous, probably, VSO recruits widely for teaching jobs there, but these do tend to go to those with a prior experience, who can train groups of local teachers on TEFL best practice.
Salary and hours
This varies from school to school, the average would probably be around 25 hours per week though, excluding teachers meetings and input. To work for the best paying and most reputable schools, a Cambridge CELTA or Trinity Cert TESOL is a requirement and pay would start at R85 per hour.
Type of teaching
If you teach at a private language school you can expect to teach General English classes, IELTS exam preparation classes and Business English both on site and off.
Accommodation
Teachers are usually responsible for their own accommodation. Most teachers are locals and live in South Africa permanently. For a decent flat you will probably pay in the region of R3000-00 – R4000-00 per month.
Start of school year/ best time to look for work
Work is generally available all year round, although there is more work in the summer months (December, January, February) along the coast.
Red Tape
Organising work visas for non South African teachers is very seldom done because it has to be established that there are no locals who are qualified for the post.
Miscellaneous advice
http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=
1007029394365&a;=KCountryProfile&aid;=1019745081555
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/destinations/africa/south-africa |
