Working as an English teacher in Hamburg

Hi everyone! I'm planning to come to Hamburg in August, primarily to train martial arts with my instructor, who lives there. I want to work as a freelance english teacher. I've got a CELTA (A grade wooo!) and a BA degree, and some experience of teaching General English at a local language school. I've been reading about the situation for this kind of work in germany and it looks pretty grim! I was wondering if anyone could give me advice relating to my particular situation:

20 year old Native Speaker, UK national
BA Degree
CELTA
Some teaching experience
Basic german
Wants enough money to pay his rent and food and to have two or three free evenings
Will stay in Hamburg maximum 1 year

Some questions in particular:

1. What are my chances of being able to find secure work (20 hours or less per week)
2. How much does an average weeks groceries cost
3. Do I need a work or residence permit, or will my passport suffice
4. As a freelancer, can I work legally with a UK (AXA) health insurance?? I am not worried about my health; I am very rarely ill and my only real worry would be being involved in a serious accident.

As it stands my plan is to keep my taxable income low enough (by deductiong expenses) to avoid most of the tax, and just pay the 19.5% mandatory pension contribution. I have seen rooms to let for around 150-200 euros- I'm sure they will be low quality but I'm not particularly bothered about that sort of thing as long as I can sleep and eat there.

I would appreciate any advice you might have or details of your own experiences. As I previously mentioned, my reasons for coming are very specific: I am not expecting to make a lot of money, but to practice martial arts with my master, who lives there, and develop myself as a teacher.

Thanks very much,

Danny

Since you're headed to Hamburg, you might contact some people at Helta.

HELTA is a good place to start. Am investigating going freelance at the moment and it involves some paper work surprise surprise, but not too bad. You dont need a residency permit, just to register your address here. Thats simple... In my search for info, I think that you might not have to register as freelance any way! If you are here as a student and can prove that you are not staying for longer than a year I think its a different situation.
Sorry cant remember the website for all this tho. Might have been "how to germany"
There are always a lot of teaching jobs advertised. Go to the Wall Street institute website, hamburg for jobs. They might even be able to tell you what you need to do about tax.
Good luck

Hi danny

my name is kellie, i'm arriving in hamburg on 2nd july and I am aiming to look for work too. I am a teacher from Oz, but not english. I contacted the Hamburg school of english a while ago, they run CELTA courses, so if you got that ( and experience) then they may take you on, they're one of the higher class language schools i think. I looked at the course, but then found out i could get some work without spending the 1500EURO it costs. A lot of other language schools have their own basic training. I'll be contacting Wall St institute and Accelingua.

I am renting room for 3 months over summer and its costing me 350EURO a month. My friend scoured a lot of ads for me and the rent seemed to range from 240 - 350EURO per month, depending on whats included.

Good luck!

kellie

Next year I will be finished with my Au Pair job. The problem is, I have fallen in love with Hamburg and dont want to leave!! I would love to stay on and work here, with my own flat etc, away from the drudgery glamour of being an Au Pair. I don't really have any qualifications, as I am taking a break from Uni, I have a few papers under my belt, good Highschool marks and I'm a good native english speaker, With reasonably good German skills. Am 21 (will be 22) and want to eventually become a real teacher.
I know there are courses one can take, but I think these cost quite alot (?) but if anyone has any suggestions for language schools I could call, or information about the courses to become an english teacher, or any advice, I would be very grateful.

Thanks,
Nicky

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