Job searching and learning

So here is the latest. I have heard back from several places. Unfortunately I have to go the road of the "black market" so to say.

Here is how it works here in Lima. A lot of people from big impressive companies want to learn english, but they want to learn it from native speakers. However the Peruvian government makes it difficult to hire foreigners. So there is this black market out there for native english speakers who teach lessons and get paid under the table.

Technically this is illegal. But then the question comes, does anybody do anything about it? Not really. It's kind of like does anyone question the farmer in Fresno California about the legal status of the men who pick the fruits on his farm?

The only risks you have going this route is aligning with a company that doesn't pay you. If that's the case, your short several weeks of salary till you realized you need to move on. But really a majority of companies here don't treat their employees that way because they want to make a living also.

I have to admit, it worried me a little bit until my roommate Gabi told me not to worry about it. She said all the Peruvians know this is how it is. There is one company down the street that has a huge office building and I'm sure alot of the teachers don't have work permits, yet I haven't noticed the migration police raiding them recently.

And technically I'm not completely illegal in the country. Peru does let you stay in the country for six months as a tourist and then people do the boarder hopping where they leave and come back for another six months. As I said in an earlier post, my roommate Mari said it's bad enough some companies would rather pay your travel fees for you to border hop than to pay extra taxes.

So for now I am in the country legally and I did find out as time goes on I can apply for a student visa, which would allow me to stay in the country for at least a year. If, after all that, I haven't landed a contract somewhere, I will take it as a sign to go home.

One company I had read good things about called me back. The owner himself is British. He basically sets it up where you go to the companies the customers are at and just practice English with them. He says he has all sorts of people help him out. People who are here for a year or two as volunteers, studying, etc. He sounded really nice and considerate.

Most English classes are taught in the morning, afternoon (while Peruvians take a long lunch) and evening, after work. The afternoon and evening classes sound fine with me while I go to school myself.

Yup, I'm a student myself. There's a place around the corner I had heard a lot about called InterCultural Peruano National Academia. It's one of the biggest institutes in the country for English Language learning and it has several branches in other cities.

They also have a program called "Clase de Espanol por los Extranjeros" (Spanish for foreigners). It works like this. There are three levels, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. Each level has six classes and each class lasts for a month. I went there the other day to register and asked the teacher why. The teacher said foreigners sometimes come for a month here or there and it just worked out better to have them in month long increments. They are an hour and a half, every day for four weeks.

I went to go get tested for what level I was in. The written part I did very well initially. Much to the point the teacher had me test at a higher level. But then another teacher came in and did an oral test. That proved to be different. She recommended I start at the intermediate level, which is what I always considered myself to be at.

Funny part is when I looked at the schedule they have classes going all day long. Like 7 am to 10 pm. So here I thought, "Great! I can pick and choose when I want to come." No such luck. The director of the Spanish program said the intermediate class meets only in the morning, because there is only ONE class. All those other classes I saw scheduled are basic level.

So, next Tuesday at 8:45 am, it all begins.