Teaching English in Quito, Ecuador

Hostel Santiago seemed like a great place to stay when we arrived to Quito, Ecuador. The help was courteous. The rooms impeccable. The place was safe and conveniently close to a trolley stop. But after a few nights of listening to moaning and groaning from the next rooms over, all the time, we agreed that the place was intentionally misnamed “hostel” when it should have been “motel.” Ahh…No wonder we always had clean sheets everyday. After a while, we ended up finding a cute and quieter furnished place in La Mariscal.

La Mariscal is in the city’s center; a solid square of restaurants, bars, clubs, language schools, and travel agencies that cater to people who are passing through. After 2 months of living in buses and random rooms, it was time to settle down for a bit in a place of our own. We decided to park it here for 6 months, find work, and get to know Quito more intimately.

Teaching English was an idea I was toying with to integrate myself a little, get to know people, and pick up a little cash on the side. Working for an institute didn’t sound like a good opportunity. They paid a few dollars an hour and well, it’s not like I had a TOEFL degree, any proper training, or a respectable resume besides being from the states. Teaching big groups wasn’t up my alley either, so I made my own thing happen and ended up teaching private one on one English classes out of my apartment. With a pre-paid cell phone, an advertisement on Mundo Anuncio, the Latin version of Craigslist, and some flyers to put up around town, little by little, people started to call or email.

First, we would meet up to get to know each other and talk about logistics: their background in English, what they were interested in focusing on, and what materials they already had. On the other end, I would gauge the individual’s level of comprehension and speech, we would discuss teaching style and goals, arrive to an agreement about scheduling and payment and it would become a regular thing.

People of all ages and backgrounds called up so driven to learn the language or improve what they already knew. Some were English students already. Others had studied in English institutes before, but were eager to break out of the structured class environment to start applying what they have learned with a native speaker. Still others had traveled to the US, or needed to travel to another country where English is spoken and they just wanted to be prepared.

My youngest students were 15 years old. Carlos is a BMX freestyler who went to Switzerland for winter break and needed help with his English before the trip. And Jonathan is an extraordinary young man who is the same age, works full time at restaurant, and home-schools himself. Meeting him the first time was a humbling experience. “How much are the classes?” he asked. “$6 an hour,” I said. To which he replied, “Wow! You make in an hour what I make in a whole day.” We worked something special out in his case and that kid put everything into the little time we had together to be able to start forming sentences and expressing his ideas. “No problem!” was a typical Jonathan expression. What a cool kid!

Isidro works at the Ministry of the Environment. He took classes at the English language Institute Wall Street. Although he could write the right answers in English down on paper, he lacked speaking and listening. He would ask me to say the simplest words over and over again just eating up the American accent and trying his best to mimic it, too!

Jose was preparing for the TOEFL exam and needed help with the essay section, so we would review how to write a 5-paragraph essay. That was a flash from the punishment of all-nighters sentenced by English teachers back in the day. Nevertheless, revisiting it was interesting. I mean in the end it comes down to understanding that the 5-paragraph essay is essentially a game to show you can argue your opinion about something. Man, I used to hate writing because I didn’t care about what I was asked to write about. There’s definitely a peace about journaling, filling up diaries, and even blogging because it comes from something real.

Then there was Mario. Sweet sensitive, Mario. My little Cholito look alike. He would come religiously for one hour once a week even though he was so disappointed in his previous English teacher, some other gringa who posted flyers in the area, posing like she actually took the classes she offered. Unfortunately, she kept standing him up until she pretty much killed his confidence about learning English. He got back into it though and even with only one hour a week of class, Mario made progress, slowly but surely.

Freddy is actually an English teacher from Quito. He was working on getting a proper certification that says he can teach English, but his so-called professor was so non-bilingual that Freddy got fed up. So he took the initiative to look for a native speaker who would understand and challenge him more. Freddy: after hearing your speech on global warming, cooking pasta from scratch at your home, and helping to install your hot water heater, I officially grant you the title of English prof myself.

Juan was another fascinating and entertaining student who is a Professor of Latin American History and Economics. Although he originally signed up for classes to practice his lectures on Latin American History for a possible new teaching position at a University in the states, we got lost in these fabulous discussions about how the fall of the sucre lead to the dollarization, the Assamblea and what would become of Ecuador under the new constitution, la loqura of the Guayaquileños, and all the successes of his bi-weekly articles in the paper that would stir up such wonderful controversy.

Gabriel and Lourdes, my kosher comedic friends from SENACE. Those two were hilarious and competitive as hell! I can’t forget our romantic strolls through Quito’s plazas at night, pigging out on pasta a la Cardinale and 15 kilos of Nestle’s white chocolate, listening to Chocolate Morales play his guitar on La Calle Ronda, and sipping Canelazo’s, but never getting chuchaki. It’s amazing how many fascinating subjects we talked about in that tiny room with a view of yours. I suppose I’ll miss the panorama of the Panacillo and the Basilica, but not the hike from El Recreo to get there!

Ay, tantos recuerdos!

My students weren’t only from Ecuador, but from nearby countries like Peru and Colombia, and even places far far away from here, like Europe and Asia. I only had the pleasure of working with Marissa and Jorge a couple of times, but both of these Peruvians made a strong impression on me with how driven and successful they are working for oil companies like Halliburton and Schlumberger.

Alex, an environmental engineer for Repsol, and his wife Paola, a forensic dentist, were a delight to teach 3 times a week. When he wasn’t in the jungle every other week, we had class to improve what he already learned in Berlitz, another language institute. Paola’s a fluent English speaker from Colombia, which was interesting because we were able to talk a lot about the difference between the two neighboring countries, including her views about being a Colombian woman living in Ecuador.

Eva was such a riot to talk to, especially because she understood how frustrating it was to want to go shopping, but be stifled by the lack of fashion in Quito. She was visiting for a year from Spain, and working at the Spanish Embassy. If we weren’t reminiscing about Zara and Mango, we were talking about pickpockets and how backwards the banks are here.

Martin was settling into Quito for a few months while backpacking indefinitely all the way from the Czech Republic. His English was pretty advanced, but he had problems understanding when he read. We would tackle Newsweek articles together for 3 hours at a pop. But to be honest, every word he highlighted was fucking foreign to me, too, so we looked everything up, but always wondered how many people could really understand a whole article anyways?

Last, but not least, there was Euni. Awwwe, Euni! This little fireball came to me the same day she was apartment searching. I mentioned that there was room where I was at and she ended up moving into the same complex and then booking classes for 2-3 hours every morning, 7-days a week, and then an extra hour on top of that at night. Euni was definitely devoted to improving her English and because it’s so expensive to learn English in South Korea (where she’s from and where she already had a required 10 years) and in NY, where she’s headed to, we hooked up and she decided to stay in Quito for the rest of the time I’d be there. Euni was a marketing exec at On Media television in Seoul. In between bouncing around the world and doing her own thing, she was like a mirror for me in so many ways. The experience of learning English in a non-English speaking country was so powerful for her, that she was inspired to write an article about it for a South Korean publication. Euni laid the groundwork and then we ended up brainstorming, adding, and editing so much more in together. I never even thought of an article like that being a North American and a native English speaker, but she had this eclectic insider view on the topic and it really came together just beautifully. It should be received well by South Korean readers, especially those who typically consider going to England, Australia, or the US to study English, even though it’s totally possible to take off to almost anywhere in the world, like South America, to hone their skills, too.

In between teaching, I also had the chance to do some translation and editing work with a few businesses in La Mariscal. Nikolay at Nature Galapagos & Ecuador gave me the all access pass to tailor his company’s site to appeal to English speaking clients. Their website already looked really solid. After editing here and there, it’s really come together beautifully, demonstrating that the business is ready to show travelers the time of their lives whether they’re visiting the Galapagos by yacht or touring the jungle in Ecuador. Misael, the director of Napo Runa Volunteer, also gave me the courtesy to edit his webpage. His organization offers tours through Ecuador’s rainforest and also invites volunteers to live and work with the communities near Tena and Limoncocha in the jungle.

In the end, I made a lot of great friendships and listened to some pretty remarkable stories while getting to know Quito from more of an insider’s perspective. It was definitely a chevere experience to be able to run my own business for a while, support myself abroad, and be in one hot spot for a slice of time. I wouldn’t recommend teaching in December because the whole country’s on vacation all month long, but to other travelers who are looking for a similar experience, I would recommend that anyone with a good attitude, creativity, a good sense of Spanish, and the desire to teach English can definitely do it -- no doubt. There is a ton of opportunity, loads of people of all ages who are looking for teachers just as much as teachers are looking for students, and although it seems like you might be making just a little per hour, with a full schedule, you will have more than enough to take care of your cost of living.