Offered a job in Germany....!!?

[LisbethSalandersLaptop]

I have been offered a job teaching English in Germany with guaranteed wage, contract and German NI equiv all paid.
DD16 is on a residential training course but DS16 would have to give up his college course and come with me.
WWYD?
Take it or not?
FWIW I am 50 and it is a long term position.
Here in UK I run my own small business and am heavily reliant on Govt benefits to live. I have applied for lots of jobs but have recently given up as in this town, even a washer upper job gets 200 applicants. DC's dad does not contribute or see them. Just for background information.

Lisbeth no need to be so deeply unpleasant and personal - I was trying to offer you helpful advice, but as it doesn't chime with what you want to hear you try to throw back handed insults at me

Not that it is any of your business whatsoever, but I have been here longer than 5 years, primarily looking after my young children - 2 of whom were born here. I have kept my hand in with work by teaching a few classes, but now I try to ramp it up as the children get a little older, I find there is no more demand, and I talk to local EFL teachers and ones based in Munich and discover that even those doing best are self employed and making a fairly modest income - not enough to support a family or save, at Munich prices, and that those who were teaching mornings and evenings to fit around childcare have all found, like me, that there are no full time TEFL jobs, even the big firms who used to employ in house have all moved to employing free-lancers per hour.

I have met lots of people who seem to think they can teach English just because it is their mother tongue or because they have a degree, with no specific TEFL qualifications - there is no way of telling from your OP that you are not one of those naive people - it is not a case of "of course" at all.

If you want to take a 16 year old who doesn't speak German to Germany to live with you on the income from a job you haven't had a face to face interview for, let alone done a trail lesson, that sounds very high risk. There are plenty of schools who actually want to charge you up front for their own "training course" with "guaranteed work" to follow - but who are very cagey about the guaranteed hours or duration of that work...

There was no need at all to lash out with assumptions and personal insults at somebody trying to give you a helpful warning.

it was your tone and assumptions Iliked, that is all.

Wow. Iliked has provided the most relevant advice on here. She lives in Germany and knows the industry. Everything she has said here is correct and IMO offered in a straightforward "tone free" manner.

If you take offence at that, you are really going to hate about 90% of your daily interactions with random Germans who will make it their business to let you know exactly what you are doing wrong and how it's meant to be done in Germany!!

Sorry if I came across as scathing, Lisbeth, from your first post it didn't really appear that you were too interested in actually going, and I've come across so many expats who emigrate reluctantly (mostly trailing spouses) and hate it. If you speak German and have knowledge of the background culture than that's very different, of course, and you're much more likely to succeed. I've no idea why you're confusing me with another poster though, are you trying to accuse us of being the same person when we've very clearly described different situations?

Why don't you ask people's opinions on toytowngermany? They're a really friendly and helpful crowd over there.

Thanks very much Arch, I will look now.
Apologies for being snappy!!

bloody hell, talk about a drip feed.

what's a drip feed?

Friendly and helpful? Toytown is like AIBU on a bad day.

lol I have just been there, Bertie, some poor woman there is getting a right kicking for saying that she is going to put her kids into a local school.

Drip feed is when you present a situation in your original post and ask opinions based on that post. When you get responses that you dislike, you subsequently add information that completely changes the original scenario you presented. (But most posters stop at being rude to those who wrote long and detailed responses based on the incorrect scenario provided.)

Example:
Original scenario:
I run a business that's not going great and have been offered (by email) a job in another county. What do you think about my son joining me?

Drip feed:
Of course I speak the language. Of course I know the country - I practically grew up there. Of course I have ages of relevant teaching experience, how stupid are you lot!

well no it wasn't really like that Horton - where did I call anyone stupid?
Obviously I would not have been offered that job without relevant quals/exp - sorry I thought that would be obvious, no idea that I was supposed to write a resume as well.
What information did I add that 'totally changes' my OP?
that I speak some German?

"Friendly and helpful? Toytown is like AIBU on a bad day."

Ah well, maybe it was a bit naughty of me to say that then. I was a little bit narked before Lisbeth apologised, and now of course I feel hugely guilty. Beg pardon.

What the (Berlin) Toytowners love to hate above all else is someone writing a first post: 'Mmm, Berlin sounds like a cool place, I can't speak German and have no real transferable skills, but can you tell me how I can walk into a whole new life there please?'. It drives them absolutely bonkers, but it happens a lot. So if you do post there, you would need to make it crystal clear in your OP that you CAN speak German, and you know the country, and you have a good solid job offer already. Then you might well get some decent help. Especially if you post in the BaWü regional section and keep away from the bullies Berliners.

You say you can speak German, but of course you really need Swabian to survive live down there. There was an ad campaign recently for the region: 'Baden-Württemberg. Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch'.

Ah, I found the BW lot were just as bad but perhaps that's because my first post there was along those lines In fairness, I moved here because DH got a job here, so it was really more that I was wanting advice on how to actually work rather than just sit around making dinner and cleaning the house for my husband, which I would be utterly rubbish at.

We've done alright so it's not been a bad thing :)

I'd do it.

Your DS will pick German up easily, please don't let that be a deterrent.