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Hi Olivia,

Brazil is Uruguay's number one trading partner representing almost 21 1/2 percent of the country's overall trade. Conversely the US and UK jointly make up for just a little over 8 percent. Consequently English is not an extremely commercial language for them. The bulk of their trade is with Brazil and other Latin American countries and as such they function quite well in Spanish without any great need for the English language.

Brazil on the other hand is a country with a great demand for ESL teachers and the pay here (while not good) would probably be better than in Uruguay. Most schools as you guessed pay by the number of hours of actual teaching time and their senior teachers generally get most hours, newer teachers getting the left-overs. The money to be made in teaching is in private or "in-company" classes, however the recruiting takes a while.

Is there a particular reason for choosing Uruguay over other Lat-Am countries? You really want to think about some country where English will be a commercial language due to their trade scenario, English isn't something that Latin Americans choose to learn just for fun - they need some motivations.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team

Dear William,

Thank you for the information! 

Uruguay is very attractive to me for many reasons but particularly because of the close proximity to Argentina and because of the lower cost of living in comparison to some other popular places in South America. Most importantly, I'm interested in studying how to grow and cultivate a particular type of grape that is grown commonly in Uruguay.

While I would love to live in Brazil, and I have been told the English market is booming there, I would prefer to live in a Spanish speaking country.  Are there other countries in South America that you would recommend that might have good demand for ESL teachers?  I have considered Argentina, but have heard that places like Buenos Aires are expensive and over saturated with English teachers.

Best,
Olivia

Most of the ads I see in the newspaper are for people wanting to provide English lessons.  The only ad I have seen for wanting to hire someone with ESL qualifications offered around $5.00US per hour.  This is similar to the price for Spanish  instruction here. 
You would need to have applied for residency and have at least a temporary cedula and I believe a work visa.

There are many Uruguayans who can provide the service as many have had to leave to find work and come back with a good command of English after a number of years. Many Uruguayans have two or more jobs to make ends meet and teaching for a few hours fits in with their regular job. Cost of living here is higher than most South American countries not lower.

The normal work week here is 48 hours and many do way more than this to survive. A couple will need around $1500 US per month if you rent a modest apartment and watch your spending. You have to provide 5 months rent upfront as a deposit just to move in as well.   I know a fulltime high school teacher who also works for a commercial business in the evening just to get by.

It makes taking English lessons a luxury I would think that very few can afford unless needed for a specific job or they plan to work overseas.

I have been working on my Spanish and find there is so much available online these days, much of it for free that so far I have not bothered with actual lessons. This may also apply to those wanting to learn English.