Living and Teaching in Oaxaca, Mexico - a Discussion

One of our favorite websites - Dave's ESL Cafe - features a current discussion on living and teaching in Oaxaca State, southern Mexico.

The general consensus? Oaxaca is a gorgeous place to be but it's quite difficult to find a good job and to make ends meet.

Find the complete discussion at the Cafe - Mexico section.

Excerpts:

Oaxaca seems like an ideal place to live and work but it´s actually a very expensive city and wages are very low.

It sounds like other reasons than choice of work brought you to Oaxaca: I'm concerned about your having put yourself in one of the more difficult markets in Mexico as a first experience after your TEFL course when a big disappointment in work could sour you to the whole enterprise

These forums are full of warnings about the difficulties of finding any kind of work on reasonable terms in Oaxaca: now is the time to reconsider before you've signed a lease and get too deeply committed to what may prove to be a bad situation work-wise should you be relying on working to support yourself in Mexico

It's clear from the hundreds of posts on this forum that there are many perfectly good places to live and work in Mexico and make a start in TEFL: Oaxaca- for a combination of reasons- does not seem to be one of them

Articulated in a nice way. I was lucky to have a great TESOL program behind me and I made friends with a couple of wonderful people but the possibility of ending up with less than you came in with and some bitter experiences is a real possibility in Oaxaca. At this point in time for Oaxaca - not for the new or those with thin bank accounts.

Thank you all for the reply. I appreciate all the time that you have taken to help me. I did indeed find a decent job in Oaxaca. I am now working for Harmon Hall Oaxaca. If anyone has any real bad experiences there it would be good to know. I sign my 40+ hour contract in three weeks.

Also if there are any bad experience or suggestions with immigration here I will be all ears. Thanks again to all of you, especially about the school near Reforma. I nearly applied there.