What is it like working here? To sum up, challenging and rewarding.

I’ve been working for Bilingual for two years now at Óbudai Nagy László - Váradi school and I love it. I came to teach History and English after a year in Italy during the strictest lockdown in Europe! 

Why Budapest? Well, I’m married to a Hungarian and wanted to remain here. A friend of my wife recommended I try the company. After the recruitment process, including a couple of interviews, I got offered the job and started in early August.  

What is it like working here? To sum up, challenging and rewarding.  Rewarding because you work with fantastic colleagues and challenging because as a History teacher, you will have to do a crash course in Hungarian history. Fortunately, this is where working alongside Hungarian teachers comes into its own. I was able to work from a set of History textbooks in English, from which I could glean and adapt the knowledge to create PowerPoints and exercises that dovetailed with the work my Hungarian co-teacher was doing. 

The other reward is the children you work with. I teach from Year 5 and up and many of the students in the Bilingual Program have been learning English since Year 1, some since kindergarten. By the time they get to Year 5 they are confident and self-assured, and often very witty. The Bilingual Program can be recommended for this. 

Working with Hungarian teachers too can bring its challenges. They often have different standards or goals to English-speaking teachers, but if you make the most of the planning meetings this should work well. What worked for me was to gain my co-teachers’ trust from the very beginning – trust in my teaching and in my subject knowledge. Once I did that, it was smooth sailing from there, even across our language barrier. 

At the end of the year as we have to write reports and grade tests, it can get super busy. You have to be very well organised. Again, this is where colleagues come in and often help and cut you some slack.
Finally, living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, as a History teacher what could be better? For me, I will never tire of the view of the castle and the parliament from the trams and the river. I also love the spas and the café culture here. I’m sure you could try a different cake every day of the year!