AboutJuan Carlos Valencia Expertise I`m a 42-year-old colombian with a thirst for travel. I`ve managed to travel through good portions of this complex but fascinating country and could provide advice on destinations, special care, hazards, prices and highlights. I`ve also traveled throughout a part of Central and South America, Australia, Europe and North America, so I think I could provide some balanced advice, avoiding nationalistic hype but also pointing out some particular, unique charms of this unusual land.
Experience Telecommunications engineer, Web page programmer, local FM Radio programmer, Media Communications academic, amateur photographer.
Education/Credentials Electronic Engineer. Masters in Communications. PhD Candidate in Communication. I speak Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and a bit of German.
I am 38-year old, bi-lingual professional with a 15 year career in financial services. More recently, I have become a yoga teacher and created my own business promoting integrative health while offering yoga and coaching services. I would like to move to Bogota and continue this holistic business.
I am also interested in pursuing certification in teaching English as a second language (CELTA or TEFL) in order to work with Universidad de Los Andes or other schools. I envision working for a school or university 20 hours/week and privately teaching English for business professionals while offering yoga from a studio setting.
Any advice, ideas, concerns questions are encouraged. I look forward to some lively feedback!!!
Saludos,
Tim
Answer Hey Tim !
You are planning an interesting but also challenging career and life change. I wonder why are you choosing Bogota. Have you been here before? Do you already have contacts or relatives here? This missing information would have helped me to answer your questions better...
Anyway, I'll give it a shot and hopefully you may find my points useful. Otherwise, write back.
First things first. You seem to be currently based in an english speaking country (U.S?). Life there can be hard but things in Latin America could be even harder in terms of making a decent living, getting a fair salary and enjoying the kind of comfort that you are used to (even if you are used to basic things and are not into frenetic consumption). A minimum salary in Colombia is around 250 US dollars a month, more than half the population get only that.
Consequences for you:
1-Even if you manage to get a good job at a university, your income will be very low (having a PhD, publications and academic experience may help but not too much). These kind of position is not all that available and competition is big and growing. Your native speaker condition could help but you would be in a similar situation as many backpackers traveling around South America and paying their trip with cheap english classes.
2-Customers for personal coaching, Yoga classes and english classes will have to come from the upper classes and the local branches of big corporations. There's certainly a market for all this but I can tell you that there will be a lot of competition.You dont have a certification yet. That is a disadvantage as there are more and more locals and foreigners who are getting them.
3-If you are thinking of renting a studio for the Yoga & coaching, you will have to be where higher income people live or work, rental prices will be high and you'll be competing with other people already doing the same work, some of them, in public parks (Yoga). If you walk around the main parks in Bogota, you'll see many people practicing Yoga, Tai Chi and martial arts with teachers that get paid very little, have to move around the city and dont pay a dime for rent. Are you sure that you can afford to pay a hefty rent and still attract people with prices as competitive as those offered by those "park" teachers?
Sorry to offer you rather discouraging news but it's better to be realistic now and plan your move better, isnt it?
Do not hesitate to ask more questions if you have them !
