You wake up early in the morning. Early is relative of course, as many South Africans arise long before the break of dawn to get to work. In your case, it depends on where you live and your morning routine. If you want to go for a swim in the ocean, a run or a walk, and still leave time for breakfast, then a 6am start should be plenty of you-time before you head to school.
If you’re a TEFL teacher, you most likely work in one of the major centres: Cape Town, Johannesburg or Durban – although a smaller city, like Port Elizabeth, is possible too. Let’s imagine you’re in Cape Town and you need to be in the heart of the Mother City by 8.30am as your classes start at 9am. Depending on where you live, you could drive, walk or catch a train or taxi bus to the school. Public transport is cheap, but unreliable in South Africa: trains are often delayed and full, taxi buses are commonly used, but their timings are flexible as they depart when they have enough passengers. If you drive, you will need to think about where to park, but it does give you the option of staying out after dark if you choose – whereas public transport isn’t recommended at nighttime for safety reasons. Uber is becoming a very popular service in major SA cities, so you could manage a combination of public transport and e-hailing when necessary.
Once you are at school, you go over your lessons for the day, check in with your colleagues and get your classroom set up. Lessons are usually split into 50-minute sessions, with some joined together. A typical day will look something like this:
9:00 – 10:40 | First class |
10:40 – 11:00 | Break |
11:00 – 12:40 | Second class |
12.40 – 13:30 | Break |
13:30 – 14:20 | Third class |
14:20 – 14:30 | Break |
14:30 – 15:15/15.45 | Fourth class |
As you can see, you will generally teach around 6 hours a day and you will most likely have 30 minutes of preparation time per day included in your salary. In Cape Town, few people believe in working after lunch on Friday, so the extra 30 minutes accumulated in the fourth lesson from Monday to Thursday ensures that you finish up after second break and avoid rush hour at the end of the week.
You may be on one of the following contracts:
- Full time contract: which includes preparation time, sick pay, holiday pay and usually some contribution to a health plan and pension scheme.
- Standby arrangement: you are called in as and when needed. It could be to cover one day, 3 weeks or even months at a time. Pay in this case is a slightly higher hourly rate and you do not receive sick pay, holiday pay or contributions to any benefits like healthcare or pension.
The current hourly rate for a language school in Cape Town is around Rands (ZAR) 80 – 110 although that can increase with qualifications, experience and long-term loyalty to a school.
Classes are usually quite small, with a maximum of 10 to 12 students per class. The majority of your students will be young to older adults who come to South Africa from all over the world for a period of time to improve their English – either for work, academic or personal reasons. They mostly do general English in the morning, and then have the option of adding specific courses onto their package in the afternoon, for example: exam preparation classes (eg. IELTS), extra conversation or business English lessons.

Most language schools in South Africa require a degree and a CELTA qualification, but some schools offer their own TEFL training and the opportunity to apply for work if there are vacancies. If you have a TEFL qualification already, it puts you ahead of the game, but you may still need to do the school-specific training and/or consider doing a CELTA if you want to work full time in SA. You could also consider working for the many online platforms offered to teachers in South Africa: either from home (although internet speed may be a problem) or in shifts at a specific location. The requirements for online contracts would be that you are a ‘Native English Speaker’ and preferably have a TEFL qualification. The rates range from Rands (ZAR) 60 – 300 per hour. If you want to add some value and also get some teaching experience, you could consider doing an unpaid teaching internship working with local children in a crèche, primary or high school.
Let’s get back to your day: you have taught your classes, had your breaks and are now wrapping up your last lesson, which is a fun and informative debating club. What next? You still need to make sure you are on track for the next day’s lessons (although, because you are so organised, you spent a big chunk of time at the beginning of the week doing all your planning!) and take care of any marking, if you have set your students a writing task. You check that your paperwork is all filled in: class registers and a record of work and then you think about what to do for the evening in the Mother City.
You have so many options:
- You have been invited to a student social braai (barbeque) at the school, but you attended the last one and so this one is optional for you (some schools pay teachers for their time at official school socials – some don’t)
- You could go for sundowners (drinks on the beach) at Clifton Beach where your friends are gathering to watch the sun set over the Atlantic
- You could head into town for First Thursdays – to wander through the galleries (free entry on the first Thursday of every month), restaurants and shops which all open until 9pm and offer specials, performances and a great atmosphere in the city
- There are hundreds of yoga, dancing, climbing or surfing lessons you could try in various fabulous locations if that is your cup of tea
- Don’t forget you have been meaning to hike up the mountain – but make sure it’s with a group and keep a careful eye on the weather!
When you are done, make your way home safely and get some well-deserved rest. A new day of work and play awaits you tomorrow.
Cape Town really is a world of discovery. In amongst the evident hardship lies a wealth of things to celebrate. You can travel the world by getting to know the students in your classroom, while all the time developing roots in a hub of culture, community and creative spirit. There are some things that are difficult to navigate, but if you can stay open and learn to work with those, you are in for a very inspiring experience.
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If you liked this article, you may also like our guide: Everything you need to know about teaching English in South Africa.
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