Agnes Said:

How scarce are jobs in Italy?

We Answered:

As Regilla said, being a woman here may not make things more difficult for you here. While political correctness is not the same here as in places like the US, there are many women in responsible positions who are respected for their work.

This is not easy to do however. EU citizens have the right to live and work within the EU, but others need a visa to live and work here legally. You can't just decide to relocate to Italy and go. The site for visas here in Italy is: http://www.esteri.it/visti/index_eng.asp . The rules in much of the EU have been harmonized and will be similar. You can also check the website of the consulate that has jurisdiction over you for other information. You cannot apply for the visa from Italy; you need to do that before you arrive. When you get here, you will have to apply for a Permesso di Soggiorno (Permission to Stay) from the authorities. If you get married before you arrive, there will still be paperwork to go through to get citizenship. You can check the with the Italian consulate that covers your area for the requirements for that. With the economy now, jobs are scarce - a lot of companies have a hiring freeze in place.

A work permit is separate - you cannot apply for that yourself. The company has to apply and they have to be able to demonstrate that there is not a viable EU candidate for the job. As a result, jobs for foreigners including Canadian or US citizens are pretty much restricted to people with special education, knowledge, or experience. This is, however, where you have an advantage over at least some of the people seeking jobs here. The medical/healthcare field may have the most demand right now, but there may be openings in whatever your field is. You will need to know the language. When I applied for a visa several years ago, the process took about 8 months even though it was just of transfer of the job I was already doing from the US to Italy. One option might be to work with an international company that has offices both there and here where you might be able to transfer. Note that in this case, the relocation expenses may be covered by the company too.

It's useful to check the expat sites for information about living and working here or other places you might be interested in:

http://www.escapeartist.com/
http://www.expatica.com/
http://www.expatsinitaly.com/

There are similar sites specific to just about any country you might be interested in that you can find by searching for "ex pat" or "expat" and the name of the country. Generally, these will have a lot of good information on daily life and negotiating the bureaucracy when you arrive and provide you with useful information you should know before you make the transition.

You need to know that the cost of living is somewhat higher here than in much of the US if that's where you're coming from. The monthly expenses on my one bedroom apartment here and my 4 bedroom home in Colorado are roughly the same even though there is no land with the apartment (or air conditioning). In addition, moving here as an expat does not relieve you of the need to file tax returns in the US and you also have to file here.

Connie Said:

Will all Reading teachers eventually be forced to...?

We Answered:

I see this happening more and more. Teach to the test... it is all they can have teachers to do anymore, otherwise they will shut your school down because you aren't up to national standards. The problem is is that students will only be able to function in that one type of testing setting instead of being flexible.

Raul Said:

Can teachers give a mark/grade to a student for the "job" (read in detail) they did in lesson?

We Answered:

Yes, certainly they can give you a grade on any materials used in class, including videos, lectures, articles she might hand out, or anything else. Unfortunately, when one is learning a language, not all elements of that language ability develop at the same pace. Some people can read well, but can't speak. Others can manage a conversation, but can't write. Some can speak, but not understand others who are speaking. In order to know the language, you really need all of these skills, and the teacher has the right to test you on all of them. If you got a D, the likelihood is that others did much better on the test than you did, so the things in the video must have been understandable to others in your class. I also just watched the video, and there aren't any historical words in there which were not explained. There is some fairly sophisticated language, and some accents which might be hard to understand, but nothing historical.