Teaching English is a way for just about any native speaker who wants to hang out here for a while to make enough money to get by. Of course, to work legally you need a visa 
and for that you need to be sponsored by an employer. There are English schools and language schools that will do this for you, but there are just as many who will hire you without going through the formal process. Wall Street Institute and Passport Language Centers hire people who think they will be here for a while, and I know a lot of Bogotanos who study with the British Council, though I’ve never met any of their teachers.
But working as an independent contractor is probably just as easy and more profitable. I have heard of the language institutes paying something like $20,000 pesos per hour (this is about $8-9 USD), which is fine for making a little cash on the side if you’re just passing through and living pretty cheaply. But you can make that, or double that, pretty easily if you know what you’re doing and want to work on your own. I have made $60,000 pesos per hour because I didn’t really want to tutor, and would name that price in hopes of discouraging someone, only to have some people jump right on it.
What Kinds of English Can You Teach?
A fair number of Bogotanos speak some English, and lots of them are anxious to learn more. I have been approached almost every week by someone who wants to know if I will tutor a husband, child, brother, workmate, anybody. I don’t usually do it, but it’s not a bad way to make some cash from time to time. I always say that my tutoring will have to be informal, mostly conversational. I can talk with someone, make corrections, discuss how natives phrase things differently from what is technically correct, and maybe read something someone writes and make suggestions and comments. I don’t really want to get into formal teaching or dealing with people who are real beginners.
A friend of mine, Jeff, who’s very outgoing, used to meet people at the gym and just offer conversation, for which he charged $50,000 for 1.5 hour sessions. Eventually he was working 3 hours every night and all day on Saturday, just going to people’s houses and chatting with them. Now he lives in Medellin and is doing the same, I think.
Also, if you place an ad in the paper, you will get lots of calls, almost without a doubt. It almost seems to me that the more you charge, the more people want to work with you. I know an American guy who started that way a couple years ago, and now he makes about $3,000 USD per month (huge salary for Colombia), and mostly teaches in businesses. Of course, he married a Colombiana, so has no visa issues.
You Have to Make Rules and Stick to Them
Colombians are notoriously irresponsible (or, carefree, to put it more nicely). So, if you are going to tutor English, you have to have some rules and be strict. Many of the calls you will get (from an ad in the paper or on a bulletin board, for example) will not pan out, and lots of folks will even make definite arrangements to meet or to have a session, then call to cancel or just not show.
So, decide how and when you will get paid. I usually want to be paid at the end of each session, but if your client wants to pay every three or four sessions, it might be good to get paid up front, to cut down on the cancellations, and to avoid the situation where your client just drops out of sight (and never answers the phone) in order to avoid paying for three or four sessions.
You also have to decide if you’re willing to travel to tutor. Since I was not dependent on tutoring money in any way, I would only do it in my apartment, so if someone cancelled or arrived late, it wasn’t me that was inconvenienced. My friend Jeff used to prefer to go to the student’s house, or to meet in a cafe. But, he never really worked far from his own neighborhood. It might take a long, long time to travel a short distance in Bogota, so make sure it is going to be worth it. When people came to my apartment, though, it was more comfortable for me, and if they wanted to overstay and I was not in the mood, I could just say I had to get ready to head out or some such.
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