Teaching English in Russia

Find out below how it has changed her teaching life!

Former trainee Daria Glesser came to Barcelona to obtain her TESOL qualification from TEFL Barcelona.

“Hello, my name is Daria! I’m one of the people who have done a TEFL course with TEFL Barcelona.

It was an incredible experience!

I’ve been teaching English for more than 10 years and I also have been running my own language school. Our motto is “make learning fun”. So I try to do my best to make the process of education as much pleasurable as possible. But I always felt I should do the course to kind of sum up my knowledge and experience and learn some new methods and techniques. That’s how I found a beautiful place called TEFL international Barcelona. I must say you guys have exceeded my expectations. Every single class was a treasure for me. I couldn’t even imagine how much I would learn.

All the amazing techniques to teach phonology, which had been so boring before, interactive games, icebreakers, and the absolutely wonderful engage- study- activate approach have changed my life forever.

Now I really enjoy teaching. I gained so much confidence and I have become such much more creative that every morning I wake up with one thought: How should I plan my lesson!? It’s contagious :)!  I see my students making progress in their speaking and it makes me feel so good. I have also trained the teachers who work for me, which makes their working experience fun and gives them a lot of tools for teaching. The course has made a big difference for us! Thank you for your generosity in sharing knowledge and absolutely amazing atmosphere! The trainers are awesome! God bless lovely people!”

Daria Glesser (Russia)

Teaching English in Moscow

Hi Erwin!
I have a lot of private classes teaching English in Russia, approximately 5-6 hours a day. I work with different ages and now I have children 6-10 years old, teenagers, 14-16 years old, and adults. Individual classes in Moscow cost 25 -30 Euros per hour (60 minutes). I use a lot of TEFL materials in my lessons. A new approach to grammar explanations and the ideas to engage and activate students were really helpful and useful. I got a lot of new information and all my students are happy to see something new during the classes.

Kind regards, Natalia

Natalia Tarasova (Russia)

Teaching In Sankt Petersburg

Hello Erwin,
I am fine and how are you?
TEFL has improved my teaching a lot. I got my certificate at the end of July, and by the end of August, I was back teaching in Sankt Petersburg. Normally after a long 3 months vacation, it is a little bit difficult, but I was excited finally performing for my dear students, we had great Engages, Studies and Activates, just like you taught me.

TEFL made my lessons more active for students. It taught me how to make a lesson great even if there are more than 6 students ( which before was stressful for me).
I am very grateful to all my teachers 🙂
Thank you.

Viktoriia Surmatch (Russia)

Teaching English in Russia: Moscow and beyond

“I work for Wall Street Institute, It’s the largest language school in the world, with over 400 centers across 28 countries. They are the only language school in the world to guarantee the students that they teach will learn English.

I teach anywhere from pre-int to advanced and I teach only adults, ranging from
18-70 years old I don’t have to lesson plan, as Wall Street Institute has all the lesson plans made already! I work roughly 30 hours a week. I love my job, I have so much fun working for Wall Street Institute.

Teaching English in Russia, I love it, it’s the most beautiful country in the world! The people are very warm, friendly, and quick to welcome and help you whenever you need it! The culture has everything you might want to offer, the history is unbelievable, so many things to see and do in Moscow I can’t even start to tell you. The nightlife is amazing.

Teaching in Moscow: What I love about teaching English in Russia is that the students strive to learn, they focus, are dependable and have a desire to increase their knowledge of the English language. They are great people, very friendly and kind-hearted!

Job hunting: Wall Street Institute is hiring in Russia, they pay very well, well over the
Russian average, they also pay for housing (I have a giant apartment to myself, very close to the school) they pay for metro, full medical coverage and all Visa and plane trips are reimbursed. They also offer you a nice end of the contract bonus. The management is very friendly, helpful, and actually cares about the students, and the people working for the company. They take the time to get to know all employees and students.

So if any future teachers are interested, you can send them my way or have them visit wallstreetinstitute.com“

Brandon Lusby (MA, USA)

Teaching in Russia: Where to find teaching jobs

Hello Erwin! First of all Feliz Navidad!!

Sorry I was not so fast to reply – you know turmoil before and after New Year. But now I am in Barcelona, relaxing and have some time to write you a quality message.
So actually I now have 2 jobs:

i) advertising agency with my friends,

ii) TEFL at BKC – perhaps, the best school network in Moscow, especially in how they treat teachers.

Actually, I got the 1st job quite by chance as my friends invited me. It gives me enough money to pay for a good 2-room flat almost in city center (Dinamo, ~ Gracia in Barcelona) as I wanted to have my own place to live. I am rather qualified for this job thanks to my good education in economics and marketing background. I am also very satisfied with TEFL job as I enjoy it: I have 1 group 2 times a week 2 hours 15 mins. However, it’s a bit tiring together. I wish I had more time for myself and my hobbies so I am constantly thinking of giving up teaching but have not succeeded so far 🙂 I really enjoy it and I feel responsible for my students. They are Beginners, 8 people, all Russians, 30-55 with 1 teenage girl of 15, very nice and motivated. All of them are progressing rather good. We have a very good working environment in class although I still can’t get some of them stop talking Russian.
I don’t think of giving up my marketing job and switching to TEFL full-time as I think I’ll get bored soon, it’ll be tiring and won’t give me enough money for my lifestyle )

So a couple of things about TEFLing in Moscow for your students:

• Schools like Natives more (English First and Speak Up are hiring only them!), however, students like both depending on teacher’s personality and motivation. Beginners like Russians better.
• Natives are given a fixed salary, their accommodation is covered which is convenient if you are in such an English-non-speaking country as Russia. However, those who are paid by the hour can make much more money vs the former. Natives are paid higher hourly rates vs Russians.
• I think pay is pretty high compared to Barcelona: standard rate for teaching a group is $20 for an academic hour, i.e. 45 mins. A standard group schedule is 6 hrs a week. More for YL and exam groups, more for Natives. For a private class you can charge as much as 1000 RUR ($30) an hour if you are Russian and even 2000 RUR if you are Native. There are people who are ready to pay that. My friends run an agency for Native teachers jamesmorgan.ru. And they have plenty of business!
• There is a good internal education for teachers in BKC, incl special morning classes on YL / teenagers/ exams/business, etc.
• The staff is very very nice and caring at BKC. I recommend them to everybody! If you need some help your DoS is always ready to.
• There is plenty of work in Russia!! Many-many offers on groups, business classes and individual classes!! Many beginners at 40+ who need English to progress in their career.

There are a couple of sites to search for private classes: repetitors.info, repetit.ru – although I’m not sure they are available in English.

Sites of best schools + their job sections:
http://www.bkc.ru/
http://www.bkcih-moscow.com/
http://www.spk-up.ru/eng/
http://www.englishfirst.com/index.html
http://www.englishfirst.com/trt/teaching-english-in-russia.html
http://www.big-ben.ru/
http://languagelink.ru/
http://languagelink.ru/about/vacancies/list.php?SECTION_ID=147
Welcome to Russia!
– 1 big problem in Moscow – huge city, your commute may take up to 1-1,5 hour one-way. Sometimes you may need to take the metro, then a small bus which means you would be stuck in traffic jam or have to wait for 20-30 mins for your transport (if not metro) in Russian moroz in winter. Metro is very crowded. However, if you are a full-time employee in a school they try to arrange your schedule to avoid much traveling.
Hope this helps. Let me know if something else is needed 🙂

Ekaterina Prokina (Russia)