Job Discussion Forums

[zaneth]

I'm getting kind of tired of this naive love affair with America (Ok, it's just my perspective, maybe these students know more about life than I do).

I'd like to encourage the students to do some sort of international travel other than going to America, tending bar or working in a camp, talking to other Russians, and smoking dope.

Doesn't really seem like the experience they really deserve. I think they could do so much better.

Anybody know of alternatives that would still allow them to practice their English and perhaps make a little money? Ireland? India? New Zealand? There must be other opportunities out there for them. Even if they weren't in a native speaking environment, if they were someplace where they had to use English to communicate with other nationalities it would be a great opportunity for them.

[bobs12]

I don't know whether they'd make much money at it, but they oculd certainly travel Europe as long as they had a visa- www.wwoof.org

It's going to be my escape from Russia when struggling to understand and be understood in my own language just gets to be too much for me.

The organisation is (in theory) for voluntary workers on organic farms, but there are all sorts of other types of organisations taking part. They all look after their volunteers well, some of them are really quite big and have lots of workers in summer. English is the common language everywhere.

Just an idea, might not be entirely appropriate, but certainly more of an adventure. In general, volunteering would be a much easier option than working from a legal point of view.

[zaneth]

yeah, I've heard of willing workers on organic farms. Back in my hippy days I was looking into it as a travel option. But they don't help with visas? That's one of the nice things about the Camp America thing. Visas, as you know, are hard to get for Russians. The organization handles the visa stuff, the students work for a while at a low wage in a camp, then have some free time to travel or work a little on their own. Pretty attractive, from their point of view.

For myself though, maybe I should give wwoof another look. And I'll see if I can get any students interested in it. Some are more adventurous than others.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Much thanks for the http://www.wwoof.org LINK!!!

Here in China, we're interested in bringing groups from China/Japan/Korea etc. to Indian farming projects, for English-learning etc.

Perhaps in India we can link up Russian etc. learners and our Asian learners. PM me if interested.
http://www.wwoof.org/wpother.html#INDIA

Also, there are geat possibilities of utilizing the Trans-Siberian train as an English-learning environment...again, linking Russian etc. and Chinese learners of English...w/HomeStays, visits to schools etc.