Job Discussion Forums

[ahosey01]

Just out of curiosity....

Anybody familiar with the EFL market in the stans? Particularly any of them not named Turkmenistan... ahaha... Or even Xinjiang / Uyghurstan? Is there even any EFL market whatsoever? I feel like I'm searching the internet over and over for information, and coming up with exactly nothing.

Let me know if you know anything! Thanks!!

[oxi]

Bit of a late reply, so I assume you've now been to the Russia and CIS forum? More info there.

Fair amount of efl in Kazakhstan.
$1000 salary range in Almaty.
Bigger money nearer the Caspian, but need better qualifications.

[BocaNY]

Oxi can you point me in the direction to finding work in Kazakhstan? I've looked online and applied to the few I found but never heard back. I got qualifications. 4 years teaching, CELTA, plus finish a Masters in TESOL, and working with all ages. I could really use the help since it is one of the few countries I am interested in to work.

[oxi]

[EFL Educator]

Hello there,

I have some female friends teaching in Northern Pakistan. They seem to be happy there and are earning about $1600/Month teaching children. They both have Masters degrees in Education and say they can save most of their salary as they also have free room and board (including 3 meals a day). Good luck!

[BocaNY]

Thanks for the information guys. I'll look into it.

[ahosey01]

to EFL Educator:

Northern Pakistan? Like Gilgit-Baltistan north? Is there even an ESL market in Pakistan? I would have figured that Fuhrer Obama had been drone-striking the schools into the ground. I suppose nothing satiates an appetite for destruction like an English School dessert to follow your wedding-party main course.

In all seriousness though, I had really been considering mostly old Soviet-bloc countries, but Pakistan, especially if jobs were located near the Karakorum, would be cool. Considering the Indian/British cultural connections, I could see where some of that would be valuable. Do you have any more information or maybe (if it's cool with her) an email address for your female friend that I could reach out to?

Let me know.

[2buckets]

I've lived in Pakistan, and Afghanistan in calmer times, pre 911, and even then it could be dangerous. Nowadays, I would avoid those places and some of the other "stans" if you value your life. Pay is low as well as living conditions.

Gilgit/Baltistan may seem romantic, but after a short time, it's not. People defecating in public places, spitting everywhere constantly, the smell of urine everywhere, violence over minor incidents, constants bouts of amoebic and bacillic dysentery, cholera/hepatitis easily contracted from the poor hygienic conditions in water and food. Sweltering hot in summer, freezing in winter, and since there is rarely central heating, you just never get warm. We used to say that the only thing good about winter there was that the stools on the street were frozen and you didn't mess up your shoes when you stepped in it.

It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

On the plus side, charas is great and cheap, the smell of fresh nan, (bread) in the morning, the clip clop of the horses pulling the brightly decorated "taxi" carts (gharays), the braying of donkey and camels, the smell of fat tail sheep roasted over hot charcoal, the view of the mountains through the crisp air. That's the romantic part.

Go somewhere you can make decent money and visit Baltistan on your summer holiday.

[ahosey01]

When people tell me about how living conditions are almost exclusively terrible in certain places, I tend not to believe them. It may not be Santa Barbara, but it doesn't mean that the ONLY qualities a place like that has are terrible, insufferable living conditions, and good food. You should hear some of the things that people say just about my neighborhood when I'm at work. I have people tell me that they won't stop in my neighborhood, that their children are offered drugs, that they are afraid of the violence, that they think they will be shot, robbed, stabbed, mugged or sexually assaulted, that they are afraid stopping at stoplights... and I've lived here a LONG time and never had ANYTHING remotely bad happen to me. I think that in most cases, people whose expectations of a place don't jive with the picture they get in reality tend to over-generalize the nature of those things they would rather operated differently. I bet you I could find plenty of people who would counter each and every negative thing you just said with plenty of positive reasons why somewhere like that (maybe not war-torn places in Afghanistan where you might be blown away at random by a USG air strike) would be a perfectly fine place to live.

Just be objective as possible when you tell someone how horrible somewhere is.

[ahosey01]

Also, money is not my concern. If I wanted to do something for the money, I would have gone to school for engineering or IT, and I wouldn't be asking questions on an EFL board.

[2buckets]

[2buckets]

I'd say you haven't been to a third world country, (except maybe Mexico). To compare the Stans with Colorado is absurd. Sure you can robbed and beaten in CO, but do they video tape your head being cut off and put it on youtube?

All I can say is go there, spend a few months, and then get back to us with your impressions.

[ahosey01]

lol i grew up SS Chicago

[2buckets]

I taught Junior High for 3 years in Bedford Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn and got assaulted 5 times by students and sent to ER each time.

Still no comparison.

[kazpat]

To compare a country like Kazakhstan to Afghanistan or Pakistan is as absurd as comparing "the stans" with Colorado. Hence the reason I cringe when anyone refers to the countries of Central Asia as "the stans." Even the former USSR republics are very different in a myriad of ways. This includes teaching opportunities and the associated living conditions, salary, etc.