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ahosey01
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:44 am Post subject: The Stans?? |
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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!! |
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oxi
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 347 Location: elsewhere
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Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:10 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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BocaNY
Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 131
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Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:23 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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oxi
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 347 Location: elsewhere
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 12:42 am Post subject: |
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BocaNY wrote: |
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. |
I haven't taught there for a while. My wife's from Almaty and we still visit, but much prefer where we are now - Hong Kong. I know one or two folk teaching in Almaty and I check out ads now and again. There are one or two posters who I think currently live in Kazakhstan and sometimes write on the Russia/CIS forum - you might want to look for them.
Concerning jobs - here are ones I knew of in recent years and hopefully you can google contacts. But with a Masters, most of these jobs likely to disappoint:-
Almaty
ICCE - International College of Continuous Education, Zheltoksan St, Almaty, also in Astana - starter job/CELTA level. I worked there in the secondary school part. Easier if you ass-kiss management. $600 a month about 15 years ago. I think they went up to $1000.
MNK - starter/CELTA job
International House - you probably already saw the ads. I don't know much more.
KIMEP uni - had EFL lecturers, some MAs
American International School - maybe need PGCE
British Council - part-time mostly, help with visa if they feel like it, I'd say only 50/50 chance of work
Caspian.
I see some jobs come up on Guardian/TES/TEFL.com. Some better paid, some not so much. The best tend to be found through friends and not advertised often. The last couple of guys I knew out there were making 25-30K sterling or so tax free, free accommodation, but left three or four years ago.
As I said, try the folks on the CIS/Russia forum for some better, more up to date info. Good luck |
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EFL Educator
Joined: 17 Jul 2013 Posts: 988 Location: Cape Town
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:08 am Post subject: |
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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! |
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BocaNY
Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 131
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Posted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks for the information guys. I'll look into it. |
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ahosey01
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 3:28 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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2buckets
Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Posts: 515 Location: Middle East
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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ahosey01
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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ahosey01
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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2buckets
Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Posts: 515 Location: Middle East
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Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2014 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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2buckets
Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Posts: 515 Location: Middle East
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 5:24 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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ahosey01
Joined: 30 Nov 2013 Posts: 7 Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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lol i grew up SS Chicago |
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2buckets
Joined: 14 Dec 2010 Posts: 515 Location: Middle East
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:34 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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kazpat
Joined: 04 Jul 2010 Posts: 140 Location: Kazakhstan
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Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:24 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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