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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:17 am Post subject: |
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No comments directed at me? Except for the personal attacks and profanity, you mean.
What is this financial hit of going to Russia you speak of? Is it somehow different to the hit people take if they move to Italy or France? Slim pickings for TEFLers there, even before the Euro crisis.
I still say come to Russia. Especially if your motivation based on something like the OP's.
Finacial worries, in any case, are being wildly exaggerated by some alarmist posters who base nearly everything they post on media distortions or 'friends' they claim to have. I wonder if these friends charge on average private students 50 to 75 euro per 90 minute lesson? I do, and still do. No reductions in demand yet either. This is the same for my colleagues and fairly extensive network of contacts.
But hey, what do people actually here know about anything? : ) |
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GotoRussia
Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 182
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:32 am Post subject: |
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I thought all those years in Russia would have given you a thicken skin.
what, got a bit riled up due to a stranger on some internet forum?! haha
I can't imagine how you react when your real "friends" rib you.
Don't be too sensitive, the Russian women don't like that in a man.
Get your head outta the sand. I highly doubt you're getting 50-75 Euros per lesson, maybe at the old exchange rate. Or you lucked out with some rich family for weekend classes.
No regular Russian is paying that price for lessons these days.
And the OP who's a non native certainly won't get that.
of course you're just interested in hearing the sound of your own voice, not helping others out. |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:43 am Post subject: |
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You poor fellow, do you mean to say you never received payment in euro or dollars? Not all transaction are in rubles, you know...
I have to question your motivation for these regular personal comments. What's bugging a chap who needs to compete with posters who clearly have more experience to fall back on? All very strange...
But happy new year to you! All the best for 2015! |
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GotoRussia
Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 182
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:03 am Post subject: |
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You're barking up the wrong tree.
I was paid in a major foreign currency and had no issues with the ruble drop.
Most teachers are not so lucky. It's illegal for schools to pay in anything other than the ruble.
Private students are not going to convert their rubles to dollars or euros to appease a teacher. So I don't know who you're getting your cash from and how legit it is.
I really could care less about you or your devotion to Russia.
New expats or those considering going should hear all unbiased views before committing. not just "come to Russia now, everything's fine..."
Quite irresponsible and dangerous in fact. |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:17 am Post subject: |
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Let's hear more about your set up in Russia then? Foreign company, paying foreign currency? Hardly a typical TEFL experience on which to base your keen insights into how things work in Russia or you advice to others. In fact sounds a little disingenuous. Might not even have been an English teaching job for all we know! How about leading by example? Show us why your comments have any weight at all.
So come on then. For a lad who likes to accuse others of evasion, you say little about what you were actually doing here. It sounds very strange that you'd question statements that Moscow students pay in foreign currencies, depending on the agreement. Did you never have any private students? Is that why your views on potential earnings for TEFL are so negative and I'll-founded?
There's still plenty of earning potential here. That has not changed. It is not dangerous to say that. It just doesn't confirm some posters' bias. Sorry 'bout that... |
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GotoRussia
Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 182
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:34 am Post subject: |
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Go read my previous posts and you'll know exactly what I did in Russia.
I just can't be bothered to tell you, esp as listening seems to be one of your weak areas.
Maybe you had long-term students who were willing to pay in foreign currencies. Most will not now. It would cost them double with current rates.
I know several teachers who have been based in Russia for 5-10 years and decided to leave. It was their breaking point, these guys are fluent in Russian and some have Russian wives/children. They see no point in staying.
As for you, are you sponsored by a government registered school that can provide proper work visas? Or are you freelancing under a business visa and doing visa runs every 3 months. It doesn't sound like you are completely legit if most of your work is private students. |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:40 am Post subject: |
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Explain to me how getting paid in foreign currency is completely legit, please. Perhaps you were working here in a business visa for a non-Russian company and were not technically employed here? |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:43 am Post subject: |
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And, pray tell, from where do you get your insight as to what a private student will or won't pay? It doesn't sound as though you've had any private students in Russia. So why do you think they won't pay the fees I have always got and still do? |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:45 am Post subject: |
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I'm here totally legally. All papers in order, as much as they ever can be. But seriously, how many teachers with a spouse do you know who do the three-month business visa run?
Such a naive notion.., |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:48 am Post subject: |
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I know several American teachers here who have renounced their US citizenship. They said there was just no point staying on in the US. They gave various political and economic reasons for this. (Not all of them too convincing, but hey, if our friends and contacts say it, then it must be true, right?!) |
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GotoRussia
Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 182
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 7:57 am Post subject: |
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I don't need to explain anything to you. As long as the Russian government grants me a visa and my company pays me I'm good.
You surely don't think all those highly skilled oil and gas expats didn't negotiate a contract pegged to the US $ or their local currency and not the ruble. Wake up.
so you had to marry to get your papers, hahha. Good on your spouse for enduring all this!!! She's a stronger woman than you. |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:01 am Post subject: |
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Did I say I was on a spousal visa? Perhaps I'm also a citizen of Russia. You know, one of those real ones you are in contact with?
Being pegged to the dollar is not the same as being paid in dollars. Were you paid in rubles or other currencies?
And oil and gas expats are not normally on business visas if theyvate here longer term.
So much you don't know! |
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GotoRussia
Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 182
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:18 am Post subject: |
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You may have become a citizen due to marriage but you aren't a Russian by birth, people who have lived in the country all their lives.
Of course I know being pegged to the $ isn't the same. Why are you so concerned with my pay package? It would make you green with envy if I told you.
I take it you didn't get to Russia on a highly skilled migrant visa...unlike some of us.
It's all making sense now, this unabashed love of Russia from you.
You can't separate the emotional ties from financial ones.
You probably got a Russian wife and kids and can't leave the country. Maybe you wouldn't be able to support them in your home country, if teaching ESL is all you can do. Surely your spouse has talked about moving back to your country to educate the kids in English...
oh wait, where are you from again? Not UK, not USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa...
i gotta give it to you, you're that rare breed who stuck it out in Russia over 10 years. Not many can do that, certainly not me. |
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Sashadroogie

Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 11061 Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:25 am Post subject: |
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I'm not really interested in your pay packet. But it is curious that you keep bringing it up without actually saying anything concrete about how it is relevant to TEFL. Nor have you said how much it is. Please don't think I'm asking you to divulge that info. I'm not. But one grows so weary of the endless boasts some ex-pats engage in over their earnings. Usually imaginatively described. It's rather like how certain ex-pats seem to come to really beleive that they are God's gift to women just because they manage to pull a great-looking girl here... |
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GotoRussia
Joined: 02 Jan 2014 Posts: 182
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2015 8:32 am Post subject: |
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Well, that's your problem if you don't believe my salary in Russia. Or if you don't think I taught English here. Why would I need to boast about it to strangers on a forum. Just ask the Russian girls I dated, they'll tell you.  |
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