Job Discussion Forums

ColdRodear · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 36 Location: St Petersburg

Has anyone heard of the Derzhavin Institute in St Petes? It is a work study program. One studies Russian 20 hours a week and teaches English 12 to 18 hours or so, depending on what is available. It sounds like one may actually be teaching in other nearby schools with Derzhavin acting as a middle man. I don't know for sure.

I would like to know if anyone has heard anything on this place. I am not too worried about a "real" teaching job. I am mainly concerned with finding a way to live in Russia in order to become fluent in Russian and not getting ripped off while doing it. The minimum contract is 4 months but I am prepared to stay for a year in Russia at this time. Here is their website;
http://www.derzhavin.com/rlpc/about.eng.php

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

ytuque · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 55

Curious as to what type of job your Russian girlfriend found you. How did it all work out?

ColdRodear · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 36 Location: St Petersburg

Thanks MDK. It seems that I will probably have to make a phone call to this institute to get things squared away. Which, by the way, I was going to do this evening, but it seems that I may have imbibed in a little too much vodka and cranberry juice earlier on, to make the said telephone call productive. (It is possible that I may be a little tipsy right now.)

Anyway about your suggestion. That is my backup up plan. I have a friend whose parents live in Saratov with whom I may try to arrange a homestay with. I'm sure that they don't want to speak any English....since they don't know any. I just don't know much about Saratov though.

END OF TRANSMISSION: OVER AND OUT

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Ytuque, Well, it was Tomsk and native English speakers weren't real thick on the ground so I was employed by a satellite organization of one of the six universities in Tomsk. The other teachers were a fairly mixed bag. One of them was an ex police chief (he said) who didn't "mess around with all those prepositions and stuff" so it was a case of learn by doing. Later I went and got a TEFL for what that was worth.

My personal opinion is that grammatical rules are best taught by Russian English teachers who are generally OK on that. I think I contribute best by accent reduction and vocabulary building - with a good dose of "intro to American culture". You will certainly find ESL teachers who consider me a notch short of the anti-Christ for such views.

Coldrear, afraid I don't know anything about Saratov, but I recall that when I went to Tomsk first I took comfort that Sibair flew out to Moscow every morning. When I first got to Svetlana's flat I was so unimpressed that (if I had not been exhausted by the flight) I might have turned tail and come home. I got some sleep and went and checked out work, it wasn't that bad and I stayed on.

Hope this helps.

ytuque · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 55

MDK,

Thanks for the info. I am considering doing something similar although I haven't decided on a location. Something off the beaten path would be the most interesting for me.

I was under the impression that finding a job at a university was quite difficult in Russia.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

You must remember that there is Moscow and then there is the rest of Russia. It is similar to Paris and France I think.

This is especially true of Siberia. Siberia is where all the people who can't stand Moscow (or whom Moscow can't stand ) go to live.... and their descendants.

The university hired me in 2002. There was a bit of a scandal with one of the English speaking teachers (for reasons I won't go into) and there was a ukase the following year from Moscow forbidding the hiring of people like me. I worked that year nevertheless and instead of going to the University paymaster, I was paid in cash by somebody.

The following year I had a problem getting my visa registered by OVIR and I ended up going to another university in Tomsk (There are six and they hired me as a professor and I even have a Russian social security card somewhere in my storage.) The University got me a visa, but I had to return to the US to get it. Once I was on staff at the second university, they had me doing classes at the first one as well.

I don't know what this all means, but perhaps if you showed up at a place like Chita (One of the teachers had taught there the previous year) and had a frank talk with the school.... well, I wouldn't care to hazard a guess at to what the outcome might be. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

The guy from Chita said it was a very, very windy place. So, Irkutsk? Ekaterienburg? Omsk? Kto znaet? Fall is "Grandmother's summer" and it would be a very nice time for a train trip to see all the cities along the trans-siberian. A 1st class sleeping wagon ticket from Moscow to Tomsk costs about $350.

skatert daroga