Job Discussion Forums

[BELS]

By all means. For those who want to have a great time and experience Moscow come and find out. But coming to work as a teacher don't expect the high life from the income you will receive.Look upon it as being comparable to voluntary work.

A good place to look for jobs with income and package details in any part of the world is tefl.com

Look in the vacancies section, and while you are at it why not compare rates country to country. You may well find Russia is bottom of the league for payment yet Moscow has the highest cost of living in Europe.

You may also find out that you are far better off in your own country such as the UK.

And if you need a CELTA or other TEFL get it in your own country. It will save you thousands.

[lonach]

I love it here in Russia, but I must response to the comment, �that�s all (money) anyone seems to care about.� In my view, this is true about the States but even more true about Russia. I�m not sure when you were here last or where you were but Russians think about money quite often as well.

[rusmeister]

I can agree with lonach. When I first came to Russia (before the collapse of the S.U.) I was stunned by the generous hospitality of Russians; of the effort thrown into receiving guests, of the custom of the person who invites paying for the invitees at restaurants etc... It's part of the larger phenomenon of the relative equality of people (people lived and rubbed elbows next to public celebrities - it was entirely possible to see Vysotsky, Pugacheva, or whoever in the Metro (subway) or be riding the elevator with them
Sadly, things that now cost real money under capitalism have understandably killed the aspects of that generosity that Russians previously didn't have to deal with, and have created a previously near-non-existent gap so that now Russians have paparazzi, barriers between people with money and those without.

Things really have changed.

[maruss]

Most of these so-called 'New Russians' are pretty obnoxious and have no respect for the vast majority of their fellow countrymen who are far less fortunate than they are but also often far most honest and decent!There are also the 'siloviki' who hold the reins of of power,a seemingly in creasing army of corrupt bureaucrats and officials who not only often make vast sums of money by all kinds of means and get away with it but also have a nasty habit of making peoples lives difficult whenever it takes their fancy!The plunder of Russia which began in the 90's never really ended-it is just being carried out by different people nowadays!
If you don't believe me,just try going against them or upsetting them in anyway!

[coledavis]

Yes, there is a lot of materialism about, but many ordinary Russians are still splendid and haven't quite got the money bug full on.

[canucktechie]

[rusmeister]

[canucktechie]

"Were"? I'm in Moscow right now.

BTW I don't eat cheese.

[rusmeister]

[Red and white]

What could I expect to pay per month for a place to live in Moscow at the moment?

I'm weighing up a possible return to Moscow and I could do with an idea of what sort of prices I'd face if I was looking at finding my own home instead of getting a school to do it for me.

Ideally I'd live single rather than flat share, but I suspect that might be beyond my means. I know the city fairly well, so you can be fairly specific about districts

Thanks in advance ...

[rusmeister]

The dollar has become so worthless here, it's only 60% the value of the Euro. This forces all dollar calculations up in terms of COL.

That said, if you have coverage from an organization that is providing a room in a shared apartment, you'd still need over $1,000 a month, if not you'd need upwards of $2,000. And that doesn't include extra costs like visa runs, which are now threatened anyway:
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/10/22/004.html

If that goes through as expected, ESL teachers will be forced out in droves. The cost of leaving the country every three months would wipe out any savings you could hope to make and would bankrupt the teachers living near the poverty line anyway.

[blackcorsair]

Time to get out guys. Let them teach themselves. I always found it charming to speak with Russians who had crappy English, in any case. Such expressions: 'I feel myself'; 'Frankly speaking'; the garbled and Joycean grammar, the gorgeous Russglish neologisms. Now it's disconcerting to hear them employing accomplished syntactical stractures and expressing themselves far more eloquently than even your most articulate English chav or American redneck.

[canucktechie]

[maruss]

State bureaucracy has been growing at an alarming rate in Russia in recent years and this is just another example of creating rules and red-tape for them to deal with!But if the'three months in followed by six months out' rule is implemented for teachers it will simply not be viable for anyone to go and work there any longer.As a result,the only people who will go for a few months will be the back-packing types and consequently the standards of teachers available will suffer, to the detriment of both students and all concerned.......
Unless the employers get work permits and there is one quite well-known school whose director has always insisted she does so she will be delighted if they do implement these restrictions!

[coledavis]

There's been lots on Moscow. Can anyone comment upon living standards in other parts of Russia?