Job Discussion Forums

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: Russian can be "conquered" if you get out of Moskva and Leningrad. Get to a mid-sized city. Be normal and affable. Being qualified doesn't hurt. Make some local contacts. In the end, with patience, good things will come your way (including normal women, without that seemingly ubiquitous "look").
Best of luck to all! Cool

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 10:42 am Post subject:

Moscow can be a good place too. Plenty of money to be made. But takes time setting up. The lifestyle may not be everyone's cup of tea, but then compared to the Gulf, I don't see what there is too much to complain about.

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

teaching Gulf Arabs is a soul destroying job-come here for the money but dont think you aint gonna pay a price (is it worth the money? no its not you'll be lucky to leave with your mental health intact)
-the women thing; try and look at yourself before critisizing whole nations

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

moscowres · Joined: 09 Feb 2009 Posts: 8

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 9:32 pm Post subject:

There's a price for working everywhere. But at least in Moscow there is some sort of corresponding opportunity as well, professionally and outside too. I'm happy enough with it. Re mental health, most of the teachers I have worked with here have been more stable than those elsewhere - those outside of the McSchools, though.

But the biggest plus to working here is that it doesn't carry the stigma that working in the Gulf unfortunately does. Quite a few of the DOSes and managers I've worked with have commented that there are very dodgy EFL practices there, and this seemed to be enough to disqualify hiring teachers from that region. Probably unfair, but that is what they said.

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

"some very dodgy tefl practices" end quote
scratches head, I am agog pray tell what on earth they could be Shocked

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 9:43 am Post subject:

Good question. Don't know for sure, so you could be forgiven for thinking it was just be one particular person's bias. Except that it seems he is not totally alone. More than a few DOSes commented on this. I got the impression that it had something to do with not using communicative strategies, relying on translation methods and falsifying exam scores - though why this should be unique to the Gulf eluded me then, as it does now.

At bottom I suspect it is really because it is believed that anyone who went to Saudi Arabia or that region was only interested in money, lots of it, and was not too concerned about teaching. Could be sour grapes. But the truth is that there are some academic staff members involved in recruiting who hold this view, rightly or wrongly. I don't think they would level such a charge against teachers working in Russia. (That would be booze and babes... and sour grapes again.)

Kilij-Arslan · Joined: 12 Feb 2010 Posts: 25

slaqdog · Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 211

make as much as over $5000 a month in Moscow

Russia may be a hell-hole with a lot of bureaucracy, but when one gets to the point of happily talking about purchasing sex from girls who are obviously trafficked(go read The Natashas if you think otherwise), well....damn.[/quote]

I did not realise that Moscow was such a high paying gig and free of trafficked women; this is a real eye opener and contrary to all the other information I have ever read about the place. Pray tell more vicar I am intrigued by your tone of moral supperiority and the use of the straw man arguement.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 9:42 pm Post subject:

Didn't quite the point of that previous post myself. But all I'll add is that 5000$ is attainable in Moscow, though that is gross and you are working flat out and also is dependent on when the exchange rate is favourable.

As for the trafficked girls - I'm sure there are plenty of Eastern Europeans who are being trafficked, but in Russia there is another, equally unsavoury fact: mainly that some women actually prefer this line of work to being exploited in a supermarket job for next to no money, and that society here is relatively tolerant of prostitution. They are not obviously trafficked.

Kilij-Arslan · Joined: 12 Feb 2010 Posts: 25

Sashadroogie · Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 6:41 pm Post subject:

Did anyone say that it was alright? But even if they had, I'd like to see how you would argue that choosing to sell yourself is just as bad as a life of indentured servitude in a Turkish genelev.

speedjackson · Joined: 03 Jan 2010 Posts: 8 Location: Michigan, USA

Kilij-Arslan's post may have been a little emotive, but really...I've been watching the board for some time now and I have to say, there's a lot of troubling talk of sex and prostitution that shows little to no serious thought about complexities of consent in the regional context. I mean, even the amount of off-hand, totally unqualified references to teaching in Russia just to get laid by Russian women is striking. As is the suggestion that men have to watch out for heartbreaks at the hands of shallow Russian golddiggers, as if there's absolutely nothing problematic about the almost colonial type of privilege that more well-paid, well-nourished Western teachers can enjoy, as if it's just the girls' fault and the wide-eyed, ignorant Westerner is totally innocent... Such men could use a re-reading of Crime and Punishment with a closer look at Pyotr Luzhin, if you ask me.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 7:28 pm Post subject:

Kilij-Arslan's comments, some of which were deleted, were more than emotive - they were offensive. Also, it is surprising that a comment about the Gulf made by a poster from five years ago should provoke such accusations against current posters now.

Just curious, but what does the phrase 'complexities of consent in the regional context' mean?