Job Discussion Forums

zdlerner · Joined: 09 Nov 2010 Posts: 3

The life in Russia is not everyone's piece of cake, but if you are going to go there, go with BKC instead the British Educational Centre, BEC, which is incredibly disorganised, the majority of the staff speaks little to no English, they shuffle your between schools and apartments, can barely keep a regular weeekly class schedule, and WORST OF ALL, they have NO sense of how vulnerable foreign teachers feel in what is actually a fairly xenophobic country where there are few froreigners.

Brighton Blade · Joined: 12 Oct 2010 Posts: 16

Thanks for everyone's advice on this page. After a lot of consideration and reading related arcticles, I decided that I'll leave the Russian 'dream' a few more years so I can toughen up a little bit and gain some decent experience.

ancient_dweller · Joined: 12 Aug 2010 Posts: 415 Location: Woodland Bench

why wait?

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

Russia was never an easy place,especially for a new foreign teacher...much has already been written on this site by various people including myself.I would also add that acccording to Russian people I have spoken with in recent days,morale among most of the population there is pretty low at present due to the various problems they are encountering.Apart from the notorious corruption and risk of terrorist attacks which they have had to learn to live with,the cost of living has also begun increasing regularly again recently and this obviously increases stress and a feeling of resentment about daily life in general.This is unlikely to change in the near future,especially with elections due later this year and early next.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 10:22 pm Post subject:

Oh come on Maruss! It is not all doom and gloom. I'm having a whale of a time right here in the nerve centre of the Evil Empire. Never a better time was had (il)legally, I can tell you.

Come on over to Russia. Live life deeper!

ancient_dweller · Joined: 12 Aug 2010 Posts: 415 Location: Woodland Bench

beer and vodka are much cheaper than in europe

maruss · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 1145 Location: Cyprus

So is tobacco!Of course the quality of these vices is another question altogether in Russia.......But then one of their government minsters said recently that people should be encouraged to enjoy themselves to keep the cost of caring for old people who live too long as low as possible!I thought they had demographic problems because of their shrinking population though?

Brighton Blade · Joined: 12 Oct 2010 Posts: 16

I didn't realise this thread continued without me! Now in Vietnam and everyone is certainly friendly. A good life choice. Vodka is rubbish though. I was speaking to one of my closest friends whose mother lives in Moscow today and I think I'll be going over for a summer school in a couple of years' time, test the waters and she'll put me up. I met some people who worked for BKC and they gave me the lowdown on TEFL life in and out of the classroom (they were very honest and great people, if they read these forums then thanks!). I certainly want some experience over there no matter how small it is. Let's see what happens. Thanks again peeps.