Job Discussion Forums

[canucktechie]

[Seeker of truth]

[jackintokyo]

Hi JP,
I live quite close across the water in Tokyo and have been teaching there for ten years. I am married to a Japanese woman. (Undoubtedly Japanese women are the best females in the world - this a closely held secret).
I am English,from Newcastle, although I am domiciled in Melbourne where I have a house. Every year I escape the unbearable summer in Tokyo - to stay with my grown up children in Australia.
I learned Russian when I was in England - admittedly only HSC level - but I always have had a hankering to visit Russia. As Vlad is only a stone's throw away do you think there might be a possibility of my teaching for a few weeks during August and September? I could make my own way there. I have had stacks of experience teaching at all levels and I have a M.Ed(TESOL) and a CELTA.
I have enjoyed reading your postings and - DOSVEEDANYA

Jack Curran

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Hi jack,
I'm afraid August is a very bad time to try to pick up part-time work as there are very few students. Nearly the entire country of Russia goes on vacation during the month of August. However, if you're interested in coming in September I might be able to sniff out a few hours for you! Let me know via PM if that sounds doable for you.

Seeker,
I just saw this thread again, so I didn't thank you some months back for the congratulations! Anyway, I would be happy to show you pictures of the wedding and our subsequent baby boy I'm proud like that!

Generally, not much has changed in the Vladivostok teaching market. EF is the only English school of note; although I hear of smaller schools starting (though I've never actually seen any of them nor have I met anyone who teaches or studies at them--ah, save one).

Rents are still dear. My wife and I have bought a flat, so I don't currently rent, but I would still quote around 10K for a bare-bones, out of the center accommodation. 15K+ anywhere near the center.

As with the rest of Russia, inflation has skyrocketed prices, especially on dairy products, and imports. A kilo of cheese (well, decent cheese--I require good cheese ) will set you back 450rbls+ minimum.

Long and short, Vladivostok is not a budget posting. A teacher coming in must make 30,0000rbls/month at the very least to get by.

If anyone has questions about Vlad I'd be more than happy to answer them!

Cheers, everyone! And let's get this EFL teachers' association thing going, eh?

[Seeker of truth]

What difficulties do you see in terms of starting a business in Valdiv? Anything from a pizzeria to a winery to an English school? How favorable would you rate the business climate there? What is the tax structure like?

Assuming you got a business up and running, would you have to reckon with the mafia demanding a cut "for protection"?

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Business climate for a foreigner trying to start a business in Vladivostok without very connected local support (scale: Absolute Zero - 100): Absolute Zero minus 34.
As you can tell by my witty little scale there, starting a business as a foreigner without loads of local "roofs" is nearly impossible. In fact, I've never heard of it happening in Vladivostok.
The tax structure is INSANE. My wife is an accountant, and she told that if a business actually paid all the taxes they were supposed to, they would pay out more in taxes than their net income.

[Seeker of truth]

Anything new going on these days in Vladivostok? Just curious.

[maruss]

Read Jonathan Dimbleby's impressions about it at the end of his latest travelogue about Russia: nice people and an interesting place with a different,more friendly atmosphere than other Russian cities,but unfortunately just as corrupt and decrepid in many ways as most of them....

[jpvanderwerf2001]

If anyone is really interested in Vladivostok (for instance, work/living possibilities), please PM!

[silicho]

So apparently you have to have posted 5 times before sending a pm, but I am really interested in working in Vladivostok. I read a book series called simply, "The Russians," which I loved. I'll have finished an 8-week TESL course from a university here in Washington state in 2 more weeks and would love to try Russia. I saw you mention EF as your employer? Do beginners have a chance in Vladivostok with such a company?

[maruss]

[email protected]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Update: I wrote this a while back on another site. Since then, we have opened a second school. The school's name is Oxford English Academy (www.oea.vl.ru if you'd like to check us out!).

I have helped open a new school here in Vladivostok. We've been open about a year and have met with really quite wonderful success. We even got dealt a lucky hand when EF decided to up and move out of the Russian Far East market (at least for the time being...).

Although I am not the owner of the school, I was deeply involved with every step of the opening, and feel I have some insight into what has made us successful. Now, not all of these are specific to the Russian market, perhaps, but since my only experience is with Russia, here goes:

1) Find local partners. The owners of my school are Russian businessmen (no, not that type of biz-nees-man). I had known them for some years and so at least knew that they were generally trustworthy. Trying to sledge your way through the Russian bureaucracy and bribery without a local partner is extremely difficult without local partners OR an unusually intimate knowledge of the language, the culture, and how to pay your way to making the process faster (this last one is most delicate, of course);

2) Get a foreign franchise. The locals here in Vladivosok are very excited when they hear that our "home office" is in England. We don't play it up too hard, but they are definitely happy when told;

3) Don't cut corners on teachers. By offering excellent pay to local teachers, I was able to corner the market on the best English teachers in the city (probably the entire region). Of course, I had an advantage on this end, as I'd lived here for nearly four years and had a lot of knowledge about the English teaching community. The result of getting these teachers is that word has got around that we have the highest level of English teaching in the city/region. So, our rule of thumb was to find out who had been paying the highest per hour and upping that price by 20%. Worked wonders. Oh, and we pay officially (as opposed to cash)--a rarity in these parts;

4) Location, location, location. Ok, nothing new here, but one of our big advantages has been finding a location that people know. It also helps (in Russia) if you are street level, as you have to search rather hard to find the other schools in town. This of course takes some local knowledge;

5) Have no target market. Sounds a bit strange, but there it is. We only really do mass advertising in all media, with the idea that our price will dictate who our market it: Basically, if they can pay, they're in. Our first marketing person kept telling me that we needed to focus our efforts on our target audience. I replied that everyone is our target audience, so those efforts should be made easier;

6) If you are a native speaker, be very visible. I'm not a glory hound by any means (or don't think I am?), but I know that I am the "face" of the school. This is because I have residency here and have been, and will likely be, here for some years. Students really love the fact that their academic director is foreign; teachers love the idea that I manage (or think I do) in a "western" style (this is quite distinct from the 'manage by fear' style of the majority of Russian directors).

I believe that these are the main factors that have helped make our school such a success in such a short time (and hopefully for a long time!). So, if you are thinking of opening a school in Russia, I would recommend at least giving them some thought.

As I said before, this is obviously specific to my experience here in Vladivostok. Naturally, circumstances may be different in various other areas.

Best of luck!!

[mayumi_kaneyuki]

Oh, Vladivostok - beautiful city, nice people )))

[jpvanderwerf2001]

Well, there are some nice people, for sure!

[Eamonn]

great update Jpvanderwerf!
Good to hear things are going well.