Job Discussion Forums

barashkov1 · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 26

Hi,
I have 3 years teaching experience in South Korea, a TEFL certificate and will finish my Masters of Applied Linguistics in the middle of next year. I'm planning to probaly go to Russia (or another Russian speaking country) next year in March. Would it be possible for me to find work without a CELTA given my other experience and qualifications?
Also what is the ESL market like in Moscow? Is it easy to find work in March, even just like part-time stuff?
I also read that the summer months don't offer much work for teachers. So what do teachers living in Russia normally do during the summer months?

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

With regards to whether or not the CELTA would be useful, it rather depends on what type of certificate you already hold. If it gave you practical training (e.g. not wholly online or a weekend course), then your practical experience and further study mean that the lack of a CELTA is uimportant. Even if it was a totally unrecognisable qualification, it is still possible that your experience and Masters study could still do the trick.

Moscow is quite busy, I believe, especially schools wanting business tuition. Although you will find some advertisements, it may be a good idea to approach schools directly with your cv/resume. Do some research.

HOW TO RESEARCH IN RUSSIAN (for non-Russian speakers!)
You will find more schools by researching in Russian - don't worry, you can do this without technical or linguistic expertise, just use Rustran, PROMT or Babelfish (all easily found online) to translate a simple search term such as 'language school in Moscow' into Russian and then copy the phrase into a search engine. Re search engine: Google will work, although you might also want to paste your search into the Russian search engines Yandex.com and Rambler.ru Once you have found the web sites, you can read them in (rough) English by either pasting the URL into Google and then using the 'translate' function or pasting it into Babelfish.

Summer? Sit by the river drinking vodka. If you don't drown, maybe eat shashlik (Soviet barbecue). Seriously, there are summer schools. Indeed, if you haven't been able to find anything in the spring, the summer school could be your intro..

barashkov1 · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 26

Hi,
My TEFL certificate was probably about 1/3 classes (40 hours) and 2/3 online reading, plus there was only one supervised lesson which I taught. I kind of want to avoid doing the CELTA though cause I'm thinking of just teaching next year then moving on to a different field.
I know there is a lot of part-time work, but don't I need to get a full-time contract to get the work permit?
Actually I majored in Russian in my undergraduate degree so I should be Ok lol
But I'm sure your detailed instructions about finding schools using Russian will be useful for others reading the thread.

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

If you were a newcomer, it would matter, given the relative dearth of observed teaching, but I think with your experience, etc, there shouldn't be a problem except for a few sticklers. Re part-time: I think it depends on how part-time you want to be. Remember that resources go into visa applications; it isn't a holiday for the employer even if it is for you!

barashkov1 · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 26

If I paid for the visa run, do you think many schools would do the paperwork if I was going to work there only part-time? If I have a work-permit which one language school helped me get, can I also work in other language schools?

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

(a) Maybe, but remember it is effort as much as or more than money.
(b) I don't know, but I believe that legally speaking your visa only covers work with the company issuing the visa. In any case, why go through all the business because you want to work part-time, and then apply for work with another employer?

barashkov1 · Joined: 17 Dec 2008 Posts: 26

(b) What I meant was working with the school who helped me get the work permit and working at another school on top of that (in case both only had part-time work available). It seems like there's quite a few teachers working freelance in Moscow that's why I was just wondering how they do it legally.

coledavis · Joined: 21 Jun 2003 Posts: 1838

I don't think it's legal. From the point of view of the school issuing the visa, I don't think it's desirable. And as most firms will prefer to offer you full-time work, again, I don't see the point of worrying about whether school number one will have enough part-time work (unless they specifically offer you only a few hours - that's another matter).