Way to Russia Talk Lounge

WayToRussia · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:33 am Post subject: Guide to Teaching in Russia

We have just put online a new Guide to Teaching in Russia as a part of our new Guide to Russia for Expats

Your comments, feedback, and suggestions are welcome!

surfguy · Lounge Wizard Joined: 13 Apr 2006 Posts: 6996

Just read it and yes very informative and covers a lot of areas. Well done and actually this should be one of the premier pages of WTR

rchamberlain · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject:

Thanks for posting the review on the site, Dmitry. Just one question about it:

I was very happy to see a link at the bottom of the review entitled 'Discussion of Russian Language Schools'. But disappointed to see it took readers to the thread that is actually called 'Dishonest English Language Centres'. Clearly, this is misleading. The neutral word 'discussion' is very different to highly critical word 'dishonest'!!

And why is the 'Dishonest English Language Centre' thread a sticky, when the other thread with positive school reviews isn't a sticky??

BELS · Lounge Lizard Joined: 30 Mar 2005 Posts: 107

Teaching jobs are now limited to BKC and language Link(The Mac-schools) for the newbie. They offer a full package includuding shared accomadation, visa support, travel costs etc. Yes the wages are garbage, but when you calculate the value of their package, no other school can compete with them for the newbie.
Also new visa laws makes it awkward for the new visiter, unless the school has the right to employ English natives.

The main advantage about the two Mac-schools are that you can get the contract of employment from your own country due to a telephone interview. I'd forget the rest, although some of them might show a slightly higher income, it won't match up to the Mac schools package. And you won't be able to afford a flat for yourself, from the income they offer, especially in Moscow. So that's for newbies.

For those private teachers resident teachers, who have residency in Russia, and have an entrepeneur's license paying 6% taxes it's a very lucrative small business. Especially if you manage to find a small classroom to rent and can teach a mixture of groups and one to ones.

Private teachers in this case now charge between 1500- 2000 rublees per academic hour. So lucrative if you are resident and are capable of building up 40 academic hours a week (academic hour= 45 minutes in Russia)
Also this is the price that teachers looking to boost their salary from the Mac schools should be charging.

Another question? How do you promote and advertise your private services?
One way is that there are many forums similar to this one who allow you to advertise your services. Some of them are in the Russian language. The advantage of the one ones in the Russian Language is that they will attract beginners, and non English speaking parents of children and teenagers. Now! this is a big market, parents are discovering that the new state exams are tough, and many state schools are not matching up to the government controlled exams. For example 14-15 year old pupils are expected to pass intemediate level exams when they are still only studying elementary level course books. These courses are normally based on the "Oppurtunity course books, Russian version" published by Longmans.

One piece of advice, advertise for your location, and don't travell all over Moscow, unless you can charge for your travelling time, and in many cases your lost time due to cancellations etc. Taking a months deposit and charging monthly will avoid this common problem.

Another advantage of sticking to your local area for customers, is that you will eventually develop a local clientele from word of mouth. Don't travell all over Moscow, as you will experience many problems. ie: students are unreliable!!