Way to Russia Talk Lounge

sd305 · Just Starting Joined: 08 Jul 2009 Posts: 5

hey, i live in canada and i've been trying to get a work and study program (study for the russian langauge) somewhere in russia (preferably moscow, but almost anywhere will be fine) but it seems to be impossible to find. I found 2 websites, but you have to be 20 years old and i'm only 19.

I was wondering if anyone could help me out?

thanks!

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

Have you heard of search engines ? try google, yahoo, exalead and others (I can't give you the urls of those search engines, it blocks the post)
Then in the text box, type "learn russian moscow" then click on the "search" button. You can do the same replacing Moscow by "Saint Petersburg", "Ekaterinburg" and names of other russian cities. You will find dozens of possibilities, not just 2.
Once you've found a place where you want to study, you can look for a job there. Schools are not supposed to provide a job for you. There isn't much you can do if you don't speak russian though. Teach advanced English, wash plates in a restaurant. I'm not sure a student visa allows you to work legally, make sure you have the right visa.
By the way, if you can afford to live in Moscow, you probably don't need to work for money. Living in Ekaterinburg, for example, would save more money than you would make working part-time as an unqualified employee.
Count 1000 dollars per month to live miserably in Moscow (not counting the price of the school), a part time job will get you 300. In Ekaterinburg for 700 dollars per month you'll live comfortably, and the school will be much cheaper too. In between you have Saint Petersburg.

sd305 · Just Starting Joined: 08 Jul 2009 Posts: 5

well, i've been doing the search engine thing for a week, and not much comes out of it. the work study thing is a program i found that actually pays for most of the living cost while your down there, its suppoed to be like going to classes for so many hours, than working in the school for so many hours.

i can't seem to find too many of them, so i thought maybe someone on the forum knows of any

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

You found 2 of those because there are 2 of those (unless you already speak some russian, in which case there is lidenz.ru). You can't get a paid job legally with a student visa, that explains the difficulty to have such programs. But there are dozens of schools to learn Russian. The deal offered by the 2 schools you found is not particularly exciting.
Pay 1200 dollars per months AND work part time, that's not a great deal at all (on studyabroadlinks.com)
Get 300 dollars per months to teach English ? (on SRAS) WTF ??? Contact a local language school and they'll give you the same, in an average town.

Again, my advice : if your goal is really to learn Russian, do it in a city where it will cost you less than in Moscow, then you can focus on learning instead of having the trouble to work for peanuts. I mentioned Ekaterinburg, but you can think about many others. For example Yaroslavl is smaller, a nice city on the Volga, not far from Moscow for week-end trips, and life is much cheaper there. So if you find a school there it can be a good idea. Keep in mind that the quality of your learning doesn't depend on the price you pay for the classes. It depends mostly on the effort you put in it and on being in the country, with very limited contacts with English speakers. If you stay in Moscow and are in a large group of English speakers you'll speak mostly with them and will learn shit, even more so if you teach English, because then you interact in English with the same people from morning to evening and the Russian classes are mostly useless : I've seen enough Americans, Canadians and Aussies in this case to know what I'm talking about : After 1 year in the country they have the same level as someone learning correctly, after 2 months.
If you are in a place with very few contacts with English speakers you will learn fast.
1-Check the presence of schools in the top 50 Russian cities (you can also think about Kazakhstan and Belarus btw)
2-Get info on the possible cities and see if you'd like to live there
3-Check the cost of living there
4-If you want to teach English to make some cash anyway (that will seriously hinder your russian but anyway...), contact some English schools there and see if you could work for them. Again, there is the legal problem.
5-Think about ways to meet and interact with locals : sports are a good way, you could have other ideas.
6-Do the maths: cost of living + class - payment for work, city by city.

edited to clarify...

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

And besides, schools that will offer you to learn russian are normally languages schools, so you can discuss with them free Russian lessons against english lessons, to keep it legal. That sums up to exactly the stuff you've been obsessed with.
Since I mentioned Ekaterinburg, here's one http://www.talisman-online.ru/index.php?main=russian.

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

Here is one : http://www.languagesinaction.com/learn-russian/russia/samara.php
1145 euros for 8 weeks, 20 hours per week, that's a much, much better deal than the 2 you found. I don't think having over 20 hours per week is useful, you need to go out and speak.
homestay@600 euros for the first month.
If you want to compare with the 16 weeks of studyabroadlinks.com :

Samara:
lessons @2185 euros for 320 hours
homestay @1770 euros . Homestay means you can ask people at home to speak Russian... if they speak any english... (oh and besides they probably feed you at that price...)
Total 3955 euros
NO WORK, FREE TIME to spend with Russian people.

studyabroadlinks.com program:
4100 euros (10 hours of lessons per week only apparently), in a rented appartment, shared with an English speaker = you'll never use any Russian at home during your stay, and you'll hang out with your group outside, speaking English again. And besides, you still have to pay for your food.
Teach English = you'll speak English with students, and between classes, English again with other teachers, and will have no free time to speak Russian
In total : failure guaranteed, and you'll only pay to teach English.

Yeah if you have teaching experience they offer a better deal money wise, but it doesn't help you learn anything.

The fact that they offer the same prices in cities with very different costs of living (and salaries of Russian teachers) is not a good sign.

And that's just one example I found in 5 minutes, but I hope it helped you understand...
But since you mention that you would prefer to be in Moscow, I seriously doubt that your primary goal is to learn Russian. So think about it this way : having a girlfriend in Moscow is waaaaay more expensive than in smaller cities. And in smaller cities, they'll be just as beautiful, and will be much more likely to be interested in something more than your credit card and your passport. Your personality, if you have any.

sd305 · Just Starting Joined: 08 Jul 2009 Posts: 5

ha, i don't give a shit about being in moscow, i just have most of my russian friends in the city. naturally, i want to see them, but like you said, there is always weekend trips. i noticed you posted samara, i've heard some bad things about this city from my friend in moscow, such as people getting beat up there simply because they're from canada, he said he is scared himself to go down there. is this just typical moscow talk, or is there something wrong with the city?

sd305 · Just Starting Joined: 08 Jul 2009 Posts: 5

by the way, thanks for all that information, that cleared a lot of things up for me. i think i'll check out volgograd first because i heard they have some cool things about the battle of stalingrad in there Smile

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

Seriously, nobody hates Canadians. There are some xenophobic violence in Russia but I don't think it's at the level of Spain, Italy, France, and it's mostly ethnic... I don't know Samara but I can't believe that story. I still have to meet an African who got beaten for being African. And yes, Russians are often racists.
Glad I helped and that you have a real interest for Russia and Russian language. Remember Russia is much bigger than Canada and trips within the country get much more expensive than in North America when you are too far to travel by train. So to get possibilities to go to Moscow several times you probably want to stay within 2 train days (a 2 day train trip could be an interesting experience, and trains are good in Russia... you could certainly arrange with your school a week off), with a focus on the Golden Ring and the greater Moscow area (Ryazan, Tambov...). Flights to some cities in the south can be affordable (but Moscow - Barnaul for example is horribly expensive).
Ethnic Russians from Moscow and Central Russia tend to make this kind of negative comments about regions with relatively large minorities. I don't know Samara, but I can tell that they probably make the same comments on Ufa or Kazan, and according to friends from Kazan and Ufa, those comments are just BS.

gaijin · Lounge Lizard Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 155

I forgot the obvious : the most dangerous city of Russia, by far, is Moscow. No city comes any close in terms of xenophobic violence.
Concerning Volgograd, it can be nice, and there's a train doing the trip in just 19 hours (50 euros in kupe).
To have an idea of the cost of living, check the price of apartments. You could buy a little apartment (50 sq m) for 20000 euros in Volgograd, that's seems like a good place to be on a student budget!