The English Teachers

She laughs at the irony of it all.

But I’ve met a lot of really lovely people and I’ve gained so much experience here. I’d like to come here for a weekend, spend time just walking around and enjoying a beautiful summer day and meet my friends and then go back home to the peace and quiet.

*

Luka Miksic (LM)

Setting the scene: It’s spring in Kurdistan and I’ve taken two planes, crossed four borders and finally an entertaining 120 kilometre per hour ride in a taxi through the surprisingly flat Kurdish countryside to be here. Outside the air-conditioned, modern university building with its polished marble floors and well-stocked dinner hall is an unassuming valley city, flanked on either side by steep, rocky hills and mountains.

Luka and I sit in an office cubicle. We are interrupted several times by students asking him about their exam results. Although this is rather annoying, I appreciate they are paying for the privilege of studying here whereas I’m just paying for the beer later. Luka speaks quickly with a slight Eastern European accent I would find difficult to place if I didn’t know where he is from. To protect his identity, he only speaks of his time in Moscow.

LM: I did a Masters in Journalism, then I worked as a receptionist for several summer sessions before travelling to Japan where I got the idea of becoming an English teacher when I met other teachers. I did my CELTA after that and 10 months later I came to Russia and worked there for a year.

RFDG: Why did you choose teaching?

LM: Initially it was about having the ability to move abroad and travel. Honestly, I didn’t care about teaching that much. It was a means to an end, but since then I’ve grown to quite like it.

RFDG: Why did you choose Moscow?

LM: There were jobs and it was culturally different from the rest of Europe, which was what I was after when I was looking for a place to live. It was an interesting place and the job was alright for an inexperienced teacher like myself.

RFDG: What do you mean when you say Russia is “culturally different”?

LM: It’s hard to describe. Moscow has a different atmosphere. It’s not as Western. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s neither positive nor negative. It’s just particular in its own way. The way people treat other people and society in general. That’s quite useless, isn’t it?

He chuckles a little.

RFDG: What do you mean about the “way people treat other people”?

LM: They have a certain demeanour in Russia which is hard to describe. They are more reserved in a way, but at the same time they are not as reserved as I would say Western Europeans in some cases. And once you break through the ice they are usually really warm and kind people. It’s just that when you don’t know them they can often seem very unkind and rude. I’m generalising, of course, but that’s kind of general vibe I got there.

RFDG: And you still chose to work there despite that?

LM: Yeah.

RFDG: Some people would say that’s unusual.

LM: Why?

RFDG: Because it could be interpreted as a hostile environment.

LM: It wasn’t hostile. It’s weird at first, but as I said it just seems that way until you break the ice.

RFDG: How did you go about doing that?

LM: Trying to speak Russian. Speak a few words of Russian and they just like you 500 times more.

RFDG: If you hadn’t become a teacher what would you have done?

LM: I have no clue.

RFDG: What would you like to have done?

LM: Maybe I would have stayed in the hospitality industry because the high school I went to was a vocational high school for that kind of work.

We hear a knock on the door. Another student has appeared for advice, providing a perfect ending to the first section of our interview.

*

Günther Cristiano Butzen (GCB)

Setting the scene: There’s an old church in the Chekovskaya area surrounded by high walls and sitting just off a leafy boulevard nearby. The school Günter and I sit in is in the shadow of that large complex, much in the same way I sit in the shadow of Günter. While imposing in figure, he speaks in a gentle way I associate with people from Brazil. It seems a part of his calm manner more generally.

GCB: I’m from the south of Brazil. I grew up in a small town in the countryside. When I started university and did Languages and Literature, I had my first experience of going abroad. Since then I’ve been looking for more opportunities.

RFDG: Why did you choose teaching?

GCB: I didn’t choose it. It chose me. I started university, not because I was into languages and linguistics, but because I liked literature. When you’re young you’re full of dreams and just want to read novels and talk about them with your friends. But you can’t make a living out of it unless you have the talent to become a writer yourself.

He raises an eyebrow and nods slightly in my direction, paying a quiet but good-humoured compliment.

But that wasn’t the case for me. Suddenly I saw myself going into language teaching. And that’s how it started.

RFDG: Why did you decide to work in Moscow?

GCB: Lots of reasons. I’d been teaching in Brazil for a long time and for the last few years had been trying work abroad. After I took my TESOL* and CELTA courses I saw an opportunity and started applying. The problem is you have very few opportunities if you’re a Brazilian citizen.

The first jobs I applied for and had a positive response I couldn’t take. Some were in Europe and you have to have a European citizenship, so it was not possible. All the others were in Asia or the Middle East and most of them you have to be a citizen of specific English-speaking countries. I applied for a job in Siberia and had an interview, but the interviewer and myself realised it wasn’t going to happen because Siberia is so far from Brazil and the ticket would be too expensive. But it opened a window. I realised it was possible to come to Russia to teach, so I started applying for jobs. I applied here, had an interview and was offered a job. And here I am.

*Note: TESOL generally describes any non-CELTA certificate in teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

RFDG: If you could choose where to work, where would you go?

GCB: The Middle East.

RFDG: Why?

GCB: Well, I like different things and think it would be really different. It’s a completely different society and way of thinking. I’m not sure if I would survive in such a dry place, but I think I would be able to overcome it. I’ve also been told the wages are higher (smiles). And if not the Middle East, then here as I’m in love with Moscow. I would also love to teach in Western Europe. So, if I could pick it would be one of these.

RFDG: Why did you pick this school in particular?

GCB: Frankly speaking, I applied via a platform and you just select a country and there are a bunch of schools. Accidentally, I bumped into BKC-IH. I’d taken a few training courses in IH London and these were two of the best course I’ve taken in my life. I mean really useful, really nice. The tutor was just fantastic and I left very impressed with the school. When I received an email inviting me for an interview I thought I wouldn’t get a job there as I thought I wasn’t up to the task.

I was interviewed by an ADOS.* who was very nice. I was a bit nervous because the first attempt at the interview I missed due to the time zone. But they found another time and another ADOS. It went quite smoothly and I was told I’d get an answer in a week. I was happy with that. Just getting an interview meant I had some kind of worth.

A week later I was offered a job and I thought, “Should I leave Brazil? Should I go that far and leave my house, family and job here?” I still have a family there. But I was taking a shower and thought, “It’s International House. I want to go.” And I got out of the shower and the decision was taken like that.

*Note: ADOS is an abbreviation of Assistant Director of Studies. They are usually English teachers with some management and administrative responsibility, and supervise the work of teacher. A Director of Studies (DOS) does this in smaller schools or oversees schools at a strategic level.

RFDG: What was so impressive about the training sessions with IH?

GCB: Generally, you don’t remember names of courses, but I remember these two. One was “Current Trends” and it was really about that subject. We really discussed things I’ve recently seen in my academic life and new things. It was not a joke. I checked later on and they were right. The other one was called “Practical Teaching” and again it was that. Practical techniques all the time. No discussion on theory but hands on all the time.

*

Maksim Levkin (ML)

Setting the scene: The first thing that stands out about Max is how tall he is. Standing a good head above me, I’m thankful when we sit down so I don’t have to crane my neck. The second is how energetic he is. His enthusiasm is infectious and rapidly fills the room we have borrowed for the interview, its narrow windows overlooking rooftops in the heart of Moscow.

ML: I’m 23 and recently moved to Moscow. I always dreamed about living in such a big city. It was boring in a small town, but living here I have many possibilities and I’m into working in such a big company like the one I’m in now. I originally wanted to be a teacher and now that I am, I’m truly happy.

RFDG: Why did you choose to be a teacher?

ML: I never thought about being a teacher before I went to work in a summer camp. While I was there it was almost like something magical happened. I fell in love with teaching children and I realised I wanted to dedicate myself to teaching them and teaching in general.

RFDG: What did you enjoy about it?

ML: I liked that children respect me and I can share my knowledge with them. I also like the feedback I get from the classes.

RFDG: If you hadn’t become a teacher, what would you have done?

ML: I think I’d be a photographer. I’m really good at it.

*

Edward Crabtree (EC)

Setting the scene: I meet Edward at a school in bustling Chistye Prudy as the afternoon traffic and pedestrians go about their business. By contrast, inside it’s a quiet day with only a few students coming in for classes and placement tests. We don’t get our choice of rooms and we’re sitting in a smallish classroom with a high and narrow window looking out onto the courtyard below. There’s not much sunlight on this side of the building and the air is cool. A welcome break from the erratic central heating.

EC: I studied Literature at university. I had aspirations to be a lecturer but found that difficult. I was working in jobs like security, but I took an education certificate and slowly started getting some supply work in Further Education Colleges. Then I got a job at an International Sixth Form. I was working in Leicester at the time.

I was teaching what they called foundation English to West Africans and some Chinese students who wanted to get into university in England. It wasn’t TEFL; they were meant to already be fluent English speakers. Unfortunately, the school collapsed due to economic problems and I was without a job after two years. I thought it would be my future, but it suddenly fell from under me.

Then I did supply teaching which was absolute hell, but I tried to persevere. And then I got a job at a semi-rural school which I thought would be quite nice, but it wasn’t. The discipline issues and the hostility from the pupils were beyond belief. It was meant to be long term but I only stayed for two months.

RFDG: Was teaching there similar to being a supply teacher elsewhere?

EC: I got it through being a supply teacher. The idea was if I could hack it then I would stay on, but I couldn’t and I didn’t.

RFDG: What kind of discipline problems were there?

EC: It was just war. For example, someone putting a condom in my pocket and saying, “Look in your pocket.” Another time someone tried to headbutt me.

RFDG: Didn’t you get any support from the head teacher?

EC: They were trying but they had their own issues. I was supposed to know how to deal with that kind of thing, but all I had was an adult education certificate. They tried to help but not as much as they could. I was more or less told I’d probably get ill or I could leave. So, then I was without a job and had no ties; I’d just studied there. Maybe going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. Then I came across a website that was offering a bit of volunteer teaching and volunteer work in different locations.

The background to this is my family is a travelling family. My brothers travel a lot and my sister lives in Sweden. I hadn’t travelled a lot until that time, so I kind of had a bit of chip on my shoulder about it. I’m not a traveller – even now.

Anyway, I saw the website and one of the countries was Moldova. At the time no-one else in my family had gone there and no-one else could beat me on that one, so I applied for volunteer teaching there. It was a two-month contract which seemed like a long time to be away. It was a massive leap. I’d only been in a plane about four times before that and then to go somewhere that no-one else had and not know what was at the other end of it.

RFDG: Wasn’t that a bit terrifying?

EC: It was. I remember lying in bed at night thinking, “What have I done!?” But it shows how desperate I was for change. So, I did it. I went to the capital. They call it the white city. I was stationed in a Russian school and staying with a Russian family, so I got the Russian angle on everything. Through them I understood that Moldovan Russians are not happy that the Soviet Union collapsed and they feel they have been left high and dry. They feel Russian. They are kind of miserable people and they respond by trying to be more Russian than Russians.

RFDG: How does that manifest itself?

EC: By being very touchy. For example, I wanted to give a talk about the poet John Osborne, which I did in the end. But it mentioned the invasion of Hungary and they said I couldn’t say that because Russia didn’t invade Hungary, it was invited by the Hungarians. There were all kinds of things you could and couldn’t say. Much more than in Russia.

So, I was introduced to Russian culture that way. I was quite amazed because I didn’t think it was possible to live abroad. I didn’t realise it was something I could do. It was a test of whether I could do it and I concluded that I could, much to my own surprise. I was kind of intrigued by Russia. The alphabet is completely different, the language is too, but on the other hand it’s not as different as Japanese or Chinese. It’s different but the same at the same time and that intrigued me.

I had an epiphany when I was sitting and waiting to teach in one of the rooms. They gave me this soup and I was eating it and looking across at the Russian alphabet poster on the wall and figuring it out. It was pretty much the same order of letters and I was enjoying the soup and I thought I could cope with it.

Anyway, I finished in Moldova and went back to Britain skint, but with lots of stories and quite buoyed up by the whole thing. To cut a long story short, I did a summer school and met a guy there who was like a mentor. He was teaching in Italy. Prior to this I didn’t know the TEFL industry existed. I knew there were people teaching in China, but I didn’t realise this whole big thing existed.

He introduced me to the idea that you could take a TEFL certificate and work abroad. He was kind of my model that this was possible. So I did my CELTA with Saxon Court in London and I looked about the job market and saw an advert for jobs in the Ukraine. I was thinking about Eastern Europe after Moldova and I applied for that and got an email asking me to come for an interview which was in Norfolk for some reason.

I went and the gentleman was very eccentric. It turned out he was a head-hunter and wasn’t offering a particular job. He said there was a post in West Siberia and he helped me through the application process. I got the job and in 2007 I went to this oil town in West Siberia and taught there for a year and a half. It was a good introduction to Russian Russia. There was no expat community. There were no concessions to anything Western or European.

Then I went back to Britain for a while, but there weren’t many jobs so I went for a job in Kazan for four years at a small school before moving on to where I am now.

RFDG: I know Moscow wasn’t your first choice, but what drew you here?

EC: I just wanted to work in Russia. I applied to St Petersburg, too. I actually didn’t really want to work in Moscow, but I’ve since come to like it here. I used to think it was too big and probably too expensive. Maybe too Westernised as well. But I’ve come to like it more. Kazan is my favourite city, but there’s more going on in Moscow.

RFDG: Why did you decide to go into teaching in the first place?

EC: My dad is an Art lecturer. It’s kind of in the blood since my mum is a primary school teacher – and a nurse as well – and I had an interest in my actual subject which is English literature. I was interested in conveying that. I never saw myself as an ordinary teacher. My original idea was to work in adult education or as a lecturer, but then you take what work there is and follow from there.

*

Elena Atlasova (EA)

Setting the scene: The room we’re sitting in is part of a franchise’s teacher training department and is far too big for the slight figures of Lena and myself. We’ve both had our afternoon coffee and it’s obvious from the rapid-fire way we speak to each other. Lena confesses she sometimes worries about her English and hopes she will be comprehensible. Her mock nervousness and thoughtfulness as she speaks lets me know this will not be a problem at all.

EA: I grew up here in Moscow. My mom is also a teacher, but she’s a German teacher. I’ve always wanted to do something connected to languages. My school years were really, really good. I loved school. I was not – definitely not – a star pupil, but I still loved it. I spent most of my time reading.

After school I went to the People’s Friendship University of Russia. I did my BA in Philology and my paper was on the peculiarities of the translation from English to Russian in terms of fiction books. Then my family insisted on me doing my Masters. I really didn’t want to, mainly because I’d had enough at that point. I really wanted to start working and earning money. Then after some time, I did want to do my Masters, but I went to a different field.

I studied Arts and Humanities. I loved it, mostly because I love education and I love knowledge, especially if it’s free and I don’t have to pay for it. But at the same time, it was quite difficult because I wanted to start working. So I did. I worked for a couple of magazines. I worked for the Russian edition of Glamour magazine and for Fashion Collection, but I didn’t really like it. It was quite boring, to tell the truth. I mean, probably for somebody it would be the goal of their life, but it wasn’t for me. So, I decided to do something else and I came to BKC and worked as an administrator for a year.

Then I did my CELTA and I loved it so much that I haven’t been able to stop teaching ever since.

RFDG: I know you said you always wanted to be a teacher, but what do you think are the reasons?

EA: Well, my mom is a teacher and she loves her profession so much. She’s a university teacher and she’s always said that it’s the best profession you can possibly have because you don’t have to sit in an office. You get to work with people. I like that and I think she feels the same as I do, that our profession is really, really rewarding, because not only do you get to learn about people, you get to make friendships and acquaintances. It’s also very rewarding in terms of making people’s lives better. The other part of my family wanted me to go into medicine, but I don’t think it’s for me. I still love knowing that I’m actually doing something to make people’s lives better. So, I think that was the main reason.

RFDG: You grew up here. Is that the only reason you decided to work specifically in Moscow?

EA: No. Until last year I haven’t been able to really leave Moscow. I have my whole family here and even though they actually wanted me to go and study somewhere and were ready to give me the money to do it, my grandfather had cancer, so I didn’t want to go anywhere.

Now the situation, unfortunately, has changed and I’m free to go wherever I want.

RFDG: If you could go anywhere, where would you like to go?

EA: I love Europe. Maybe it’s because I’m very into art. I’m specifically into European art – a boring person! Many people say, “Oh, Europe – every city, every town is absolutely no different from every other one. It’s all the same. Blah, blah, blah.” I’ve heard my friends saying that.

But every single little town, village and city I’ve been to in Europe is so different. And I love it. I love the differences. I love the cultural differences. If you go to Asia, of course there is a bigger difference. But I still love Europe. I’d love to go to England again. I was there three times when I was in school, but I don’t really remember much. I do remember it, of course, but I’ve never really got to explore it, to experience it.

RFDG: Does anything stop you from going there?

EA: No, not really, apart from the financial question because it is very, very expensive. So, right now that’s why I’m trying to get the teaching scholarship. But I have a job and I think I could get a visa. Then again, you need a lot of time to actually explore the UK, so I think I can only do it in the summer.

*

Felipe Fülber (FF)

Setting the scene: Like many interviewees, Felipe puts a great deal of thought into what he says. Unlike many interviewees, he often makes puns and sly asides. This takes the edge off the wisdom and thoughtfulness that comes through while we sit in somewhat uncomfortable desk chairs in one of the smaller classrooms of a teacher training centre.

FF: I went to university in Brazil to get a degree in English, so I did some studying of English literature and pedagogy. I worked as an English teacher while I was at university. I started when I was 18. I worked for two and a half years in a school that was mostly audio-lingual, so there was a lot of drilling.

When I finished I got a job at a school which did CLT and that’s where I stayed for the next six years. Then I did my CELTA in 2014 and I went to Barcelona and started my DELTA before going back to Brazil to do Module 1. Once that was over I started looking for jobs elsewhere and then I came here.

RFDG: Why did you choose teaching?

FF: To be honest, I didn’t know what else to do with my life. In Brazil, when you finish secondary school you have to decide what course you want to do and you have to do a university entrance exam, which is quite hard. It can be a big waste of time if you decide to do a course and give up halfway through. Since I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do I decided to go with what I was good at which was English. It honestly wasn’t the hardest one to get into. Midway through I needed some money, so I thought I might as well start teaching. I taught university students and enjoyed it.