The English Teachers

RFDG: Brazil and Spain are quite hot, so why Moscow?

He laughs in anticipation of his answer.

FF: Because it was cold. Actually, after I was done in Barcelona and started looking for jobs, I was more interested in going to Colombia or Argentina because I was more interested in practising my Spanish more than anything. Of all the schools I sent my CV to, BKC was the nicest one. It was a similar situation to when I was looking for a place to do my DELTA. I sent my application to IH Vancouver, Barcelona and London. Barcelona was the nicest. They replied the quickest and gave me as much information as I wanted. How receptive the company was, for me, important.

RFDG: So, it’s not so much the country as the school or the company?

FF: Yeah, it was mostly about the company because I really wanted to further my career and become a CELTA trainer. That’s my immediate goal and I thought I’d have a better chance of doing it here. In my interview, my interviewer mentioned all the seminars and workshops. So far I’m the only person who seems to be excited about seminars.

RFDG: If you hadn’t become an English teacher what would you have been?

FF (deadpan): Homeless?

I can’t help but laugh and join in the fun.

FF: Seriously, I honestly don’t know. I feel many English teachers are failed artists of some kind. I did some writing at university and I record music from time to time, so I’d like to be involved in something like that. But I don’t think I’d be making as much money as an English teacher which is not that much to begin with, so that’s quite discouraging. I guess some sort of boring administrative job somewhere.

RFDG: Is that observation of English teachers being failed artists based solely on your life or encounters with others?

FF: Encounters with others for sure. Including one famous one. If you look up Jeremy Harmer’s name on Google, you’ll find two blocks. One devoted to ELT, the other to his not so well known music career. So, I’m in good company.

RFDG: Is it beneficial for teachers to have an artistic flair?

FF: It means you’re more willing to make a fool of yourself, or that you are more comfortable in public and being the centre of attention… and maybe you want to be the centre of attention. So that helps. Sometimes you find teachers who get anxious easily and don’t know how to do it very easily, so perhaps that is somehow connected.

*

Frances (F)

Setting the scene: It’s getting dark outside. Moscow has yet to emerge from winter and the sun still moves across the sky at a faster pace than the moon. It will be soon be sub-zero outside at the end of a day of many classes and interviews. My final interviewee is Frances. This is not her real name, but she prefers not to be cast in the limelight with her actual name.

Perhaps this is just as well since the office we sit in – shared with several others – is somewhat messy so giving away the location may annoy some others. Then again, this seems to be hallmark of many teacher trainers working together in one office. Though I cannot describe her appearance much, Frances speaks with an even tone that marks out her years of experience. Occasionally, though, some mischief and sarcasm creeps in.

F: I was born and brought up in the north east of England. I studied Applied Language Studies in London. Since then I have been teaching. The first 23 years in a German context, then here in Moscow. I’m in teacher training and teaching.

RFDG: Why did you pick teaching as a career?

F: I didn’t. Well, OK, let’s go back. I studied Applied Language Studies and originally wanted to train as an interpreter, but at that time in the UK there were only three places you could do that. One was a poly in London and you had to be either rich and African or very, very good to get in. Another was in Bath, which was just very, very boring.

The final one was in Bradford. I went all the way to Bradford to the university and did the try out test. It was translation and interpretation and all six of us there got through the translation for both languages. We all got through the interpreting for French, but we all failed the interpreting for German. Basically, the message was, “Go to Germany and come back when you can actually speak the language.”

So, I went to Germany and did teaching.

RFDG: So, why didn’t you go back to being an interpreter? Why did you stay being a teacher?

F: I don’t know. I just never got around to it.

She laughs.

RFDG: And then you came here. Why did you pick Moscow?

F: Because I wanted to do DELTA – God knows why – but I wanted to do it here because in Germany at that time, at the end of the 1990s and 2000s, CELTA was virtually unknown. DELTA was problematic. There was no DELTA school in Germany. I was working in a university context and if you’re not an academic on an academic track in the university context in Germany, they don’t care what you do as long as your students don’t complain. There is no in-service training. There’s nothing.

So, I had to leave the country and I went to IH because that’s where I did my initial training. IH means something. I interviewed for Prague and for Moscow, and I had students who were here in Moscow that year, so I came to Moscow.

RFDG: That was the only thing that influenced your decision to choose here and not Prague?

F: Well, that and the fact you got much better pay here in Moscow. Well, it was then and in fairness it still is. It’s better than most of Europe. Let’s be honest about this.

RFDG: But you stayed.

F: Yeah.

RFDG: Why?

F: Haven’t got around to leaving yet?

RFDG: Surely that can’t be the only reason.

F: No, I assure you it is. In fairness, I have more opportunities here than pretty much anywhere else in Europe.

RFDG: What kind of opportunities do you enjoy?

F: I enjoy teacher training. I think in Germany, certainly, I would never have been in that context. I know there are CELTA centres now and I’m going to inspect one of them at the end of April, but it’s still in Germany. The population is reluctant to pay for its own education and it’s a very difficult market.

South of Europe is a much bigger market, but the pay is really bad and there’s still not so much opportunity in terms of teacher training. And also here because of the opening up of the Cambridge Exam market and the IELTS* exam market. That’s just really taken off in the last 10 to 15 years. I have had lots of opportunities to work as a presenter for Cambridge Assessment English**. And it’s good because it’s teacher training and it gets me out of the city.

*Note: IELTS – The International English Language Testing System. An international standardised test of English.

**Note: Cambridge Assessment English – a Cambridge Exam board.

RFDG: Is it particularly important to be away from Moscow?

F: No, but I like travelling.

*

Chee-way Sun (CWS)

Setting the scene: We sit in an office shared by several academic managers, though Chee-way is not one (yet). The chairs are more comfortable here, the windows larger and there’s an airy feeling in the room, covered as it is by mountains of books and piles of CDs and teaching aids. Despite the appearance of barely-organised chaos, Chee-way seems at ease here, often laughing in the not-quite-manic way I have come to see as one of her trademark features.

CWS: I was born in America BUT my dad is South American Peruvian and my mum is Chinese. BUT I am also Canadian because my mum left the States to go to Canada. That’s how I’m also a Canadian citizen. Then I began to travel with my dad. I went to China with him. After that I went back to the States and Europe, and was in Latvia for about 13 years. I basically grew up there as a teen and a young adult.

RFDG: Why did you choose teaching?

CWS: My dad is a professor in university. I wanted to be a psychiatrist, but my dad discouraged me because he said if I knew what people think I’d be depressed all the time. He’s quite pessimistic. Then I wanted to be a teacher, but Dad wanted me to be a musician. But I didn’t pass the music exam (thank goodness) because I never studied.

She giggles. Sometimes teachers make the worst students.

He thought I was studying but I was just pretending. So, I failed and I went to a primary school teaching programme. We had practice in schools. They would send us to schools and kindergartens and after that I decided to find a job. At first I worked in a kindergarten, but I felt the salary wasn’t good enough. My best friend was working in IH Riga and she introduced me to the main boss there and, after an interview, I became an English teacher.

RFDG: And you came to Moscow?

CWS: No, I was in Latvia for sometime in IH Riga and then my family moved to Ireland. I left Riga because it was a lot of work for me and my family left, so I wasn’t sure what was there besides work. After a year I decided to go to Vietnam.

RFDG: And then you came to Moscow.

CWS: No.

She laughs at my repeated failures to find connections.

We will get there! I actually applied to Moscow when I was in Vietnam, but the visa procedure in Vietnam wasn’t successful so I went to Canada. Then I realised I was missing some Canadian documents and without them I couldn’t really complete the procedure so I ended up staying there for one and a half years.

At first I couldn’t work without the documents so I volunteered for a month in IH Vancouver so I wouldn’t’ be bored waiting for my papers. Then they arrived and in December 2017. I emailed IH again after seeing the job post.

RFDG: And then you still didn’t come?

CWS: Yeah, they said they had enough teachers. And then that was postponed until the next year.

RFDG: So, you went through hell to come to Moscow. Why?

CWS: I don’t know. I just feel like there is something here I have to come for.

RFDG: That’s an awful lot of effort for just a feeling.

CWS: I know! It’s interesting.

RFDG: If you had to go anywhere else where would that be?

CWS: Maybe Italy or Spain because the food is great and I usually go for the food… except for Moscow. I don’t find that interesting after growing up in Latvia.

*

Carlos Monroy (CS)

Setting the scene: It’s another blue-sky, cold-air day in the centre of the Moscow school where I sit with Carlos. He always seems to have a light manner about him that matches his big smile and floppy black hair which sits across his forehead at a slight angle. He speaks in a way that matches his demeanour: calm, clear and relaxed.

CM: I studied English literature at university because I wanted to be a literary translator, but then I thought, “How can I travel the world and learn other languages?” I could sooner do it by teaching than by translating. So, I started and I really enjoyed it. I began teaching in a private university, then in the national university and then I started teaching Spanish in some very improved schools. And then I started teaching privately. Then I came here.

RFDG: Did you go straight from Mexico to Russia?

CM: I did my CELTA in London. I was there for three months. I think it was only there I really started speaking English.

He laughs a little.

RFDG: So, it was only for the travel aspects?

CM: Yes, but I really enjoyed it as soon as I started.

RFDG: What do enjoy the most?

CM: Trying to understand how language works and finding ways to explain it. I enjoy seeing students understand it. It’s very rewarding. People often say it’s the most rewarding job in the world and I agree to a certain extent. When students don’t say things it’s not so rewarding.

He laughs.

CM: When it doesn’t work it’s not so rewarding at all.

RFDG: Why did you choose to come here?

CM: I went to learn another language and Russian was the next best step. I’m sure Spanish, English, French, Chinese and Japanese have very interesting literary traditions, but Russian was what I thought should be next. It was like, “What has some great literature? Oh it’s Russian. Let’s learn Russian!”

RFDG: If you hadn’t come here, where would you have gone?

CM: Well, there is a French visa I can request once in my life before I’m 30. So, I was thinking either France or Moscow, but if I told them I spoke French I would have had to write in French. It was easier to write in English when I applied for a job here. So I did, got an answer in two days and had the interview the following week. Never got to go to France.

RFDG: Do you think you’ll go there.

CM: Yes, it’s my plan. I have to take advantage of that.

*

Cheng Zhang-Stoddard (CZS)

Setting the scene: Spring has finally come to the northwest of Moscow and the grass is growing back in the spaces left barren by heavy winter snowfall. Not that we can see any of this as Cheng and I sit in the small, windowless room in a school in the well-to-do area of Kuntsevskaya. The school is quiet for the moment; the numerous young students who make up the student body here have yet to arrive for their afternoon classes in the busy private school. Although we are cramped, Cheng seems animated by the spirit of spring as she speaks.

CZS: I was born and raised in China. I stayed there until I was 20 and went to Hong Kong, and then finished my undergrad in China before going to England and doing my Masters in London. I went back to China for another two years to teach English. I didn’t enjoy it but I met my husband there. We stayed in Toronto for another year or two before coming to Moscow and I’ve been here for at least two years.

RFDG: Why did you become a teacher?

CZS: It might sound clichéd, but I watched a video of me in kindergarten when I was five and when my teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I said, “I want to be a teacher!” It wasn’t something specific, it just happened and I suppose it’s meant to be.

RFDG: Why did you decide to come to work in Moscow?

CZS: Initially, my brother-in-law worked in the American Embassy and moved here with his family. They came here and told us great things and my husband and I were looking for a place to work and live together. So, I applied for this job, it worked out and we came here to Moscow.

RFDG: If you hadn’t picked Moscow, where would you have gone?

CZS: The States or probably in China, but I always wanted to leave there.

RFDG: How was teaching in China different to teaching in Moscow?

CZS: It was awful! The part I hated the most was how there was no sense of professional development, which is what I love about this job right now. I just felt there was no growth in me and I enjoy seeing myself learning different things and becoming a different person. There was none of that so I hated it.

*

Anastasia Kolcheva (AK)

Setting the scene: The school is a long way from the Kantemirovskaya metro station, but it does have a certain charm, much like the rest of Moscow, as it struggles to warm up in the early spring time. Ana and I have taken refuge in a classroom decorated with posters produced by students and the school administration. She gives off a relaxed, friendly vibe and I quickly recover my sense of calm after my long walk from the metro station.

AK: I was born in Moscow and I’ve lived here all my life. I graduated from two universities, a humanities one and a linguistic one, and I’ve been working as a teacher for almost 17 years. Before I worked in a state university in Moscow.

RFDG: Why did you decide to become a teacher?

AK: I think it runs in the family because my grandfather and my mother were teachers. He was a History teacher.

RFDG: Why did you focus on English?

She smiles with the memory.

AK: I was lucky. I had a perfect teacher at university. I hated English at school but university changed everything.

RFDG: What was so bad about it when you were younger?

AK: The teacher. She was humiliating people. She wasn’t a nice person. It wasn’t the language, it was a personal thing.

RFDG: Is that a common thing amongst teachers in some schools?

AK: In Russia? Yeah, definitely. My students say if they like the teacher then they like the subject and they go on with their studies.

RFDG: Was Moscow a natural choice from being born here?

AK: Yes.

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

AK: A lawyer. I got the training at high school, but then I had this great English teacher. I originally settled on law, but meeting that teacher changed my life.

*

Luis Clavijo (LC)

Setting the scene: Some interviewees hated the idea of being interviewed at their workplace. Luis insisted on a coffee shop with a special kind of friendly resolve Spanish speakers are so good at conveying. We sit next to a window overlooking a busy mid-afternoon Tverskaya Street with the sun catching Luis’s well-groomed hair.

We are not alone. Despite having a population in the millions, it’s still possible to “bump into” people you know in Moscow and a colleague has plonked herself down with us while waiting for a Cambridge Exam Re-Certification. It is not looked kindly on to reveal the identity of examiners, so we will refer to her simply as Elizabeth in her contributions.

LC: How far back should I go?

I laugh – we only have 60 minutes and Luis has a lot to say.

RFDG: Try to be brief and give me a general picture!

LC: Oh God! OK, about 25 years ago I needed a little bit of pocket money so I decided to go into teaching and I’ve been doing it ever since. I fell in love with it about a year and a half into it. I started buying books about professional development and CELTA related stuff, and methodology and different techniques.

I was living in South America and I couldn’t get any CELTA training or any kind of training there. I had to wait for a long, long time before I got my CELTA in 2003 and I kept doing the same things only a little better.

RFDG: Is that why you came to Moscow? To do your CELTA?

LC: No, I came to Moscow in 2004/5 the first time because it was my first international job and I wanted to test myself with speakers of a language that wasn’t Spanish.

RFDG: You could have gone anywhere, why here?

LC: I applied for three or four different posts and Moscow was definitely the most interesting. I got a job in Turkey and another one in the Czech Republic before they joined the EU. But then the school didn’t sound as promising as Moscow. I remember telling my colleague I was very excited about and proud of being a teacher in the school I was going to work in. She looked at me and asked, “What the hell are you talking about!?” That was back in 2004. She didn’t share my enthusiasm. She knew how the school worked.

RFDG: What’s so interesting about Moscow?

LC: The other schools were IH and one of the things I fell in love with before I did my CELTA was the history of CELTA and how the whole certification came about. I went to the British Council, which was based in Bolivia, and got this beautiful folder that explained all of that. It was IH which was involved with it and I thought one day I’d like to teach for them. That was back in 1998 and I got my wish granted in 2004.

I came here for a year and then I left. I went back to South America for about eight or nine years and came back here. I figured where else would I be able to do my DELTA and work at the same time. And it was a place I knew about in terms of how to survive the weather, the culture, the many differences that come with a different location.

*

Gary Krautkramer (GK) and Polina Pivovarova (PP)

Setting the scene: In school I never thought about the teachers having lives or wives or husbands. So often we only see one side of people and have to remind ourselves of the fact that they do have lives outside of work. The smiling young Russian-American couple sitting opposite me are a welcome reminder that teachers can and do find love. On the surface, they look very different. Gary with his dark hair and sharp features. Polina with her lighter hair and softer features. When they get talking, though, both speak with equal passion.

GK: I studied Linguistics and Sociology at university. I wanted to become a professor, but I got lost in studying languages and thought it might be a good idea to get a certification in teaching English to teach aboard. I was a big fan of travelling so it was a perfect mix for me. I got my certification and went to Costa Rica first, then South Korea and now here in Russia. I’ve been teaching for a couple of years and I really like it.

PP: I’m from Russia and I graduated here. I’ve been working as a teacher for more than three years. I basically did my best to educate myself to be a better professional and actually studying English.

RFDG: Polina, Russia seems like an obvious choice for you, but why Moscow in particular?

PP: My family moved here when I was 13 and I didn’t particularly like the idea of leaving my family and friends to go elsewhere. And Moscow is a capital city. There are more opportunities to find a job here and the salaries are better. I wouldn’t go back to my native town and work there.

RFDG: Gary, what about you? Why Russia and Moscow?

GK: I was teaching in South Korea for a good deal of money and I thought it was great because I could save up a lot and pay off my college debt, but I ran into some problems in terms of the work environment and housing situation. So, I decided to leave and cut my stay short by six months. I was offered a position with a school in Kazan before I went to live in South Korea, but I turned it down because I wasn’t sure I wanted to live in Kazan.

RFDG: Why not?

GK: It was a smaller city and I was hoping for something more like a big metropolis. When I suggested St Petersburg or Moscow, they explained only Kazan was available so I turned them down for South Korea. Six months later I decided to try another chain of schools and took a position there in Moscow.

RFDG: What made you choose teaching?

PP: I was actually going to become a philologist, but my language skills didn’t allow me to go into a linguistic university and being a teacher wasn’t a very popular profession. The competition for linguistics was higher than for teaching and I didn’t have enough points to go there. So I went into a teaching university and I found I liked it and had a lot of ideas for teaching. I saw a lot of bad teachers at university and a couple of good ones. I compared them and understood how not to teach and which direction to move in. I took it as a challenge and thought I could do it well.