The English Teachers

RFDG: Was it always going to be Moscow?

AC: I also applied for Mexico but Moscow answered first. By the time they replied I was already in the process of getting the visa and the adventure had begun.

RFDG: Do you think your life would have been different if you’d chosen Mexico instead?

AC: Definitely. I can’t think how different, but I am probably three days away from home and six time zones away, so communicating with my family would have been easier and it would get to me sometimes. And when it comes to the cultural aspect, I think if I were in a Latin American country it would have been easier to adapt and communicate with people.

RFDG: Are you still glad you came?

AC: Yes, I feel like I’ve been growing a lot. It’s the first time I’ve lived on my own and every time I have some kind of difficulty, trying to solve it has been great. Not only like teaching, but also in learning how to deal with problems in a language that I can’t speak.

RFDG: And has that been easy?

AC: No. The first time I went to the supermarket I bought kefir instead of milk because I didn’t know how to say milk in Russian. I learned how to say milk after that. Also, when I had to go to the optician and get new glasses it was very difficult. And talking to people. It’s difficult to meet people outside of work.

RFDG: Do you think most teachers you work with encounter the same problems?

AC: Talking about where I am based, the only other non-Russian teacher has the same issues and it’s why we got so close in such a short time. Not only are we from the same country, we have the same difficulties and it’s been nice to have someone to speak to about that.

RFDG: Why is help with a visa so important?

AC: I’m quite impulsive and when I decided to leave I wanted something fast. I thought, if I can have help with this experience maybe one day I can go to another country where they would be willing to help, not only because they should but because they like my CV.

*

Nico Benger (NB)

Setting the scene: It’s a dusty afternoon in late spring at Chistye Prudy in the heart of Moscow. Nico and I have stepped into one of the rooms of a language school located close to the top floor. The glare of the sun bounces off one of the tables and occasionally into my eyes as it moves across the sky.

Nico has a coffee and I have a plastic cup filled with water next to me as my phone records our interview. He’s older than I am but he speaks with an exuberance to rival any teenager and produces such a volume of words that when I was typing I struggled to keep up. It’s good, though, as it gives us a lot to work with and I don’t hear North American accents very often so it’s great practice.

NB: I was born in France. My father is Canadian and my mother is French. I moved to Canada when I was seven or eight. I grew up on the west coast in a village. It was a tiny island of about 1,000 people. I couldn’t wait to get out of there but I got a bit stuck. I had a restaurant there which was quite successful and kept me there for years. I should have left sooner than I did.

RFDG: How did you get into teaching from there?

NB: Well, we ran the restaurant in the summer. Because it was in the north there weren’t tourists in the winter and we were able to shut down for long periods and I had the opportunity to travel. One of the first places I went to was Japan. This was back in the 90s. You didn’t need a degree, a CELTA or anything. You could walk in and get a job teaching and that was what I did. I ended up in Japan, teaching as a way to make money. The first time I did it was a couple of months before going back to Canada. While I was there I met guys doing TEFL and they were making good money and I realised it was something to get into. It took a while but that was the start of it.

At some point I went back to university and started a degree. I did it over a decade because I’d already started teaching and I went to China. I was there for a year and got a TEFL. I was also in and out of Japan for a few years. After China I went to Kazakhstan and did my CELTA in Almaty. I got the job even before my CELTA so I could do it with my own classes. It was a dream situation. International House provided the accommodation while I was there doing my CELTA.

Then I went to Indonesia. It was a long process. I also went back to Canada in that time to finish my degree. Like I say, it was over a decade so I took my time.

RFDG: So, after your degree you came to Moscow?

NB: No. Actually, I’ve been teaching so long I can’t quite remember the details (laughs). We were making a lot of money with the restaurant and I was back and forth a lot. It’s quite complicated.

If I go back to when I was in Almaty, there was a really nice group of guys there. One of them was Canadian and he was a little bit – well people said he was a bit bi-polar – and he was the first one to mention Russia to me. I had always been interested in Russia. When I was born, Russia was still part of the Soviet Union and it was always a place of fascination for lots of different reasons. Canada and Russia have hockey in common and the political system was interesting to me. The history was also interesting. It was very rich. So, I was always interested and he had been there and told me to go to any of the cities on the Volga, like Samara and Kazan.

I didn’t go at that point, though. I went to Indonesia and then back to Canada. Then finally I decided to go to Russia and I went to Kazan. I spent two years there and it was really good. At that time – it was around 2012 – it was like going to the province. We were some of the first foreigners teaching there. It was where I met Edward Crabtree and he told me about BKC in Moscow.

At that time there were about six or seven of us there. It was really nice. A very cosy place and we had a lot of fun. Many of the Russians hadn’t seen foreigners at that point and we got a great welcome wherever we went. They were very hospitable. We lived on a shoestring and there were plenty of places to hangout. Kazan was so small at that point. I lived near the Kremlin there. I was in the local newspaper because I could cycle in winter.

RFDG: And then you went to Moscow?

NB: Ha! No. Then I went back to Canada. Long story short, I went back and stayed for a year and hated it. I couldn’t stand it. We had a great season that year. I paid off all my student loans and the business collapsed. That’s when I went to Jakarta for two years. The first year was really good but the second wasn’t and Edward – who was working in Russia at the time – introduced me to BKC and that’s how I ended up here. Kind of a long story, I know.

RFDG: You said people were welcoming. Was that a surprise?

NB: No. Back then, 10 years ago, it was rare to see foreigners. For the locals it was a novelty and I had a good relationship with the shop keepers. At that time there was a central market and I would go to the same vendors all the time. I knew all my neighbours in my building. It was great.

RFDG: Do you think the proliferation of ELT qualifications has been detrimental?

NB: No, it’s been good. I remember some of the nut jobs who were teaching back then. They had no idea what they were doing and neither did I. When I was in Jakarta I saw the same thing. They were pulling kids off the street to teach as long as they were Caucasian. And they were unqualified or had some qualification, but it wasn’t good. Having said that, in Indonesia the level of teaching in the public schools is super low so you can’t expect too much. In Asia it’s different to Russia. In Russia they demand a lot more. If you go and teach in Asia – depending on where you are – the expectations are different.

In Japan it was more of a social club. They weren’t there to study grammar or get down to business. It’s something to do.

In Indonesia – especially for the rich Indonesians or the Chinese there – they do it but they aren’t serious and it’s kind of expected of them.

When I started teaching I’d never studied grammar and had no clue. I was looking at these tenses and wondering what they were and skipping over it. One time when I was teaching in Surabay and there was a new teacher in the teacher’s room. He was looking at what he was teaching for the day and called out, “What’s the present simple?“He hadn’t a clue how to do it. I swear to God.

It was good for the industry that CELTA came along. It gave everyone a base to start from and gave people information about form and function and skills. I don’t want to say it professionalised the industry, but it gave it some kind of standard that was very necessary. And good on them. Those first pioneers of the industry – the Brits who kind of started it all – I tip my hat to them, but I’m glad Cambridge got involved and gave it some legitimacy.

RFDG: How long have you been in Moscow?

NB: About three years. It’s the longest I’ve been anywhere.

RFDG: Why have you stayed so long?

NB: I really like the city. It’s great. I wish I’d been here in the 90s and the 2000s. I missed the anarchy of it. But even now there’s a lot to offer. There’s a lot of culture whether you’re into sports or going to museums or ballet. Whatever you are into, Moscow has it and it’s affordable. Everything is subsidised. Even on a teacher’s salary. I was making more money in Asia, but my standard of living is probably higher here because everything is subsidised. One of the reasons I have stuck around is the quality of life.

There are some things I miss, like riding my bicycle. I used to cycle everywhere. You can’t do it in Moscow, it’s too spread out. I’m running around the city a lot. On the other hand they have a phenomenal metro system. I have a scooter when I get off the metro.

RFDG: And you’ve spent the whole time with the school you are with now?

NB: Yeah, I have. To be honest with you, I’ve looked at other situations. For example, the private kindergartens but I realised that’s not for me. Some of them aren’t even in Moscow and the travel time is like an hour and a half each way. I like teaching kindergarten, but I don’t know if I want to do it all day. Some kindergarten teachers are doing eight to twelve hours a day with that age group. I remember one of the directors talking to me about it being stressful and one of the teachers was shaking one of the kids. And I remembered how frustrating it can be.

The way we do it here, it’s only an hour and a half maximum, but they wanted ten hours a day, day in and day out. I realised that no amount of money is going to make me want to do that. I like the variety of what we do here. That’s what counts for me. I know I could be making more money teaching at private schools, but I don’t know if I want to teach middle-class kids. I’m happy doing what we’re doing. I teach adults, kids, exam classes, business English…

I looked at other language schools and I was a senior teacher at one of them, but it’s not really teaching. It’s more like delivering a product. Here we have a certain amount of freedom as long as there are no complaints. You can prepare and deliver your own classes and supplement or not as you see fit. It’s up to the teacher. In other schools it’s not what they do. They deliver prepared materials from the corporation. They say they get paid more, but by the time they pay for accommodation and other things I don’t think they make that much more.

Right now, I’m OK with where I am.

*

Elena Kalkova (EK)

Setting the scene: It’s late summer in Rhode Island. I’ve spent the week visiting the local parks of Providence, the state capital, along with a million other places Lena wants me to see before I travel back to the UK after an interesting summer in America and England. We sit on Lena’s couch in a sleepy suburb of the city while the crickets chirp outside.

The husky puppy she and her husband have bought is nosing around for attention, not quite understanding the two humans are trying to concentrate on talking about teaching. Lena looks every bit the picture of health, backed up by an artistic mentality to complement the Russian manner of speech. In some ways I am sad about the occasion as Lena is the last teacher I will interview for this project.