The English Teachers

English teachers are spectacularly diverse in almost every aspect. They come from all around the world for different reasons, speaking many dialects and possessing a variety of outlooks on life and the English language. When many of us start teaching students for the first time, we are encouraged to do a “needs analysis”. This helps teachers find out about their students’ backgrounds, language requirements and goals for development. The idea is that by knowing our students better, we can teach them more effectively. Similarly in this book, to understand our teachers more effectively we must have a complete picture of where they come from. Life may be more about the journey than the destination, but it’s a good idea to know where you started from to know where you are going.

This chapter is somewhat different to the others which follow. For each interview I’ll provide a section called “Setting the Scene” where I’ll describe the participants, where we met, how they were feeling at the time and what the atmosphere was like as we talked. Some smaller comments will be provided later to add context but the focus – as ever – is on what is being said.

Every interview I conducted started with the same request: “Tell me about your background.” To avoid repetition, I have omitted this starter question from the transcripts. With the same objective, I have started the scripts in each chapter with the names of the interviewees and then replaced them with the first letters of the names they provided. With a single exception, they are ordered in the manner conducted from January to August 2019. A full list is below for reference.

John Shaw (JS)

Ninha (N)

ID (ID)

Nadezhda Boguk (NB)

Anastasia Dereviankina (AD)

Daniel Saraiva San Pedro (DSSP)

Heather Belgorodtseva (HB)

Christopher James Leckenby (CJL)

Nataliya Pronina (NP)

Lisa Shichkova (LS)

Luka Miksic (LM)

Günther Cristiano Butzen (GCB)

Maksim Levkin (ML)

Edward Crabtree (EC)

Elena Atlasova (EA)

Felipe Fülber (FF)

Frances (F)

Chee-way Sun (CWS)

Carlos Monroy (CM)

Cheng Zhang-Stoddard (CZS)

Anastasia Kolcheva (AK)

Luis Clavijo (LC)

Gary Krautkramer (GK) and Polina Pivovarova (PP)

Daria Starova (DS)

Leandri Butterworth (LB)

Irina Grekova (IG)

Varvara Tyurina (VT)

Andy S (AS)

Vika K (VK)

Olga Shushunova (OS)

Sebastian Orlande (SO)

Aline C (AC)

Nico Benger (NB)

Elena Kalkova (EK)

Note: Nadezhda Boguk and Nico Benger have the same abbreviations but appear towards the beginning and end of each chapter respectively. I hope this fact and the pronouns used will prevent any confusion.

*

John Shaw (JS)

Setting the scene: John was the first person I interviewed in January 2019. It is morning but still very dark as we sit in the spacious room set aside for teacher training purposes. We are both tired from starting work early, but he has brought coffee which soon has the desired effect of bringing us to life. John is jovial and speaks with a Northern English accent that immediately endears him to those around him. If that fails initially, he has a kind nature to back it up which is conveyed by his expressive eyes – even if they are a little tired during the opening round of our interview.

JS: I’m from a town called Darwen near Manchester. I went to Manchester University, first for a BA then a Masters. After a year or so I decided to become an English teacher. I did my CELTA in Prague and then took my first job here in Moscow.

RFDG: Why did you choose to go into teaching?

JS: Actually, it was by chance. When I finished university it was difficult to find work due to the economic situation. I did various jobs including being a waiter and I volunteered, but I always wanted to go abroad. Most of my friends I knew from the internet – I played a lot of online computer games.

So, when I finished university I was travelling around and staying with friends. I went to a university job fair and there was an EFL stall. They were offering a TEFL certificate. I went back home and was interested in the idea, but after researching it seemed it wasn’t really worth anything. It was just a piece of paper and when you finished you got to stay at one of their schools for a short amount of time. But, while researching, I read about the CELTA* and understood it was a proper qualification. I wanted to do it but not in England. I wanted to do it abroad because I wanted a real experience. I was really eager to start my new career and a new adventure.

*Note: Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults – a common initial teacher training qualification.

RFDG: If the economic situation had been better, would you have considered doing something else?

JS: Probably. When I was a teenager and people suggested I become a teacher it was the last thing I wanted to do. I was at quite a difficult school. Actually, it’s closed down now. The students in my class were very disrespectful and I didn’t see the point in becoming a teacher. I didn’t know EFL* existed. I first came across it because one of my classmates at university said it was what he was interested in.

I wanted to go into something creative because when I was studying History I was doing a lot of research. I went to the Oxford university library and I was looking through archives and at the same time I was staying in a hostel full of partying European travellers and I understood that I’d rather work with people than with sources. So, I’d already moved away from academia and History. But if I had got a job in Marketing or Advertising, which is what I was looking for when I left, I probably wouldn’t have become an EFL teacher. It was just spontaneity and luck that helped me find the job.

*Note: English as a Foreign Language (taught to students where English is not the main language).