Contents

1. The English Teachers
2. Glossary of Terms
3. 1 Origins and the Raison D’être
   1. Why does anyone write a book?
   2. How to read this book
   3. This work is for the following groups of people
   4. The Nature of the Book
4. 2 “Where do you come from?” — Teacher Backgrounds
   1. John Shaw (JS)
   2. Ninha (N)
   3. ID
   4. Nadezhda Boguk (NB)
   5. Anastasia Dereviankina (AD)
   6. Daniel Saraiva San Pedro (DSSP)
   7. Heather Belgorodtseva (HB)
   8. Christopher James Leckenby (CJL)
   9. Nataliya Pronina (NP)
   10. Lisa Shichkova (LS)
   11. Luka Miksic (LM)
   12. Günther Cristiano Butzen (GCB)
   13. Maksim Levkin (ML)
   14. Edward Crabtree (EC)
   15. Elena Atlasova (EA)
   16. Felipe Fülber (FF)
   17. Frances (F)
   18. Chee-way Sun (CWS)
   19. Carlos Monroy (CS)
   20. Cheng Zhang-Stoddard (CZS)
   21. Anastasia Kolcheva (AK)
   22. Luis Clavijo (LC)
   23. Gary Krautkramer (GK) and Polina Pivovarova (PP)
   24. Daria Starova (DS)
   25. Leandri Butterworth (LB)
   26. Irina Grekova (IG)
   27. Varvara Tyurina (VT)
   28. Andy S (AS)
   29. Vika K (VK)
   30. Olga Shushunova (OS)
   31. Sebastian Orlande (SO)
   32. Aline C (AC)
   33. Nico Benger (NB)
   34. Elena Kalkova (EK)
5. 3 “Where are you now?” — Teaching Contexts
   1. John Shaw (JS)
   2. Ninha (N)
   3. ID
   4. Nadezhda Boguk (NB)
   5. Anastasia Dereviankina (AD)
   6. Heather Belgorodtseva (HB)
   7. Christopher James Leckenby (CJL)
   8. Nataliya Pronina (NP)
   9. Lisa Shichkova (LS)
   10. Luka Miksic (LM)
   11. Günther Cristiano Butzen (GCB)
   12. Maksim Levkin (ML)
   13. Edward Crabtree (EC)
   14. Elena Atlasova (EA)
   15. Felipe Fülber (FF)
   16. Frances (F)
   17. Chee-way Sun (CWS)
   18. Carlos Monroy (CS)
   19. Cheng Zhang-Stoddard (CZS)
   20. Anastasia Kolcheva (AK)
   21. Luis Clavijo (LC)
   22. Gary Krautkramer (GK) and Polina Pivovarova (PP)
   23. Daria Starova (DS)
   24. Leandri Butterworth (LB)
   25. Irina Grekova (IG)
   26. Varvara Tyurina (VT)
   27. Andy S (AS)
   28. Vika K (VK)
   29. Olga Shushunova (OS)
   30. Sebastian Orlande (SO)
   31. Aline C (AC)
   32. Nico Benger (NB)
   33. Elena Kalkova (EK)
6. 4 Do you get stressed? Why/Why not?
7. 5 “What do you do?” — Teachers and Their Practices
   1. What have your best teaching moments been like?
   2. What have your worst teaching moments been like?
   3. What’s the most controversial thing you have ever done while teaching?
   4. If you could give 3 tips to teachers, what advice would you give?
   5. Miscellaneous
8. 6 “What do they do?” — The Students
   1. What is it important to know before you start teaching students (in your context)? Do you have any advice for people teaching them?
   2. What’s the funniest thing a student has ever done in your classes?
   3. What is the saddest thing a student has ever done in your classes?
   4. Do you think you are making a difference in the lives of the people you work with?
9. 7 “Where are you going?” — Reactions to Training, Continuous Professional Development and Thoughts about the Future
   1. Will you continue working here? What are your plans for the future?
   2. Do your colleagues share your views about CPD?
   3. Are you optimistic about the future of ELT where you work?
10. 8 “всё.” — Conclusions
11. Afterword Reflecting on the English Teachers
12. Acknowledgements

This book is dedicated to its subjects: The English Teachers. Thank you for making the lives of others better… and for making my life interesting

Glossary of Terms

The following is a non-exhaustive list of terms which appear in the book. Some of these subjects have entire books dedicated to them in detail, so what is presented will naturally be an oversimplification best corrected by a more in-depth online search.

1-2-1 teaching — describes a situation where there is one teacher and one student.

Accuracy — refers to a focus on using language correctly. Tasks which focus on accuracy will often involve a lot of correction by a teacher, etc. The opposite of this is fluency, where activities are designed with the idea of students getting their message across regardless of the accuracy. Fluency and accuracy operate on more of a spectrum than two distinct categories.

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

BKC — a large chain of language schools in Moscow and a franchise of International House. Blocks — are classes scheduled on the same day close together. For example: 1500—1600, 1615—1715, etc.

Cambridge Assessment English — a Cambridge Exam board.

Cambridge Proficiency English (CPE) — an exam that shows candidates have mastered English to an exceptional level.

Camp — many language schools also run summer camps during the break between academic years. These usually have less structured curricula, which encourages teachers to be creative and flexible.

Certificate in Advanced Methodology (CAM) — an International House training course for experienced teachers.

Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) — a common initial teacher training qualification.

Chunks — refers to the way that groups of words are commonly found together, sometimes with no obvious reason. They are more common in native-level speech.

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) — teaching subjects such as Science, Maths and History to students through a foreign language.

Communicative approach — an approach to language teaching which involves students communicating real meaning to successfully learn (as opposed to completing mindless activities). Outside of this description, it is hard to define without courting controversy.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) — is ongoing training and development while working.

Controlled practice — activities in a class where students focus on producing language accurately.

Cover classes — classes taught by a substitute teacher when the regular teacher for the class is ill or otherwise unavailable.

Concept checking — refers to measures to confirm students have understood what has been presented.

Deep-end CLT — a type of communicative language teaching where explicit grammar instruction is rejected and a programme of study, based around communicative tasks, is used instead.

Delayed feedback — given a relatively long time after a task has been completed or an error/mistake has been made. Immediate feedback is given just after an error/mistake has been made or during an activity.

Demand High — another approach to teaching that favours deeper learning over just covering material in books. More detailed examinations can be found online.

Dogme — a teaching approach that prioritises a focus on being light on materials and focusing on the language students produce in class during conversations. More information can be found relating to this online.

Emergent language — language that comes up — usually unexpectedly — during classroom interaction. It is language students use to express the meaning they need to in the moment.

English First (EF) — a large network of schools operating globally.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) — taught to students where English is not the main language.

First Certificate in English (FCE) — a Cambridge qualification for B2/Upper Intermediate level English.

Fossilisation — a phenomenon which occurs when the mistakes students make become a fixed part of the way they speak English. Opinions differ over how much it is possible to correct fossilised errors.

Gamification — in education this process involves taking elements of games and applying them to educational tasks to promote engagement.

Grading language — refers to efforts made by teachers to make their speech more comprehensible to lower level students.

Grammar-translation — probably the method of teaching most people are familiar with. It involves a focus on grammatical rules and translation from one language to another.

Guided discovery — an approach to grammar teaching that involves students analysing examples of language and attempting to deduce the meaning, form and sometimes pronunciation from questions set by the teacher.

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) — an international standardised test of English.

International House World Organisation (IH) — a large network of English Language schools.

Instruction checking questions — questions asked to ensure students have understood tasks and activities.

Intelligibility — how well a speaker/writer can be understood.

The Lexical Approach — an approach to teaching that is based on the idea that a key part of learning a language depends on being able to understand and produce lexical phrases as chunks and these can and should be taught to students.

“Lifting off the page” — refers to the idea of not just teaching from the book. Some activities in books present opportunities for further, more engaging practice than if they were only worked through as they are laid out in the book.

Present, Practice, Produce (PPP) — a standard lesson framework for grammar lessons where a teacher presents language, students practise it (perhaps by doing gap filling activities) and then attempt to produce the language taught in a freer activity.

OGE/EGE — Russian state school exams.

Open lessons — lessons specifically set aside for parents and guardians to visit lessons and observe what happens in a class. This is usually a feature of YL classes.

Pacing schedules (pacings) — documents which map out what pages from certain textbooks should be covered per lesson. Some pacings are more flexible than others and teachers can be permitted to choose materials that best meet the needs of their students.

Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) — a common UK university-level teaching qualification.

Private classes — classes taught outside of a formal institution such as a school — even a large private one. Many teachers have private students in addition to their formal classes with the institutions they work for.

Satellite schools — refers to schools at locations outside city centres.

Task Based Learning (TBL) — a lesson framework which requires students to engage in tasks that resemble situations similar to those in real life. In weak-end TBL the teacher provides key language to be used in tasks, while in strong-end TBL, students are (at least initially) expected to select the language needed to complete the task.

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

Trinity TESOL — an ELT qualification on a similar level to CELTA.

Test-teach-test (TTT) — a lesson framework whereby a teacher tests students, decides the areas that require improvement and teaches those specific points, and then tests again.

Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) — a standardised test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enrol in English-speaking universities.

Young Learners (YL) — generally students between 7—16 years old. Very Young Learners (VYL) generally refers to students less than 5—6 years old.

1

Origins and the Raison D’être

Why does anyone write a book?

Looking back, perhaps this should have been one of the questions I asked in my interviews since articulating my own answer to that question has proven difficult. I often find that discussing questions with other people helps form my own perspective, but since this really is only a question I can answer, I will muddle along with what I have.

The idea for this book did not come to me overnight in a single burst of creativity. It was a confluence of several events. One of these was my DELTA (Diploma in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Module 3 research, during which I noticed a wealth of books and blogs about how to teach and what to teach, but very little on the teachers themselves in terms of how they felt about their work. Perhaps the closest was Peter Medgyes’ “The Non-Native Speaking Teacher” which did a very good job of capturing the thoughts and feelings of many teachers throughout the world along the divide of native and non-native speakers.

I found Medgyes’ work to be quite influential in terms of appreciating the issues facing teachers regarding this most crucial of issues and how to raise awareness in teachers and students of how to approach it. Perhaps at present a two-tier system exists between native and non-native speaking teachers in some cases, but working towards an ideal where there doesn’t have to be such a divide is something we could all benefit from.

Similarly, Kathleen Graves also recorded the thoughts and feelings of teachers as they related to course design via direct quotes from teachers in question. In turn, I would like to quote Kathleen’s insightful observation that: “Dialogue among teachers is a crucial step in giving teachers more power in their professions: it helps teachers to be more aware of their own practice and how it relates to that of their colleagues.” As with Medgyes’ awareness raising, I drew a great deal of inspiration from this when forming my ideas about how to structure this book.

One of the unfortunate aspects of the work of these two writers, however, is that the wealth of sources in Medgyes’ case had a focus on the particular native/non-native cleavage, and Graves’ focus solely on course design limited the scope of the work for my purposes. I hope to address these issues by increasing the range of issues facing teachers and changing the focus to the teachers themselves respectively. The primary aim of this book is to help current and prospective English teachers by showing them what teaching is actually like for those already working in the profession.

It seemed a common flaw in the books on how and what to teach was that they largely neglect a crucial source of information: the teachers themselves in the teaching environment. Often the reason authors seek to provide information is out of a feeling that budding professional teachers need it (and they often do in my experience!) but this has led to an imbalance in texts. Some authors have tried to address this with comments and examples from teachers and I hope to continue this.

A second origin point was my own science fiction book, “The People’s War”, published in the summer of 2019. The book was based around a series of interviews with people following the end of a galactic conflict. Of all the books I had written up to that point, it was the one I had the most fun writing and I often wondered if I could do something similar with real people. The one issue was I had no idea what I would ask them about.

That crucial gap was bridged after an unexpected question came up during a conversation I had with a colleague while I was working in Moscow. I’d just delivered a presentation for a workshop and outlined some useful sources of information. I was a regular presenter at my school and also in others, and my colleague asked me when I would be bringing out a book. I explained I had already and I was a science fiction writer, but she clarified in a straightforward manner with words to the effect of, “No Rory, I’m not interested in science fiction. I mean, when will you be writing a book about teaching?”

Afterwards, while walking to my afternoon classes, I wondered what I could actually write about teaching. It seemed that everything about teaching had been said and a lot of what I was presenting — and indeed what teachers were doing in their classes — was just the work and words of other people. And therein lay the answer: not presenting something about teaching, but presenting the voices of teachers and what they have to say about their work. There’s so much theory and so many practical ideas, but little on what people do or say or feel.

Lastly, the book aims to tackle an issue that emerges as a side effect of English Teaching and Learning as a business, summarised in the following comment: “I don’t feel listened to as a professional teacher, when I have so much important information to share.” You could perhaps replace the job title “teacher” with any role since this lack of “listening” seems a feature of many businesses. I do not believe this is because managers are evil and do not care (at the time of writing I myself am a manager and I am reasonably certain I am not evil — though others may beg to differ!). The first four letters of “business” give the problem away; in business we are all very busy and do not have the time to sit down and actively listen to every single thing people have to say. Much as I would like to in my day job, if I did this I would get nothing done and then I would really be in trouble.

So, I set out to ask questions and listen to what I heard. My aim was to listen to teachers’ answers to relevant questions about themselves. I tried not to place unnecessary limits on what participants said and allowed them to interpret questions as they saw fit. In a day and age where teachers find themselves increasingly constricted by red-tape and so-called “teacher-proof” courses (where the teacher has little control over the material and methods used), I wanted to give them as much freedom as possible. They are, or were, in public and private institutions. Newly-qualified and experienced. Teachers, academic managers and teacher trainers. While they were being interviewed as English teachers first, sometimes other roles crept in to provide some invaluable insights.

A final point about the writing of the book was one that emerged months down the line as I was writing the final draft in the spring of 2020. As I made the final edits, the world found itself in the grip of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and face-to-face contact was limited, narrowing our capacity for “real conversation” as everyone switched to digital options for interaction.

It seems we may be in this situation for some time and must remember the significance of genuine conversation with another human being. With this in mind, I hope that bringing some examples of this to people in an accessible format will not only remind us of what we have lost, but to truly value it when we find it again. Listening to the voices of other people has helped me through self-isolation in Moscow. Hopefully, it will help others, too.

How to read this book

Ironically for a teacher and academic manager, I hate telling people what to do. However, sometimes ways of doing things are not so obvious and some pointers can be useful. This is how I justify myself at least.

With that in mind, you could read this book line after line, cover to cover. And if you can keep track of over 30 different conversations in your head at the same time, then you are welcome to do this.

Another way might be choosing what you want to focus on and skipping right to the section which catches your eye. This is also valid and I’ve tried to give some comments of what was discussed previously for context, though you might need to read the parts of the interviews in surrounding chapters to get a fuller picture. It’s also possible to read this book one conversation at a time and appreciate them as single, continuous dialogues. This might give a fuller experience as though you are a fly on the wall of the conversation.

Whatever your approach, it should be the most comfortable one for you.

This work is for the following groups of people

1) Teachers I often find one of the features of even general conversations with teachers is the constant quest for ideas. How can I improve my practice? How can this lesson be more interesting? How do I make more money!? Hopefully, this work will assist with answering these questions, but they are not the primary focus for teachers. I hope teachers will find common ground in terms of the issues they face and help each other (however indirectly) to find solutions. In particular, the matters of stress management seem particularly pertinent for teachers already in the profession. This book is also designed to be relevant to those who are considering teaching as a start or change to their career. I have found that several teachers have come into the profession with certain expectations which are then not met and they are left bitterly disappointed. I would encourage those prospective teachers to read the sections on what the students are like and the reality of teaching English. Hopefully, it will help them prepare for the rewards and challenges that lie ahead.

Many of the people in this book are teaching, or have taught, in the Russian context and so this book might best be called, “The English Teachers of Moscow”, but I believe the issues discussed here are largely universal and any teacher (or potential teacher) working in any context would benefit from reading about them. Still, I acknowledge that possible shortcoming and hope people will be willing to accept it. If you can’t, perhaps writing a book about teachers in your context is a route to consider. You would certainly find a willing audience in me.

2) Managers Management, like government, strikes many as something of a necessary evil and certainly few people go into management to be liked (and if you have then you really should have known better). As already mentioned, managers are busy people with little free time on their hands. I hope they will use some of that free time to look at the thoughts of those they manage and keep them in mind when they are planning their next steps. The chapter on teaching contexts and teaching in general will likely be the most useful in these cases.

3) Teacher Trainers I would not be exaggerating if I said all the teacher trainers I have ever met have been some of the smartest people I know. Of course, you can know everything in the world and still miss an important aspect: at the end of the day, we are training people. By offering some insight into teachers’ thoughts and feelings about training and professional development, perhaps trainers will be able to tailor their approaches more effectively.

4) Students A book about teachers that students can read?! It doesn’t make much sense on the surface, but students are curious people (in every sense of that adjective!). Why else would they take the time to learn a language and ask questions about it? Students do wonder what teachers do and what they think about. Perhaps by sharing some of this with them, teachers can become more relatable and students can become more engaged with the learning process. It is perhaps a distant dream in the minds of many, but if we do not try to encourage students to understand their teachers, we will never know. With this in mind, I have tried to make the conversations as clear as possible for those who do not speak English as a first language. Of course, if you cannot understand everything it’s possible to use a dictionary… or pay an English teacher to help you!

5) The Ever-Curious Public Everyone has an opinion on education. Everyone. My least favourite opinion is when people tell me (and it is always “telling”, never “saying”) how easy my job must be. It’s all, “Repeat after me, please!” and drinking vodka with the locals. My favourite opinion is when people assume I know everything about English. While I do know more than the average person, I wouldn’t claim a perfect knowledge (though it does provide a nice ego boost!).

I hope the insights shared by the teachers in this book will help enlighten the public about what we do and how we work. We might be teachers but we are still people and, as in any job, we face many issues and garner numerous rewards from our work. Perhaps, through deeper understanding, non-teachers will be able to appreciate our work more fully and appreciate us as people.

I have made the book as open in language as possible. There are a lot of abbreviations and acronyms in ELT — English Language Teaching — and I have added notes where I feel this would help. However, if anything is unclear, I would refer to the glossary at the start of the book and then to the TKT (Teacher Knowledge Test) glossary which was designed for a teaching exam but written in very clear language by Cambridge Assessment English. It is online and free. Also, Scott Thornbury’s A-Z of ELT which is online and free.

The Nature of the Book

I have structured the book by dividing it into chapters broadly based around key questions with explanations as to why this is my focus. I hope I have chosen wisely. I have then provided the transcripts of teachers’ answers to these questions. These have been edited for relevance and succinctness I had no intention of boring readers with every “um” and “ah” — even though we all do it! Furthermore, my audio recording and transcribing software has been far from accurate in places. Speaking is a notoriously less accurate skill than writing, so I have also had the transcripts edited by a professional editor to keep the contributions understandable for readers by making minor changes to the tenses used etc. but with the original meaning kept intact.

At the end of the book there is a conclusion with my own ideas and beliefs as a commentary, and some questions for readers to consider. I have done so to draw the chapters to a close, not with the intention of encouraging readers to believe everything I have written. Indeed, I would be appalled if that happened; life would be very boring if we all had the same opinions.

I’ve kept some of my interviewees anonymous on request. English teaching is a wonderful job, but some aspects of business and educational culture do not lend themselves to open and honest dialogue with a name attached.

Similarly, I have kept the use of the names of specific institutions to a minimum.

The views of 35 people speaking in 2019 have been recorded here and it’s possible they may have changed their ideas since then. Most of the interviewees are teaching in Moscow, though many have international experience which they have also contributed. Some contributors may express what seem to be mutually exclusive viewpoints. I think this is something the vast majority of people do, such is the nature of humanity. Read the book both critically and with an open mind.

My personal email is at the end and I welcome questions, ideas and constructive criticism.

2

“Where do you come from?” — Teacher Backgrounds

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).

RFDG: You did CELTA in Prague. Why did you come to Russia?

JS: When I finished in Prague I was looking for a job, but it was difficult to find work. Prague is in the European Union and has a reputation for being beautiful with lots of cheap tasty food and alcohol, so you find a lot of British teachers there already. Also, the demand for English isn’t as high because they speak English quite well there. I came to Moscow because my school in Prague was an International House school. I went on the IH* website and found that IH-Moscow was offering jobs for newly-qualified teachers and training at the same time which interested me.

*Note: IH stands for International House World Organisation, a large network of English Language schools.

RFDG: Why not China or South America where there are also opportunities?

JS: I wanted to go somewhere far away from home, but not too far away and the Czech Republic and Russia aren’t a million miles away from each other in terms of culture. I enjoyed my time in the Czech Republic and I found their humour very funny, so I thought I’d fit in well in Moscow. I suppose if I hadn’t met Russian people in my course maybe I wouldn’t have considered it.

RFDG: If you could change now, would you continue being a teacher?

JS: I’d definitely stay in education. I like being a teacher. Of course, there are some small things I would change. For instance, some of the classes I get can be trouble, but at the moment I think being a teacher is what I want to be.

*

Ninha (N)

Setting the scene: Ninha is not her real name, but she is very real and frank in her tone and expression. Little can be given away in terms of appearance and accent, but it is clear she has a focus on young people and inspiring them to learn, along with the knowledge and experience to make that a reality. We speak in hushed tones in a quiet room set aside for us as the morning winter chill of Moscow slightly ices the windows from the outside.

N: I’m from Poland and I’ve been a teacher for 17 plus years. I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. I’m one of those boring people! I studied History first and as soon as I graduated I moved to another university to study English?

RFDG: Why do you think you always wanted to get into teaching?

N: I have no idea. I just always wanted to be a teacher. When I was younger and people asked what I wanted to be, I said, “I want to be a woman!”

She laughs slightly at the memory.

After a brief spell of wanting to be a doctor and a ballerina — being five had a role to play in that, I guess — I just wanted to be a teacher.

RFDG: Why did you choose Moscow?

N: I had been to other places already and I wanted to come here. Actually, Moscow was my first choice, but then there was a job opening in Spain so I went there and then when a job was available I moved again. Russian was my first foreign language ever, so it was interesting.

RFDG: It seems like a logical choice.

N: Well, I went west and south, so only north or east was left.

RFDG: And there’s not much north of Poland.

N: Yeah, and I started learning Russian when I was 10 years old. I liked it and the culture was here. The whole idea of them being the enemy never interested me.

RFDG: What does Russian culture mean to you?

N: It doesn’t mean much because mine and this one are quite similar in many ways. So for me, I guess I would say there were a lot of new things elsewhere. Of course, I read all the great literature, etc. but I mainly just wanted to see what it was like here.

RFDG: And how would you describe here?

N: It’s amazing. I love this city. I’ve been to a few other places, but this place is unique. There are many beautiful parts of the city and people are cool. There are many people from my life who were surprised. All those ideas people have about what Russia is like; when they come here they say it’s cool.

*

ID

Setting the scene: It’s Friday in Moscow, which normally takes the edge off the fact that it’s winter. As we sit in a long room, part of a large if non-descript business centre near the Kremlin, the atmosphere is somewhat tense. ID is her pseudonym. She is dressed seriously to discuss a serious subject. I soon find out what that is, but not in this opening conversation.

ID: I graduated from a specialised English school in Moscow. Not a private one, just public. It had a stronger curriculum in English. Then I graduated from university with a degree in International Relations and American Studies. While I was there I started teaching part-time. This was my first introduction to teaching and I was trained at the school where I started working.

RFDG: So, it was a natural progression?

ID: Yeah.

RFDG: Why did you choose to teach here in Moscow?

ID: I’m a Muscovite. This is my mother city, my hometown. I’m not willing to relocate. This is basically half-conscious, half-subconscious choice. This is where my family is, this is where my husband is, so I’m comfortable here.

RFDG: Have you ever considered other alternatives?

ID: Yes, I did actually. The problem is that International Relations is a field that it’s hard to get a job without connections, at least in Russia. I struggled to find a job in my field, so I was considering different options and after facing a closed door in many directions I decided to just stay with what I was actually good at. I was pushed toward teaching I would say.

*

Nadezhda Boguk (NB)

Setting the scene: I haven’t quite been able to explain to myself how or why, but even without talking to her in great depth beforehand, I could tell that Nadezhda is a teacher. She sits in a chair in a classroom near the main office with an air of wisdom and calm, speaking in a way that tells me she knows exactly what she wants to say and exactly what she is talking about.
NB: I come from Barnaul which is a city in Siberia. I graduated from school then went to university and studied for five years. It was the linguistics faculty. That’s when I realised the best thing I was taught was to speak English and to teach English. And that’s how I ended up in this career. As for Moscow, it was an opportunity to do a postgraduate study. That’s why I quit my job in Barnaul and moved to Moscow. I worked at a university. Then I decided to take a little break and after taking the CELTA course I started to work for BKC*.

*Note: BKC is a large chain of language schools in Moscow and is a franchise of International House.

RFDG: Did you do CELTA with BKC?

NB: Yes. It was in June 2018.

RFDG: When you were working at the linguistics faculty did you feel that teaching was the only option for you, or was it an active choice on your part?

NB: It was a choice, I would say. Before starting working, I was applying for different jobs, like being a secretary and I was trying different options, but I felt the most comfortable with this career.

RFDG: What influenced you to make this choice? Is it something that you’ve always wanted to do, or were there different things that happened?

NB: It started with the language first because when I was in 9th grade and it was time to think about what to do next, what majors to take in high school, I came up with my favourite subject and that was English. Then I thought about the place where English would be taught best in our city.

There were university courses, like Economics plus English, but I wasn’t very interested in Economics and International Affairs. So, the best linguistic option was the Pedagogical University. I went there to study English not teaching, but teaching was like the application of this knowledge. The way we were taught and how things were explained, and the practice we had during the course, even though I had the extra courses in translation and interpreting, I still thought teaching was more comfortable for me.

RFDG: You mentioned before you chose Moscow because there was an option for postgraduate studies as well. Were there any other reasons, or was this one opportunity that was the best?

NB: It was the only opportunity because they offered a place to live and in Moscow finding a place to live is a problem.

RFDG: Why Moscow in particular? Were there no other places in Russia that had this option?

NB: The university where I studied had a partnership with this university in Moscow. They were looking for students and they addressed different universities in all of Russia to invite students to come to Moscow.

RFDG: Would you have studied in a different country if you’d had the opportunity?

NB: Yes, I would.

RFDG: Anywhere in particular?

NB: I did a one-week course in England. I still monitor different options, but it’s all about having the money for it or getting a grant. In my field it’s not easy to find grants, but I still need to continue searching for other options.

RFDG: Why do you think it’s difficult to find grants?

NB: Most of the things I’ve seen have been related to Chemistry, Biology or Engineering. For social studies, especially teaching, it’s not so widespread. Not so many universities offer courses or programmes.

RFDG: Is it purely because it’s not popular?

NB: I’m not sure if it’s about popularity. I know the teaching profession is quite significant. As for other countries, I wouldn’t say it’s as prominent as here in Russia. Even in Russia there’s been a decline in preparing teaching staff. So, that’s why abroad there are not so many programmes aimed at this. There can be things like CELTA and DELTA but they are, in my opinion, somewhat limited. I studied for five years at my university and I had teaching methods, psychology and other basic courses. If we speak about CELTA that’s just four weeks and I’m glad I did it after I had some experience. It was like the cherry on top to add to the skills I already had.

RFDG: Would you say it’s best to have some teaching experience and then do CELTA?

NB: It can be like a catch 22, I think. On the one hand, it gives the basics, it gives you some ideas. I would suggest having some formal education together with CELTA and study teaching at the very beginning. I had some basic skills and it’s not something that has been hammered into me and I am still flexible and ready to accept new things, and modify my behaviour in class. At this point this is also good because I know what to do. I feel comfortable in the classroom and that’s why it’s not as stressful as it might be when you come and see the group of people and you have to work with them and explain things to them.

RFDG: If you had the choice, would you do a different job?

NB: I also feel comfortable with technical drawing. If I hadn’t chosen English I might have gone into Engineering. But I don’t know how serious I can be about it because I never had anyone who could consult with me, or notice if I was doing something well. I don’t know now.

*

Anastasia Dereviankina (AD)

Setting the scene: If I could describe Anastasia in a word it would be sharp. Everything about her is sharp. Her eyes, fashion sense, manner of speaking and her knowledge of what she speaks about. Without even speaking, I’m aware she is dedicated to her work and willing to ignore everything unrelated when it’s time to work. People who may not know her well might find it jarring, but after several months of working together I find it reassuring to speak to someone who knows what is going on.

AD: I’m from Saratov and I graduated from the Philological department at the state university there in 2013. I’m a teacher, interpreter and a manager, so I’ve a lot of different qualifications. I started working as a corporate teacher, teaching business to groups of people, maybe 15—20 adults. I didn’t teach kids or teenagers. But then I started working as a private tutor. I was teaching kids ranging from 8—13 or 14. Before moving to Moscow it was pretty much all corporate and for a while when I first moved here it was the same. But now I’m in my new job I have to teach a variety of classes… almost everything.

RFDG: Why did you choose teaching?

AD: I didn’t choose it to be honest. I started learning when I was two years old and someone told my mother that I was gifted in languages or something like that. I always had a private tutor because my mother believed I was a superstar of English. The state programme was never good enough for me and when it was time to choose my future profession I wanted to be a journalist. I found it quite attractive. I’ve always been quite creative, but my mother insisted on me entering this Philological department since it was connected with English and language. Then when I was 19 I started teaching and I liked it.

RFDG: When you say you were always above the curriculum at school, was that your parents’ opinion or was that a fact based on grades?

AD: Both.

RFDG: You didn’t feel it was the path you wanted to follow, but was it a particularly bad thing when you look back?

AD: You know, in our country we usually regard this profession as a back-up plan, not something very serious. It didn’t come to my mind when I was a child. When I was much younger, teaching English was usually associated with schools and universities. I didn’t know about the courses or corporate teaching. So, that’s why it wasn’t attractive at first, but now I’m quite happy with it.

RFDG: So, with the live experience of being a teacher it feels like a natural fit?

AD: Yeah, I feel this is my calling. I love it and my students love me, and I can see their progress. I think it was the right choice.

RFDG: Why did you choose Moscow?

AD: I’m very ambitious to be honest. Before moving here I had always dreamt of moving somewhere. Not Saratov because Saratov was never enough for me. I felt like I could do more than Saratov. There were a few attempts. At first I wanted to try St Petersburg but I was alone and didn’t feel confident enough, and then I did my CELTA and I had a boyfriend at the time.

Right after CELTA I started applying for different positions in Moscow. It wasn’t so serious, it was more like, “Well, why not? Let’s try!” I didn’t even tell anyone about it. Then I was invited for an interview. I bought a plane ticket the same day and went to Moscow, had the interview, got accepted, got hired and told my boyfriend I was going to Moscow. I wasn’t serious about it but he said, “Great. I’m coming with you.” And we went to Moscow three or four days later.

RFDG: That’s a quick change!

AD: Yeah.

RFDG: Did you feel more confident going to Moscow than St Petersburg, or after taking CELTA?

AD: Specifically after CELTA. I was thinking about St Petersburg and at that time I had a couple of friends there. Moscow seemed like something unachievable. It seemed like I wasn’t good enough to live and work there.

RFDG: Why is St Petersburg less of an achievement?

AD: I suppose it’s due to some stereotypes about the place. It’s nice and cosy. I’m a philologist so I read a lot and at university I had to read a lot and St Petersburg was like a lullaby of all these things I’d read about as a student.

RFDG: So, if St Petersburg is a lullaby, what is Moscow?

AD: Moscow is the opposite. I think it’s more my element. A lullaby was not for me and in the end that’s why I didn’t move to St Petersburg. It was just one of my ideas. It was just one possible step.

RFDG: Would you change your career?

AD: I think I would. I still find journalism quite attractive and being an English teacher I feel like I’m always on the verge of burning out. I give myself every day and I don’t feel I get enough back from it. I always give and I rarely get anything back.

RFDG: And you’d get more back as a journalist?

AD: I think so.

RFDG: Are there any comparisons to be made between being a teacher and a journalist?

AD: In my opinion they both require creativity. Being an English teacher I create things every day. Every lesson is different. And journalism is similar; you create things based on facts.

RFDG: What kind of journalism?

AD: Good question. I’ve never thought of it. Everything I think about now is my work and my students. I think only about them all the time. Journalism is just my ideal world. It would be about travelling and sharing impressions.

RFDG: Is it possible to combine the two?

AD: I think it is and I have thought about it. But in this case it seems to be I won’t be able to be 100% present at my current job and give what I have to give. I feel I have to do my current job very well and I can’t think about a few things at the same time.

RFDG: What contributes to that feeling of obligation?

AD: My background. My parents, my childhood. In my family there is always this idea that everyone must work very hard and everyone must do their job properly. I love my job. I just can’t imagine myself doing it 50—60%. And I’m a perfectionist. It’s important for me to do things well. I always say when I talk to my friends, “If you can’t do it then don’t do it. Do something else.” It’s like my motto.

RFDG: Do you think the feeling of needing to work hard is shared by other teachers in Moscow?

AD: Of course not.

RFDG: What’s the percentage?

AD: I feel there are very few people like me. To be honest, I rarely meet people like me. You see some hard-working teachers, but for me I live my work. It’s not like, “OK, this is the end of my working day I’m going home to relax.” When I’m going home my students text me and I am ready to help them. Even at night or one in the morning if it is necessary. In the morning I wake up and think about them. I don’t think about my private life. It’s different.

RFDG: Why can’t other people be that way?

AD: I’m not sure that it’s right to be honest. It has a negative impact since it can be like I always live for someone else, for my students, not for myself. At this stage of my life I think this is right. We are born to contribute something to society or the world and I’m not thinking about my life now.

RFDG: How long have you felt like this?

AD: Maybe the last four to five years. It became stronger in Moscow.

RFDG: Is it important to stay in Moscow now?

AD: No.

RFDG: So, if you could be somewhere else where would you go?

AD: Abroad. I want to travel. I want to see different places and societies.

RFDG: What about in terms of work?

AD: I’m quite unstable I’d say. It seems to me that everything is temporary. The city, my life… I know I’m not going to move anywhere else in Moscow. It’s boundless. I don’t see any borders here. I like freedom and it’s what I get here. I have thought about travelling and living somewhere for a year. I still feel that I haven’t found my place.

*

Daniel Saraiva San Pedro (DSSP)

Setting the scene: Daniel comes across as incredibly friendly and encouraging. He is actually from Brazil despite having a slightly North American accent. But as our conversation progresses it’s clear he is very much not American. He’s very much the professional teacher and also very much the “busy teacher” (as was I on this particular day) and our interview took place at a brisk pace before our lessons.

DSSP: I started teaching in Brazil in March 2012. It wasn’t because I wanted to be an English teacher. It just kind of happened. I wanted to go back to studying English, so I went back to the English school I was at when I was a child. They did a placement test with me and at the end of the test they said they didn’t have any courses for me, but they needed English teachers and asked if I would be interested. I agreed because I was between jobs at the time and I needed the money. I went through the process of the test and orientation, and at the end we taught lessons. They were observed and they would choose teachers from the group of candidates.

RFDG: What did you want to be originally?

DSSP: My major is in Biology and I worked a little in the field, but it just happened that I wasn’t working for a while and it was hard. In Brazil, being a biologist you either have to be a teacher or a researcher. It’s hard to make enough money and you have to choose a specific area. I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted and I started college when I was 17 and left at 21. It was a big decision then.

RFDG: Why Moscow?

DSSP: I taught in Brazil for five years without any certificates or diploma and I felt I needed to get some knowledge and theory. So, I decided to do the CELTA in Boston, in the USA, in 2014. I also started thinking about working abroad. The CELTA helps you do that. I finished CELTA and went back to Brazil. When I went back I was very enthused after that CELTA. I wanted to go abroad, but when I got back to my old job I kind of lost my enthusiasm and went back to the same old routine.

Then in 2016, again in that period of teaching English, I also stopped teaching for a while because I wasn’t sure. Then I went back again and I thought I had to make up my mind and did I want to be an English teacher and progress in this career or change? I just decided to invest in this. I thought I should use my CELTA and looked for jobs aboard. I looked for jobs in Europe but I didn’t have a European passport. I even got some interviews, but as soon as they found out I was Brazilian they said there was nothing they could do.

I also decided to work for IH. I was applying for IH schools. I saw BKC in Moscow and they provided the visa and everything went so smoothly. I thought I would give it a try, but it took six months from applying and thinking if it was the best decision.

RFDG: What influenced your decision to focus on ELT?

DSSP: I got advice from some wise people, but also I was happy with what I was doing despite some hard times. Deep down it went naturally that way. I think most important decisions should be made this way. They shouldn’t be manufactured. You need to feel it and let things flow.

*

Heather Belgorodtseva (HB)

Setting the scene: In terms of disposition, Heather is the primary school teacher every student and parent would like to have. Cheerful but firm, enthusiastic in presentation but reasonable in ideas. Her jovial English tone carries across the room and down the hallway, even although I am sitting right in front of her in an otherwise empty room. It isn’t a problem. I quickly find myself caught up in the fun.

Heather’s interview also taught me a valuable lesson about technology. Halfway through, I got a phone call from a certain British car insurance firm (which shall remain nameless!) which paused the recording application I was using. I only realised this at the end of the interview. Mercifully, both Heather and myself have very good memories and managed to reconstruct the script. If there are other budding authors reading this, perhaps this incident is something to keep in mind. If there are any insurance sales people reading, please find other jobs and never call me again!

She pauses for a long time after I ask my first question.

HB: Sorry, I’m just trying to summarise 20 years. I first came to Moscow in 1996 and discovered I quite liked teaching and quite liked Moscow. I ended up going home and doing a CELTA equivalent. I came back to work for BKC-IH in 98. Then around 2004 I went back to the UK which is where I’m from and worked as a TEFL teacher and teacher trainer. I came back here in 2015, mainly because I married a Russian and we’re kind of stuck between two countries no matter what we do.

RFDG: What did you like about teaching?

HB: I like explaining things to people. English is quite interesting and I discovered grammar. Woo! I quite like grammar, actually. There are rules and that’s quite fun, and I’m quite good at it which is a motivating factor.

RFDG: Was it a surprise to discover you liked teaching grammar?

HB: Yes. My family are teachers. Two of my grandparents on both sides of the family are teachers, my cousins teach and my dad ended up teaching. It’s sort of a tradition, so I said I would never teach. I ended up teaching by accident. I was teaching temporarily at first and found I actually quite liked it.

RFDG: So, there are some things you just can’t escape?

HB: Exactly!

She laughs at the futility of it all.

RFDG: What made you want to come to Moscow and why did you like it?

HB: I came to Moscow after I finished university. It was sort of my gap year, although it was after university and not before. I chose Moscow because it wasn’t hot. I had a choice between India and Moscow for various reasons and I thought, “I don’t like hot weather so I’d better go to Moscow.” And I did.

RFDG: So, the weather first and after that?

HB: Well, I’m a History graduate. Not 20^th century history, so to be honest Russian Studies weren’t my thing. But Moscow in the 90s was quite an interesting place.

RFDG: Was it dangerous or scary?

She looks nonchalantly into the middle distance while she searches her memories before thoughtfully saying…

HB: A bomb did go off once at the end of the street when I was teaching. That was interesting. I didn’t realise it was a bomb at first. This was back when the mafia were blowing up each other’s cars on a regular basis. There was this big CRUMP and sirens and glass noises. I was like, “Oh… anyway page 22, present perfect…” and then I got outside and found out. They also blew up a hotel with a small bomb. It wasn’t dangerous for me. I didn’t do anything particularly exciting when I was here.

RFDG: But there were things happening?

HB: I guess so, but there is trouble wherever you are. We were here during the apartment bombing in Moscow which was pretty grim because you never knew what was going to get blown up next. There was also the hostage taking while I was here and I had students connected to that which was very upsetting. Things were happening relatively regularly with the terrorist issues and the mafia in the 90s. But I grew up when the Troubles were happening and I was at university in Manchester when one of the bombs went off there. When I moved back to Britain that was when the underground bombs went off and I was in London when that happened.

RFDG: So, it’s always in the background?

HB: Well, yes in a big city.

RFDG: If you compare now to then, would you say it’s safer and more stable now?

HB: It’s changed a lot, actually. We were out of the country for quite a bit and came back because my husband has family here. We would come back for the occasional summer, especially after the kids were born, but because we weren’t living here we didn’t really hear or pay much attention to some of the things that had changed. But when I came back to live here I realised it really did look like a completely different city: clean, efficient, working kind of place… just before the sanctions hit.

RFDG: Obviously the sanctions are causing issues, but are they significant enough to be noticeable for teachers to notice?

HB: It’s difficult to say because I wasn’t really here. I came just after they started, so the drop in the rouble had already happened. For me, what I started with was the same as now so I haven’t got much to compare it to, apart from 10 years ago which really was very different. I was here in the ’98 crash when the rouble really did crash and every day there was a new price.

RFDG: You said initially you didn’t want to be a teacher. What did you want to be?

HB: I don’t think I’d got that far. I studied History at university, so you can tell I had no idea what I really wanted to do with my life.

She laughs at herself light-heartedly.

Because you don’t really study History unless you want to be a History teacher. Really, you can’t do much with it apart from be a History teacher or a museum worker or something. The idea is that it’s one of these general degrees, so I don’t actually think I’d got very far in terms of what I wanted to do apart from study History. But my problem with continuing that was that I don’t speak any languages.

*

Christopher James Leckenby (CJL)

Setting the scene: We move around a lot between one room and another as we start our interview, just before the bulk of the staff come into work. It’s midway through the academic year in Moscow and everyone wants to get things done. Chris is of this mindset, but he takes his time to speak about things. His careful deliberation while thinking, talking and working is something I’ve seen in many Canadians I’ve met. The same goes for the strong opinions the tall Canadian is ready to voice.

CJL: I’ve been working here in Moscow since October 2014. Prior to that I had some work experience in northern Canada and TA-ing at university. Apart from completing CELTA and another teaching course, that’s the extent of my exposure to education as a field or as a career. I specialised in Political Science when I was in university. I was initially hoping that would be my career field and I’m still hoping it will be. It was what I was initially aiming for when I was doing my studies. Teaching was something I sort of fell into as a result of changing circumstances.

RFDG: If it’s not too personal, what was the change in circumstances that made you change to teaching?

CJL: When I was in university, I had certain ways of doing things. Ways I would tackle work, ways I would prioritise, ways I would manage my time. They were sufficient when I was in high school and they allowed me to do very well. They worked for a little while in university, but as I started moving up through the years and the work got heavier and more intensive they weren’t really cutting it anymore.

Consequently, I ran into a bit of a wall where I wasn’t able to do it anymore, so there was work that didn’t get done because I couldn’t finish it and that was quite a big blow to me — a big blow to my ego. It was a blow psychologically because school was really my whole life at that point. I didn’t really have anything outside of school that I invested a lot of time and effort in. So, when things started going wrong it was really, really destabilising and I didn’t really properly recover from that. I think I underestimated just how serious it would be.

So, by the time I finally finished my undergrad I thought, “You know what, I need to move in a different direction for a little bit and try a different field and a different life.” You know, get some new experiences doing something else, so hopefully I could kind of hit the reset button and salvage what had been, in some ways, a disappointing couple of years.

RFDG: That makes sense, but most people would not move to a completely different country like Russia. What made you choose Moscow?

CJL: Moscow is somewhere I’ve wanted to live and visit since I was about 12 years old. It was number one on my bucket list for years. It was sort of two birds with one stone, in a way. When it became clear I was not quite ready for grad school and that I needed to take some time away from academia, I thought, “Well, I need to do something.” I was doing volunteer work and I had side jobs and projects. That was OK for a short time, but I needed to do something more substantial.

Teaching abroad was sort of an easy option because it was something I knew other people had done. I knew it was a possibility and I could combine that with my love of travel and my desire to learn foreign languages. Once I started thinking along those lines, Russia was the obvious first choice. It was a place I’d always wanted to visit and I’d promised myself when I was younger that I would eventually make it here once the chance presented itself. So, that’s what I started aiming for.

RFDG: What other places were on the bucket list?

CJL: This sounds crazy now and I’m disappointed with the way it worked out, but the first interview I had was with a very small school in Venezuela. I was offered a job there and I accepted. I was in the process of preparing to go. I hadn’t signed a document and I hadn’t done any packing, but I had in principle agreed to go and work there for a few months. I was really looking forward to that because I did a lot of studying on Venezuela when I was in university.

This was before I did CELTA. When I wrote to Moscow, I heard back from the Recruitment department of the school there to say they couldn’t take me on without a CELTA. So, I had to look in some other directions for some sort of other options while I waited to line up CELTA.

Venezuela was actually my first choice and then when stuff started happening in Venezuela I had to pull the plug on that. I looked at a job in Peru which was high up on the list. I wanted to go to Brazil as well, but I was not able to find a school there that was willing to interview me or take on the costs of bringing me down. Colombia was on the list. I guess most of Latin America because it was a place I was very interested in and the requirements were a little bit lower than some of the posts in places like Europe.

RFDG: I would think most people would have selected those places first because they’re closer and warmer. So, was it just the fact that it was easier to get into Russia, or something else?

CJL: You mean most people would have selected Latin America first?

RFDG: Yes. They would have gone there.

CJL: Actually, I’m not so sure that’s true. I studied Spanish in university, so there was a lot of cultural stuff that was introduced via my Spanish courses about Latin America. It’s not as close as you might think. To fly from my home to Peru or Argentina takes as long as it would to fly to Russia. It would be about an 11-hour flight, so it’s not that much closer. The time difference doesn’t change very much, so in that sense it’s a little bit more familiar, but geographically it’s not closer.

The money you make in Latin America, at least in many postings, is not that great, partly because of the economic instability in a lot of these countries. I think that turns a lot of people off. That wasn’t so important to me at the time and I was willing to overlook that. I think it was a combination of things. The fact that the opportunities were slightly less organised. They didn’t offer quite as much. They were usually smaller schools that couldn’t offer contracts for a terribly long period of time. You know, they weren’t terribly lucrative. Some of them seemed to me a little bit… not shady, but just not so great. The combination of all of that and the fact that Russia had always been number one sort of pushed me in the other direction.

*

Nataliya Pronina (NP)

Setting the scene: It’s a sizeable room on a Friday morning in Moscow and the teachers attending the Certificate in Advanced Methodology Course have all left apart from one. Her name is Nataliya and we sit facing each other with a projector dangling overhead. All of us (the projector included) are cooling down after a busy week, although Nataliya doesn’t seem affected at all by the workload. She speaks happily, even about the less-than-thrilling parts of her job.

NP: I’m from the Moscow region, born and raised. I haven’t been teaching a lot, actually. After university I did some private teaching 1-2-1*. It was about five years ago I started. I began teaching groups in English schools three years ago after my maternity leave. In university I wasn’t taught to be a teacher. It was either translator or English teacher. I tried translating and understood it wasn’t my thing, so then I turned to teaching and I really enjoyed it. Since I started teaching at the school I’m working in now, I did TEFL then CELTA. After a break I tried different techniques and now I’m doing CAM.

*Note: 1-2-1 teaching describes a situation where there is one teacher and one student.

RFDG: Why a school outside Moscow?

NP: There are difficulties with traffic. I can’t really come to Moscow city to teach. It would be two hours both ways and I have a family. I can’t move anywhere so I’m pretty happy where I work.

*

Lisa Shichkova (LS)

Setting the scene: Lisa is almost the same age as me but appears to be in possession of a wisdom that far exceeds her years. She is quiet and her words are carefully considered. She’s very much in control of what she says and does in this interview, speaking with a confidence and clarity that makes talking with her a very pleasant experience. She’s wearing dungarees and has a tattoo on her arm showing the mischievous side of her personality.

LS: I’ve been teaching for about eight years. I have a degree in International Tourist Management. Five years ago I did CELTA and I have all fo