> Working for International House in Moscow, Russia.

> I had been teaching kids for a few years in Asia and done some summer
> teaching in Toronto after doing the CELTA. I was interested in
> teaching adults and had heard about IH when I was in Toronto. I was
> working in Taiwan at the time and I had decided to take the
> Trans-Siberian route from Beijing to Moscow and then teach in Moscow.
> I applied to BKC/IH Moscow online and got a prompt reply. After a
> telephone interview with a British Director of Studies I was hired. I
> went to Beijing to pick up my visa which turned out to be a
> nightmare. I ended up spending a month in Beijing because getting the
> visa was not at straight forward as I had assumed. It took a week
> just to get in the door of the Russian Embassy. There was always a
> huge queue or the embassy was closed. A few days before the
> millennium I was victorious. Visa in hand I boarded the train and
> spent New Years Eve on an empty train enjoying the Siberian scenery.

> When I arrived I was picked up by an English speaking Russian and
> taken to my apartment. My roommate, a first-time ESL teacher from
> Australia, was waiting to welcome me, as was my landlady. The next
> two days I was given an orientation and then I started teaching in a
> small school in the suburbs of Moscow. I taught 22.5 hours a week and
> had all my classes in the same place. It was walking distance from my
> flat. Everything was as I had been told it would be. I taught kids,
> teens, and adults. In June I started working in the center as my
> school in the suburbs was closed for the summer. I found the students
> in the center to be more demanding of their teachers. Russians take
> their learning very seriously and want their moneys worth. I enjoyed
> the challenge and spent the rest of my time in Moscow teaching at one
> of the center schools.

> Most of my fellow teachers had just completed their TEFL certificate
> and were abroad for the first time. The winter was a difficult
> adjustment for a lot of them, but the long summer days made up for
> it. My friends and I took advantage of the many day trips offered by
> the school to the garden ring cities and later on when my Russian
> improved I managed to travel further into Siberia. It was definitely
> a different Russia to Moscow.

> All in all I found BKC/IH Moscow to be a good place to work. We were
> always paid on time and had a lot of support/professional
> development. There were lots of different teaching opportunities with
> them as well. I was involved in developing a curriculum for their
> English Kindergarten as well as teaching on an intensive course for
> Russian Scientists who needed language skills to work with their
> counterparts in the west. This was the only language institute I had
> contact with during my time in Moscow so I cant really compare it to
> others but I would recommend going there, especially if you dont
> speak Russian or have any contacts there.

Thanks for the great article.It was a very interesting read. You are an excellent writer. I would enjoy hearing about some of your other experiences as well.And what are you doing now?

Your friend,Bill