Life as a Teacher in the Wild Wild East

I remember during my first Linguistics lecture almost a decade ago the professor entered the room and wrote a quote on the board that went something like this: “What makes a language widely used in the world are battleships and tanks.” This is not the exact quote, but it is the gist of what our professor wanted to get across: a lingua franca appears on the scene thanks to the military might of the nation where it is officially used. The economic might of a country is no doubt tacitly assumed in that statement since you can not have the former without the latter.

Thanks to this situation, I am abundantly employed and have been for most of my time in the CIS. I suspect this will be the case as long as I stay outside the United States. In all honesty, while I do like my job and take pride in the fact that I have managed to survive all of these years here as a teacher, as I move into my mid-thirties, I am beginning to worry about my job prospects once and if I ever leave this part of the world. Teaching English is about all I know how to do. Indeed, it is what I studied to do! While it is a profession in wide demand world-wide, to be perfectly frank, the demand for teachers is so high, that it does not take a rocket scientist or lots of qualifications to do this job. In light of the fact that I will soon turn 34 and have begun to think a lot more about what I will do with my life in the next few years, I figured I would talk a bit about my experience as an EFL teacher in the Wild Wild East. There have been a few guys out there who have written extensively on this subject and have been pretty pessimistic about this profession. Two teachers in particular, known on the Web as English Teacher X and the English Droid, have made names for themselves among English teachers by their satirical and cynical blog posts, books and comic strips dealing with the day to day hassles that EFL teachers have to deal with. While I can relate to a lot of their complaints and have had more than a few laughs while reading their material (I even have one of English Teacher X's E-books), I will try my best to give a more balanced depiction of what you can expect if you are considering taking the plunge and leaving your homeland to take an EFL job abroad.

First, if you want to do this in Russia or in some of the other CIS nations, be ready to deal with lots of hassles. This is not a part of the world for the weak and in my experience, few stick around for half as long as I have been here. You don't have the “safety nets” you have in the West and since many foreign language schools are not run completely by the book and your pay is generally partially, if not mostly, unofficial or “gray”, using legal channels to seek full compensation for services rendered in the event your pay is delayed (something that goes on quite a bit in my experience as a teacher here) is almost impossible.

There is also the problem of language schools (aka McLanguage schools among the more cynical types) preying on the naivety of Westerners who want to get into this field. Statements in language school vacancy ads with alluring statements like, “You will receive the average local salary” are a farce, but often dupe those who are new to the field or have no knowledge of what the cost of living and the market here in general is like. Setting salaries based on what average salaries are in a place betrays all market economic principles due to the fact that it is arbitrarily set by language schools and not by the market principles of supply and demand. I have heard that this is less of a problem in other parts of the world like Japan, South Korea and the Arab Peninsula, but in the CIS in general and in Moscow in particular this proverbial wool is pulled over the eyes of many a gullible Westerner all the time.

Now the document issue here complicates the situation even more due to the fact that if you try to work over here legitimately, you will have to get documents through a language school which is a huge bargaining chip for the school when you are negotiating conditions and compensation. There are ways, however, to come here without getting visa support directly through a McLangauge school (yes, I do tend to be more cynical about a lot of these schools ;)). I have also heard of people going to interviews at certain schools and talking up the initial offer made to a more reasonable amount. At the end of the day, the demand for teachers here is high as is the turnover rate of teachers at a lot of schools. School owners are well aware of this fact and might be willing to give into your demands if you can show them you are serious about working long-term in this part of the world and that you are no fool.

I could write a lot more about the ins and outs of working in the teaching field over here and will continue to do so in the future. If the above seems off-putting, let me say that there is a silver lining in all of this that may be appealing to some. For starters, Russia is an interesting place with a great history and language. Also, for the more rugged individualistic types who are convinced as I am that governments in general and in Western countries in particular have become overly intrusive in the lives of their citizens, are leech-like in their tax policies and are making promises to certain segments of the population that they neither have the means or ways to provide other than by robbing other segments of the population and/or printing their currencies into oblivion to pay for the promised services, this is not a bad place to pitch your tent. The lack of transparency here from the top down makes it very easy to make what a school teacher can make in the US or more without all the taxes and deductions for Ponzi scheme pension programs to more fully enjoy the fruits of your labor. You will probably have to pay your dues at first if you are just starting out, but with time, a little savviness and perseverance, success here is possible. I know for some having security is more desirable than liberty and personal responsibility, but I see no reason at this point in history to trust in the system as it is; it just isn't sustainable. Better start getting used to being more self reliant sooner rather than later if you ask me.

I'm back

   After years of silence, I have decided to return to blogging.  Quite honestly, I had almost forgotten about this page until recently when I got the bright idea to start blogging about my thoughts and impressions about the world.  Then I remembered that I had actually done some blogging during my days as a student in Moscow.  I figured it would be good to return to this page since I already have a history.   I am sure after all these years I have probably lost all of my followers.  Hopefully, my writing will attract new ones, as well as rekindle the interest of those who read my posts in the past. 
  Some years have passed since those days.  Time is quite the teacher in this great pilgrimage that we call life; the world changes; your views change; all is in flux.  The fact that much has changed in my life over the last 6-8 years or so is one of the reasons why I have decided to take up blogging again.  I am well aware of the fact that there are probably thousands of blogs with similar content out there in the vast wilderness that is the World Wide Web.  However, I feel compelled to speak and speak I will.
  The content of my posts from here on will more likely than not pertain to the following subjects: Christian theology, life in Russia (those are two things that are still important in my life that have not changed much since my last post), politics and economics (two subjects that have become very interesting to me over the last 3 years or so) social issues and responding to what I am reading at the moment.  I realize that most of the subjects on the list above touch lots of nerves and are hot potatoes in American society.  Indeed, we are discouraged from talking about things like politics and religion.  I am also well aware that many of my views will offend lots of people.  Let the reader be aware that my years in Russia have made me immune to political correctness.  It practically does not exist here and is one of the things I appreciate most about living in this part of the world.  Here you can speak your mind and not have to worry much about it. I will do my best to aviod inflamatory language and invective as these generally give off more heat than light if I can use the old Evangelical cliche.  That being said, there are times when criticism, even strong criticism, is necessary.  And I think much of what is going on in the world today merits strong criticism.  I welcome constructive criticism of my remarks as I too am prone to err.  All I ask is that you try to keep the criticism constructive as I have little patience for name calling, vulgarity and ad hominems.  The Net has been good in many ways, but one area where it has not been so beneficial in the exchange of ideas is it has opened the door for everyone under the sun to participate in public discourse with virtually no accountability.  People become quite emboldened behind the safety of their home computer screens and by the relative anonymity the Net provides.  I will call these sorts of attacks what they are, so beware.   
  So there you have it.  I guess this post is more of a re-introduction to my blog.  I hope you get something out of what I have to say.  

Many of you are probably wondering what I do for a living here in Moscow. I suppose I could just say I teach English, but that does not give you much of a picture of what my day to day life is like here, so I will go into a little more detail about my job.
I work for an American owned English institute here in Moscow. These sorts of businesses are legion here these days and there is no small demand for native English teachers all around the city. In fact, these sorts of schools bring in loads of money. This further testifies to the fact that English is the international language of the world and probably will be for a very long time (much to the chagrin of the French).
Our institute is located just a few blocks away from Red Square. Today between lessons I went down there to walk around a bit. Summer is an exciting time in Moscow. Spring/summer fever is in the air here. In the summer you really see how populated this city really is. During the winter folks seem to go outside when they have to go about their business. In the summer people go out just to go out.
The air is electric and the crowds are thick with people strolling around the city eating ice cream, hot dogs, shaurma (a Middle Eastern wrap with meat and vegetables) and drinking beer. People seem to be more relaxed than they are during the winter here. Despite the scores of ugly Soviet era buildings around the city, the lush green vegetation somehow makes the city easy on the eye. The scores of beautiful women in summer dress strolling arm in arm also make the city a thrilling place; at least that is if you are a guy. The emotions that I feel on the streets in Moscow are like nothing I have ever felt in any city I have been to in the world. My impressions of this city have changed so much since my first time here almost two years ago. Whereas before I did not care for the cold character of Moscow and its people, I have come to realize that there are decent people here. Sometimes you run into folks who are rude, but I suppose that is a world-wide problem.

I would like to first apologize for the long delay in writing here. The last few months have been crazy to say the least. They have been the most adventurous I have ever experienced in my life.
For those who do not know, I am now working in Moscow. The job in Kazakstan went south due to a conflict with our former boss and a run in with some of Karaganda's finest (if you could call such corrupt cops the finest of any city!). I don't want to go into an extended explanation about what happened. It would take hours to do so. In short, we were taken into custody in mid January due to issues with our registration in Karaganda. In order to live in any city in the former USSR, you have to register at a special office for foriegn residents. We tried to do this in October, but were given the run around. We went in on three different occations to register, and were given different stories as to what to do every time. The last time we went, we were allowed to see the man who registers foriegners, and he refused to register us, saying that since our inviting organization was located in Almaty (the business capital of the country) we had to register through their office in that city. This was a lie. We later found out that he always tries to avoid registering foreigners either because he is lazy, wants a bribe, or both. We ended up registering in Almaty because we only had three more days left on our temperary registration. When we were picked up in January, we explained this. But this makes no difference to people who want to increase their puny salaries and move up the career latter quicker. In Kazakstan, cops try to collect the most bribe money to move up in rank. Our boss was forced to pay quite a large sum of money to get us out of the situation ($1000). We decided to leave the country after this plus some issues with our boss.
I can only hope that Americans will try to fight anything that looks like this kind of corruption in our country. I have never in my life entertained joining a revolution more than in this situation. But I know that the kingdom I serve is not of this world. None the less, I encourage all or my countrymen to do what they can to fight corruption in the US. By not doing so, we could one day have to deal with this kind of nonsence. We must not underestimate the corruption of the hearts of men.

Winter has appeared to set in for the long hall. There is already quite a bit of snow on the ground with more to come in the next 24 hours. I have been in some cold weather, but never this cold and never for this long. Over the last couple of days the temperature has gotten up to the low teens F. We have had several days that have gotten down to the low teens below zero F. They say it is not uncommon for it to get down to 35 below here.
Worst of all, the streets and sidewalks are turning into ice rinks. I fell pretty hard yesterday walking from church to work. After I get paid next week, I will try and get me some shoes with some decent treads on them so I don’t have to ice skate all winter.

Good things continued
The news and media
One noticeable difference between here and the States is what is broadcasted on the news. Here, bad news does not exist. On any given day the news channels report on the country's economic development, the presidential visits to Western nations to stimulate interest in investment in the country, the elimination of corruption in the local government, etc. One might argue that this is one big propaganda stunt since the government is said to have more control over news agencies, but all that is said is true as far is I can see. This is in stark contrast to the constant barrage of bad news that we hear in the U.S. When was the last time we did not hear about how many murders took place last night or about some sensational scandal that some actor or politician got into? I think that our culture has a lust for blood, violence, and sensationalism that is most disturbing. Perhaps our news agencies could learn a little about balanced reporting from their Kazak counterparts by trying to focus a little more on the good things that go on in our country and in places where American troops are serving, even if the talking heads don’t agree with the policies of the current administration. And maybe the local news agencies should focus on what measures are being taken to fight crime instead of just dwelling on crime itself.

Частник (Chastnik)
In my entries about my last trip, I forgot to mention another unusual custom which is by no means provocative, but never the less non-existent in America. In every city here, it is common for people to stop a chastnik, which in Russian means a private taxi, to get to where they need to go. This is especially popular in Almaty and Aktay, but can be found in pretty much every city with a larger population. In the States, the idea of flagging any car and going somewhere with a complete stranger at the wheel is a sure sign that you have a death wish. Here, on the other hand, it is one of the main sources of transportation. This is especially true in Almaty, where there are so many people using their vehicles as private taxis, that there are no official cabs to be found in the city.
To flag a chastnik, you hold your hand out. If you are on any street with traffic (which is the case for most streets in Almaty) a car will stop soon after you hold your hand out. You then tell the person where you are going before you hop in. If the driver agrees to take you to your destination, you negotiate a price. Some cities have fixed rates for rides that everyone in town knows and follows. In Almaty, the price is not quite as fixed due to the size of the city and the horrible traffic problems. Being a foreigner can sometimes be a pain if you want to hire a chastnik since there are plenty of folks out there who are more than ready to rip you off. In one instance while we were in Almaty, a car stopped for us. After the driver agreed to take us where we wanted to go, he tried to charge us over three times the going rate to get to our destination. Needless to say, we sent him on his way and flagged another car.
Rides in chastniks are at times fun because it is a good chance to mingle with the locals. There are always lots of interesting questions about life in the States. One of the more unusual questions we were asked was what the going rate was for a prostitute in America. To the disappointment of the driver, we were not able to answer that one.

Winter
Better late than never. Winter has finally set in. It is now -19C (-3F) outside. There is snow on the ground from Almaty all the way to Karaganda, and probably almost everywhere else in the country. When we left for Almaty 2 days ago, it was in the 40sF with rain. We saw winter set in with our very eyes in a cafe in Almaty yesterday. It rained all morning. It was the kind of weather that commonly occurs in the winter in Houston, TX. And then as we were eating lunch, the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow. It snowed all day and was still flurrying when the train left Almaty yesterday evening.
Throughout the course of our trip, I did a little blogging on my computer. What follows is a little bit about our trip.

On the Train
Thanks to modern technology and the fact that I finally got my lap top fixed, I can now blog anywhere I want!!!! And so I would like to introduce my readers to train life in the former Soviet Union.
I am now typing this message in the luxury car of a train bound for the city of Almaty. It turns out we have to get our permanent registration to live and work in Kazakhstan in Almaty because our inviting organization is located there (I could write a whole entry on the bureaucratic nightmare we had to go through just to find this out!!!). In the former USSR, train travel is much more widely used and better developed than in the U.S. It is to this day the most common form of long-distance travel for everyone in this part of the world because it is much more affordable for the average person.
Most of the cars and the engines still date back to the Soviet era. The engines even still have the red star on the front, constantly reminding the traveler of the bygone days of the Soviet Empire.
When you get on the train, you find your spot and settle in. Travelers who will be on the train awhile like myself (15 hours one way) often bring their house shoes, pajamas, food, and other things to help one feel as comfortable as possible. There are four types of cars: the sitting cars for those who want to travel very cheaply and can live without lying down; the common sleeping car which, can sleep dozens of people in one common area (I have only gone this route once and now understand what cattle must feel like when they are traveling); the cabin car, with cabins that sleep up to four people; and the luxury car, which sleeps up to two people.
The most interesting part about the ride, apart from seeing the countryside, is the railroad trader. Many people literally make their living off of the railroad selling everything from food, newspapers, shubat or kumus (fermented goat and camel milk). These people often will get on the train and ride for a couple of hours to one city, and then board a train back to their home city, selling goods to travelers going two directions. On this trip, we have not run into any of these sellers.
Then there are the traders at the various stops. If your train stops in any city or village for any length of time, there are often sellers on the platform, often selling home cooked food and beverages. I have not seen any of these sellers this evening. I am assuming it is because we are on the later train or because the weather is so fowl (it is now raining and the temperature is probably in the low forties) that no one is up for fighting the elements to sell any dumplings.
Well, my battery is running low. The luxury cars have outlets for electrical devices, but they don't work for some reason. I have a long ride ahead of me and have to catch some zees to have enough strength to avoid the corrupt cops who are said to target foreigners at the Almaty train station. Living it up in the luxury car in the wild wild east...

In Almaty
We are now in an apartment which we are renting for the night in Almaty, which is the business and trading capital of Kazakhstan. If you want to find something that can't be found anywhere else in country, Almaty is the place to go. It is also rather pleasing to the eye with its long, wide, tree-lined avenues and green landscape. The south side of the city runs into the majestic Tian Shan Mountains, which are now snow-capped, indicating that winter, though late in its coming, will be here soon enough.
The beauty of this part of the country is a bit deceiving. Most of Kazakhstan is endless step, with few trees and lots of brown grass. From what I have read and been told, the green, mountainous landscape is only prevalent along the eastern and southern borders. Despite this, there is a lot of nature type stuff to do in this part of the country and in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which is located just a couple of hours away from here.
People seem to be a little different here than in the rest of the country. Perhaps the most pleasant difference is the fact that there is a lot less trash in the streets. We were told today that people here make more of an effort to keep the city clean. This is the complete opposite of everywhere else I have been in this country, right up to the very outskirts of Almaty itself. On the way in this morning, I think I saw more litter in the villages outside of the city than I have seen anywhere else here.
So far during our stay here, a young man by the name of Igor has been taking us to various places in order to help us to take care of our business. He has by far more character than any man whom I have met in this country (If you can call him a man. He is but 20). He is the first man whom I know here who is faithful to his girlfriend, with whom he is planning to marry some time in the future. He is also one of the most ambitious young men I have ever met. He already has his own brick making business and has a couple of other ideas that could prove to be lucrative in the works. I think people like him are the future of this country. One can only pray that the government will continue on its current path to put into place law and order and enforce it. The only thing that makes me wonder is what might happen if Naserbaev were to suddenly kick the bucket.