-TESOL Expert article written by our 120-hour TESOL graduate-
People have different reasons for coming to teach English in Russia. Moscow is notably the most popular, interesting, and promising destination, but smaller cities also provide plenty of opportunities for both native and non-native ESL teachers. I live and work in Samara (population 1,200,000) and I strongly recommend coming here or choosing a similar small city. In this blog, I will write about the job market to give you a better understanding of the choices you have in Russia.
ESL Schools – TESOL Russia
Language schools are great for TESOL graduates. Employers don’t always require a BA in Education or Linguistics, but they want teachers with TESOL certification.
I know many people from South America and Europe teaching ESL at language schools and they really like it because this job market has many advantages: They teach different levels (usually small groups of 3-12 people) and classrooms are comfortable with all the necessary devices.
Teachers are free to plan lessons and modify the basic program. Salary ranges from $10 to $15 an hour. A major drawback is that most contracts are part-time.
Business English – TESOL Russia
Do you want to take part in Russian business development? Then you should search for a teaching position at an organization that has “corporate clients”.
These are enterprises hired by businesses and language schools to send teachers to teach Business English lessons ‘in-company’.
For this kind of job, you must possess a TESOL certificate with a Teaching Business English component, considerable experience, and presentable appearance as well. Some teachers earn up to $100/hour!
Private Lessons – TESOL Russia
Do you want a good freelance source of income? Any foreign ESL teacher can offer private lessons in Russia, it is incredibly popular.
You can place your advertisement online and in papers. It may take some time before you find students, but it’s definitely worth it because foreign teachers earn about 30$ per hour. Students who are happy with your classes may give recommendations to friends.
If you are lucky, you may even create mini-groups to provide a more “communicative” environment and increase your income. Some students require TESOL certification, but some don’t care about formal documents at all, they only need real spoken language practice.
These are only the major leads in my city. There are many other opportunities and loads of options for teaching English in Russia!
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