Nastarovya! Teach in the stunning city of St Petersburg - one of Russia's many
different faces. You
could also learn Russian at the same time, thus
improving your language skills and discovering
the delights of the Russian culture!
St. Petersburg is a beautiful
city to the north of Moscow, not far from the Finnish border.
It is a popular destination for tourists and
Travellers
Volunteers alike. With Russia's long and dramatic history, there are many
sights which must be on your sightseeing list!
Your work
will take place in language classes and/or in institutes and schools around
the city, some private and some belonging to the State.
You don't need any
qualifications to do a teaching placement in Russia.
Your work
will take place in language classes and/or in institutes and schools around
the city, some private and some belonging to the State.
Teaching is enjoyable in all of the schools and institutes,
particularly as class sizes are usually small, ranging from 6-20
students. This gives you scope to form quick
friendships and work within a happy environment.
Most of
the schools and institutes where we work range in size from 100 – 300
students, and initially, you will sit in with a class to give yourself time
to acclimatise to their way of teaching. However, there are times where you
may be given control of a whole group straight away.
This isn’t
as daunting as it sounds though, because the staff are extremely friendly and helpful if
you need any support. Before you begin you will sit down with our Russian
organiser and the school principle to establish a
suitable working timetable for yourself and the school.
With most
of the teaching placements in Russia, lessons are generally in the late
afternoon, which gives you plenty of time in the day to visit the wonderful
sites of this great city. There are also many one to one lessons from midday
onwards, if you feel you will be more of a benefit with this kind of work.
Throughout your placement you will probably be asked to help out with
lessons from the institutes curricula textbooks, and for this you'll get the
class to read passages and then discuss them or perhaps have a brief debate
about the content. We provide you with a Teaching Suggestions Guide
which Travellers has prepared for volunteers, but mostly you'll work from
sections in a school textbook. The Teaching Suggestions Guide will,
however, give you some hints and tips on how to teach.
You may also work a couple of times a week in a
Kindergarten,
where you'll help
to look after a small group of
very young children. Most volunteers thoroughly enjoy this, and the work
here ranges from trying to teach them some very basic English, to possibly
helping them to feed themselves. Some of the time is also spent just playing
with them! If you wish to participate on just the Kindergarten placement,
then this is possible too - please let us know.
All of the staff and students really appreciate your help, and they will
show this with their friendly attitude and approach. This normally spills
out into a social setting after lessons have finished, where strong bonds
are then formed with the teachers, students, and especially with your host
family who may also ask for some help with their English.
Whether it's the children, a student, or the adults trying to understand
satellite TV, English is the language that all Russians want to know, and
you will be inundated with questions and interest about you and your
country.
Please note that you must apply at least
six months (approximately) before the date you'd like to start your
placement. This is because Russian bureaucracy is ever-changing and requires
a lot of time to get your visa.
TEACHING ARTS, DRAMA, MUSIC AND OTHER SUBJECTS
IN RUSSIA:
If you have some know-how,
some initiative and lots of enthusiasm, you can also get involved with
teaching Drama, Music, Dance or Arts and Crafts lessons. If you enjoy being
creative, then you can share your talents and enthusiasm at the various
schools we work with.
Teaching Arts subjects is
an excellent way of engaging children’s imaginations and encourages them to
communicate with few constraints. What’s more, it is very satisfying to
watch their confidence grow as they learn and develop new skills.
At some of our schools in
our other destinations, volunteers and pupils together have produced plays
and concerts, and performances have been put on in the evenings for parents,
students and visitors. Because the schools are poor, the volunteers and
children have had to be very creative in putting together costumes and sets
– but all productions have been a resounding success!
Volunteers have found that
producing short plays written by the children that address local social
issues has been a successful means in educating the children on issues such
as AIDS awareness, cultural relationships, peer pressures, and bullying. It
gives the children an informal forum and a means of sharing their concerns
and learning to deal with issues.
You can either teach one
or more of these subjects for the whole of your placement, or you can
combine one of or all of these subjects with teaching conversational
English.
Please
email or call us (+44 (0)1903 502595) for more details – we will
certainly be able to find a way to utilise your talents, ensuring a
fulfilling placement for both yourself and your students.
Read about a
typical week on a teaching
placement in St Petersburg.
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS:
Spring Holiday: 22 March – 29 March
Summer Holiday: 1 June** – 1 September
Autumn Holiday: 4 November – 14 November
Winter Holiday: 1 January – 15 January
**Teaching
is available in language centres
throughout the summer holidays, but class
sizes are normally smaller then the normal term time teaching**
You
don't need any qualification for this placement except a very good
command of the English language, but if you feel you would like to gain
a little teaching knowledge, you can enroll in
our1-day
intensive open teacher training course. This is
optional for those who feel they will benefit from it.
If you
would also like to teach and
learn Russian,
then we can arrange a
combination placement
or a dual
placement for
you. The
combination course
will integrate your teaching placement and your Russian Course during your
stay in St Petersburg. The
Dual placement
will mean that you have a month/s solely on the Russian course and then a
month/s just on the teaching project. This is normally in groups at the St
Petersburg University and follows the structure of theTravellers
Russian Course.
LIVING
IN ST. PETERSBURG:
You will live with a friendly,
welcoming host family - Russian hospitality is renowned! Many of our host
families are situated in very central locations so you will have plenty of
opportunities to explore.
You are sure to develop some wonderful friendships during your
stay, as many of our volunteers have done in the past. Most stay in touch with
their Russian families and our local organiser, and several volunteers have
returned to Russia to visit their ‘families!’
You will be provided with meals in your accommodation. Good
Russian home-cooking takes advantage of what's available at sensible prices -
potatoes, salami, tomatoes, cabbage, pickles, jam and good bread to name just a
few. Vodka and good local beer are both cheap, and there will be plenty of
opportunities to socialize!
"The family I was staying with were lovely. They
were helpful and hospitable and took good care of me and I soon felt part of the
family. I was lucky in this respect, as I was introduced to lot of other
Russians and also taken places I may not have thought of myself - driven to
Vyborg and Peterhof, for example. I had my own room in a very comfortable flat
on the outskirts of town."
Richard Godwin
GETTING AROUND ST PETERSBURG:
One of our volunteers,
Richard Godwin, wrote useful notes on St Petersburg for future volunteers - this
is part of what he said and it gives you a good taste of the city:
"Bearings"
It shouldn't take too long to find your way around the centre of town. Basically
most of the places you will end up will be on or off Nevsky Prospekt, the
central boulevard - about two miles long - and monument to Russia's fast growing
consumer culture. At one end is the mighty river Neva, plus the Winter Palace
and the Admiralty Spire which can be seen from most of Nevsky Prospekt and is
thus useful for seeing which direction you're going in.
As you walk away from
the river, Nevsky is then transected by three waterways which conveniently
divide up the area into manageable sections - the river Moyka, the Griboyedov
canal, and then the river Fontanka. Carry on down and (after crossing Liteiniy
Prospekt - home to Centre Vera) you will get to Ploschad Vosstaniya, which is
where the Moscow station is situated (where you are likely to arrive from).
Past
the square you get to the bit known as 'old Nevsky' which is a bit run down, but
a little less touristy and a bit more studenty, containing some funky little
hangouts. This is also where the red light district is, if you're interested.
Carry on down here and you will get to Ploschad Alexandrovo Nevskovo, the end of
the road. Once you've sorted this out, you're pretty much okay - most places of
interest are on Nevsky or down one of the canals.
Transport
Public transport is amazingly efficient and cheap and you will need to use it
quite a bit. The Metro shuts at about 12.30, but up to this time you shouldn't
have to wait more than three minutes for a train. It is clean, well organised,
never stops inexplicably in the tunnel a la London Underground, and some of the
stations are quite spectacular. The only problems are potential loss of limb in
the ridiculously punishing slam of the carriage doors, and the depth of the
lines underground, which sometimes makes you feel as if you are descending
halfway to hell as you go down the escalators.
Trolleybuses and Trams should be
four roubles a journey, and are often more convenient than the metro for shorter
distances. There is also a herd of minibuses known as marshutkas that patrol the
bus routes that can be hailed and got off at any point. They tend to be quicker
then normal buses and are very useful.
TRAVEL:
You have the option to
arrange your own flights or we can assist you with your flight arrangements. If
you would like us to do this for you, we will liaise with you regarding
available flights and dates to suit you. All arrangements for your flight
bookings/payments will be fulfilled by Murray Rogers Travel Ltd., ATOL No. 6856. (Read more about Murray Rogers Travel Ltd.) Where possible, we arrange for two or more
people to travel on the same flight and we will let you have the names and
telephone numbers of other volunteers on your flight, so that you can chat to
each other or even meet up before leaving for your placement.
You'll be met at the airport by our
representative or a member of her staff and you'll be
taken to your place of work and your accommodation and introduced to your hosts.
We
may also be able to provide you with a TRAVEL PASS which enables you to travel locally
for FREE during your placement.
VISAS: For most countries you will need to apply your
visa but we will send you all the necessary forms and information. We will
make the process very easy for you.
Where possible, all flights we arrange for you have changeable
return tickets because many of our volunteers choose to extend their stay once
they are in their destination country. Changeable return tickets enable you to
do so, within the limits of your visa and the level of your air ticket, of
course.
If you choose to book your own flights, you should endeavour to get a
changeable ticket. We meet you at the airport regardless of whether you make
your own travel arrangements or not.
We can also arrange your flight dates to give you additional time at the end
of your project for travelling around and sightseeing - this is a fascinating
and wondrous country!
PRICES:
2 weeks
1 month
2
months
3
months
Extra weeks
T-shirts provided
Prices
include all your food and accommodation (excluding lunch), plus 2 free
T-shirts where indicated, as well as
meeting you at the nearest airport, if appropriate, but exclude international travel.
Teaching
English
£895
£1,195
£1,675
£2,145
£130
Yes
Coaching Sports
£895
£1,195
£1,675
£2,145
£130
Yes
ALL Work
Experience Placements
n/a
£1,275
£1,695
£2,175
£130
No
Russian Language Courses (Intensive)
n/a
£1,475
£2,095
£2,745
£180
No
SPECIALS:
1-Week (20 hour) Russian Language Course, prior to
starting your project
£295
20-Hour Russian Language Course (concurrent with your
project)
£120
80-Hour Russian Language Course (concurrent with your
project)
£295
160-Hour Russian Language Course (concurrent with your
project)
£595
240-Hour Russian Language Course (concurrent with your
project)
.
+44 01903 502595
