The English Teachers. RF Duncan-Goodwillie
in the last 10 to 15 years. I have had lots of opportunities to work as a presenter for Cambridge Assessment English**. And it’s good because it’s teacher training and it gets me out of the city.
*Note: IELTS – The International English Language Testing System. An international standardised test of English.
**Note: Cambridge Assessment English – a Cambridge Exam board.
RFDG: Is it particularly important to be away from Moscow?
F: No, but I like travelling.
*
Chee-way Sun (CWS)
Setting the scene: We sit in an office shared by several academic managers, though Chee-way is not one (yet). The chairs are more comfortable here, the windows larger and there’s an airy feeling in the room, covered as it is by mountains of books and piles of CDs and teaching aids. Despite the appearance of barely-organised chaos, Chee-way seems at ease here, often laughing in the not-quite-manic way I have come to see as one of her trademark features.
CWS: I was born in America BUT my dad is South American Peruvian and my mum is Chinese. BUT I am also Canadian because my mum left the States to go to Canada. That’s how I’m also a Canadian citizen. Then I began to travel with my dad. I went to China with him. After that I went back to the States and Europe, and was in Latvia for about 13 years. I basically grew up there as a teen and a young adult.
RFDG: Why did you choose teaching?
CWS: My dad is a professor in university. I wanted to be a psychiatrist, but my dad discouraged me because he said if I knew what people think I’d be depressed all the time. He’s quite pessimistic. Then I wanted to be a teacher, but Dad wanted me to be a musician. But I didn’t pass the music exam (thank goodness) because I never studied.
She giggles. Sometimes teachers make the worst students.
He thought I was studying but I was just pretending. So, I failed and I went to a primary school teaching programme. We had practice in schools. They would send us to schools and kindergartens and after that I decided to find a job. At first I worked in a kindergarten, but I felt the salary wasn’t good enough. My best friend was working in IH Riga and she introduced me to the main boss there and, after an interview, I became an English teacher.
RFDG: And you came to Moscow?
CWS: No, I was in Latvia for sometime in IH Riga and then my family moved to Ireland. I left Riga because it was a lot of work for me and my family left, so I wasn’t sure what was there besides work. After a year I decided to go to Vietnam.
RFDG: And then you came to Moscow.
CWS: No.
She laughs at my repeated failures to find connections.
We will get there! I actually applied to Moscow when I was in Vietnam, but the visa procedure in Vietnam wasn’t successful so I went to Canada. Then I realised I was missing some Canadian documents and without them I couldn’t really complete the procedure so I ended up staying there for one and a half years.
At first I couldn’t work without the documents so I volunteered for a month in IH Vancouver so I wouldn’t’ be bored waiting for my papers. Then they arrived and in December 2017. I emailed IH again after seeing the job post.
RFDG: And then you still didn’t come?
CWS: Yeah, they said they had enough teachers. And then that was postponed until the next year.
RFDG: So, you went through hell to come to Moscow. Why?
CWS: I don’t know. I just feel like there is something here I have to come for.
RFDG: That’s an awful lot of effort for just a feeling.
CWS: I know! It’s interesting.
RFDG: If you had to go anywhere else where would that be?
CWS: Maybe Italy or Spain because the food is great and I usually go for the food… except for Moscow. I don’t find that interesting after growing up in Latvia.
*
Carlos Monroy (CS)
Setting the scene: It’s another blue-sky, cold-air day in the centre of the Moscow school where I sit with Carlos. He always seems to have a light manner about him that matches his big smile and floppy black hair which sits across his forehead at a slight angle. He speaks in a way that matches his demeanour: calm, clear and relaxed.
CM: I studied English literature at university because I wanted to be a literary translator, but then I thought, “How can I travel the world and learn other languages?” I could sooner do it by teaching than by translating. So, I started and I really enjoyed it. I began teaching in a private university, then in the national university and then I started teaching Spanish in some very improved schools. And then I started teaching privately. Then I came here.
RFDG: Did you go straight from Mexico to Russia?
CM: I did my CELTA in London. I was there for three months. I think it was only there I really started speaking English.
He laughs a little.
RFDG: So, it was only for the travel aspects?
CM: Yes, but I really enjoyed it as soon as I started.
RFDG: What do enjoy the most?
CM: Trying to understand how language works and finding ways to explain it. I enjoy seeing students understand it. It’s very rewarding. People often say it’s the most rewarding job in the world and I agree to a certain extent. When students don’t say things it’s not so rewarding.
He laughs.
CM: When it doesn’t work it’s not so rewarding at all.
RFDG: Why did you choose to come here?
CM: I went to learn another language and Russian was the next best step. I’m sure Spanish, English, French, Chinese and Japanese have very interesting literary traditions, but Russian was what I thought should be next. It was like, “What has some great literature? Oh it’s Russian. Let’s learn Russian!”
RFDG: If you hadn’t come here, where would you have gone?
CM: Well, there is a French visa I can request once in my life before I’m 30. So, I was thinking either France or Moscow, but if I told them I spoke French I would have had to write in French. It was easier to write in English when I applied for a job here. So I did, got an answer in two days and had the interview the following week. Never got to go to France.
RFDG: Do you think you’ll go there.
CM: Yes, it’s my plan. I have to take advantage of that.
*
Cheng Zhang-Stoddard (CZS)
Setting the scene: Spring has finally come to the northwest of Moscow and the grass is growing back in the spaces left barren by heavy winter snowfall. Not that we can see any of this as Cheng and I sit in the small, windowless room in a school in the well-to-do area of Kuntsevskaya. The school is quiet for the moment; the numerous young students who make up the student body here have yet to arrive for their afternoon classes in the busy