I'm interested in moving to Ukraine.

[moosebuddy]

I'm interested in moving to Ukraine to teach English. I am a native of the United States. Would they accept me? Would I stand out in a crowd like a sore thumb?

[Turboguy]

Do you speak Ukrainian or Russian?    I would think it would be hard to teach without.   Otherwise you could probably get a job easy enough.   Working in the school system you would probably make $ 100-200 a month but you could do better giving private lessons.   

[Shadow]

Check out the report of Krimster for the pitfalls of living in Ukraine. You will need to be able to improvise and think out of the box to survive. 

[Turboguy]

There are some reports from guys who have done what you are talking about that may be helpful.   I don't feel like searching to find them but I recall one guy had a nic something like Tennessee Horseman or the like,  perhaps someone with a better memory can get more exact. 

Would you stick out like a sore thumb.   I don't really know how to answer that.   I think most of us are easy to spot as a foreigner yet on the other hand I frequently have people come up to me and ask directions or the time as if they don't realize I am a foreigner. 

[Kuna]

A few men here have taught English while living in FSU... Scottincrimea is one of them.

There are sites and communities specifically aimed at this topic (English teachers) and one I stumbled upon recently had wonderful information for someone interested in that sort of thing... 

The forum went right down to discussing the owners of the colleges (god and bad), things to watch out for, how to apply for jobs, who will hire you and who won't (one college for instance wouldn't hire a man over 30 because he considered them all to be "dirty old men" - even though there was some speculation about his own interests in the students).

There was also a lot of other information on required or beneficial qualifications, living arrangements, apartments, tips on living like a local, etc.

btw...  I don't think the pay was anything like $100 - $200 per month... not sure where that figure came from... Probably a wild guess from a well-intentioned but ill-informed "punter". 

On the site they were talking typical incomes of around $750-$800 per month in either Kiev or Dnepr...  someone claimed they were offered $1k per month to stay but they'd had a gutful and left.

btw... tips on finding apartments for $400 were pretty interesting. 

Warnings about dating the students were even more interesting! 

I wish I would have bookmarked it but I didn't at the time.  Was a very interesting read though.

Get googling and stay in-touch here... I'm sure many would be interested to hear of your adventure (if you end up taking the plunge).

Kuna

[moosebuddy]

Thanks for the imput. The $750-$800 figure sounds about right from what I have come up with. I would be more interested as a private teacher to those who are
serious about learning or improving their English. More towards adults. I have also found out that one can make money at the colleges just by conversing with students
who are more advanced. Make money just by talking with them? Not a bad job. 

Dating the students? I don't think so. There is an old saying here in the U.S. 16 will get you 20...  Interact with a sixteen year old and you'll enjoy twenty years behind
bars... and our government means it!

[wxman]

It definately depends on where you live. I have a good friend who teaches english at one of the local universities in Lugansk. She is from Ukraine and has her degrees in English and French. She makes $300 to $400 a month at the university. She supplements her income by tutoring elementary students on the weekend.

[Turboguy]

Well, I will quit punting and try for a field goal.    Her is a link and a quote about teachers pay in Ukraine.

http://www.korrespondent.net/kyiv/341646

Киевская горадминистрация обещает увеличить среднюю зарплату учителей в 2008 г. на 34%, что к концу 2008 года составит около 2000 грн. Педагоги также будут получать надбавки за выслугу лет в полном объеме, помощь на оздоровление при предоставлении ежегодного отпуска и денежное вознаграждение за добросовестный труд и образцовое выполнение служебных обязанностей.

This translates to "Kievska government administration is promising to increase the average salary of teachers during 2008 by 34%.   As a result at the end of the year 2008 the salary will be about 2000 grh per month.   (The rest of the quote deals with vacations and other promises.)   

Doing the math on this should put current teachers pay at about the $ 295 not too far off the numbers I quoted.  That is for Kiev.  My guess is the smaller cities would be less.   University's and the private sector do pay more and it is possible in  the private sector to have a good income.

[moosebuddy]

I've read that many Ukranians cannot afford private English lessons. Then I've read that when they are charged for it, it's like an arm and a leg. What amount would the Ukranian people be willing to pay and what kind of responses what I receive in offering the class to them?

What about British English compared to American English? I KNOW the differance
and which is more prefered?

[wxman]

I don't know what families pay for private lessons, but my friend is renting out a few rooms in a building with 3 fellow english teachers, and they all teach english to students at that building on saturdays. About 15 to 20 students in each classroom. This is in Lugansk where the population is around 500,000. So there is a market for it.

[Kuna]

Well, I will quit punting and try for a field goal.    Her is a link and a quote about teachers pay in Ukraine.

http://www.korrespondent.net/kyiv/341646

Киевская горадминистрация обещает увеличить среднюю зарплату учителей в 2008 г. на 34%, что к концу 2008 года составит около 2000 грн. Педагоги также будут получать надбавки за выслугу лет в полном объеме, помощь на оздоровление при предоставлении ежегодного отпуска и денежное вознаграждение за добросовестный труд и образцовое выполнение служебных обязанностей.

This translates to "Kievska government administration is promising to increase the average salary of teachers during 2008 by 34%.   As a result at the end of the year 2008 the salary will be about 2000 grh per month.   (The rest of the quote deals with vacations and other promises.)   

Doing the math on this should put current teachers pay at about the $ 295 not too far off the numbers I quoted.  That is for Kiev.  My guess is the smaller cities would be less.   University's and the private sector do pay more and it is possible in  the private sector to have a good income.

*sigh*

Googled [Salarly] [English] [Teacher] [Ukraine] and found site after site after site quoting the $750+ figure... Must have taken some time to support the $250 figure huh?

Ray...  as I said, well-intentioned but ill-informed.  Perhaps vwrw can help you change your name to wiii?

[Turboguy]

 

Kuna, I searched for the terms you quoted.   With the exception of one discussion forum the sites that came up are all services that will hook you up for those sky high paying jobs if you send them a hefty fee.   It is like going to a scam MOB site and learning how submissive and old fashioned RW are.  Send your money to them and they will have beautiful young women writing you right and left.   

You mentioned forum your terms pulled up.   I am not sure if I found the same forum but here is a quote from the one I found using your search parameters.

"Anyway, I believe you may be right, a Ukrainian teacher might make a little under $100 a month. I doubt its more."
Kuna, the site I quoted was a newspaper quoting the government of Ukraine and I gave the link.   Are you saying they know nothing about the pay of a teacher?   I can give you more links to newspapers and the government if you want but I would not take the "services" you quoted seriously.   

[ScottinCrimea]

Turbo, you and Kuna are talking apples and oranges.  Ukrainian teachers are in the public sector and their wages are horribly low.  English language teachers work in the private sector and the pay scale is much different.

I would definitely avoid the websites that ask for a fee to link you up with a teaching position.  They paint an overly rosy picture.  From my experience, some can make a reasonable living (by Ukraine standards) teaching English there, but most would need to start out working with one of the language institutes and then developing some private tutoring or contracts with companies later on as they gain contacts.  I didn't teach English for the purpose of earning a living so my experience may be a little different, but I worked for two language institutes teaching part time.  Unless you are pretty fluent in Russian, you would be limited to teaching intermediate to advanced students.  Also, unless you have some training in English at the University level, you'll have a hard time teaching grammar classes but instead would be focusing on vocabulary and pronunciation.  Just try explaining on the fly the future past perfect tense to a limited English speaker as I once had to do.  Thank God for Mrs. Beatty, my high school English teacher!  Toward the end I was doing some individual tutoring, one client being a pediatric cardiologist, another the president of an international software company and another the CEO of a major electric company, and I also had developed contacts in the universities to the point that I was keynote speaker for last years national conference of university English language students, and I could probably have worked things into a comfortable living, but it took a couple of years to get to that point and at that point I was already making plans to return to the US for awhile.

I would recommend that before you make any decisions, you first learn all that you can about the country and the opportunities, and this is one place to start.  It takes a lot to sort through the hype and misinformation, but if you see this as a real possibility and are willing to struggle some and work at it, you can make a reasonable living doing it.

[AnastassiaAsh]

It's one thing to know what 'future-perfect-in-the-past" is, and completely another to know how to explain it to the Russian audience.
Being a native speaker is absolutely not enough to actually teach. Foreigners can be just a good 'tool' to practice listening comprehension and speech for Russians, but not more than that unless you are an English teacher by profession here. 
Maybe they will be more inclined in some common public schools, but I am not sure about universities.

[ScottinCrimea]

It's one thing to know what 'future-perfect-in-the-past" is, and completely another to know how to explain it to the Russian audience.
Being a native speaker is absolutely not enough to actually teach. Foreigners can be just a good 'tool' to practice listening comprehension and speech for Russians, but not more than that unless you are an English teacher by profession here. 
Maybe they will be more inclined in some common public schools, but I am not sure about universities.

You make a very good point.  I know without some knowledge of Russian it would have been very difficult to explain this concept and others in a way that makes sense to them.  Without a basic understanding of Russian grammar and usage, you end up just being someone they can practice their English with.

[Turboguy]

Scott, Thanks and for the most part I agree with you.    You know far more about it than I do.   I think it would be fair to say that someone teaching in the public sector won't have a large income, someone who is able to add some private lessons may do much better and someone working with businesses and industry may have a very good income.   My guess is you would agree with all that.

In this case based on some additional information posted elsewhere the poster does not have teaching experience or even a degree in anything and since he never answered my question about knowing Russian, I will venture a guess he does not.  Personally I think he might find it difficult to succeed but it is his life.   

[Nando]

My GF pays 11€ per month for private English lessons in Nikolaev.
Two times per week, each lesson one hour and a half. The teacher is Ukrainian but a very good one.
If you ask me if they see any additional interest in a British or American teaching I would say most of the times they will choose the Ukrainian teacher because they are helping a person from their country.

Just my two cents,

[krimster]

moosebuddy,

some comments.  First to be an English teacher you need a TEFL certificate.  Google it and find out more.
There are two job markets in Ukraine, Kyiv, and the rest of Ukraine.  I don't know what current salary rates are in Kyiv,
but last year I hired a recent graduate from the linguistics department from Simferopol State Univ for $250/mo and she was thrilled
with this salary, her English was almost 'native', quite impressive.  She taught the English classes I sponsored, my 'help' was to grade
papers and to have practice dialogs with students.  Where I lived (Sevastopol) you'd have to work at it just to be a volunteer, and there'd be
no chance of someone hiring you, without Russian you could only work on phonetics with advanced students and that's not worth a salary.

I've met many who asked this same question as you, usually in the context that they want to stay in Ukraine for 1-2 yr, either
because they met a woman and don't want to bring her to the USA just yet, or they want to meet a woman to bring to the USA.

My advice, think outside the box, if you can't afford to just go and live there from your savings, then forget the job idea,
and live as cheaply as possible and save your money for 1-2 yr and go there and live off this.

[Daveman]

Ahhh forget teaching and become a peanut butter smuggler and sell it on the black market.. you'll make a fortune 

[ScottinCrimea]

First to be an English teacher you need a TEFL certificate. papers and to have practice dialogs with students.  Where I lived (Sevastopol) you'd have to work at it just to be a volunteer, and there'd be
no chance of someone hiring you, without Russian you could only work on phonetics with advanced students and that's not worth a salary.

This is not entirely true.  While having a TEFL certificate would give you an edge at the university teaching level, they also consider experience and at the local language institute or the private level, it's not needed to get hired.  I'm proof of that.  I knew of several English language teachers working without credentials.  Still, unless you're willing to spend the time to work your way up, if you want to actually make a decent living teaching Enlish in Ukraine, you should have the certificate and some Russian skills.

I've thought about getting the certificate while I'm here in the US, more for my own benefit than anything else, because when I return I will not lack for teaching opportunites even without it.  The institutes regularly ask my MIL when I will be coming back.

[Kuna]

There are two job markets in Ukraine, Kyiv, and the rest of Ukraine.  I don't know what current salary rates are in Kyiv,
but last year I hired a recent graduate from the linguistics department from Simferopol State Univ for $250/mo and she was thrilled
with this salary, her English was almost 'native', quite impressive.

I recently saw a discussion group (forum) specifically aimed at living abroad and teaching English.  There was a section on Ukraine and the salaries quoted were around $1000 in Kiev and $750-$800 in Dnepropetrovsk.

If anyone is serious about this I'd be giving google a workout to find that forum because it had a "guts and all" roundup of colleges,  main players, scammers, accomm, etc.

Kuna

[krimster]

Scott,
   Depends on what you mean by a 'decent living'.  In Sevastopol I knew quite a few teachers and translators.  By working their main job
and having side jobs of translating for 'agencies' and being guides for tourists they had a combined income of about 500 USD/month, a fabulous
income for them, but not so fabulous for a 'Westerner' living there.  In Sevastopol, the private English classes (there were on average 6-8 such classes in total)
all followed a similar structure.  They had 2-3 evening classes and one on Saturday mornings.  There classes averaged 20-25 students at 20 USD month/each.
Do the math, the gross of this class was 400-500 USD/mo. minus room expense.

In Sevastopol expect to pay about 200 USD/mo for a small, REALLY horrible apartment.
So you can see that this 'income' relative to your expenses isn't very high.  If someone coming here for an extended stay and didn't normally
have the resources to just live from their personal savings, my advice would be to save more in their home country, have an 'austerity program'
to reduce expenses, save more, and possibly get a second job for a year or two, and just bring that money here.

This also doesn't address the difficulties encountered living here.  You and I are lucky Scott, we each have our own resident expert to help us.  Imagine coming to Ukraine on your own and living with NO KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERIENCE and without having this live-in expert.

[ScottinCrimea]

I think the only way you can make a "decent" living teaching English in Ukraine (decent meaning not being forced to live like the locals) is to have a private contract with some international company there and that's only going to happen in the largest cities and only if you have great credentials.  As a supplement to money you have from elsewhere, either savings or a separate job, it's reasonable, but not as your sole income.  Let's look at the realities.  Most of the people you would teach are either in school or at work during the day, so your teaching would be limited to at most 4 hours in the evenings and maybe 8 hours on Saturdays. The typical pay for a 1 1/2 hour session is $6 for a noncredentialed teacher and $10 for one with the right credentials.  So you'll get maybe 2 sessions on weekdays and 3 on Saturdays.  This adds up to between $312 and $520 a month. Students typically sign up for a specific number of sessions, so you would be always having to find new students.  I taught English because I enjoyed it, not for the money.  I worked for two separate language institutes.  I taught one 1 1/2 hour session three nights a week and supervised the English club for two hours on Saturdays.  For this I was paid $6 for each weeknight session and $8 for the Saturday English club.  I later did some one on one turoring for which I was paid $8 for a 1 1/2 hour session.  Of course all this was arranged through the institutes, so they got their cuts, but I wasn't interested in drumming up my own private business.  I did get a pretty good reputation, to the point that I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the Ukrainian national conference of English language university students, and I imagine I could have built a pretty good private business, but that wasn't my goal.  I was also editing English thesis papers for some of my students strictly for free (which never ceased to amaze them) and had been requested to be an editor for several translations of medical and other texts (which I had to decline because I was leaving for the US).  The bottom line is that, even with my experience and contacts developed over two years, I would never have thought that I could live off my income as an English teacher/translator.