Tickets to ride, if you can afford them
Before coming to Russia as an English language instructor, I had two interviews that I remember rather well. Two questions, one from each, still stand out.
Why do you want to do this job?
In addition to wanting out of humid Houston, Texas, I wanted to engage with a less contentious subject in the classroom. While my experience teaching Sociology was generally wonderful, it did come with its social and political frustrations.
Teaching English for its own sake, though? This would take me back to my artistic roots.
I answered, uncharacteristically, that I’m blessed with native English.
About a week later, I had a follow-up interview with the Director of Studies and head of the St. Petersburg, Russia, branch of the school.
During this exchange, the most memorable question was far less philosophical:
Do you know what the IELTS is?
Not really…a proficiency test…?
I’ll take that as a no.
Still, I was offered a position and I accepted.
The time in between that good news and securing a visa; selling, donating, or shipping all of my personal belongings across several state lines; bidding adieu to several friends; and making it to the correct gate at Dulles International Airport was less than a month. I had a lot to say goodbye to while looking forward to this new job.
Once I touched down in Moscow, training began the next day. We focused mostly on student expectations, classroom management, and the IELTS.
We focused a lot on the IELTS.
Students take the IELTS (International English Language Testing System), broadly, for two reasons: they want to study abroad at the undergraduate or professional level, or they want to live and work abroad.
These ambitions don’t always land them in an English-speaking country (Germany, Switzerland, and France are popular choices), but their targeted terra firma is always Not Russia. Whether they are seeking a higher standard of living or simply a safer one (LGBTQ students do pop in now and then), all IELTS candidates see a future for themselves outside of the limits imposed on them by their native country.
On its official website, IELTS makes a pitch to universities to adopt it as its admissions standard for foreign students. These nine questions are supposed to guide organizations to make the right choice (IELTS) instead of the wrong one (TOEFL, Duolingo, or Pearson, to name a few). The first eight questions are about validity, but the last one?
9. Is the test accessible?
The official response is that it is! You can take the IELTS “on paper, on computer and remotely online” it claims.
Well, sure.
Unless you’re a Russian citizen.
If you’re one of those, you’ll have to have a foreign passport, enough money to travel abroad to the handful of countries where this is still an option, book accommodation, exchange currency, etc., take your test, and wait for your results.
If your results aren’t what you needed, well, you get to do that all again.
Enterprising students of mine have included the IELTS as part of their holidays, taking a day or two out of a Turkish vacation to sit this test. Others have had to sacrifice time off from work to spend what is likely close to a month’s salary (if not more) on this endeavor.
Is that what you’d call “accessible”?
