Teaching English

Imagine that you have two groups of students — one of eight or so adults who speak English well enough to discuss topics of everyday interest, and the other of ten children about 10 years of age who only know a few words of English. You meet each group twice per week for about an hour-and-a-half each time. On Friday, you also lead an English-language movie night. All-in-all, you spend about 20 hours per week on work-related activities, including planning.

You carefully plan each lesson, initially with the help of your supervisor and increasingly on your own. For the adult group, you focus on topics like travel and money. You show them videos to challenge their comprehension and assign readings to expand their vocabularies. With the kids, you play games like Simon Says and hangman, teaching them simple sentences. The most memorable lesson? Maybe the one on space travel — who would have thought that so many of your adult students had engineering degrees!

Your host organization will be a language academy such as Global House in Ryazan, offering courses that feel similar to SAT- or A-levels prep. Except in their case, the courses are foreign languages and their students include children as well as adults. For the children, the language classes complement the school curriculum, while adults brush up on language skills for work or travel. 

You will stay with one or more host families (depending on the length of your program).

Your homestay is a place to rest and a glimpse into Russian family life. Your host family will likely be out during the day, so you won't get a steam bowl of fresh borscht every day. But, you do get a chance to sit together at the dinner table and chat about their day and yours. It's an experience you cannot replicate in a classroom.

Teaching requires at least 2 semesters of university-level Russian or equivalent. Heritage speakers are also welcome. As part of the application process, we may ask you to take a short language test.

You practice Russian basically everywhere. Your work will involve English, of course. However, outside of that, you can speak as much Russian as you like. With your host family, with your colleagues, students (if you have any), their friends... this internship is as immersive as you want to make it.

It will be a combination of the planned and spontaneous. You will have a few planned weekend activities, like a trip to a museum or a nearby town. Spontaneous opportunities will fill the other time. These will probably involve colleagues from your workplace or your host family. You are a special guest for these people, and it's almost inevitable that you will spend time with them. 

Internships take place during the summer, in June and July. You can do one or both sessions.  

This internship will take place in either Voronezh or Ryazan. Read more about them on our locations page. 

Getting there is easy. Once you are accepted into the program, we will send you instructions on what city/airport you need to fly to and when. Our representative will meet you at the airport and travel with you to your host city.

For a list of program fees for the different internship types and other estimated costs you may incur, see the costs page 

Fill out the application on the apply page. The application will ask you questions about your preferences for the type of work you want to do and the timing of your travel.