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Working in small towns
Zelenograd
About
Testimonials
Pictures
About
Zelenograd is a town 20 km northwest from Moscow. Officially it is a district of the capital.
The city was created in 1960s as a reflection of US Silicon valley. In 1962 a national centre for microelectronics was established here. Now it consists of 16 major electronic enterprises, 26 scientific institutions and over 2800 small business units. In 1997 the electronic industry in Zelenograd was united in special economic area having various tax and customs preferences. It was (and it currently is) one of the most powerful centers of microchips, lasers, micro- and nano-electronics production in former USSR.
As Zelenograd was built 'de novo' on a previously empty place, its architecture is all yielded to one general architectural plan. That makes the town beautiful and pleasant for life. A small river Skhodnya flows trough it.
Before mid-1980s Zelenograd was closed for foreigners (they were made get off from the buses and trains and gently forced to return to Moscow).
Zelenograd has beautiful surroundings, and the large part of its territory is occupied by scenic parks and forests which provide an incomparable atmosphere. You can find here terrific landscapes as well as wonderful architectural sites. There is a number of places of interest in Zelenograd and its surroundings connected with the history and culture of Russia.
Testimonials
Jonathan Harman
By way of a very brief background, I've lived and taught English in five countries now, and having done the big city thing and the small city thing on a fairly equal scale, I can definitely say that for me smaller is better.
Smaller is Better
By way of a very brief background, I've lived and taught English in five countries now, and having done the big city thing and the small city thing on a fairly equal scale, I can definitely say that for me smaller is better. (But let's not read into that too much.) Probably most people looking for work in Russia initially hope to work in one of the big cities like Moscow or St Petersburg - and those teachers who accept positions in places unknown do so after first reconciling themselves to the idea - but for me it was always a matter of preference to take such a position. As I went through the application process with the school, my main hope was to work somewhere that was small and unknown, but at the same time within a few hours' journey to a big city like Moscow, that I might enjoy the best of both worlds. As I describe my life in Zelenograd, I will illustrate my reasons for having such a preference. As it happened, I found out after getting here that Zelenograd is actually an administrative district of Moscow (having been founded as a secret Soviet technical city), and as such Zelenograd is technically part of Moscow. Telling friends and family that I'm living in Moscow is certainly a lot easier than saying that I'm in Zelenograd (when I was living in Poland, people back home were forever asking how I enjoyed 'Holland') but if it is true in theory, it isn't really true in practice. For a start, there's a fair few kilometres of countryside between the two cities that cannot be and is not called Moscow. But if nothing else, it has the feel of a separate and smaller city, and that is enough for me. I prefer smaller places because of the people. Bigger cities (and especially capitals) tend to have many foreigners, and inevitably they influence things in a number of ways. Taking Moscow as an example, some would argue that their presence makes it just a little bit less Russian than what it might otherwise be. Those wanting to experience a more down-to-earth Russia will likely find this in smaller places like Zelenograd. The other thing that I've found in bigger cities the world over is that a large presence of foreigners soon loses its appeal, and the locals become less interested in meeting them. This can then make it very difficult for the visitor to establish long-term friendships - as I think is the case in Germany. In smaller places like Zelenograd, foreigners are still seen as exotic - and it's nice to be exotic - and so it's much easier to meet people and make good friends. The best thing about living in Zelenograd must be, by my opinion, the very interesting and intelligent people that become your friends. Helping some of Russia's most educated people to learn English is surely one of the most rewarding things about teaching here, as you can learn so much from them (to a point where it's quite a paradox that you're their teacher). Making friends with some of them allows for an enriching social life.
Zelenograd is on the surface just another Soviet built city, with little more than featureless utilitarian buildings for miles around; but I think we all know before coming to Russia that she isn't going to be one tremendous Prague or Budapest. We come for something else. In Zelenograd, I have pretty much found what I was looking for. I am very impressed with the school and I agree with its teaching culture. Before coming to Russia I was apprehensive about what teaching Russians would be like. In Auckland, I covered an English class with mostly Russian students for a couple of days, and I found them to be awkward and unenthusiastic. I didn't know it then, but perhaps that reflected more on their regular teacher and his approach to classroom management (which was clearly different to my own) than on the students themselves. In Zelenograd I can say that I am very happy with every one of my students (including young learners, teenagers and adults). They have responded very well to the way I like to manage a class (with classroom management skills being in my opinion one of the most important aspects of teaching), and I have found them to be very willing to learn and to work together. They like learning English, and they have no problems with the concept of talking together in order to do so. Without meaning to sound melodramatic, they make for great students compared with any I've taught.
One final thing remains to be said, and that's that we have a close network of teachers out here in Zelenograd. One can also make friends with teachers if they work in Moscow, but with travelling perhaps to several schools each day, and with the other teachers doing the same, it must be more difficult for close groups to form which have at the same time one convenient meeting place. In Zelenograd, there are presently seven foreign teachers, and together with our very kind and helpful Russian colleagues, we have formed a close circle of friends. Many of us will remain in touch for a long time to come. So, in conclusion, if you want to meet good people, Zelenograd's a neat place to teach. If ever you want to get away from it all, you can always get the best of Moscow in the weekends, but I generally find that Zelenograd has enough to offer to keep me local during most of every month.
Jonathan Harman
April 2005
Smaller is Better
Having only joined the BKC fold fairly recently, I am still learning about life in the school and in Zelenograd. On the whole it has been a positive experience. The most important reason for this is, for me at any rate, down to the strong team spirit that exists in this school. This is so because the staff teaches at the Zelenograd branch of BKC only, and so we naturally get to know each other quite well.
The school itself is split into three separate buildings – two buildings for lessons and one Admin building. There is a good range of supplementary materials and resources, computers with Internet connection and fairly reliable photocopiers. Most teachers' hours are blocked together - from 4.00 to 9.30, generally - so there is rarely anyone working a split shift. Also, all teachers have their own workspace in the staffrooms to prepare their lessons and have their own classroom as well, which is not always the case in the Central schools. Most administrative matters are dealt with locally. This means any salary, holidays and timetabling questions are addressed here, and not through the Central Timetabling Department, making life easier and more flexible for all concerned, as the scale of operations is much more reduced here.
The learner groups are nearly three-quarters Young Learner classes, the majority of them being teenagers. Most of our Adult groups have classes in the evening. The course books we use comprise mainly English File and Cutting Edge, though again we differ from Central schools in that there is much more flexibility on the course book selection. We also run FCE and CAE classes throughout the year. Regardless of the class profile, all learners attending classes in BKC are highly motivated and well educated (Zelenograd being a University town) and most pick up English with deceptive ease. Most Russian students will have a higher level of spoken ability than you would assume from the level of their class: this is due to a Russian preference for an emphasis on grammatical accuracy as opposed to fluency. At any rate, it can be quite gratifying to see obvious learner progress over the year.
There is quite good local support from the Russian staff who work at the school. Repairs to flats are normally quite prompt. There will always be someone will help you figure out the Byzantine complexities of sending a parcel at the post office, help you with any trips to the doctor you may need, or tell you which shop stocks what. Someone will try their best to help you solve any little problem.
There are other perks that come with living here; having keys to the school; you also have almost unlimited Internet access through the school computers (there are no e-mail cafes out here yet); a light lunch provided by the school gratis.
Accommodation is of the local standard - that is basic, not very pretty, but functional. The are very few power-cuts, breakdowns in the central heating etc. (Central heating is really just that in most cities of the old Eastern Bloc – boiling water is pumped into everyone’s home from a central reservoir: you have limitless 24 hour hot water and over-powering heat from your radiators.) Also, most flats have a TV set (no cable, alas) and are all located fairly near to either of the Zelenograd schools: a short bus trip at most.
A peculiarity of Zelenograd is the absence of street names. All addresses are numerically coded; e.g. my address is 338a 29. That is it. A bit soulless, perhaps, but the benefit is that there is no shilly-shallying around when trying to direct a taxi home at night.
However, Zelenograd is not for anyone who needs to be surrounded by aesthetically pleasing architecture, unless residential blocks in various shades of grey stimulate your eye. It is important to be relatively self-contained if you wish to live here. A bustling nightlife is really not available either. There are some places to go and things to do, but certainly it is quite limited compared to Moscow proper. It can feel quite isolated. Though it is technically only 41 km from the centre of Moscow, it seems to feel longer when you are unluckily standing on a crammed bus, stuck in a snowy traffic jam on the Leningrad Motorway. At least it makes you fully appreciate the splendour of central Moscow when finally you emerge to street level again, after the additional 30-minute metro trip that follows the bus journey. Always feels like a pilgrimage of sorts to me.
All in all, life is relatively untroubled here. There is very little crime, far much less air pollution than in Central Moscow and much more green areas (though at the time of writing everything is still shrouded in shivering snow.) DVDs and CDs are much cheaper locally too, luckily, than in Central Moscow. There are plenty of nearby 24-hour shops and kiosks etc. The lessons tick along with the minimum of fuss and though the days can sometimes seem tiring and long, the weeks and months just fly. So much so that once the winter has started its retreat, you find yourself pondering whether or not a second contract is in order.
Spencer Burke
ADOS Zelenograd
Easter Monday 2005
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