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Transition to US Culture, Work, Education
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Posted by: vaprman

Just a few tips and experiences for those with Russian spouses struggling to transition to the American system. My wife held degrees in education, history and psychology from a Russian university, and she had mastered spoken and written English at what I considered a college level (I have a degree in English and taught a few years in US public schools).
Still, she was a bit unsure, so she attended a two-month intensive English language program at the University of North Texas. From that, she easily passed the Test of English as a Foreign Language.
This past summer -- after just one year in the US -- she was hired as a special education teacher in a Texas school district. Though she currently teaches with a "probationary" certificate, it will become permanent after the first year, as she completes a bunch of educational gobbledee-goop that has nothing to with education.
She was able to do this because Foreign Credentials Service of America (www.fcsa.biz) evaluated her Russian degrees and determined that she held the equivalent of one BA and two MA degrees. With that confidence under her belt, she began to really bore into the Texas state requirements for teaching, and landed a job with her first application.
It is sad commentary on our education system, but she is frequently asked questions on English grammar and computer use by native-born-and-educated teachers.
If your Russian spouse holds a degree and wants to work, she can probably avoid the supermaket checkouts and department store aisles by teaching -- each state will be different. But, if she will get Russian credentials evaluated and then do a deep, deep analysis of teacher requirements, routes of alternative certification, etc., etc., she can land a decent paying job that provides lots of time off for return trips to the Motherland.

Posted by: Emetsky

Balshoye Spasiba for your post Sire! My GF is an English teacher in Russia so I'm sure the info you've posted will come in handy once she comes over here.

Posted by: vaprman

An additional thought or two that I left out of the first post:
1. Newcomers may be a bit in awe of, or confused by, the American higher education system. They shouldn't be. Except for the new language, and, of course, the jargon of the educational establishment, the Russian educational system is much more difficult -- our colleges and universities (except the Ivy Leque and equivalents) are a joke compared to the demands of the Russian universities. So, spouses should feel very confident. They are far better educated than American college graduates.
2. Once teaching, they will have to adapt to the American idea that education is "fun," and an atmosphere in which no one really cares whether students learn. It is all a ruse. That is a difficult adjustment for dedicated teachers.

Posted by: Troy

Yes this is good information. We had my wife's credentials evaluated by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. up in Wisconsin and she holds the US equivalency of a bachelors degree in aeronautics. Currently, she is working in a department store and dislikes it mostly. I can't blame her. We both feel that she is wasting her training. We are trying to find something she can do, but it is difficult. She can't get a job with the FAA because they require employees to be a U.S. citizen. Moreover, she still requires a little work in english. She is enrolling in some of the more advanced english courses in the foreign language deptartment this semester, so we will take it from there in May.

Posted by: 121873

hello Vaprman
I am new at this, i have a fiancee that lives in Novouraisk not
far from Ekerinburg. i will be going back in march to visit her
we will be staying in Ekerinburg because her town is a closed
town, i am a retired man of 63 years, she is 50 and will need to
work for 10 years to get S.S. for the health care. she holds a degree in nursing and maybe she could teach i will check it out.
her english is not good but i have 2 english teachers in the
family, my daughter and her husband. teaching would give her more time to travel than nursing would, we can live on my income
but the health care is a problem. hey lets keep in touch.

Posted by: vaprman

Ekaterinburg is great in the spring -- I spent March and April there in 2002.
If you are staying for more than a few days, I recommend you get an apartment. It would be a lot cheaper and, for me, it was a lot more fun. I hate to sound like an advertisement, but here is a website for a travel agency in Ekat that has apartments for rent:
http://www.ekaterinburg.tv/
If you aren't familiar with the city yet, the Leninski Prospect is the best area -- downtown. Also, you will have to visit "The Old Dublin Irish Pub." Owned by a nice young Irishman (married to a gal from California). It stocks all the good stuff from the UK and Ireland. The food is good, but don't waster your money on what they call chili -- an Irishman in Russia can't make no chili. :-)
One more helpful tip -- my wife's English was zero in Jan 2001 when she started taking some lessons and using a computer program. She thinks the best thing she ever did was the CD called "English Platinum 2000." There may be a newer version out now. Even though she has mastered English now, she still refers to it for its excellent Russian-English dictionary. If you are interested, check their website: www.magnamedia.ru
If your lady doesn't drive, it might be a good idea for her to get some lessons before she leaves -- learning to drive while struggling with a language problem is tough. "Let out on the clutch" or "don't slam on the brakes" are tough to translate when you're scared.

Posted by: David N.

Thanks Vaperman ,
For posting that web site about credentials , my g/f ( soon to be s/o) holds two degrees one in journalism and the other in german , we had talked of her going to school over here , for computer programer or her teaching at one of the schools . This may open up some doors for us .
thx dn

Posted by: Bordric

Quote:

It stocks all the good stuff from the UK and Ireland. The food is good, but don't waster your money on what they call chili -- an Irishman in Russia can't make no chili. :-)

That was very funny! No to take away from the topic but I could not resist commenting.