English with Ms. Reeka: Teaching Abroad
Teaching freelance in a foreign country can sound like quite a luxurious career. Traveling to new places, working with international students, and getting paid to live abroad sounds like the dream for some people. But how to go about getting there? It can be challenging to navigate a new education system in general, but adding a foreign language and culture shock makes it a pretty daunting task.
One teacher who made this plunge into the world of international English education is Erika Copeland, or Ms. Reeka, to her students. Reeka is not a recent transplant to Tbilisi, Georgia. In fact, she's been here for years, working in schools, giving private lessons, and learning the ins and outs of the TEFL hustle here in Georgia. She's done every kind of teaching you can since she started her education career back in 2009. Reeka has made her way around education from teaching abroad in South Korea to every grade school subject to substituting in America. She started her dance team while teaching performance arts before finally settling back in Tbilisi with her daughter.
In the summer of 2022, she struck out on her own intending to redefine how English teachers are seen and treated here.
"My name is Erika Copland, but I go by Ms. Reeka. That's my teaching persona. I started my business 'English with Reeka' this summer. Well, it started as learn ‘learn American English’, but I changed it because I thought it would be easier, and I also have my daughter included, so ‘ESL with Reeka and Mika’."
As someone who has also worked as an English teacher in Tbilisi, I was keen to know about her experiences here and why she decided to start her own teaching business. When I asked her to expand on this, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "how honest can I be?"
While the people of Georgia are generally warm and welcoming, we have both been on the receiving end of mistreatment and abuse. Teachers are often seen as hourly workers rather than skilled professionals. It's not unusual for students, parents, and schools to be disrespectful of the time and flippant about a living wage.
When you search through job boards, it's easy enough to find dozens of schools looking for native speaker English teachers with experience and certificates. Every time, the pay is the equivalent of approximately $7.50 an hour to manage an entire class of children. The minimum wage for experienced teachers? I know America didn't see the value of teachers, but it's clear that the rest of the world, or at least Georgia, agrees with that sentiment.
Saying No to schools
Since striking out on her own, Reeka only accepts private students now. While private tutoring does have its challenges, she enjoys it more than dealing with the schools here. I asked if she could elaborate on what exactly caused her to write off all schools. She raised some valid points about the wage theft teachers face daily. Every school has a contract with teachers with a set wage. And yet, teachers are constantly required to do more and more without an increase in compensation.
"I think teachers, a lot of the time, are taken advantage of. Especially if they try their best at their job and do everything possible to push forward and develop, that's the honest truth. We are required to go and work for over 40 hours a week, then bring home extra work that's completely unpaid. It's not just 40 hours. It's that set amount of hours, and you are also required to do professional development that's not paid for. I went on school trips that were not paid for. Parent-teacher conferences are not paid for. It's just constant. You are constantly doing extra things and never paid for it."
The schools expect martyrdom for pennies, and when teachers don't want to be taken advantage of, the schools get upset. Teacher turnover is high here, especially for native speakers with other opportunities. That's not even to touch on the treatment of local English teachers who don't have the same opportunities available because of their nationality and background.
My worst experience was at one international school where they paid me 20 lari ($7.50) an hour. I had two lessons each hour, five lessons a day. So I made 50 lari a day, which is absolutely nothing for the amount and age range of children I had. I had 2-6-year-old kids. Every class was different ages and different abilities. The fact that they thought 20 lari an hour was a fair salary. And then, I would work on the weekends and put together my resources because they gave me nothing to work with.
When I asked them about their plan, they said they had a teaching plan but never sent it to me. They use you. They use you to get parents interested but won't pay. I refuse to be treated like crap anymore. Like, I'm some dime piece that they don't give a crap about. I felt like I was being pimped out. I didn't feel appreciated at all. That was the first time in my life that I resigned after 1.5 months of working. I've never broken a contract and resigned mid-contract in my entire career, but I couldn't believe how crappy they could treat a teacher. They told me they would hire me full-time after the summer courses, and then suddenly, they didn't have a spot for me. I know they were using me to boost parent interest because it was during the pandemic, and they were trying to get more enrollment. They were just using me. They don't think about what they are doing to teachers emotionally or mentally. The fact that I paid for all my resources, and they didn't appreciate anything.
Unfortunately, Reeka's experience isn't unusual or unique. It's the status quo for teachers here trying to carve out a career teaching English. Schools get away with this for several reasons. Firstly, there is always a new teacher to fill the void. Tbilisi is full of ex-pats who think that a 40-hour TEFL certificate and being a native English speaker are all required to teach the language.
Schools are packed to the brim with unqualified teachers, underserving students, and taking money without providing a service. Additionally, many parents don't see the value of teachers. They all want private lessons for their children but scoff at the hourly fee and don't see why a specialized job requires a higher wage. English teachers are constantly pushed to accept lower salaries or give discounts to more students. Finally, the economy here in Georgia isn't thriving. Schools can hide behind the excuse of the economy to justify abysmal wages, despite the expensive tuition each student pays to attend these private international schools.
Breaking out on her own
After cutting ties with the international schools of Tbilisi, Reeka decided some things in education needed to change. She started her own teaching business and an accompanying social media presence to help shed light on the issues teachers face here. Her main goal is to change the way people teach in this country. She's hoping that if enough teachers are working together, Georgia can finally part with the old school tradition of rote memorization and unhelpful lessons straight from the book, remnants leftover from their soviet past.
"Children aren't learning comprehension skills or how to speak properly. They're not even learning how to write properly or form Latin letters. I tell my students I don't teach ESL the way a Georgian teaches ESL. I teach like an American with proper ways to talk about the language. We talk about verbs, nouns, and proper nouns. I make sure they understand the differences and build on their writing. Things they are not learning in school."
Like anyone trying to change the status quo, Reeka has had pushback. From lazy students who don't like the challenge of new learning techniques to parents who don't want to pay for the value of her services, she's had many people question why she wants to make change. Still, the results speak for themselves as students come from her lessons with expanded vocabulary, engaging writing skills, and education success.
She's trying to change the way lessons work here. She's bringing in new progressive teaching techniques that she has gathered through her education, teaching programs, and experiences with what works for students. She has a collaborative approach that encourages students to take accountability for their progress.
I always ask students: Why do you want to have lessons with me, and how can I help you reach your goals? I help students develop portfolios of work so that when they apply for college, they have something. I'm trying to prepare them for the future with my teenage students. With my younger students, I'm trying to get them used to the English language and feel comfortable. Most of our lessons are very visual and have lots of online resources. We play games, and I like to do YouTube videos with singing, dancing, and phonics. Phonics is a big one, especially for younger kids. I want them to learn phonics properly.
Accountability in Teaching
It's not just student culture that Reeka wants to change. She's working hard to bring accountability to the teachers in the area, hoping to separate all the barely-qualified TEFL tourists from the true teachers with training and experience. Often it can be a battle to weed through all the English teachers in the area and find the best one for your child. Often people will ask a teacher without availability to help recommend another teacher with free lessons. Reeka is trying to build a network of teachers to share these opportunities and ensure that everything is on the up and up.
She's created a Facebook group for sharing these opportunities, but before you can join, you must be vetted. She only accepts people who are currently in the country, with a current profile picture, and who can share an up-to-date resume. She's looking for teachers with formal education or a training program. There's a problem in Georgia with teachers who scam parents out of money without providing any actual services, and she's trying to cut these people out of the education scene in Tbilisi.
She's also working hard to get the news out to teachers. With her TikTok and Instagram accounts, Reeka shares tips and real experiences about teaching, as well as sheds light on unacceptable situations. She highlights racism in Georgia, ignorance, misinformation being shared, and people who are scamming. If you are interested in learning more about the Tbilisi education scene, joining her Facebook group, or contacting Reeka for lessons, all her social accounts are linked below.
Facebook - /englishwithreeka
Instagram - /englishwithreeka
YouTube - @englishwithreeka
