The International Schools Review Forum

I am considering taking a job in Kazakhstan and wanted to know if anyone is living there or has lived there recently. What are your thoughts? As far as I know, it will either be Astana or Almaty but could be other areas too.

There is another very recent thread you may wish to read here.

http://internationalschoolsreview.com/v ... php?t=2271

Homeandaway, are you talking about NIS schools? They seem to have been hiring for "the big expansio"n for a year now.

hi higgsboson. yeah, NIS. Money seems good. Do you know much about them?

Money seems great; I just interviewed with them last week and they said they would get back to me in 48hours. I haven't heard anything though.

The guy that started it, president Nabaryev or whatever, he started another school and put his daughter in charge. That school gets mixed reviews but they seem to pay their teachers, which is most important to me.

If offered a job, I'll take it.

If in Astana, you will like the city and be fine.

Any other city and stay away - trust me. I'm pretty resilient and it sucked the life out of me in 4 short months.

Its a rule that is worth repeating. Stay away from countries that end in "stan". Im starting to get the idea that your desperate, and your thinking its this job or nothing.

I'm assuming this is for the QSI Schools there....Astana is run incredibly well, and for it's location, has an amazingly low turnover (I believe 1 person left this year). Other locations, not so much....we are talking 75% turnover.

Hi tennisfanusa

What is wrong with the cities outside Astana? I have been told my position will be outside Astana and Almaty and be in one of the provincial towns.

Anyone else know much about life in the smaller towns in Kazakhstan?

[quote="PsyGuy"]Its a rule that is worth repeating. Stay away from countries that end in "stan". Im starting to get the idea that your desperate, and your thinking its this job or nothing.[/quote]

No, not desperate. Have always wondered if it would be interesting to teach in former Soviet Union. I have been abroad for a while now and am always open for an adventure.

There is no life outside of Almaty and Astana. Now if thats the kind of adventure you want, and you want to see what it was like living during the cold war, well OK. There is nothing to do, nothing to see, few western convenience (internet), or access to imports. Very little english, and kind of desolate. You and your fellow teachers will probably become very close. You could save some good money, because there wont be much to spend it on.

If you want to live in the CIS, go to Moscow or St. Petersburg.

I have lived for over two years in a city that is not Astana or Almaty and I have high speed internet, access to all imports, a shopping mall with an indoor skating rink and movie theatre (Mega), and a host of other modern conveniences. I am related through marriage to those who lived here during the cold war and there is no comparison to life during that time. One example, there was one grocery store 20 years ago, now we have several chains that are the same size and have the same goods that I get in the states. There are plenty of sports, restaurants, night clubs if dancing is your thing and a very good fitness center. In the summer the well maintained parks are crowded and in the winter you can ice skate to your hearts content. Winters are extremely cold however and a lot of time is spent indoors.

I will say that the previous poster is correct in that there is little English spoken by locals as compared to my experience with Almaty, however, that is changing and more and more people speak English, especially students.

I would be interested to hear in which city that the previous poster (s) have lived in because it does not match with my experience,especially the cold war statement. I live in Aktobe. (the NIS being built is next to a massive Dina store which is like a Walmart) All the NIS campuses are located in cities and the previous poster describes what sounds like a small village, who have access to internet BTW. I will say that if you need an expat scene and have trouble integrating with local cultures then yes, life outside Astana or Almaty may not be for you.

I did have some pains adapting to some local habits so I do not want to give the impression that everything was completely rosy. I also understand that personalities are different, I can only speak for myself and can say that I enjoy life in a smaller city. I do see how others may not feel the same way but I do hope you get opinions from those who can relate direct experience because it bears repeating that much of the info you get on KZ via the internet is not accurate.

psyguy - my reason is also not desperation, its the money. And you only make that extra money ($12,000 extra) if you teach outside Astana or Almaty so I'm assuming it will be difficult.

The banking is a concern. Everyone I ask says to use Western Union. That could be an issue. WU is costs quite a bit and you can't trasnfer to a bank.

Anybody know about banking in Khazakstan?

I posted about this in a similar thread couple days ago. Western union and Money gram are available> International wire transfers are also readily available through local banks. Funds settle in about a week, but you typically get the lowest LIBOR rate instead of the average. Funds become available a few days after that (depends on your bank). Cost depends on your banks receiving fee.

HSBC and Citibank have branches. HSBC charge about $5.00 to transfer funds between within HSBC accounts (essentially converting Teng to USD), the outgoing wire fee is minimum of $50. Citi charges $4.00 for an internal transfer, and $30 for an outgoing wire transfer.

kazpat: The poster (psyguy) who said that there was no high speed internet has never lived anywhere in CIS. He is spewing nonsense as usual and should be ignored with regards to this thread.