Ask a Muscovite anything

[Blown Moon]

What's the craziest thing you saw while dealing with a rich student?

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

I'm a 20-something living in Moscow, Russia: the most expensive city in the world (IIRC). I can also testify it's one of the most exciting; the amount of fukkery that goes on borders on the unbelievable. I've never seen so many crazy adventures, beautiful women and rich men anywhere else. Most of the kids I studied with (not here) wouldn't believe my stories until they actually visited me here.

I'm a bilingual English-Russian ESL teacher. The people who can afford me are usually wealthy, so I see some and shyt on a daily basis. My social circle includes cops, people with 7-figure incomes, showbusiness workers, average Russians my age trying to make it from the bottom... Basically everyone.

So if you want to know anything about Russia and its capital - go ahead. Just don't get too political.

You're white right? I'm just saying. Posts like this make me realize that I can't do anything I want as a black man. LOL @ me showing up to a rich russian's house as an ESL teacher.

 

[thegreatest]

Is it true you have groups of young men that lure peadophiles/fags in, then beat them up before pouring urine on them whilst saying "this holy water will purify you"

no

Is it true that packs of skin heads roam the streets looking for ethnic minorities? How are blacks/Africans are treated overall?

That was 10+ years ago. It's pretty safe in big cities right now. Having said that, locals mostly know about blacks from rap videos, Hollywood films and African student stereotypes so they're racist.

Still, things are getting better in Moscow. Django was huge with everybody rooting for Jamie Foxx; the new generation is a lot less homophobic and racist (kids under 22/21).

Is it true that people of color and even any other non-Russians are safer in the countryside than in big cities like Moscow?

Interesting question. For people of color, it's DEFINITELY safer in big cities where people are more used to them and law enforcement has a bigger presence. For other non-Russians I'd probably say the same thing. The further you are from a big city, the more lawless it becomes - very bad if you're an outsider.

What's the craziest thing you saw while dealing with a rich student?

A few things come to mind. An 8-year old student once showed me a machine gun in her family's living room. Another has an olympic-length pool in a separate building next to his house. The same people have a full-size snow castle with a 25 meter slide in their backyard in the winter months. Seeing all the families with multiple 100,000$+ cars (porsches, ranges, customized BMW M6's, etc) is still kinda amazing to me.

But the craziest thing is how people pay me 50-70$/hour like it's nothing. I mean, really, to most of these people that's not even real money. fukking crazy.

You're white right? I'm just saying. Posts like this make me realize that I can't do anything I want as a black man. LOL @ me showing up to a rich russian's house as an ESL teacher.

I'm white, yeah. You wouldn't face many problems, to be honest. Most people would probably prefer a white teacher, but if a company sent you they'd be fine with that too. Still, I'd be lying if I said that living in Moscow as a black person didn't present a set of unique challenges. People are very racist here, mostly because they only know about blacks from the African students and rap/hollywood videos.