Volunteer English Teaching/Project Assistant

Eco-English Camp - 2

The project is full 

Project dates:  29 July-August 10, 2010. (Participants should arrive in Irkutsk no later that 28 July for visa registration purposes)

Project Duration:  12 days

Languages:  English

Project Location: Pribaikalskiy National Park, Primorskiy Mountain Range, southwest region of Lake Baikal, Irkutsk Region, Russia. The project site is located 80km east from Irkutsk. (Click on the link to see a map of the project area).  

The Great Baikal Trail is seeking enthusiastic English speakers to partner our skilled trail building teams in the role of Teaching / Project Assistant, teaching English and encouraging the use of English across every aspect of the project.  You will be part of the GBT team, working together with Russian and International project volunteers, towards our goal of promoting eco-tourism and conservation in the Lake Baikal region.

This project is based within the grand Pribaikalskii National Park to the south west of Lake Baikal, easily accessible from the city of Irkutsk. You and 14 other volunteers & GBT project staff will spend 12 days living on the shores of this majestic and enchanting lake, the deepest and purest in the world.  You will wake to warming sunrises over mountain ridges and spend the days in the midst of breathtaking scenery, enjoying with the group all the natural wonders that this UNESCO World Heritage Site has to offer.

Your day to day activities on the project will be varied and challenging, from cooking for the group, leading English classes to helping build trail paths. 

Once the project is underway your time and efforts as Teaching / Project Assistant will be focused across 3 main areas;

1. Working with teaching staff and leading English lessons

As a confident and creative English speaker you will lead an English lesson on each day of the project, based on either our project curriculum or on your own ideas (we let you be creative here. If you want to discuss climate change, teach a game you know, talk about music or sports, your native country etc you are free to use any ideas that you think the group may enjoy). It is important that you speak in English and encourage the other project volunteers to do the same so that they learn as much as possible, as people often learn a lot more when they are outside the classroom.  The GBT welcomes those with specialist knowledge in the field of conservation, environmental issues, eco-tourism, sustainability etc to share their expertise in any way when leading these sessions.

2. Assisting with eco-projects

You will also spend time working around the lake building pathways and eco-trails, clearing litter and fallen trees, etc from around the project camp and surrounding areas, writing and setting up information sign boards to help future generations of GBT trail walkers (English speakers are asked to oversee the accuracy and timely delivery of these boards).

3. Creating a friendly and open English speaking environment

Your most important role on the project will be to encourage everybody to talk in English with each other as much as they can, whether they are working, relaxing or even talking in their sleep.  You should be friendly and patient, promoting an open community atmosphere that encourages a desire to learn English, where everyone feels relaxed enough to speak English in front of each other no matter their ability and where they can learn practical, modern English.

Being part of a GBT trail project is much more than just trail building or in this case, teaching English.  By volunteering and joining one of our internationally recognised projects you will be helping to develop sustainable eco-tourism, providing a stable source of income for people in the region.  You will learn about the native people and cultures of Baikal, seeing their traditions first hand and sharing their physical and spiritual links to this great lake.  Many volunteers combine their time on a project with an adventure along the famous Trans-Siberian railroad or as part of a journey through Russia, Mongolia and China.

As the first eco-tourism organisation of its kind in Russia, the GBT team have over 7 years experience of leading trail building and conservation projects in the Baikal region and in that time we believe we have learnt a lot about what makes a good project.  We believe that our projects should have a lively and friendly atmosphere and do our best to make sure that this is the case so that everyone involved in the project gets as much as they can out of their time working with us.  We have volunteers who have helped us since the start, year in, year out as well as new volunteers joining us each summer and we would love it if you came to be part of the GBT family this summer.

At the end of all our projects we ask our volunteers for their feedback, thoughts and constructive criticisms so that we can continue improving our work for future years.  By developing the best projects that we can and by working harmoniously with all that Baikal has to offer we can ensure that people will be able to enjoy coming to the region for years to come and in doing so they will be giving back to local communities and helping to conserve the natural landscape they have come to enjoy.

Interested in participating in this project? Fill in our GBT volunteer application form and read Background information.

For additional information please contact our Volunteer Coordinator: gbt.volunteers@gmail.com  (English ok)

Tel (in Russia): +79500613927

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