May 15, 2018

Upon arriving at the American Home today a new face was talking to Galina Petrovna. I joined in the conversation, seeing as nobody else I knew was visibly there yet, and turns out he is (very obviously) Australian and studying IR in Australia, but has a deep rooted interest in language and has been learning Russian for the past few years. This planted him at the

American Home and an individual learning for the summer and “broadening his worldview”. This Australian - Connor - is actually an interesting fellow, he showed interest in anything I had to say and when Lucija shortly joined, the same applied to her. He seems like a nice addition to our company here in Vladimir.

It’s nice to get to the American Home a little earlier to just enjoy the tea and cookies that are always - without a doubt - offered. It’s a time to catch up with everyone else and relax before starting the day, maybe even meet some new faces. Tea never hurts. It always helps.

While having the tea and cookies, we all were introduced to who our Russian teachers would be over the next few weeks. Billy and I have the same teacher since we are at a similar level.The teachers the American Home use to teach Russian are Russian, just like many of the teachers they use to teach English are American. Our teacher, Nelly, is very small and sweet from first impression. Her English isn’t the best and she regularly admits it, but I think that’s what will hopefully help my Russian improve so much over the next few weeks. Today we discussed introductions. She uses a worksheet based system that’s mostly a list of vocabulary and structures that we may or may not know, and all of the learning is discussion based, which although difficult at times, definitely forces me to use the language and step out to try to say things that may or may not be right. If they’re wrong, they’re easily corrected.

Afterwards, we ventured off to visit “School No. 16”. It’s a little odd that the schools are numbered instead of having titles. It makes everything seem so much more institutionalized and impersonal. However, upon arriving at the school, it was very obvious it functions like most schools. There were kids from several different forms (what we know as grades in the United States). Instead of having a 12th grade, they only go up to the 11th form, and most schools carry kids from their young age all the way through secondary school. We arrived earlier than expected, so we waited around for a little. However, one thing I almost immediately noticed was a student that wore sweatpants with words down the side, including the word “f*ck” written in English. This is a trend I’ve begun to see - Russians not only wearing clothes with random English words, but especially profanity. I wonder if they understand the word in context? Interestingly enough, this student was seen in different pants later.

Next thing we knew, the school had a fire drill scheduled, so we had to wait for that to pass, and while doing so, we got exposed to the playground outside, which was more of a few basketball courts than the typical American playground with lots of climbing apparatuses. The teachers with us were very proud to explain the importance of physical education and free time for the students during the day.

Our official tour began once back inside. Some older students had arranged an entire presentation and tour for us in which we visited various rooms and they would give us presentations representing their school and classroom experience in English so they could practice. Some had it written out, others were brave enough to try it memorized in the foreign (for them) language. They were most proud to show off their library, their trophy case, and a type of miniature war museum (the war is even important enough to have this). Compared to what I’ve seen in similarly sized schools in the United States, not much differed. There was artwork on the walls, and the faculty and students take pride in the same things (with the exception of the miniature war memorial museum). While pride is beginning to seem like something Russians are much more open about, I’m not sure to what extent the pride in sharing is just because they’re glad to have facilities and accomplishments (similarly to American schools) or if it’s attributed more to the Russian side of things.

We were able to experience an English class taught to younger students. They were learning about “should”, “would”, “can”, etc. The teacher had written a sentence on the board with a minor grammatical mistake, but he later corrected in very discreetly. The teaching/learning style isn’t as one-on-one as many American schools for younger students, but is still integrating activities and group-work into learning styles.

Afterwards, we got to converse with some of the older students. The most interesting thing here was what we, as native English speakers, thought the hardest parts about learning Russian were versus what they, as native Russian speakers, thought the hardest parts about learning English were. While for us it’s things like verbs of motion and cases, for them it’s not what one would expect (like all the irregularities and spelling), but rather the lack of articles. Still, it’s interesting how English is taught and instituted starting at such a young age, and amazing how well they speak English compared to how we speak Russian. We sang a song together that I will always know as “Pyct Cegda” (written somewhat phonetically in English). It’s a super catchy little children’s tune we ended up having in our heads for the rest of the day. A nice piece with which to remember the students at School No.16.

We then had lunch at the school, which was amazing food and lofty portions compared to what I’m used to in the U.S.

We returned to a lecture on “Education in the Russian Federation: Problems and Challenges Ahead”. There’s been an increasing number of private schools, but a decrease in the number of higher institutions. The largest issue is the integration of special education or alternative teaching in schools. Rural schools are also getting hit hard by the dying number of school options.

Afterwards, we had our welcome party, where we all introduced ourselves to everyone with our slideshows, played some games, and enjoyed great food.