Slow But Sure
In my group of three of the TEFL teachers who speak Russian, I'm the only one who no real experience studying another language, apart from three years spent in a Latin classroom in high-school. Therefore, it's a little difficult for me to judge my language development, as I have no previous experience with which to compare this one. In fact, over the summer there were plenty of times where I would be amazingly frustrated with my progress while the other two in the group (who are proficient in 5 languages between them) would be totally comfortable with out progress, knowing that it just takes time. My problem is that I've never really studied anything as extensive as a language before – everything I learned in college, including the semester of Calculus-based Physics, could be figured out with no more than an hour of hard focus.
Russian, however, is a step-up, to say the least.
Now, the vocabulary in any language is tough and just required work to manage – there is no doubt about that, and I can't actually complain about the alphabet, which just takes some time go get used to (although Russian does have a bad habit of having huge words with 6, 7, 8 syllables. My favorite example is the verb 'to earn.' In English, we say the plural form, 'you earn', two syllables. In Russian, it's вы зарабатываете – believe me when I say it's 8 syllables). Russian grammar, however, is a far cry from most sane grammar systems. I could give you literally dozens of examples on how tricky the grammar can be, but instead you'll read just one – in Russian there are 4 words for the word 'for' in English: для, meaning 'for the purpose of,' на, meaning 'with the plan of' (which I understand when said but have no idea how to use) за meaning, 'for obtaining,' and за for the rest of meanings (yes it's the same word twice, but the first form takes the Instrumental Case, the second takes the Accusative Case – there are six cases in all). As a result, you can have the statements, 'this is a book for the lesson', 'I'm going to the well for water,' and 'I was at school for six hours' and have three different forms of words in Russian (plus the aforementioned form I don't know how to use).
On one hand, it's amazingly frustrating, yet on the other hand it's very interesting for me to, slowly but surely, make feel myself slowly getting more and used to the language, feel my mind getting programmed to the grammar, to the gender of words and all that fun stuff.
The best analogy I can think of in learning the language is that it's like building a house, with the grammar being the tools and the vocabulary being the materials – you can have all the materials you need but what you have is far from a house. Instead, you need to appropriate tools to put all the materials together in a way that works. It's a slow process, building the house – picking up various tools and materials here and there, some important and some less important but all service the same purpose.
Of course, with all the development there are still plenty of moments when I say something and I see the eyes of the person whom I'm speaking search around for a while, trying to pick up the meaning of what I said before they finally figure it out. And about once a week I'll talk to some kid who's not one of my students (and therefore not used to how I talk) and after I say something they turn to one of my kids ( whose used to hearing my often) and ask what the heck I'm talking about, although that usually happens when I'm telling them to get out of my classroom or something like that (I have to admit and say that my classroom management Russian is pretty good). The other problem I have is that I hate when I do simple mistakes – it drives me nuts, especially when I make a mistake on grammar I learned in June or August. Most volunteers who have been here for a year or longer say that you simply get used to making mistakes. I hope so . . .
As for the ulitmate test, I remember in linguistics in my junior year of college that our professor told us that when a person starts to dream – consistently – in another langauge, it means that such person has had a breakthrough of sorts. Well, I actually dream in Russian on a rather consistent basis – if I dream about a person in my host family or in a person in my dreams speak Russian, that person invariably speaks Russian in my dreams, with me responding in kind. I think this alone means that I've reached a certain base-line comfort with my language.
Notes:
I had a great time at 'class reunion Saturday' in Moldova last Saturday night. People packed our school theater to the brim and we all watched a show put on by our 11th graders, featuring lots of singing, shows, contests between. They also added a nice touch of inviting various parents up in front of everyone and asking them questions like, “what is your wives favorite color?” and what not. A good time all around . I also spent some time in the room of our gym-teacher with some other teacher's, their families, and various other people drinking vodka, cognac, and wine before I finally retired home at 3:00 in the morning.
In the room with all the teachers was a man who works as a taxi driver in Chisinau and who was convinced that he could understand English, that it was an easy English – he then challenged me to ask questions and he would answer them. I was more than happy to oblige him and of course, he understood nothing that I said to him.
It was also interesting because my partner teacher was there and every time we talked to each-other, the whole room went totally silence. They all went on to talk about how beautiful of a language English is, a thought that as a native speaker never occurred to me. But I'll accept the compliment on behalf of all native English speakers everywhere.
- Because Russian State TV is one of three channels we get with regularity here, we are exposed to a high does of President Putin. Now, no matter what a person's thoughts on his leadership style and where he's taking Russia, there is no doubt that he can be highly charming with the press. Last week he held his annual press-conference in which he sits in a huge auditorium with several hundred reporters and accepts their questions on all topics – he answered 606 questions in three and a half hours and was very charming in the process, greeting reporters from Al-Jazzera, China, and Azerbaijan with words of 'hello' in their own language. It was quite the spectacle.
- In November I went to a birthday party of one of my students in the 10th grade and had a great time, and yesterday I went to the birthday party of one of my 4th graders and had a great time also. I knew it was her birthday and went out of my way to wish her a Happy Birthday during the day at school, and about 4:00 in the evening after classes she called my house and invited me to come to her for dinner to celebrate.
It turned out to be a great time. There were her parents (her mom is a teacher in the school) and various other parents, coupled with a great friend of hers, a girl in the second grade. After about a half-hour of dinner the men all started going at it talking about politics (and the Russian curse words were flying), so I ended up talking with the 2nd grade girl for about 20 minutes. Really, I can think of no better way to spend time . . .
Russian, however, is a step-up, to say the least.
Now, the vocabulary in any language is tough and just required work to manage – there is no doubt about that, and I can't actually complain about the alphabet, which just takes some time go get used to (although Russian does have a bad habit of having huge words with 6, 7, 8 syllables. My favorite example is the verb 'to earn.' In English, we say the plural form, 'you earn', two syllables. In Russian, it's вы зарабатываете – believe me when I say it's 8 syllables). Russian grammar, however, is a far cry from most sane grammar systems. I could give you literally dozens of examples on how tricky the grammar can be, but instead you'll read just one – in Russian there are 4 words for the word 'for' in English: для, meaning 'for the purpose of,' на, meaning 'with the plan of' (which I understand when said but have no idea how to use) за meaning, 'for obtaining,' and за for the rest of meanings (yes it's the same word twice, but the first form takes the Instrumental Case, the second takes the Accusative Case – there are six cases in all). As a result, you can have the statements, 'this is a book for the lesson', 'I'm going to the well for water,' and 'I was at school for six hours' and have three different forms of words in Russian (plus the aforementioned form I don't know how to use).
On one hand, it's amazingly frustrating, yet on the other hand it's very interesting for me to, slowly but surely, make feel myself slowly getting more and used to the language, feel my mind getting programmed to the grammar, to the gender of words and all that fun stuff.
The best analogy I can think of in learning the language is that it's like building a house, with the grammar being the tools and the vocabulary being the materials – you can have all the materials you need but what you have is far from a house. Instead, you need to appropriate tools to put all the materials together in a way that works. It's a slow process, building the house – picking up various tools and materials here and there, some important and some less important but all service the same purpose.
Of course, with all the development there are still plenty of moments when I say something and I see the eyes of the person whom I'm speaking search around for a while, trying to pick up the meaning of what I said before they finally figure it out. And about once a week I'll talk to some kid who's not one of my students (and therefore not used to how I talk) and after I say something they turn to one of my kids ( whose used to hearing my often) and ask what the heck I'm talking about, although that usually happens when I'm telling them to get out of my classroom or something like that (I have to admit and say that my classroom management Russian is pretty good). The other problem I have is that I hate when I do simple mistakes – it drives me nuts, especially when I make a mistake on grammar I learned in June or August. Most volunteers who have been here for a year or longer say that you simply get used to making mistakes. I hope so . . .
As for the ulitmate test, I remember in linguistics in my junior year of college that our professor told us that when a person starts to dream – consistently – in another langauge, it means that such person has had a breakthrough of sorts. Well, I actually dream in Russian on a rather consistent basis – if I dream about a person in my host family or in a person in my dreams speak Russian, that person invariably speaks Russian in my dreams, with me responding in kind. I think this alone means that I've reached a certain base-line comfort with my language.
Notes:
I had a great time at 'class reunion Saturday' in Moldova last Saturday night. People packed our school theater to the brim and we all watched a show put on by our 11th graders, featuring lots of singing, shows, contests between. They also added a nice touch of inviting various parents up in front of everyone and asking them questions like, “what is your wives favorite color?” and what not. A good time all around . I also spent some time in the room of our gym-teacher with some other teacher's, their families, and various other people drinking vodka, cognac, and wine before I finally retired home at 3:00 in the morning.
In the room with all the teachers was a man who works as a taxi driver in Chisinau and who was convinced that he could understand English, that it was an easy English – he then challenged me to ask questions and he would answer them. I was more than happy to oblige him and of course, he understood nothing that I said to him.
It was also interesting because my partner teacher was there and every time we talked to each-other, the whole room went totally silence. They all went on to talk about how beautiful of a language English is, a thought that as a native speaker never occurred to me. But I'll accept the compliment on behalf of all native English speakers everywhere.
- Because Russian State TV is one of three channels we get with regularity here, we are exposed to a high does of President Putin. Now, no matter what a person's thoughts on his leadership style and where he's taking Russia, there is no doubt that he can be highly charming with the press. Last week he held his annual press-conference in which he sits in a huge auditorium with several hundred reporters and accepts their questions on all topics – he answered 606 questions in three and a half hours and was very charming in the process, greeting reporters from Al-Jazzera, China, and Azerbaijan with words of 'hello' in their own language. It was quite the spectacle.
- In November I went to a birthday party of one of my students in the 10th grade and had a great time, and yesterday I went to the birthday party of one of my 4th graders and had a great time also. I knew it was her birthday and went out of my way to wish her a Happy Birthday during the day at school, and about 4:00 in the evening after classes she called my house and invited me to come to her for dinner to celebrate.
It turned out to be a great time. There were her parents (her mom is a teacher in the school) and various other parents, coupled with a great friend of hers, a girl in the second grade. After about a half-hour of dinner the men all started going at it talking about politics (and the Russian curse words were flying), so I ended up talking with the 2nd grade girl for about 20 minutes. Really, I can think of no better way to spend time . . .
posted by Andy Buchanan at 2:07 PM
3 Comments:
Andy,
Even at this stage of my life I sometimes think I will never get the best of the English language! If I can get through any book without looking up dozens of words it's an oddity. And its word base keeps growing... While I wish "Good Luck!" to your kids they have made the most important step by trying to learn it in the first place.
In the Russian language, when they refer to a Mythological figure, e.g., a Greek god, do they use the Greek word or has it been altered like Caesar was into Czar? Of course the Russians and I am sure the Moldovans / Romanians have their own assortment of heroes from the Past.
By the way, the Deep Freeze continues here but not enough snow to matter, you can go about your business without too much trouble. We are going to Orchestra Hall tomorrow night, but I am taping The Office! Paul is also moving, another resident had a fire that filled the place with smoke and fire got into the walls, until the damage is fixed everyone must leave the building. He was here Sunday and just smelt like smoke.
I didn't watch a second of the Super Bowl! For five hours I was reading Jared Diamond's Collapse in the basement while listening to Bach organ music. All-in-all I spent my time well.
Love,
Dad
Andy,
I am wondering if you have become a sort of "local tourist attraction" in the village. As much as your wit and charm are endearing traits to the people, are they just fascinated with you because of where you are from?
Anyways, keep up the good work, I am happy that you are our Ambassador to one small part of the world.
BC
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