Tom in Chita 2019, No. 1: MEETING ENGLISH STUDENTS

I’ve been here for two and a half weeks and had the chance to meet with several English learning groups in the past week or so. This was the main reason I came in May, when schools were still in session. This is the last day of school (May 31). So, a quick listing of those meetings!

Chita Institute of Baikal State University

Last Friday, I met with two student groups at the Chita Institute of Baikal State University where Elena Pishcherskaya teaches. The first was a group of 1st and 3rd year Institute students and a smattering of high school language students. To this group I showed a set of photos of my life and family, and tried to field questions, but it was hard to break through the shyness. Elena and I were more brutal to the 2nd group, 9th, 10th and 11th graders taking supplementary classes at the Chita Institute to help pass their national English exams. Elena said they were required to ask me questions and then I was required to ask them questions. I added that each must present three questions. We were tough! The first girl, closest to me, ended up being the most comfortable with speaking. She attends a “lyceum” which is a specialized high school, hers specializing in science and math. It was surprising how successful our brutal approach was. The questions were mostly interesting ones and the responses to my questions were generally good. (It becomes hard to come up with a battery of different questions without preparing!) Elena thought both sessions were better as warmups and a 2nd meeting for each would be much livelier.

Zasopka Village School

2. On Monday I met a group of students at the Zasopka village school for about an hour. I thought of this as the single most important meeting. All Russian children must take English in school and it is generally disliked. Meeting and using their English to actually communicate with a native speaker might encourage some of the students.

Zasopka is a village of about 3000 people 10 kilometers from the center of Chita, so very close by. The village had about 1500 people until the last 10 years when housing developments of private homes blossomed nearby.

The school, built in 1975, was designed for 250 students spanning all 11 grades (1st grade is for seven year olds), but now has 400+. There are not even enough chairs for everyone! Natalia Petrenko, the language teacher, says that all students take English usually for one hour a week. When they leave after ninth grade, usually for a vo-tech school, or after 11th, they must pass an English exam. Just this year all schools must also provide classes toward a new German language requirement as well. That teaching rests on Ms Petrenko, too. To handle the increased student population, she recruited one other teacher to assist her, a retiree with some health problems who cheerfully agreed to help if she could get transportation to the village from the city. But many whom she called refused the low salary for better paying jobs in business or other parts of government.

The hour was very lively. I think the youngest was about 8 and the oldest could have been 17. All had their smartphone translators out, and they were asking a wide variety of questions, from hobbies to politics to travel to food. Comprehension naturally seemed to vary a lot, and a few questions were repeated. I asked some of the questions back to them. I wish we had more time! This was a dip of a toe in the lake. Ms Petrenko told them I’d be back next May (yikes!, but I’ll try! If not me, maybe I can get someone else to come for this wonderful experience, nudge, nudge!)

Private students of Elena: a tea party

3. On Wednesday, I had tea with a group of Elena Pishcherskaya’s younger private students along with her 11 year old son, Pasha. All the students were girls, ranging in age from Katya’s 8 to Masha’s 13. Yanna (11) baked a chocolate-banana cake. Katya’s mother baked a white cake with whipped cream between the several thin layers and fresh cherries in the frosting on top. Both were terrific. The rest also brought sweets, and Elena also provided candies along with fruit. If not a sugar high, at least a sugar hello! After introducing ourselves, we played a couple of clever language games.

American movie night (with subtitles)

As soon as the tea party ended Elena and I rushed to the Chita Institute’s library for the 2nd meeting of the day. This was “American movie night” (afternoon, actually). Periodically, Elena shows American movies with Russian subtitles to students and and their friends, and leads discussions afterwards. I participated in this in 2015 at the Regional Library. That time, we watched “Sabrina” with Audrey Hepburn. This time, it was my choice and I chose “Lars and the Real Girl,” a 2009 comedy starring Ryan Gosling. One person in the group had seen it besides me. She didn’t like it very much, and I told her that was my first impression of it, too, though now, after several viewings, it is one of my all-time favorites. The discussion was lively afterwards, mostly in Russian. The movie deals with mental illness and some level of recovery (or perhaps its writer uses a particular kind of mental distress to tell a larger story as I think) in a very low-key comic way. I told them I’d learned about it from a friend in Minneapolis who grew up in New York City, and it struck her as really getting the flavor of small-town Minnesota or Wisconsin. One character says early on that the town’s doctor, a G.P., also is certified as a psychologist, “You have to be [a psychologist] dealing with people living this far north…”.

There was another American in the audience, Paul, a firefighter who is here through July, working with firefighters here who deal with the annual wildfires that plague this vast dry region. This was his 2nd visit to Chita, his first in 2017.

City of Childhood English classes, last day!

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3. Yesterday, I met two groups finishing their English classes at Gorod Detstva, “City of Childhood” Development Center in the KSK district of Chita, about 15 kilometers from the city center. With the first, younger (7-11) group, I showed a short slideshow of my house, family, and a little bit of a house piano recital, and then they asked questions, lots of questions! There was a competition: USA questions (what is the capital of the USA? What holiday has a pumpkin as its symbol? Etc), anagrams of words from those questions, etc. The two teams ended almost in a dead heat. After snacks, they presented certificates and prizes. Lots of certificates for reading books, and then for accumulated points across the semester for work and behavior being named 3rd, 2nd and 1st place student of the classes.

The 2nd, older, group’s meeting was similar. Though they were much shyer about asking questions, the questions were more interesting. Instead of a competition, one of the sub-groups presented a play. And in addition to the certificates given to the younger group, many of these students received certificates recognizing their participation and scholarship in some national level English language tests.

English Explorers summer camps

In two days I begin working at Gorod Detstva for their two summer “English Explorers” summer camps, one in town and one at the lake. Yesterday, I met many old friends from when I did this two years ago, and several of them will be at camp this year. On arriving at Gorod Detstva’s school in KSK I was met enthusiastically by two 12 year old boys, Rostislav and Slava, both at the 2017 camp. Rostislav burst out, “Tom! I missed you!” and gave me an enormous hug. Slava’s greeting was almost as big. (Rostislav, I might note, is a perennial behavior problem though basically very sweet. Two years ago when I had to hold him back from mayhem I took him aside and asked if he thought I was mad at him. He said yes, but I said I was never mad at him, just that kind of behavior gets in the way and he agreed. But I think he liked knowing that some adult wasn’t constantly annoyed with him. I look forward to this year!