Date: Fri 10-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

Linda-Reed-Russia

Full Text:

English Teacher Looks Back On Her Year In Russia

(with cuts)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Linda Reed of Newtown got a taste of the deep sense of hospitality and

intensity of friendships shared among Russians when she taught English in the

Russian city of Togliatti last year. She soon understood why Russian students

who visit America yearn for their homeland. Although she will miss her Russian

friends, she was quite willing to leave behind their "1950s" mentality of sex

roles.

With a strong belief in the importance of family, the most common evening

entertainment was dinner with extended families and friends.

As great conversationalists, the Russians told stories, shared problems,

quipped back and forth, over meals that stretched eight hours, if the company

was good.

Kids would come and go from the table, while the adults would sit considering

a philosophical point, telling a humorous anecdote, bemoaning the lack of

maintenance of their public parks and eating more chocolate with their

champagne.

Ms Reed smiled and said that during these long meals "they'd complain that

since the change in government, they no longer have any time for friends and

family."

To an American, Ms Reed said their life seemed quiet and family oriented, and

their cities (excepting Moscow) would look somewhat dilapidated.

The changes in Russian government have resulted in growing pains, both

economic and organizational, as Russians see things that they had taken for

granted are no longer guaranteed.

The people lament that they miss clean well-maintained parks -- students used

to be obliged to clean them under the old government. Now much of the work is

left undone.

Even regular pay, which people everywhere take for granted, is not assured for

many of the people of Russia.

Unlike most Russian towns, Togliatti was built to house the workers of a major

factory, the Lada car company. Lada employs approximately 100,000 of the

800,000 residents, and runs the factory round the clock.

The company has long provided local hospitals, days care centers and sports

facilities. Rather than having sports organized through the schools it is

through company built arenas and pools, which Ms Reed said were exceptionally

good. The locals loved ice hockey, gymnastics clubs, swimming and other

sports.

Even though the company has provided so much for the community, Ms Reed said,

every once in a while the company didn't meet payroll. Last January, the car

factory told their workers that they couldn't pay them that month. According

to Ms Reed this was a common occurrence for Russian businesses -- even the

University didn't always honor its payroll. The people continued to work and

they waited. The next month, Lada made up the unpaid wages.

Unlike our credit card system, outside of Moscow, nobody takes credit cards.

Ms Reed said that people don't take personal checks in Russia, because they

don't trust the banks. So they end up carrying around large sums of cash.

People use cash for everything. Ms Reed smiled and said "Buying a house means

carrying suitcases filled with cash."

Russian Schools

Ms Reed worked both at the Togliatti Branch of Samara State Pedagogical

University, teaching English to Russians who would be teaching languages in

the high schools, and also at a local high school in Togliatti.

At the high school, students rotate between classes much as they do in

American high schools, but the structure of the Universities is dramatically

different.

Students are formed into study groups, tight-knit groups of about 15 students.

They will take classes together, study together, and, for all intents and

purposes, become a study-family over the five years of togetherness.

As with any family, the study groups have their ups and downs, their warmth

and squabbles, but overall the system ensures that everyone feels that he

belongs at the university.

At the high school level, great demands are made of the students. Schools are

strictly for academics -- not sports -- and students are required to study

hard. One woman that Ms Reed taught with took a week's vacation, not to go

anywhere, but to stay home and make sure her teenage son studied for his

exams.

"American students would be horrified at the amount of work required of

Russia's students. They give daily grades for homework," she said.

Exams were all oral, Ms Reed said, and very stressful. At the university

level, the exam would be most or all of the final grade.

The students would be given a list of about 25 questions in advance. Then each

student would be given a ticket with one question on it 15 minutes before the

exam. Five or six students from the same study group would be in the same room

preparing. When one student was ready, he would say so, and do the oral exam

in front of the other students and the professors. Obviously, education is

taken very seriously in Russia.

But it wasn't all work. "Russians always make time to celebrate," recounted Ms

Reed. When one of her students had a birthday, the birthday boy or girl would

bring in a cake, chocolate and champagne to share with classmates.

Ms Reed went to several weddings, since most of her students were 19- or

20-year-olds. Young people in Russia feel great pressure to marry by 20 or 21.

She said with all the celebrating, "Weddings lasted two days."

Ms Reed said that a girl raised in America would find Russian society

limiting. She said, "It's like the 1950s -- the roles of the sexes -- very

traditional."

She said in Russia, the man is responsible for financially taking care of the

family. "No man would stay home with the kids." She said that although she

would not feel comfortable living in that environment, the people she came to

know were not unhappy. They accepted it.

Ms Reed said that they also liked to watch television, usually copies of the

"stupidest game shows" from the states, and CNN. She got ribbed by her Russian

friends whenever Monica Lewinsky's name came up on CNN. They would say to her,

"You Americans cannot have any problems at all if you focus on something like

that."