I've been in Russia for 6 days, and in those 6 days I've figured out a lot. 1) Most Russians are totally willing to help you 2)When I walk into McDonald's I just need to ask for the photo menu 3)British English and American English are as different as night and day 4)In Russia anything can happen 5) There's no "American" coffee in Russia
I'm kind of going to skip the first point about Russians being helpful. I asked the security guard in the grocery store where the bathroom was in mediocre Russian, and he looked at me like I had three heads then shooed me away. However my cashier was great, she tried asking me for 7 rubles because she didn't have the right change in her drawer, and I just totally wasn't getting it. So she put up 7 fingers and said "Rubles?" The cashier, a babushka behind me in line, and I...we all burst into laughter. Only in Russia
The 2nd thing I've learned, well I didn't go to Micky D's today, so it isn't totally relevant. However it was a miraculous discovery for me to realize I can walk in and go "Photo Menu Pezshalsta" point at the basket with the photo menu in it, then order away. It's much easier than miming or trying to pronounce the Russian right.
Today was the 3rd day of of the Intern Training Program at Language Link (yawn). Sure it's fun to have something to do, but I'd rather just bum around Moscow with all of the other interns. Moral of the story though, Language Link teaches British English. I speak American English, as do the majority of the interns. "What's the problem Kyle? British and American English are the same, all except for the funny accent." WELL THEY'RE NOT! There are some many different was Americans and Brits use tenses, verbs, and other parts of speech. It's like British English is an alien language. Oh and the Brits spell things weird...There is no "U" in the word COLOR!
Today was also the day of training where I had to give a mini 15 minute lesson to "Elementary" level students (the students were played by the interns in my group). EFL and Social Studies...you'd figure teaching them would be somewhat similar...it isn't apparently. Well there's some obvious differences, and some things carry over...such as being comfortable in front of a class, and classroom management. The "Teacher-Trainers" want to keep "Teacher Talking Time" or "TTT" to a minimum. That means eliminate narrating what you are doing, example: "Alright class, I'm going to write this on the board and I want you to copy it down." Totally unacceptable for EFL. I'm supposed to just say "Copy this" and then proceed to write.
I had a unique review of my lesson today, I was intimidating to my students. I treated this mock class as a class I was familiar with and was familiar with me, but that came off as intimidating. There are clear ways to communicate with a brand new class versus a class that you have a fantastic rapport with. For instance, I gave instructions for students to talk to their partner, and after 7 seconds no one was talking...So I clapped and said "I don't hear anyone talking yet!" It wasn't said in a mean way, or even yelled...it was just said sharply, to get the students going, and you know what? It worked. Oh well, I guess if the "Teacher-Trainers" had told me this was my first day or even week with the class, I would have done that differently...but no, it was just a way for them to Nit-Pick.
4) Expect anything in Russia: Nata isn't overly fond of sharing her internet, I bet she would be if I made a big deal of it. Instead of going that route, I figured I could spend some money and get a wireless 3G card for my laptop. I had heard they were about $30 for the card and then another $30/month for mediocre internet. Well, after beers with the other interns and with some help, I went to look at buying a 3G card. I was expecting to pay about 1750ryb for it. Well turns out, it was 750ryb ($25) for the 3G card...I was about right on the price there. BUT! The card came with 2 Free months of unlimited internet, and each month thereafter was 350ryb (about $12). You might think that internet this cheap would be terrible...I mean it costs about as much as dial-up in the US. Road Runner's standard speed is 7mb/s, the 3G I got with MTS has a speed of 7.2mb/s. So the internet I got is actually faster than Road Runner, can go anywhere in Moscow, and costs $12/month whereas RR is $30. I don't get it either.
Now on to coffee, all coffee in Moscow it would seem is espresso. Now espresso isn't bad, however there is something magical about a huge cup of American drip coffee. I haven't found it, and I don't expect to. The best substitute I could find, are these little 3 in 1 packs of instant coffee, sugar, and creamer...just add water.
That's my rant for today, sorry there's no pictures.
I'm kind of going to skip the first point about Russians being helpful. I asked the security guard in the grocery store where the bathroom was in mediocre Russian, and he looked at me like I had three heads then shooed me away. However my cashier was great, she tried asking me for 7 rubles because she didn't have the right change in her drawer, and I just totally wasn't getting it. So she put up 7 fingers and said "Rubles?" The cashier, a babushka behind me in line, and I...we all burst into laughter. Only in Russia
The 2nd thing I've learned, well I didn't go to Micky D's today, so it isn't totally relevant. However it was a miraculous discovery for me to realize I can walk in and go "Photo Menu Pezshalsta" point at the basket with the photo menu in it, then order away. It's much easier than miming or trying to pronounce the Russian right.
Today was the 3rd day of of the Intern Training Program at Language Link (yawn). Sure it's fun to have something to do, but I'd rather just bum around Moscow with all of the other interns. Moral of the story though, Language Link teaches British English. I speak American English, as do the majority of the interns. "What's the problem Kyle? British and American English are the same, all except for the funny accent." WELL THEY'RE NOT! There are some many different was Americans and Brits use tenses, verbs, and other parts of speech. It's like British English is an alien language. Oh and the Brits spell things weird...There is no "U" in the word COLOR!
Today was also the day of training where I had to give a mini 15 minute lesson to "Elementary" level students (the students were played by the interns in my group). EFL and Social Studies...you'd figure teaching them would be somewhat similar...it isn't apparently. Well there's some obvious differences, and some things carry over...such as being comfortable in front of a class, and classroom management. The "Teacher-Trainers" want to keep "Teacher Talking Time" or "TTT" to a minimum. That means eliminate narrating what you are doing, example: "Alright class, I'm going to write this on the board and I want you to copy it down." Totally unacceptable for EFL. I'm supposed to just say "Copy this" and then proceed to write.
I had a unique review of my lesson today, I was intimidating to my students. I treated this mock class as a class I was familiar with and was familiar with me, but that came off as intimidating. There are clear ways to communicate with a brand new class versus a class that you have a fantastic rapport with. For instance, I gave instructions for students to talk to their partner, and after 7 seconds no one was talking...So I clapped and said "I don't hear anyone talking yet!" It wasn't said in a mean way, or even yelled...it was just said sharply, to get the students going, and you know what? It worked. Oh well, I guess if the "Teacher-Trainers" had told me this was my first day or even week with the class, I would have done that differently...but no, it was just a way for them to Nit-Pick.
4) Expect anything in Russia: Nata isn't overly fond of sharing her internet, I bet she would be if I made a big deal of it. Instead of going that route, I figured I could spend some money and get a wireless 3G card for my laptop. I had heard they were about $30 for the card and then another $30/month for mediocre internet. Well, after beers with the other interns and with some help, I went to look at buying a 3G card. I was expecting to pay about 1750ryb for it. Well turns out, it was 750ryb ($25) for the 3G card...I was about right on the price there. BUT! The card came with 2 Free months of unlimited internet, and each month thereafter was 350ryb (about $12). You might think that internet this cheap would be terrible...I mean it costs about as much as dial-up in the US. Road Runner's standard speed is 7mb/s, the 3G I got with MTS has a speed of 7.2mb/s. So the internet I got is actually faster than Road Runner, can go anywhere in Moscow, and costs $12/month whereas RR is $30. I don't get it either.
Now on to coffee, all coffee in Moscow it would seem is espresso. Now espresso isn't bad, however there is something magical about a huge cup of American drip coffee. I haven't found it, and I don't expect to. The best substitute I could find, are these little 3 in 1 packs of instant coffee, sugar, and creamer...just add water.
That's my rant for today, sorry there's no pictures.
