Never have I been in a city where you can't get by with even a little bit of English....it has been quite the challenge. For example, I had to buy some Kleenex from a store in the school, and had a very hard time explaining what I wanted to the Russian shop owner. Seriously, try explaining that you need tissues without using English. What would you do?
After a couple of failed attempts rubbing my nose, I realized that she probably thought that I was trying to buy illicit substances from her and decided that it would be a better bet to switch tactics and revert to other actions associated with using Kleenex. Needless to say, it was a disaster! This is but one example of the language barriers that exist here, but it has been interesting to say the least! The grocery store...well that's another story...
[teaching with Rufina - our translator]
As for Russian in the classroom, Yussef and I teach through 2 different translators that alternate from day to day. As you can imagine, there are various challenges that go hand in hand with this method of teaching. Everything we do in class takes double the time, so we have to be very cognisant of the tasks that we give our students. When talking, we have to pause at opportune times so that the translator can effectively communicate our points. I am now very wary of words and phrases that we take for granted in Canada (i.e. "big picture thinking" and "high level"...you know, B-School speak) because these terms generally do not translate well to Russian. Sometimes, a student will speak in Russian for about 5 minutes, and the translator will give us a 30 second synopsis. This is unfortunate, because I think the students can offer a lot more depth than is actually expressed after translation. Another challenging aspect is that jokes and nuances in speech don't translate very well. So you can try to be clever, but it really just gets lost in translation!
That being said, this method of teaching really forces you to practice communicating effectively and you must ensure that the content you deliver is appropriate for the audience. You have to formulate a clear, structured thought in your head before you commit to a sentence, or else it confuses the translator. Today we ran a "Communicating Effectively" lecture so that the students could practice giving impromptu speaches in front of the class, while keeping in mind tips on how to be a good public speaker. It was like Russian Toast Masters! This Friday the students will be pitching their new business ideas that they have been working on - I am really excited to see how they apply the topics they have learned in the past 2 weeks.
Currently sitting at a German place called the Bier Haus - they have an English menu, very expensive bevvies, but free wi fi. Dhasvidanya!
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