Romanian language classes had been going on daily for almost two months. Due to my work in the village and my learning 100 new Romanian words a day, I was far ahead of much of the class.
The teacher expressed his concern that the snail-like pace of the Russians might slow me down. To solve the problem, he asked me to consider coming to class only to receive grammar exercises from him that he would assign me daily. That way, I could use the time in class to continue on in the textbook and begin learning at my own speed.
The proposal made me go weak in the knees. I was not convinced that I would be able to learn better without a teacher. But our professor convinced me that staying in the class could actually hinder my language learning, since I was doing so much outside of class anyway. He assured me he would give me enough assignments to keep me busy, a promise that he kept.
From this point on, I only went to class occasionally. Most of my days were spent doing grammar exercises and building vocabulary.
I appreciate the professor’s genuine concern that I be allowed to go at my own speed. He could have easily held me back so that the whole class could move together. But he understood what was at stake and cut me loose, so I could begin to “fly” in Romanian.
During this discussion, the teacher vented some of his frustration, stating that no matter what he did, he could not ensure that the three Russian boys would be sufficiently prepared for their entrance exam. I asked why they seemed so disinterested, to which he took me up to the dry-erase board. With a black marker he drew two brains. Looking to me, he answered, “Trevin, here is your brain,” and then promptly colored in one of the brains. He took a red marker and added a little red dot over in the corner of the brain. “Your brain is black with a hint of red.” Then, he turned to the other brain he’d drawn on the board. With the red marker, he colored in the brain and added a little black dot in the corner. “This is the Russian brain. Red with a hint of black.”
Sighing, he added, “Even with this new generation, the Communist mindset prevails.”
What is the Communist mindset? I’ll elaborate on that in a few days…
Looking forward to your description of Communist mindset. I am always curious to know how Russian culture is perceived.
But if I had to guess in this particular situation, I would say these guys are getting free education and don’t really want to be studying that. Russian whole education system, starting from primary school to post-graduate course is completely free. You would definitely pay much more attention to classes when you know you are paying an arm and leg for them.
Comment by Vitali Zagorodnov — December 22, 2007 @ 10:30 pm
Hi Vitali,
The same situation takes place in the U.S. sometimes. Kids who are too immature to go to college wind up in universities with all expenses paid. They goof off for a year or two and have no idea what they’re doing.
The problem was exacerbated with my Russian colleagues because the first year of language learning is “make or break.” If you don’t succeed, you’re out. The Russians that made it into the school (and the Moldovans who spoke Russian) were generally older than the rest and therefore they were wiser about the situation.
The “Communist” mindset I’ll be talking about soon is not specifically about Russians. It is a prevailing outlook on life that manifests itself in several distinct ways throughout all Eastern Europe, Romania included.
Comment by trevinwax — December 23, 2007 @ 8:30 am