The Language Teacher

At one time or another, most readers of TLT have probably perused the Conference Calendar and been tempted by an interesting-sounding conference in an exotic location. Last June, eight teachers from Japan found themselves unable to resist the temptation of heading for Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, to attend a three-day meeting on "Experiencing American Culture in the Classroom," TESOL-Far East's first international conference, hosted by Far Eastern State University with substantial support from the U.S. Consulate. It was the first trip to any part of Russia for most of us, and as our comments show, we took off (on a 20-seat jet from tiny Toyama International Terminal) with not a little trepidation. In the event, our fears were groundless and our expectations wildly exceeded, particularly by the intensity of our reactions. Too often, meetings in foreign cities concern us with little beyond the conference site and perhaps a restaurant or two. But as a group and individually, we were strongly affected by Vladivostok's location, political situation, and history as a base for naval operations, essentially closed to foreign visitors until 1992.

We were impressed by the tenacity, professionalism, and achievement of teachers and students who suffer daily from an inconceivable lack of material goods, academic resources, and financial support; warmed, as so many visitors are, by Russian hospitality; and struck by the commanding position of Vladivostok straddling the tip of a peninsula, offering a view of two vast stretches of water. We found hunger for, but not blind acceptance of, new ideas.

We arrived in Vladivostok a few days before the first round of presidential elections, and part of the excitement were campaign efforts all over town. Vladivostok is truly the "far" east of the country -- none of the candidates visited the city before the election -- but it is now a bit nearer, in the minds, and yes, the hearts, of at least eight people living in Japan, now more attuned to events, some hundreds of kilometers from Japan, that had previously seemed remote.

In hopes of encouraging JALT members to attend future events in Russia's Far East, our impromptu group of eight offer these impressions.

Gareth Knight, Cambridge University Press

I covered the two hour flight filled with apprehension. During the flight, the cabin attendant kindly gave me a copy of Vladivostok's new English newspaper -- featuring a front page story of a man walking down the main street armed with an anti-tank rocket launcher.

My fears were totally unfounded. I was met at the airport by a student volunteer who took me to the hotel. She turned out to be an English major with an impeccable British accent. This was a pleasant surprise because I had thought I would have to get by in Japanese. I had mistakenly believed that Vladivostok would resemble other Asian cities, given its location. I found a virtual piece of Europe only two hours from Japan. In fact, throughout my stay I was mistaken for a local!

The organizers had hoped for about 100 participants and were overjoyed when 580 registered on the first day. The working language of the conference was English, and the level of attendees' spoken English was outstanding, particularly considering that no foreigners were allowed to visit Vladivostok until 1992. The only native speakers teaching in the region are the 15 US Peace Corps volunteers and some missionaries. The teachers who expressed doubts about their English ability due to lack of contact with native speakers really have little to worry about.

The theme of the conference reflected both the recent trend towards learning about the USA, especially in business matters, and the growing notion of the region being part of the Pacific Rim. Students seized their first opportunities ever (in most cases) to converse with native speakers, and did so with acuity and competence.

Everyone agreed that the conference had been an overwhelming success, and a similar event has been planned for October 1998 in Khabarovsk. I have never been made to feel so welcome in a strange land and I feel that friendships struck during the conference will last a lifetime. I thoroughly recommend this event.

John Philips, Akita University of Economics and Law

The level of American studies in the Soviet Union was of international quality, but, unfortunately, like everything else in the Soviet Union, it was ideologically constrained. Now that Russia and other former Soviet Republics are more open and democratic, American Studies is expanding, becoming more realistic and broader in scope and more popular in orientation. As it was a tool of conflict, let it become a means of friendship.

The level of foreign language instruction in Russia surpasses both those of Japan and the United States. The major lesson I think Japan can learn from Russia is the important role women can play. Women dominated the conference at all levels, from planning to participation. The cliché that Japanese women are better than men at foreign languages is one I have heard throughout my ten years in Japan. The possibility that discrimination against women in university education, hiring, and promotion exacerbates Japan's relative failure in foreign language education is one that merits serious consideration in this time of university reforms, the so-called daigaku kaikaku.

Stephen Ryan, Osaka Institute of Technology

Like JALT's own International Conference, TESOL Russia Far East's was organised around strands: presentations on similar topics all scheduled so that people with a strong interest in one topic could spend the whole three days in the same room. I had agreed to co-chair a strand on Cross-Cultural Issues with a Russian teacher, and when I realized my commitment I immediately regretted limiting myself to a single topic in one room while the whole of Russian ELT was waiting to be explored.

I soon found, though, that I was wrong to regret my decision (the first of many pleasant surprises): My view of ELT in and around Vladivostok may well have been narrow but it was also deep.

My co-chair, Dr. Evgenia Terkhova, is an eminent interpreter and translator with an enviable acquaintance with English idioms and an appetite for more. Thanks to her warm and friendly guidance we were able to work together as co-chairs and to get to know each other. Perhaps because of Dr. Terkhova's renown, many of the Russian scholars made presentations about translation which were never less than erudite. These scholars revealed a deep knowledge of the most important and most recent English books in their fields. I was struck by how few of the papers mentioned spoken English or native informants, but of course there were few native speakers in this region until the Peace Corps arrived last year. In retrospect, I am also struck by the absence of references to journal papers: Clearly, acquiring books and journals from abroad is an expensive business and those which are obtained are studied in depth.

Despite their reliance on written sources, all the teachers and university students spoke very proficiently. One teacher confided that she had studied the language for 30 years but had never known whether her English would be intelligible to a native speaker until, late last year, she met a Peace Corps volunteer and wept with joy at understanding and being understood. I was most impressed by the quality of attention from the audience, especially when listening to native speakers. As a presenter myself, I felt a real sense of encouragement from the listeners and a determination to treasure each syllable which passed my lips.

There were occasional administrative hiccups -- mainly presenters who could not make it to Vladivostok from outlying areas -- but our strand, like the conference as a whole, was a real success: a triumph of determination over very real practical, financial and geographical constraints. Above all, it was the hard work and optimism of the conference organizers which will stay with me.

Bob Gettings, Hokusei Gakuen Women's Junior College

In the History, Geography, and Environment section, I was impressed first by the high level of English education in the upper levels of the Russian university system. At Far Eastern State University, Russian speakers of English had taught EFL content-based classes for quite some time. For political reasons, native speaking teachers of English were a recent import to Vladivostok. Teachers displayed enthusiastic and professional approaches to both EFL and their content field. Expectations of students seemed high.

Second, the content taught seemed to be tailored to current popular issues in Russian society. The aspects of American culture taught are traditional ones: strong emphasis on the mechanics of government, civil liberties and the Bill of Rights, the English roots of American culture, the Founding Fathers, and the US as an ethnic melting pot or salad bowl. There was little emphasis on cultural critiques from, say, multicultural viewpoints, which are currently challenging the history-teaching establishment in the US. This traditional emphasis fits well with a critique of the values of the old USSR as it moves towards some kind of liberal democracy.

Jerry Halvorsen, Kokugakuin Junior College

The highlight of the conference for me was a visit to a junior high school youth camp for gifted students located just outside of Vladivostok. There were about 30 students at the time of our visit. The students received instruction in several areas, including English. Nine conference participants from Japan, Korea and Russia had the opportunity to be a part of the English lesson for that day. Students were eager and able to ask questions in English, and to engage in everyday conversation. After class and a tour of the facilities we spent the rest of the visit participating in games, songs and further conversations with the students and staff. It was a most enjoyable and informative time which ended too quickly with handshakes and hugs for everybody.

Alan Farr, Iwate University

A sputnik generation baby-boomer, I majored in Russian and have always maintained an interest in Russia, lecturing on literature, translations, post-colonial literature at Kiev State University and the Foreign Language University two years ago.

Knowing the dire shortages of teaching materials, I packed plenty of literature and videos to show and present to students and teachers. This preparation came in handy since on arrival I was asked to give five presentations: teaching culture through literature, history through video, social criticism as a heuristic, and cultural comparisons of language learning in Japan and Russia.

Any English teacher coming from Japan must envy and marvel at the Russians' mastery of spoken English: grammar, syntax, idiom, lexis all confidently fused into a captivating fluency that from the mouths of the older generation exudes a quaint old-fashioned charm, while the younger generations delight and surprise with their up-to-date slang.

As in Kiev, shortages are still apparent, yet VCRs and tape recorders were evidence of material assistance from government agencies. Since the collapse of the Communist regime, outside agencies such as US government, business and religious organizations have found opportunity niches in education to exert influence through personnel, donations of money and material, and a substantial study-homestay program for over 1000 high school and university students.

The benefits for individual Russians are undeniable, but as in Kiev I found myself contemplating the sinister side of these developments when I received my heavy conference packet. Weighed down by a kilo of Russian-language materials with titles like "What is Democracy?" or "Six Lessons in Freedom," and the glossily seductive "American Life," I wearily laid down my load into the trash bin.

Once again I was reminded, in a country not known for political subtlety, of just how political our profession is and how susceptible teachers are to cooptation by authority. Of course, Russians are wily folk, more sophisticated than they are portrayed by our media. In regard to the histories of Vietnam, Africa and Central America, for example, Japanese and even American students may be the true naifs.

Tired of patronizing and arrogant attitudes among the foreign community, a number of students complained to me in private while many others listened attentively and even enthusiastically to my presentations on teaching American culture and history which owe more to the libertarian tradition of Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Ronald Takaki and even Charles Bukovsky than to Arthur Schlesinger, Max Lerner, Daniel Boorstin and other aging critics from the liberal/conservative mainstream, whose writings are for the most part well past their "sell-by date" and yet are being packaged as intellectual role models for young Russians.

Russian students, receptive to new ideas, are extremely eager to learn about the outside world. I left Russia wondering from whose lessons they will learn? Reflecting on the gap between their linguistic mastery and their blameless ignorance of the worsening social conditions in the West, I became keenly aware of the crucial cultural component in language learning, without which foreign language speakers may be unkindly regarded as mere talking automatons.

One thing is sure: Russian culture will keep its peculiar character and will not succumb to foreign influence; we should all now welcome the fact that at last the Russians are coming: a new era of communication is dawning.

Susan Miller, Nihon Taiiku University

I departed for the TESOL Far East Conference in Vladivostok with a bit of trepidation. Actually, that is an understatement: I was terrified. What would Russia be like? What would the people's attitude be toward me? Why was I going?

We were met by several students who helped us with our bags. I was staying in student housing; my room was on the second floor of a rather large dormitory on the campus of Far Eastern Sate University. Over my stay I saw families coming and going and people walking their dogs. I realized that this was not just a college dorm as I understood it, but a residence for a variety of people. The second floor was apparently reserved for special guests, as it had a marble hallway and other amenities. There was a guard stationed at one end of the hallway and one needed a key.

My room was spacious with three beds, a large television, a small refrigerator, an electric stove with two burners, an oven, a good-sized closet, and a private bath. It was very comfortable, but there was no hot water in the shower or bath. Apparently the hot water had gone out a few weeks before and would not be working again until November or so. I couldn't get a satisfactory explanation, and it seemed that many parts of the city were in the same boat. Vladivostok is a port city, and during June it is quite windy, rainy and cold, so a bit of hot water would have been nice. However, I warmed some up on the stove and was able to bathe that way.

The opening ceremonies were the following day, and several more wonderful student interpreters arrived and escorted us both to breakfast and to the site of the meetings. What impressed me was the musical nature of the Russians. During the rather long opening ceremonies, there were plenary addresses, but there were also four musical performances: a very young children's choir dressed in traditional style, singing an English song for all they were worth; a violinist accompanied by a pianist; an adult choir who performed to the accompaniment of a piano and also a cappella; and finally three students who performed several songs on the accordion. It was lovely and impressive, and taught me that music is very important to the Russian people, and integrated into many aspects of life -- a fact confirmed when I visited a youth camp and kindergarten after participating in the video section presentations of the conference.

The youth camp consisted of children from ages eleven to thirteen studying such aspects of British and American culture as history, music, and art. During the lessons, small groups of children interviewed us, and we asked them questions about themselves in turn. After their lessons, we went to a theater where the children were given an oral quiz on what they had learned. (The questions and answers, though about England or America, were mainly in Russian.) I was impressed with their memories of facts and details.

Next, we went out to the playground and played some games. These required a lot of running and were great fun. (A couple of the female teachers were playing the games in their high heels and I was amazed that they could run so fast in them.) As another tour member remarked to me, we were reminded that one can accomplish a lot and have fun without a great deal of high tech or expensive equipment.

The kindergarten was equally interesting the following day. We were not given the same opportunity to interact with the children, perhaps because they were younger. In one activity, the children had to close their eyes and then identify a helping of food or drink by its English name. They also studied music and aerobics during our visit. The kindergarten doubles as a child-care facility as many children are there from morning to night. They are served four meals a day, there is a place for them to take a nap, and there are laundry facilities on site as well as a nurse's office. Apparently, in the past the government covered all of the costs of operating this facility, but now the children's parents pay a monthly fee which is approximately one-sixth of the total cost per child, with the government subsidizing the rest.

These are some memories of my brief time in Russia. Needless to say, it was a positive experience for me and I'm eager to learn Russian. All in all, the conference was well worth it. It was informative, interesting and most of all it helped me to dispel some of my own myths, prejudices, and fears about the Russian people and culture.

See you in 1998 in Khabarovsk!

All articles at this site are copyright © 1997 by their respective authors.
Document URL: http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/feb/verity.html
Last modified: December 25, 1997
Site maintained by TLT Online Editor