I am learning Russian

Yesterday (Wednesday) I was invited to a concert at the St Petersburg State university of Culture and Arts, about 20 minutes walk from my flat on Nevsky Prospekt. I was the guest of Isabella who teaches English to the choirmasters, orchestra players and performers of tomorrow – very high standards. These were second year student, performing with professional classical musicians. There were some unusual instruments being played too – I wish I’d paid more attention to their names. I did recognise the balalaikas but of the others, one looked remarkably like a pipe, and one looked like a small rugby ball! (Here’s a smartphone video – apologies for the quality)

The building is magnificent – what a place to study in! And the concert was equally magnificent. The students – no more than 19/20 years old I think were on top form, performing with illustrious musicians such as Nicholas Walker. I learned he is keen to promote the works of the lesser known Russian composer Balakirev. I also learned that he speaks great Russian 🙂 Here he is with the students:

Thankyou, Isabella, for inviting me. Such a wonderful event, such committed students and teachers.

So I’m here! I arrived for my three week stay on Tuesday and took part in a conference at ITMO university from Wednesday until Friday. (Watch my Moodle blog for two posts about that excellent event.)

When I arrived at the entrance on the first day, I was surprised and slightly anxious to discover there were no big signs pointing to the conference. I hung around looking and feeling lost for about ten minutes and then realised I only had one option: I’d have to ask the guy at the reception desk. In Russian. So with my carefully rehearsed “I’m here for the conference” and my improvised ” but I don’t know where to go”, I crossed my fingers in the hope his answer would make sense to me. It did. He hadn’t heard of the conference. Fortunately his colleague had, and told me to go down the corridor and up to the next floor. I happily walked off towards the stairs and then it suddenly dawned on me: I actually understood!!

I haven’t had a Russian lesson for two weeks although at the ITMO conference evening reception I was grilled in an intense but thoroughly satisfying way on all possible A2 oral conversation topics by the lovely Ludmilla when she learned  I am taking the TORFL/ TRKI in two weeks. I’m surrounded by Russian, on the streets, on the TV, in the shops – and of course, my phone and laptop are clearly aware I’m in Russia. So in this first week of immersion, what have I learned?

• It takes twice as long to go around the supermarket (‘Perekrestok’ supermarket chain here) because I have to read every item, letter by letter. You can’t rely on the pictures because they can sometimes be misleading. I thought these were fruit purées until I realised Russians simply love  mayonnaise…

• When you first approach the till with your UK ‘bag for life’ and they ask you in a single word if you want a bag (пакет?) reply with a curt, monosyllabic нет – at least, if you want to emulate the Russians ahead of you in the queue. My son thinks I should do it the English way, with an apologetic “No thankyou – I’ve brought my own bag to be environmentally friendly” – but I think it will just delay the people after me.
• There’s an awful lot of caviar-based products! I don’t particularly like caviar, but I eat anything. Which is fortunate because on the second day I bought a pot noodle and upon eating discovered it was oyster flavour – a new one on me. But OK
• My language skills did extend to realising that my pear (груша) yoghurt did NOT include chicken (курица) but I had to wait until I’d checked the actual word to discover its extra ingredient (корица) was in fact, cinnamon. But now I’ll always remember!
• I thought snail repair was a misprint for nail repair until my friend Google told me it is actually A Thing:

From tomorrow (Monday) I will be working for Moodle in the morning and evening and studying in the afternoon. Wish me luck, or as  Viktor Tsoi said (sort of) , пожелай мне удачи

So I attended the UK and Ireland MoodleMoot in Glasgow and of course was delighted when on my first day on the registration desk I met a lovely Russian delegate, Elizabeth, from Moscow, and then on the third day met up again with (the equally lovely, of course) Ruslan Kabalin from Lancaster University. Any opportunity to practise my language skills! If you are a Moot attender and native Russian speaker – beware!

Surprisingly I also discovered a Russian restaurant just across the way from our hotel. Cossachok: the first and only in Scotland – with a great atmosphere, window display and friendly Lithuanian waitress who, of course, was subject to my Russian assault but acquiesced with grace 🙂 Here is the website: Cafe Cossachok – highly recommended (by me!)

Upon my return I was faced with the reality that my Russian exam is but eighteen (and nineteen days away). The worries have started up again. This was my desk this morning:

I just haven’t learned ALL OF RUSSIAN yet 🙁  Oh well, hopefully I will have learned enough to pass the A2 exam…

I did cheer myself up by memorising another Viktor Tsoi song though:

Relentless! Not just the daily practice of speaking tests, writing tests, any grammar/YouTube stuff I can get my hands on, but this all while I have a full time job and am doing a MSc in Blended and Online Learning.

This past week was particularly busy: I did my UCLAN Intermediate Russian Writing and Speaking tests early as I will be away during exam week. I was Ok on the speaking – I managed to improvise a conversation in a restaurant, and appreciated it as a “trial run” for the трки exam on 18/19 April. I also did my presentation for the Master’s – on gamification – just the dissertation left to do, in the evenings in St Petersburg.

Now I am off to Glasgow for Mootieuk18 and anticipate having hardly any time to practise Russian. Unless I bump into a Russian speaker – Поживем увидим!

This week I have mostly been:

• in an ongoing panic about the impending exam…
• perusing my Viktor Tsoi book and drinking from his mug:

I’ve also started reading a book, one of those adapted for language learners books, lent to me by my teacher Lilya: Leviathan by Boris Akunin. It’s hard work – takes me about ten minutes to read each page! It is (she said) slightly above my level but never mind – it’s good to be challenged – and as it is a murder mystery, I am encouraged to continue:

So today I went with my son to the languages centre at St Petersburg university to sign up for our respective exams (mine being the A2 Basic Level) It was an interesting experience for me. We went up some stairs into a general entrance hall – didn’t see any obvious signs, so my son asked the receptionist and we were directed up another flight of stairs to a room with three people just quietly getting on with stuff… the young woman at the desk nearest the door looked up, didn’t smile or say anything so my son explained we wanted to sign up for exams. She then continued doing what she was doing and then after a while asked for our passports, asked when we wanted to take the exam, printed off some papers for us to sign and told us we had to go and pay at a bank – it couldn’t be done there. Efficient, minimal bureacracy, but no smiles, no encouragement. But that’s fine -different cultures.

So we turn up for 10 am on the Wednesday for the grammar, reading and writing tests and then at a different set time on the Thursday for the speaking and writing tests.

So that’s it! Booked and paid for! No turning back!

This week I have been mainly…

getting frustrated at all the things I can’t say, forget, get wrong and generally don’t do successfully.

Unfortunately, as a linguist and a language teacher, I’m already aware of how much I still have left to learn, and rather than focusing on my successes, I’m getting my head in a spin about my failures. It happens each time I have my private lesson with Lilya on Monday. They are excellent lessons because my brain is forced to function right up to its highest limit (and sometimes even beyond) There is only me in the class – I can’t hide! I have to answer every question, and having the brain of a 58 year old is no excuse. But I come out of the lessons – having spoken Russian for a hour and a half – tormenting myself for missing off a soft sign in my homework, using the accusative when I should have used the dative when I actually knew that, forgetting , when put on the spot, the prepositional plural adjective ending.. I must be rubbish 🙁   What am I thinking of, planning to take an exam in April?

I wish I could praise myself a bit more. (Oh, Lilya praises me – that’s not the issue – I don’t praise myself) It is now 15 months since I began studying Russian in earnest (in “anger” as  my developer colleagues would say!) In terms of grammar, I sail through A2 level exercises and even tackled a B1 grammar test the other day, getting 97/100. I could walk a GCSE  Russian (I know; I did the past papers) and I could happily have a long conversation with you (or even give you an off the cuff ten minute talk) about various aspects of my life, family and career. I know  – I’ve done all of those too.

So why is this not good enough? I think perhaps I’m comparing myself with my younger self in an unfair way, and I think I am comparing my progress in Russian with hypothetical progress in another language in an unfair way too:

I remember the young me, top of the class in languages and finding the work very easy. But I forget it took me about three years to get to the level I am at in Russian after 18 months. I forget I never had high level private lessons that stretch me to the limits of my abilities. I never had to struggle.

And I think to myself…. if only I were learning Dutch or Italian, or Portuguese… I’d be of a far higher standard than I am  now in Russian. Of course, but these languages (to me with my past experiences) are much easier to manage; it’s not right to put them on the same step as Russian.

So I go on.. Anyway…

This week I’ve been:

• practising indirect speech (with Lilya)
• doing practice written and spoken tests on my own
• learning about Maslenitsa  and eating pancakes (with the UCLAN Russian society)

And worrying about #uksnow. Will it affect my imminent journey to St Petersburg on Thursday?

I’ve been remiss recording my efforts so I will do a weekly round up from now on. In the style of Jessie from the Fast Show this week I have been mostly…

• getting into a panic about the Basic Exam I plan to take mid-April. On the plus side, I am hoping my son will finally take his next level at the same time – therefore helping me conquer my fears of facing bureaucracy in an unknown place (SPBU) in a foreign language by accompanying me…
• practising the Imperative. That’s the second person, the first person plural and the third person. My teacher told me about the song Пусть всегда будет солнце ,the whole refrain of which is third person imperative.
• memorising another song. After grappling delightedly with aluminium cucumbers and three Chuchki wise men (Алюминиевые огурцы) I made a complete change and learned Ещё не вечер, a laid back song popular with the cabaret act at one of the restaurants we frequent in SP (I’ll reference it when I remember its name!)
• getting depressed about not yet mastering cursive. I’m sure I read somewhere you don’t need it for the Basic Level A2 exam – but I need to find that information again…
• continuing to work my way through the very thorough Motion verbs courses on the Tips4Russian site. I am doing Motion verbs 1 and 2 at the same time. Motion verbs 1 is fine as I am reasonably confident with them, so this course gives me a bit of a boost to continue with the Motion verbs 2 course which goes into such detail… my goodness, there are so many uses!! When I do eventually finish the second course , I am going to go right back to the beginning again and start all over again – maybe even a third time. ( I hope I am right in assuming I don’t need to be a 100% expert on all uses of all motion verbs for my exam)
• Did I mention I was getting into a panic about an exam?

Not colliding really, more seamlessly blending together…

We’ve just finished the latest run of the Learn Moodle MOOC and as usual thousands of participants from around the world joined in, in their quest for a certificate of completion proving they know the basics of teaching with Moodle.

As usual with these MOOCs I am keen to engage with non-native English speakers, French, German  – and more recently Russian. Amongst the Russian speaking contingent was a large group from ITMO university in St Petersburg who all signed up to investigate the use of Moodle for teaching English for Specific purposes. At the end of the course, I was asked if I’d like to attend their ESP conference in April and talk about Moodle…

Perfect timing, since it fits in with  the plans for the Big Adventure. I’m all booked up now for three weeks in St Petersburg in April. I’ll be attending the ITMO during the first week, working as normal, studying and absorbing Russian during the second week and taking the Basic Level exam (registration permitting) during the third week. I’ve told the cat I am not coming home until I can speak fluent Russian – although since my return flight is booked for 24 April, I might have to qualify that statement somewhat..

Deep breaths: I’m looking forward to the conference and I am grateful that my Moodle job allows me to work from anywhere in the world. However, I do catch myself every now and then thinking “What on earth have I let myself in for?” Three weeks on my own in a country whose language I only started learning last year, where many of the locals struggle with English… the vanity  of taking an exam that I don’t need to do, won’t get any professional benefit from  and will stress about for another two months..

And then I remember… oh yes! I LOVE languages 🙂