Admittedly, most of my posts have leaned toward the positive aspects of my experiences in Russia. To balance that, let me share one of my struggles–something that often threatened to overshadow even the happiest of events. My host Volodya often told a joke about an American who made several trips to Russia, and couldn’t understand why those &*&* Russians only spoke Russian! Of course he was gently pulling my leg (hanging noodles, as they call tall tales and other stretching fabrications). But we all know the grain of truth in humor is what makes us laugh.
And I did try to keep my sense of humor. Sometimes, however, the inability to join in to conversations or to understand even the simplest of situations transpiring around me (such as…this tram isn’t going any farther. Get off now) drained my energy and poked holes in my self-confidence. That grain of humor made its way into my shoe causing an irritating blister. Such are the challenges of foreign living.
Hooray for English!
Russia is the largest country in the world spreading over 11 time zones. One can travel within its borders one’s entire life and never get bored – so versatile and diverse the climate, landscape and culture types are from region to region. Like the majority of Americans, the majority of Russians just never travels abroad and do not feel they miss anything. Therefore, it normally never occurs to that majority that there are truly people that speak some other languages than Russian:) The Russian language spread far over the borders of Russia. It is actively and fluently spoken in all the former USSR republics – Middle Asia, the Caucasus, in Baltic republics, Moldova, Ukraine, and Belarus. You can also go far with the Russian language in nearly all the Eastern European countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, etc, as in the Soviet times it was a must for their schools to teach Russian and be able to communicate. Now, there is China, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt that can exhibit some good knowledge due to trade, tourism, quite a quantity of their students that get education in Russia. So, it makes it quite a vast territory for the Russians not to bother with foreign languages?:D However, true, there is a number of Russians that take sincere interest in the western cultures and, consequently, the English language (including myself:D) Plus, English is in fashion! Therefore, those who follow fashion attend courses; exercise their ability to speak other languages:)
It was just a short reference note, NOT my response to Jeanette’s particular experience and story that she shared:) However, what she did share about was totally true and heartfelt (read the reference note above).