I was talking to someone the other day (I forget who), and this individual brought up the fact that Condoleeza Rice’s Russian is “so bad.” This person thought it was reprehensible that someone who studied Russian in university spoke the language so poorly. But the thing is, I completely understand.
In order to maintain one’s foreign language abilities, one must constantly practice and study. I received my BA in Russian in 2001. At that time, my spoken Russian, while not fluent, was pretty damn good. However, from Summer 2001 to Summer 2005, I neither practiced nor studied Russian. Additionally, during that time I made two extensive trips to South Korea, traveled all over Costa Rica, and lived in Southern California within walking distance of the Mexican border. By the time I returned to Russia in August 2005, my Russian skills had greatly diminished; I spoke something I referred to as Spanglorusskikonglish.
I was in Russia from August 2005 through June 2006, during which time my Russian language skills returned to roughly the same level they were at my time of graduation. Of course, this was mainly due to the fact that I lived with a host family and took regular Russian lessons, as most of my friends were English speakers.
After leaving Russia, I spent a year in Korea. Despite three trips to Korea, my Korean is still essentially nonexistent. I can order food, purchase things, ask for directions and direct a taxi to my destination. I can even tell people that I’m an English teacher from the United States. But that’s it; that’s the extent of my Korean. Nonetheless, after a year of hearing only Korean spoken (and occasionally struggling to study it), my Russian levels once again dropped.
I came to Bishkek – a predominantly Russian speaking city – in January of this year, and I was pleased to discover that my Russian comprehension was still quite high. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten much language practice since I’ve been here. In general, my Russian speaking consists of practicalities: ordering food, purchasing things, asking for directions, directing taxis and telling people where I’m from and what I’m doing here. I live alone, don’t have time for Russian lessons, most of my friends are English speakers, and the school’s staff (for the most part) speaks English. Additionally, for most Kyrgyz speakers of Russian, Russian is their second language, and their spoken Russian is often filled with mistakes. (Case endings? Who needs those?)
It wasn’t until my trip to Karakol with Sara and Sasha from Vladimir that I realized just how bad my spoken Russian had become. Our trip was really the first time since leaving Vladimir that I’d had a lengthy conversation in Russian in which I couldn’t cheat by replying in English. The realization of the quality of my spoken Russian – or lack thereof – was hammered home the other night at Anton’s when one of the Russian guys told me, “Your accent is okay, but your grammar is terrible!” Sigh.
I can’t decide how I feel about this.
One of the main reasons I went to Russia in 2005 was to rebuild my Russian so that I could get a job with an NGO working with Russia. However, if you’ve read through my Hermit Manifesto, you know that I completely changed course while in Russia. Now I want to focus on teaching ESL, and eventually, I’ll probably get my MA in Applied Linguistics.
I’m not sure how Russian fits into all of this. As it is, I’m currently trying (albeit not too successfully) to study Kyrgyz, and I’m already planning to teach in the Middle East next year. I’d hate to lose my Russian skills, but I’m not certain that there will be much benefit to knowing Russian in my future, and therefore I’m not entirely sure that it would be worth the effort I’d need to expend to keep it up.
Meanwhile, so many of my students simply don’t seem to understand that effort is required to learn a foreign language. Here’s a set of the sort of questions I am asked all the time: How can I learn English faster? I need to speak fluent English by [date in the near future]; what can I do? How quickly can I reach Advanced? Can I move up a level? (Inevitably followed by an indignant Why not?) My advice to all of them is that they simply must study and practice constantly; they must stop worrying about skipping levels and focus on learning everything they need to know to pass their current level by heart. So many seem to think that there must be some way to learn English overnight and there simply isn’t.
In order to maintain one’s foreign language abilities, one must constantly practice and study. I received my BA in Russian in 2001. At that time, my spoken Russian, while not fluent, was pretty damn good. However, from Summer 2001 to Summer 2005, I neither practiced nor studied Russian. Additionally, during that time I made two extensive trips to South Korea, traveled all over Costa Rica, and lived in Southern California within walking distance of the Mexican border. By the time I returned to Russia in August 2005, my Russian skills had greatly diminished; I spoke something I referred to as Spanglorusskikonglish.
I was in Russia from August 2005 through June 2006, during which time my Russian language skills returned to roughly the same level they were at my time of graduation. Of course, this was mainly due to the fact that I lived with a host family and took regular Russian lessons, as most of my friends were English speakers.
After leaving Russia, I spent a year in Korea. Despite three trips to Korea, my Korean is still essentially nonexistent. I can order food, purchase things, ask for directions and direct a taxi to my destination. I can even tell people that I’m an English teacher from the United States. But that’s it; that’s the extent of my Korean. Nonetheless, after a year of hearing only Korean spoken (and occasionally struggling to study it), my Russian levels once again dropped.
I came to Bishkek – a predominantly Russian speaking city – in January of this year, and I was pleased to discover that my Russian comprehension was still quite high. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten much language practice since I’ve been here. In general, my Russian speaking consists of practicalities: ordering food, purchasing things, asking for directions, directing taxis and telling people where I’m from and what I’m doing here. I live alone, don’t have time for Russian lessons, most of my friends are English speakers, and the school’s staff (for the most part) speaks English. Additionally, for most Kyrgyz speakers of Russian, Russian is their second language, and their spoken Russian is often filled with mistakes. (Case endings? Who needs those?)
It wasn’t until my trip to Karakol with Sara and Sasha from Vladimir that I realized just how bad my spoken Russian had become. Our trip was really the first time since leaving Vladimir that I’d had a lengthy conversation in Russian in which I couldn’t cheat by replying in English. The realization of the quality of my spoken Russian – or lack thereof – was hammered home the other night at Anton’s when one of the Russian guys told me, “Your accent is okay, but your grammar is terrible!” Sigh.
I can’t decide how I feel about this.
One of the main reasons I went to Russia in 2005 was to rebuild my Russian so that I could get a job with an NGO working with Russia. However, if you’ve read through my Hermit Manifesto, you know that I completely changed course while in Russia. Now I want to focus on teaching ESL, and eventually, I’ll probably get my MA in Applied Linguistics.
I’m not sure how Russian fits into all of this. As it is, I’m currently trying (albeit not too successfully) to study Kyrgyz, and I’m already planning to teach in the Middle East next year. I’d hate to lose my Russian skills, but I’m not certain that there will be much benefit to knowing Russian in my future, and therefore I’m not entirely sure that it would be worth the effort I’d need to expend to keep it up.
Meanwhile, so many of my students simply don’t seem to understand that effort is required to learn a foreign language. Here’s a set of the sort of questions I am asked all the time: How can I learn English faster? I need to speak fluent English by [date in the near future]; what can I do? How quickly can I reach Advanced? Can I move up a level? (Inevitably followed by an indignant Why not?) My advice to all of them is that they simply must study and practice constantly; they must stop worrying about skipping levels and focus on learning everything they need to know to pass their current level by heart. So many seem to think that there must be some way to learn English overnight and there simply isn’t.
10 comments:
Amen, Jane! There is no fast or easy way to learn a language, and language muscles certainly do atrophy without exercise.
I remember some teacher saying at high school that if we wanted to study mathematics or languages at university we shouldn't take any time off between: "both are like paddling a canoe upstream: if you're not going forwards you're going backwards."
Twenty-*cough* years later I totally agree ....
W. Shedd - But the problem is that I don't *want* any of those jobs...
Gwen - seriously!
Pollyanna - Heh heh.... one of the reasons I *still* haven't taken the GRE is all that damn math that I haven't done since I was 16 and which I have totally forgotten...
Argh, yeah, people ask me how they can learn English by [date in the near future] too, and I'm not even an English speaker. They think that since I can speak Russian and Kyrgyz (and English!) that I must know some secret that I'm unwilling to share for some reason.
Without thinking about it, I used to think maybe this was true--my studying of linguistics has given me a wide understanding of the sorts of things languages can do, and so tackling a new language isn't ever that difficult, unless it involves a lot of irregularities, and then it just requires a lot of practice to get right consistently, as you said. So I've tried to explain this to people.
I've also tried the "you have to study and practice" answer, but then they just want to practice with me. "Is once a day too much?" Hell yes, I'm trying to fucking write my thesis, and once a day for an hour with each of three dozen people who've asked me... Now there's a logistics problem to figure out. I lie, and tell them I'm not a teacher--I just happen to speak English. And they're like, "so can we practice?" So I switch to English and say "Well, why aren't you speaking English now then? We can practice all you like, but you won't understand a word I say and will just keep speaking Kyrgyz/Russian." And they go "Whoa whoa whoa slow down, I didn't understand anything you just said." And I'm like "Told you so."
First, about the GRE--the math is a very low level. The Princeton prep book does a great job of reviewing it. I was worried about the math section and studied and studied. I did NOT study the vocab lists. That's probably why I scored so well on math and so poorly on English. Oops...
Interesting post, Jane. Also interesting about the "how do I learn [FL] faster?" In fact, the workbook written assignment for Sogang 3A, lesson 3, is something like "Andy wants to learn Korean faster. He writes his teacher and asks for advice. How does the teacher respond?"
My Korean is still crap, but I was able to converse with Good Man's parents at a 2+ hr dinner last night, and we stayed in Korean 75% of the time. I definitely don't want to lose that when I go back to the States, but I am worried about it. I intend to read a lot of Korean books and still practice blogging in Korean. Also, I may just hire a private tutor and force Good Man to speak more Korean with me.
Finally, people always think that living in Korea makes learning Korean easier. That's certainly true, but the fact is that most of my daily Korean needs are basic--buying stuff, getting places. It's really easy to reach that level...it's moving past it AND FINDING WAYS TO USE IT that's harder.
I have a Russian friend who inspired me to try and learn (some) Russian. She never spoke to me in Russian or tried to teach me anything. When I told her I wanted to learn Russian she said two things:
1. I didn't need to learn it because I didn't plan on going to Russia and woudln't need to know it.
and
2. It would be too difficult (for me, as if she thought I was an idiot or something.)
So I bought Russian for Idiots.
I don't imagine I'll ever be able to speak it or understand anyone, but at least I know more than I did when I started. Your post gives me new hope.
All I can say is, don't come to UNH for your master's.
Also, have you read anything by Steven Pinker? I think you would really enjoy his work.
wow where to start. I can relate on many levels with this because after I spent 4 years studying spanish and studying abroad as well, rather than applying it after graduation, I went directly to russia where after 2 years when they asked me to say something po espanski i was heartbroken to not even be able to form a proper sentence. I went directly to costa rica after russia as a moral imperative because i was still paying off a large loan to be able to speak spanish. in the taxi cabs they had no idea what language i was speaking as i answered constantly da and nyet.
it seems to me that the world has this black and white idea about language, either you know it--or you don't. In truth, I think it is more like a continuum, and once it is learned, it never really goes away, but it does go to sleep.
I have told people i learn language quickly and i forget it quickly and after having people in rural russia learn english as well as they do without really getting a chance to speak it much, i know i have no "gift" for language learning.
russian grammar is to me diabolical and it looks like an incredible amount of case endings that one must basically memorize. By the time I left russia, i had enough case ending knowledge to make people laugh or be confused, unless it was a memorized oft repeated phrase "na polu" "na troleibuse" and others i have forgotten.
and in addition to being a continuum, what actfl would rate as advanced might go down to beginner on a tense, professional telephone call or in an emotional or stressful situation.
so I too relate with Condoleeze Rice's awful Russian. Language learning is far from black and white.
and don't come to Portland State University for Applied Linguistics either, the profs are crazy biased, strange folk.
w. shedd, guess again on French. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_total_number_of_speakers
Though I guess you're right if you only count native speakers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers
w. shedd - UNH is overall a great place to get a master's. The master's students tend to be well funded and generally well treated. The problem is that the linguistics program, never very large, is falling apart. Two profs left, one prof is leaving, another is going on sabbatical, leaving just one prof and a possible future hire. Sigh.
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