Week 2 of Teaching

In Kyzyl, gossip plays an important social role. People tell me things about other people that are often very illuminating and helpful to know, although I was a little disconcerted by the openness of it all in the beginning. It is not uncommon that as I'm being introduced to somebody, another person is whispering facts and information in my ear about who this person is and who their aunty slept with last September. It's fairly interesting, actually, and informative—but at the same time, I don't want to get on the wrong side of a gossip-happy population. A popular saying here is that you can't fart in one end of Kyzyl, without everybody in the other end hearing it. Another saying is that everybody here sleeps under one blanket... It all boils down to the same small-town reality of life and community.

My students make up a large part of my days, and I have been remiss not to mention them yet. They are a lively bunch, full of fun and eagerness. Working with them has been the highlight of my time here so far. Almost without exception they are from the villages, which brings a whole new element into the classroom. Since they come from rural backgrounds they are deeply connected to the traditional life of Tuva and keep telling me about games they play with different sheep bones, and how to describe birds and berries in Tuvan. One of the downsides is that 95% of the girls have names that start with the letter “A.” They tell me that this is because the steppe in Tuva is so wide-open, that “aaaaa” is always the first sound people think of for names... Aryana, Arjhana, Asiana, Ailana, Aislou, etc. I had them all make table tents with their names, and I'm starting to get it, although it's really embarrassing when I forget a name in class. I think I figured out a trick today though—they told me what the names mean in Tuvan, so now I can associate them all with berries, birds, music, etc. I can recall most of them right now as I type, using the associations, so I hope this works. And, frankly speaking, it is a nice break from all the Nastyas, Svetlanas, Igors, and Yulias one usually encounters in Russia (although I already have 5+ Elenas in my phone book and there are Russians around here too, so I'm not really escaping the 8+ people with the same name phenomenon). But I am Riley, not Raya here. As always, people are intrigued that my middle name is freedom (liberty and freedom both translate to свобода in Russian).

The actual teaching is hard work, but I go home happy at the end of the day. Finding materials, planning exercises, trying to balance the class and make it all fit together—is all tiring. But it's worth it when a class goes well. I have been using a lot of modern American poetry and a lot of news articles, assigning dialogues and short essay questions, and trying not to give too much homework. So far, they are pretty good about doing their homework, but I've been making them read it aloud to the class, so they look silly if they don't prepare. But I like my students a lot and am probably too easy on them. I'm still figuring out teaching, when to push and when to let the students relax.

...It is a strange power to be Kyzyl's new oracle of the English language. I am picking all my favorite authors and giving my own interpretations of poems and texts. I try to give lots of caveats, but I'm only selecting materials I think are interesting, which naturally creates a bias. But what to do? I don't think the solution is to find things I don't think are interesting... Just keep going I suppose. I am also studying Russian, and my wise Russian teacher has been giving me advice on teaching—she told me that the first 50 years, you're just figuring things out. So I'm trying to cut myself plenty of slack and try lots of different things. Without question, the hardest thing I am teaching is Advanced Grammar, something I myself hardly understand! Preparing for this class is always kind of hit-or-miss, but I'm learning a ton, and finding some good resources online. So far the only things I don't like about teaching are chalk dust on my hands and the sore throat I get from talking all day.

In the whirlwind of life, I have had the chance to meet most of the other foreigners in Kyzyl, excepting the Chinese, Kyrgyz, and Mongolian traders at the market, who I can't yet distinguish from Tuvans. My fellow out-of-countrymen include:

a Japanese woman who can throat sing like a man

a Fulbrighter from 2003 who never left, now has kids and wife and speaks fluent Tuvan

a Canadian/American guy studying Russian who makes a mean chicken pot pie

a 16 year old Mongolian boy who says Mongolia is cooler than Tuva

and several baptist missionaries

and now, add to their number:

a 22 year old Alaskan kid

That's all for tonight! Hope you all are well and enjoying yourselves...

Love,

Riley