Taste of Zabaikalye 2018 Tour, No. 5: the English Language Get-Together
Chuck Ritchie (with Tom Dickinson) writes:
Wednesday, August 29, Lunch with Olga and The English Language Get-Together: On this particular day we enjoyed a late lunch offered by our dear friend Olga Fleshler in her Lenin Street apartment. Close friends and (Siberian Bridges co-conspirators!) Elena Pischerskaya and Viktor and Elena filled out the party.
Lunch at Olga Fleshler’s: seated from left: Olga, Irene, Ginny. Standing from left; Chuck, Victor’s wife Elena, Tom, Judy, Victor, Irene’s Tom. Taking the picture: Elena Pishcherskaya
After a wonderful repast of Olga’s homemade pelmeni (siberian ravioli), a review of several videos of the young singing stars of the Children’s Center in Petrovsk, Zoya and Vitaly (Olga can’t get enough of them, understandably!), lively conversation and sweets at the end, we left for a stroll down Lenin Street. After a little shopping a couple of blocks down at the wonderful Arts Store for souvenirs, we went only another couple of blocks to Odora Park situated behind the impressive, historical “Officer’s House” on Lenin Street. In the park we walked past a display of 7 or 8 WWII tanks and other large military equipment, past humorous sculptures from fairy tales, past an outdoor dance floor–seeing beyond all this the Ferris Wheel in an area with other rides–and arrived finally at the Park’s little outdoor shashlik (shish-ka-bob) restaurant. One of its two large dining tents with tables and chairs was set aside for our Siberian Bridges English Language Get-Together. We kept a running tab with the restaurant for their tasty pork and chicken, but the cost was low, especially considering what transpired.
Irene with English speakers at the English Language Get-Together
Tom in conversation
Chuck in conversation
We had invited–through local teachers of English that we know and a brief video posting on local social media–anyone who wanted to come and speak English with our group. Though we had no idea whether anyone would show up at all, it turned out to be an amazing success.
Ginny speaking with Yulia Ustyushenko, head of “The City of Childhood” Development Center’s English program.
Ginny in conversation
One estimate was there were about 100 people, although I think that is a little high–maybe 60–but nonetheless there was a good crowd, and we had a great time. Each of us sat at a table for about 30 minutes and talked with whomever, then Elena would shout out “Time to rotate!” when we would get up and go to another table, and start all over again. I was very impressed with the level of English of most of the participants, and a couple of them were downright amazing. The two best with whom I spoke were a young man who had lived in Boise, Idaho and a young woman who had been to Roanoke, Virginia on the same work-travel program that brought such kids to Ely that I have met.
Judy in conversation
There were all kinds of conversations, some about our personal lives, family, etc. and others that were all over the map. In my last group we covered the attitudes of young people today on artificial intelligence, global warming (there was a 8-2 split, 8 saying it is real, 2 no, and 4 somewhere in the middle), problems facing young people today – no jobs in particular, and in all of this was just one political question toward the end. A very interesting conversation centered around the fact that young people today don’t watch TV or read the papers for news because they know it is state propaganda, and they don’t trust it, so they go to the social media. I suggested that it is really hard to know what is fact and fiction on social media and they responded that they of course need to dig deeper and verify. Sounds good, but it also isn’t that easy. What struck me is that they seemed to be saying that there is no possibility for truth in the state propaganda vehicles of press and television, but that in social media there at least was a chance that some truth could reside therein. I found that very discerning on their part and was impressed. (I wonder what we would hear from Americans of the same age were there a similar get-together held in the US concerning our own commercial, social media and alternative news sources?)
Most said they want to learn English because they want to travel. Several of them stated that this was the first time they had ever spoken with a native speaker–which shouldn’t be surprising, I guess, considering how far this city and region is from English speaking countries. It was a fun evening and we are hoping that something will grow out of it. We always want to expand the number of Americans involved on our Siberian Bridges side and are now thinking about how we could connect more folks at home to these young people through skype and social media.
The shashlik was good, the conversations engaging, and the evening very enjoyable, and we got excited by the ideas it sparked for future projects promoting our mission of “contact and cooperation”!
