DO YOU SPEAK RUSSIAN?

Russian Self Study

When I was stationed on a mountain in Germany, I had time to study several languages, including Russian. I can't give you examples of Russian, because I don't have the equipment or APP to type in Cyrillic.

In the ninth century, future Byzantine saints, Methodius and Cyril, joint "Apostles to the Slavs," developed a "new" alphabet that was later adopted and amended by their followers.  The followers called these alphabetic characters "Cyrillic" in honor of Saint Cyril.

Earlier Russian Stuff

As I have mentioned before, one of my buddies in Morse Code Class (Dan Carr) did so well that he was picked for a class to learn the Russian code characters to assist in our "Cold War" efforts.

I had read a (racy?) book by Vladimir Nabokov. Lolita in English translation. I had also read several interesting short Russian stories in monthly magazines. All in English translation.

Language Study at Boston University (BU)

In setting up my study plans at BU, I picked advanced courses in German and French, because I thought that my self-study in those languages would serve as "101" classes. Then, I decided that I might as well study Russian at the same time.

Could I handle that?  Well, I hoped so.

It was my belief that grammar was not important, and it would come naturally as one learned to speak it.  However, I wasn't willing to test that belief with the tough Russian language, so I signed up for Russia 101.  But I also signed up for spoken Russian.

Transportation

At the time I had five options for getting to Boston University.

1. Drive for about an hour and try to get one of the rare parking spaces.

2. Take the soon-to-be-discontinued train trip for 45 minutes. Then take the "El" and streetcar to the school, for another half hour.

3. Sign into a car-pool. See option 1 above.

4. Take the sleep-inducing Almeida Bus for an hour and a half, followed by the "El" and streetcar time mentioned in option 3 above.

5.  Move to Boston.

Over the next three years, I used all five of those options.

Russian 101

When I received a list of my approved classes I learned that the only Russian 101 class was at 8 AM!

This meant that to get to that class in Boston, I would have to get up at 6 AM, after working late at one of my many part-time jobs, rush through shaving and showering, and then do one of my options and hope that ice or snow drifts did not hamper my trip. 

So I canceled Russian 101.

Imagine my embarrassment when I discovered that the BU professor for Russian 101 lived four houses away from the home I grew up in!

And he had to travel to Boston every day to teach that class, beginning at 8 AM!

But I did keep "Spoken Russian."

Spoken Russian

Entering the "Spoken Russian" class, I encountered a militant looking Russian instructor (Olga) and twelve newly scrubbed students.

Olga told us her plans.  Each student would read aloud one of Afro-Russian Alexander Pushkin's satirical stories and also something by Mikhail Lermontov.  Later, each would give a five-minute speech in Russian!  My knees were shaking already.

When the next day's class started, I was the only student!

Govori, dzhozef!

Yes, and speak I did, in my hesitant version of Russian.  (Actually, Olga's English was worse than my Russian,) I read from the short assigned pieces (badly, I assumed.

And then! Time to write and present a five minute speech... in Russian!

(All of this aggravation for a measly one credit point?)

My speech was childish and outlined a visit by aliens to a golf course to talk with President Eisenhower in order to have him agree to peaceful coexistence.

After Olga woke up, she presented me with an "A." (Of course, grading on a curve meant that the only student in a class had to get the "A.") 

That was the end of my Russian study.

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