languages and research

Monday night, we had a very international evening. Natalya and Olgert, my host parents, have friends visiting from Poland, and those friends had invited friends of theirs from Germany to come stay for a few days. This brings the total number of people in the house up to eight, with me being less than half everyone else's age. More interesting is the fact that we all speak a slightly different set of languages, with six languages total between the eight of us. Everything that gets said has to be translated for someone, but we're doing pretty well. The breakdown is as follows:

German man: German, English, French
German woman, German, French, some English
Polish man: Polish, German, Russian
Polish woman: Polish, Russian, some German
Natalya (Ukrainian): Ukrainian, Russian, Polish
Olgert (Ukrainian but of Polish ethnicity): Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, French
John (American): English, rudimentary Ukrainian and Russian
Me: English, Ukrainian, and Russian (and I'm surprised how much Polish I understand)

As you can imagine, it's quite something. Everyone's here until Thursday, when we all leave (our program is going to Kyiv for a few days), and Natalya said she's going to pretty much collapse at that point.

Language classes are going pretty well. I've decided that partway through a grad program in learning how to teach languages is a horrible time to take language classes, as I've spent a year developing opinions how it should Be Done Properly, and while this isn't at all how I would teach grammar, I can tell that it's paying off, at least in how I write. My oral language may be fairly fixed by this point, and I have a few Russianisms that my teacher continues to comment on that I can't seem to shake loose, but the classes really are helpful.

What's most frustrating about the program is that I feel like I primarily speak Ukrainian in class. It isn't like Balaklia where I did basically everything in Ukrainian (except teach, I suppose, although I ended up using a lot more Ukrainian in class by the end than at the beginning). Here, I spend time with the American students, or we're going on trips to museums and everything gets translated (which makes sense, as we have some beginners in the group), or I'm wandering around by myself and can order things in cafes in Ukrainian. But I don't have a social life in Ukrainian, and I miss that. Or perhaps I just miss having a social life in Ukraine. I'm not quite sure how to meet people here. I asked about getting a conversation partner, but that's difficult right now because it's summer vacation and there aren't many students around.

However, I did get to speak Ukrainian this afternoon, and it was directly connected to my thesis! An English professor at the university who I had been introduced to connected me to the head of social programs at the university, who called the head of the teacher recertification institute (for all subjects) for L'viv Oblast, who introduced me to one of the people responsible for running the English recertification program, who said (slightly condensed), "You only have 9 surveys with you? I'll take those now, and can you please bring 35 copies on Monday, as we're getting in a new group of teachers? And would you please speak to the teachers about your life and what you're learning about TESOL and how people teach English as a native language in the U.S?"

Not to mention, I got several surveys turned back in to me today already from other sources and have an interview scheduled for next week! I'm really impressed with people's willingness to be helpful, and it's nice to be going through the university, as that gives me access to contacts I wouldn't otherwise be able to get on my own.

mistaken national identity

Well, the answer to how much of the liturgy I could understand at the Catholic service on Sunday morning is "very little," as the service was in Polish, not Ukrainian. There are enough cognates that I had a slight idea what was going on, but not much.

After that, I met Allie and Vanessa for the opera Natalka Potavka, which was nice, even though the plot was somewhat predictable. Allie had quite the experience before the opera--she had been going to come to church with us, but then ended up at the Greek Catholic church instead of the Roman Catholic church. A very cute (in her words) guy helped her find her way back to the opera theater, and was talking to her in Ukrainian the whole time (Allie speaks some Russian but is a beginner in Ukrainian). At the end, he said something she didn't understand, and she said, "Yes." He then kissed her! I've asked many people for directions over the years in Ukraine, but no one's ever kissed me. :) (Allie said that that was because I actually understand what they're saying...)

However, I did have a funny thing happen last night. I went to L'viv Central Baptist Church for the evening service. The third sermon (there are generally three short sermons at Baptist churches in Ukraine, interspersed with lots of music) was given by a visiting American pastor, who was in charge of a missions trip who would be teaching English to people in L'viv. After the service, I decided to go up and say hello. The visiting pastor was saying hello to some kids in English, so they could practice what they knew how to say. I walked up and said, in what I thought was fluent English, "I appreciated your message. What state are you from?" Very slowly, with a great deal of enunciation, the pastor replied, "I am from the state of Texas." He thought I was a Ukrainian who spoke English! I replied, "I'm from Michigan!" "Really?" he said, and we chatted for a minute or two. I've had people think I'm from all over here, but it's rare that Americans don't recognize me as one of their own!

I did have a similar experience once when I was in the Peace Corps. I was at a Kyiv McDonald's, and a woman there (who might have been a native speaker of English...at any rate, she wasn't Ukrainian or Russian) was having trouble ordering (which is sort of amazing, as it's all cognates). I helped her out, and she said something like, "You must be an English teacher" (because I spoke English). "Yes," I replied.

This afternoon I met with a professor from the English department here, and she took some of my surveys to pass out. I'm glad to have made the contact with her, because I've had some down time on my thesis research and I'd like to get started again.

We head to Kyiv Thursday through Sunday, taking a university van for the 7-hour trip rather than taking an overnight train. It'll be interesting to do Kyiv as a tourist, rather than running errands. On Friday we're going to the Percheska Lavra (Cave Monestary), which is somewhere I've never been, as well as some other places. On Saturday, we have a free day, and I'm hoping to meet up with Sasha Malko and Vitaly Yukhymets, although probably not at the same time. The universe might implode with that odd combination.

Lutsk

Well, the people in my compartment from Kharkiv to Kyiv thought I was from Western Ukraine, and the people in my compartment from Kyiv to Lutsk thought I was Polish. If the trend of thinking I'm from just west of wherever I'm going keeps up, I will apparently be German if I go visit Jes in Cracow in July.

Lutsk is very nice. Via the recommendation of my trusty guidebook, I booked a single standard room for three nights at the downtown Hotel Ukraina, which cost me in total about $30 less than one night in Kyiv. In addition, both the room and the attached bath are about 3x bigger than my hotel room in Kyiv, plus there's a fridge and a comfortable mattress. As breakfast is included in the deal, I think I lucked out.

I also lucked out with my interview, which was with someone who was not only informative and interesting, but also gave me several books of materials used in teacher recertification. Apparently, I was their second researcher to come through in the past month...the other one is a PhD student at UPenn in Educational Linguistics, who I'd run across a mention of while looking at UPenn's program. I should email her at some point to see what particularly she's interested in (although that will wait until I'm using a computer where the keys don't stick like the dickens).

I wandered around Lutsk a bit yesterday and plan to do so more today, including visiting the town castle. Tomorrow is church in the morning and the opera Carmen in the evening, as I got a 3rd row center aisle seat for about $3.33.

Will post more when not battling keyboards.

and then there were 22!

If evangelicals ever start canonizing people, I nominate Nadia Volodomyrivna Yukhymets for sainthood. There are currently 15 of us living here, and at least seven guests (including small children) are coming to stay for an unspecified number of days (their best friend, who's a missionary in Germany, and friends/family of his). Nadia's been cooking and cleaning all day.

I bought my ticket to leave Balaklia today. Honestly, there isn't a connection. :) The current plan is to head out Wednesday night, do an interview in Kyiv, hang out with/maybe spend the night at my friend Tanya's place (she's a Ukrainian with a penchant for Joss Whedon shows [there, there, Lisa] who I met when she was doing a TB training in Kyiv), and then hopefully head to western Ukraine, assuming I can get an interview scheduled for Friday (or Monday). Not quite sure where I'll be during the weekend, as my plans to visit the Malkos fell through because they'll be out of town for a family wedding. If I don't have any place to go for interviews/visiting, I may pick a city in western Ukraine out of my guidebook and find a relatively inexpensive hotel for a night or two ("relatively inexpensive" = less than $50/night).

Random bits about my research:
*I collected six questionnaires today (that had been distributed earlier during my visit) and did two interviews. With one more questionnaire to get back and one more interview to do tomorrow, that brings my Balaklia total to 13 questionnaires and 6 interviews, which is about half of what I need for a minimum amount of data.
*One teacher I interviewed offered to pass on questionnaires to some of her colleagues, who filled them out and returned them to me by leaving them at the store by my house (which I was told via text message), and then I stopped by to pick them up.
*So far most people I've interviewed have wanted to use English...I don't know if they want the chance to practice speaking or if they feel it's necessary, since they're English teachers (I'm fine with them speaking Ukrainian). One teacher didn't want me to record the interview on my digital recorder because she was worried she'd make mistakes...I felt bad, because her speech was fine.

Valera just came up to tell me that the guests are here...bye for now!

last bell

The Last Bell ceremony for the end of the school year was yesterday. I watched this year's eleventh formers, dressed in traditional school uniforms from Soviet days (with some of the girls' skirts indecently short, but no harem costumes, Tif), and remembered when they were 8th formers, back when I was brand-new here. Then I taught Nelya the basics of how to use a computer mouse and how to type in Microsoft Word, which made both of us proud that she was learning how to do more with computers.

Later, I visited an English teacher who I had known when I lived here before and who is now on maternity leave. Although it was a social visit, she was interested in my research and is willing to be interviewed. Interesting fact about Ukraine: women can take up to 3 years of paid maternity leave (not full pay, but their job will be there when they get back). Everyone is shocked that we only get 6 weeks.

I spent the night at the Kotlars', which was fun and a change from one set of kids to another. Much to the amusement of her family (and myself), Lilia K. (age 6) has an enormous crush on Yura Yukhymets (age 14/15?). Apparently he bought her ice cream once, and she's utterly besotted. She told me that they're going to get married when she grows up and he'll go to work and she'll stay home and cook and clean. When I asked which church they were going to go to, she thought about it and decided that they would alternate Sundays. Lilia and Natasha walked me home, and they weren't going to come in, but then Lilia started to cry because she wouldn't see Yura, so they stopped in to say hello. Yura walked by and said "Hello, Lil," and she just beamed. (Personally, I think Yura's got a lot of growing up to do before he's ready to be the object of anyone's adoration, much less Lilia's, but perhaps she'll be a good influence. :) )

Lilia reminds me of why I actually do want children at some point (although not 12!). She's a very deep-thinking, loving, little girl, who likes to cuddle and take care of her little brothers. She said to me very seriously at breakfast this morning, "I missed you while you were gone [to America]. Sometimes I looked at your picture and thought about you. I don't want you to leave." Aww...

This afternoon Viktor and I took 6 of the Y kids to the playground at one of the schools in town to get them out of Nadia's hair so she could garden (of the other half, 1 was at a church conference in Kharkiv, 1 helped Nadia, and the other 4 were with their grandmother). We stayed at the playground for about 4 hours. I played football, excuse me, soccer, with the boys and Viktor for a bit, proving once again that I have very little aptitude for sports.

In case you all hadn't picked up on it, I love being in Ukraine again.

productive day :)

I forgot how things in Ukraine tend to come together at the last minute.

My research was going slowly earlier this week. Part of it was that I was waiting on questionnaires; part of it was that it's the last week of the semester here; part of it was simply that things go more slowly in Ukraine than they do in the U.S. I was starting to feel frustrated and worried that I wasn't being a good researcher--after all, since MSU is funding the majority of the trip, I need to be productive. And yet there wasn't much I could do besides sit and wait.

Well, things have taken off with a vengeance. It started yesterday, when two surveys were returned to me and an interview scheduled for next week, and today kept me hopping for almost 12 hours. I started the day with an interview at a local school, then caught a very packed bus to the center (downtown) to meet up with Robert, the PCV in town, as we were supposed to speak to students at the college and collegium (the latter is a specialized high school in the same building and sharing the same faculty as the college). We spoke with 3rd year college students and 10th form collegium students--both groups did a nice job of speaking English and had good questions for us. I was especially proud of Firyuza, a former student of mine, who's now at the collegium and wants to be a translator. Her teacher mentioned to me that she's one of the best students in her class, which makes me really happy.

After that (which was several hours), Robert and I went to the Palace of Culture, as he had written a PEPFAR grant (he works at the HIV center here) and was trying to set up a concert. The director of the Palace of Culture wanted a translator at the meeting to make sure they had all the details correct, and since languages come more easily for me than they do for Robert, I translated. We had Robert, the director of the Palace of Culture, a musician/sound/lights guy from the P of C, the director of the HIV Center, and I, and I think we got all the details hashed out. I enjoyed translating in a non-school context, which is something I haven't had much chance to do before.

When we finished, it was already mid-afternoon, so Robert and I went to the new pizzeria and had a late lunch. Then we hung out and talked, mostly about his impending Close of Service and what it's like for me, being back here. At 5 I had another interview, which lasted until around 7 p.m. At that point, I came home, had supper, and played dolls with Liza and Snizhanna. A good day all around, and between me and a PCV who emailed me, I've gotten 9 more questionnaires passed out and another interview scheduled for Monday.

Tomorrow: Last Bell ceremony at School #3, helping Nelya learn how to use a computer, a possible interview, a visit to an English teacher I knew when I lived here, and spending the evening at the Kotlars.

Yay for accomplishing stuff!

(Now to post this before my Internet dies again...)

my impressions

As an American living/working/visiting in Ukraine, a common question I'm asked is "What are your impressions of _______?" It's apparently a literal translation of a question in Ukrainian, since whenever I ask someone to translate it for me (because I can never remember the word in Ukrainian), they say "impressions". So here are some random impressions I've had since arriving in Balaklia:

~There are now two coffee shops and a pizza place that delivers (not that I've been to any of them yet). Be still, my beating heart.
~There is also a second supermarket, twice the size of the first one (which came while I lived here). It offers such delicacies as Brie, which you used to only be able to find in Kharkiv. (I don't actually want Brie, I'm just amazed you can find it here now.)
~I lived here two years and didn't know that a) both the college and the lyceum have dorms and b) the name of the bus stop by the Yukhymetses' house (Sichnya).
~I did a fairly good job of packing clothes for this trip. Packing a non-wrinklable black skirt and a black cardigan was a stroke of genius, as I wear them almost every day. Tif's suggestion of throwing in my long denim skirt for around the house was also an excellent idea.
~That said, the weather here is a bit cooler than I had hoped. It's working, but I should have packed one more long-sleeved shirt.
~Everyone is much more computer/Internet-savvy than they were two years ago. Nadia is quite proficient with the computer now and spends her evenings looking up old friends and relatives on Odnoklassniki.ru, which is basically Classmates.com.
~One should never try and do educational research during the last two weeks of the school year.
~I spent a semester learning about informed consent and confidentiality. It's all a lot more complicated when you're doing research in a culture where these are not concepts that people have spent much time thinking about.
~My former students understand English a lot better than they speak it. I'm amazed at how much they understand.
~12 kids are a lot. But I wouldn't want to be staying anywhere else in town while I'm here on a visit.
~The economic crisis has really hit home here. Everyone talks about it. Nadia said that this month the government hasn't sent them money for raising the kids (for anyone unaware, the Y family is sort of a permanent foster care home, except that the children look at it as their own home and family...they just aren't legally adopted). She's not sure what they're going to do if this continues.
~It's really good to be back. Everyone's made me feel very welcome.

a typical (?) day

Mom wanted an example of a "typical" day for me here in Ukraine, so I thought I'd give it a try. There's a fair amount of variance, depending on research/socializing/etc., but roughly, weekdays go something like this:

Sometime between 5 and 7 a.m.: I wake up due to a combination of sun and roosters, roll over, and endeavor to go back to sleep until my alarm goes off, usually at 7 or 7:30. I'm fairly successful at this.

7-8:30ish: My alarm (on my cell phone) goes off. I make my bed, get dressed in nice clothes (if I'm going somewhere) or old clothes (if I'll be around the house for a bit), wash up (there's a sink with hot water on the third floor, where I sleep!), and head downstairs for breakfast. Downstairs is barely organized chaos, with 11 out of 12 children getting ready for school. If I'm going to school that morning, I'm part of the chaos...otherwise, I sit on the couch and keep out of everyone's way until the kids are off to school and then have breakfast. The Y kids are not cheerful early risers, and they are not necessarily on time to school on a regular basis.

Remainder of morning/early afternoon: This varies a lot. I may be around the house, doing my own thing there, or I may be at my old school guest lecturing to some classes. Alternatively, I may go into the center of town to run errands/make more copies of my questionnaires and consent forms/pass out aforementioned documents. This sometimes happens after I've been at school. Hopefully this next week interviews will become a regular part of this segment of the day or the one following it.

Mid-afternoon: Kids come home from school. We have lunch, which took some getting used to, as I think of lunch as something that happens at noon, whereas at the Y house, it's sometime between 2 and 4 p.m. It may or may not involve people actually all eating at the same time.

Mid-afternoon to early evening: A lot of my social visits tend to occur at this time. Alternatively, it's "Big Sister" time, which can involve anything from helping Vlada with English to teaching Vitaly how to play chords with his left hand on the piano to watching the little kids play outside to answering any and all of Valera's innumerable questions. Seriously, he looks at me as a fount of information and I'm never sure what he's going to ask next. If I've reached my limit of big sister-ness, I head up to the 3rd floor (which I and I alone have a key to), watch Battlestar Galactica (thanks to Carl, the Cylon...I've already finished Season 1), and contemplate never having children. Which at times, almost sounds appealing. (And I'm not having 12, regardless, as much as I love them all.)

7:45?: Carmelita, the older kids' serial (i.e., evening soap opera) comes on. It's about a Roma (gypsy) tribe living in Russia, and it has catacombs and guns and affairs and convoluded, improbable plot lines. The kids love it. I'm sort of surprised that they're allowed to watch it, but it appears to be a battle that Viktor and Nadia decided to let the kids win. It's mostly interesting to me for how the Other, in the form of the Roma, is portrayed. Carmelita, the main character, really only looks Roma due to her curly hair and flowing skirts, and her love interest is non-Roma.

After that: The little kids often watch Scooby-Doo dubbed into Ukrainian, and we have supper. Or, if Nadia's been in the garden all day, we eat whatever happens to be cooked at that time. For the first week or so I was here, the younger kids wanted me to play the piano while we sang, but we've gotten out of that habit lately.

9ish: I go upstairs and watch more Battlestar Galactica or read Les Miserables, and sometimes use the Internet.

Sometime between 11 and 12: Devotions and bed.

And there you have it: the fledgling researcher and her typical life. Right now, it's a bit kid-heavy, but I'm hoping that interviews will pick up this coming week. I've got a lot of questionnaires and consent forms passed out, and I'm waiting to hear back on those.