5 Nov – Last Thursday we finally had our first language exam, to determine how much Russian we have absorbed since arriving in mid-August. In Kazakhstan, Peace Corps uses an oral test designed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The test is scored on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Superior. Examiners must be certified, and there are three examiners amongst the Peace Corps staff.
Initially we were told our target score for our first exam was a 4. Shortly after beginning language classes, our target score was changed to 5. This seemed absurd. Their rationalization: we are volunteers who are working in organizations and with communities, at times at the grassroots level. We must be able to converse comfortably in Russian to function in those organizations and communities, where English most likely will not be prevalent. While our counterparts may speak some English, in most cases they will not be fluent. Therefore, to assist us in being an effective volunteer, we must speak fairly decent Russian.
All of that makes perfect sense. And I completely agree that language is critical to the effective functioning of a volunteer. But to be able to achieve a score of 5/10 after a mere 10 weeks of language classes is a lofty goal.
Being the ever-studious person that I am, I studied fervently the first couple of weeks after arriving in-country. I could not keep that up though, as I have mentioned previously. The long days of classes, four hours of Russian classes each morning, living in a new country, and living with a host family who speaks Russian simply wore me out and I had no energy and often no time to study in the evenings. I determined that sleep was more important, so the studying subsided. I always completed my Russian homework, yet I rarely spent additional time studying.
So I fretted over this language exam, although not to the extent that I might have. I was fully aware that it was my decision not to stay up late each night studying. And while I am not comfortable with my language ability at this point, I know it will come. Having studied Spanish in high school and college, I feel that I tend to learn language at a bit slower pace than other subjects. I think that I need to figure out how the language works in terms of grammar before I can focus more on vocabulary and putting all of the pieces together.
My examiner turned out to be my regional manager. This was a small concern because at times I have difficulties understanding her; she usually doesn’t enunciate well when speaking. And I was nervous, as expected.
The exam was recorded and we were told that we can listen to it when we end our service (in two years) if we wish to hear it. I did have some trouble understanding the questions, partly because I was listening to an unfamiliar person speak Russian, partly due to the lack of enunciation, and partly because the questions were phrased slightly differently than what I am used to. However, I still managed to figure out the questions and answered them the best way I knew how. All of the questions asked were ones we had worked on in class: my family in the U.S., my host family here at training, my new host family at site, the town where I will be living, where I studied, where I worked before Peace Corps, etc.
Overall I thought I did ok but not great. I failed to remember a number of adjectives so I felt like I kept repeating the same ones. A few times I said the wrong pronoun and had to correct myself. And at least twice I forgot which verb to use. (This is something I have been struggling with.)
I’m not sure how long it lasted, but I don’t think it was much more than 15 minutes. After we finished, she asked if I had studied Russian before. No, I have studied only Spanish. Because of the extent to which my grammar was correct, and that I corrected myself more than once, she really wondered if I had previously taken Russian classes. She also asked me questions in an unconventional manner, with advanced vocabulary, to really push me. All in all said I did fairly well and that I need to continue learning grammar and expand my vocabulary.
While we were supposed to get our test results the day following the exam, this did not happen. Not too surprising, really. We finally got our results today and somehow I achieved the score they wanted us to: 5. I really don’t know how because I do not feel like I did that well. But this is not the place to express my frustrations over the score.
Seriously, what is so difficult about Russian and why do I keep mentioning the trials and tribulations in regard to learning this language? Here is my opinion, based mostly on observation.
1. The Russian alphabet consists of the 33 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. There are 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and 2 silent letters. As in English, pronunciation of each letter is not consistent and depends on the surrounding letters.
2. The sheer length of many words is horrendous.
3. There seems to be an unlimited number of consonants that can be strung together with no intervening vowel. It is up to the mind behind the untrained ear to prompt a question about which consonants should be pronounced, which ones may be skipped, and which ones are combined to form a completely different sound.
4. Words are constantly modified (by changing the ending) based on the context of the sentence. There are six different “cases”, which reflect whether a noun and its modifiers is a(n) subject, possession, direct object, indirect object, preposition, or instrument. For nouns alone, there are over 70 different possible word endings when case, gender, and plurality are taken into account.
5. Nouns are assigned a gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter) and this must be considered when determining the appropriate ending based on case. The endings to adjectives are also changed based on gender and case of the noun.
6. Pronouns vary depending on case and gender.
7. Some Russian cursive letters resemble English cursive letters, but not the printed Russian letter they signify. (Learning Russian cursive is a winter project, along with reading and writing in general.) For example an English cursive ‘m’ is actually a Russian ‘t’. But in print, a ‘t’ is the same in English and Russian.
8. Russian has no present tense of the verb “to be”. ‘I am happy’ is reflected in Russian as ‘I happy’. ‘My name is Michelle’ is stated as ‘My name Michelle’. Cutting out verbs, or words in general, has greater significance than one might think. I am highly conscious of “be” verbs, as it was ingrained in me during nearly every English and writing class I took from high school into college to minimize the use of “be” verbs. This generally enhances the quality of the writing and lends more vibrancy to the words through the use of more creative verbs. Having to function without “to be” in the present tense continues to be an adjustment for me.
9. I am currently aware of 8 verbs to describe “motion”. Four of those are used for walking to and/or from some place, and the other four are used when going by transport (bus, taxi, train, etc.) I constantly struggle with which verb to use in which situation, as some are used when the action is completed on a regular basis (i.e. daily) and others are used only when it is a special trip. And I believe there are actually more forms of these “motion” verbs that can be created by adding different prefixes to the root verb. I think I’ll tackle this at a later date!
10. Most verbs are characterized as either perfective or imperfective. In other words, the action may be either continuous/ongoing, or it may achieve a result of some kind. The appropriate perfective or imperfective form of the verb must be used to reflect the context correctly.
Are there any easy or less complicated aspects of Russian? Well, a few. There are only three verb tenses (past, present, and future), unlike the 16 (I think) tenses of English. Adverbs do not change endings for any reason, so at least one type of word is constant. Verbs must be conjugated based upon the subject of the sentence (I, you, we, etc.), which I am at least accustomed to from Spanish. And about 25 percent of Russian words are adapted from other languages (cognates). Therefore, many technical terms can be used with a Russian accent and pronunciation and the result will be close to the acceptable norm.
The sooner I cross most of these grammar hurdles and expand my vocabulary, the easier my life in Kazakhstan will be. Of course work and general communication will be simpler. But also, many people think that I am Russian because of my brown hair, blue eyes, and skin color that is neither dark nor light. Looking like a Russian and improving my language skills will help me when bargaining at the bazaar, making new acquaintances, when traveling, and countless other situations where it may be to your advantage to appear to be a local.
