As you’ve probably read throughout these pages, we Kazakhstan volunteers tend to go through our own trials and tribulations, some more ephemeral than others, but they still wear on our minds. However there is a silver lining: the magical time of year known as summer. As in America, teachers don’t work during summer because of the old idea that students have to be on the family farm to help the summer harvest. Though, that is somewhat true in Kazakhstan, or at least in the wheat belt in the North. And it’s quite not true for teachers because they still have to work at school during the summer, and I use the word “work” very loosely. Depending on how megalomaniacal the director is, the teachers either do bullshit work or they do nothing. It’s the system and we’re on the bottom.
That sucks for the teachers of this country (or doesn’t depending on the teacher), but it leaves plenty for the volunteers to do that is not school-related. Actually, instead of doing school, a lot of the teachers do summer camps, which here works out as a less-organized version of summer school. In America, students would be doing classes such as Kooky Spooky Science or Summer Theatre. In Kazakhstan, they let you run around as long as you don’t punch another student. Actually, I’m not being as charitable as I should to it. The summer camps do give something for the students to be doing. If not, they’d just be sitting around the house doing nothing. The summer camp lives and dies on the organization of the camp, so planning is important. I planned a bunch of activities for the kids, and I think they all went well. They got to run around, learn a little English and did more than sit under the gossipy teachers who did nothing. Sometimes the organization here can be infuriating, but if you teach the kids here, maybe they can change a few things when they grow up. Besides, they like hanging with the cool foreigner, and I get to let out my little kid, which they enjoy. It’s a win-win I say when the volunteer organizes stuff.
Now I know that the above does sound a little bleak, and that may be a little bit of jaded Scotty showing through, but summer is about recharging your batteries after a long, long winter. I’m always reminded by a joke back from Wisconsin. We have four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. Amended to life in Kazakhstan, it’s three seasons and there’s no road construction. My coccyx can attest to the jarring conditions of the road, but that’s neither here nor there. But, summer is a time for travel, and since all the volunteers put on camps they need plenty of help from fellow volunteers. We are all happy to oblige. The weather is warm and the camps vary greatly. There are sports camps, drama camps, English camps, other language camps. Anything and everything volunteers are willing to organize will happen. The camp in Makinsk was organized by teachers at my school, but next year it will be an extravaganza organized by myself. I’m looking forward to seeing volunteers, even after 18-hour train rides and 30-hour bus rides. Travel is a bitch, but there’s a merciful God who deemed it necessary to invent iPods and e-books.
Oh, the last thing about summer that is very exciting is the ice cream. When it’s –40 outside, it’s very hard to come up with a valid excuse to have ice cream. I keep thinking back to the days when I was younger when Dairy Queen actually closed in winter. In all honesty, a cup of warm chocolate always sounds better than frozen chocolate when you can scoop up frozen ice from your doorstep. Not so in winter. For the low price of 25 cents, you can get an ice cream cone from the local store. It’s not Ben & Jerry’s, but it works its magic. The best part is that Kokshetau, the regional center, has really good ice cream for 45 cents. Worth every penny. Gotta enjoy the goodies.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Return home, Kazakhstan style
The most positive thing about IST was the attitude that we had after that training. Most of us, including me, had a bit of energy injected into us, especially after a long winter that would just not go away. So, I returned to Makinsk to see that most of the snow had melted away, but left behind a ridiculous amount of mud that would just not go away. Everything got muddy, there was no way it couldn't because most of the streets aren't paved but dirt roads. Melting snow plus dirt roads always equals mud. This was not a good omen.
The most frustrating thing to deal with in the Kazakhstani educational system is complacency and laziness. These are problems that volunteers cannot single-handedly get rid of. An apt point would be an example. One of the first classes back from IST, I did a lesson on goals. This class was with a 10th grade Kazakh speaking class. Since, only 11 years of school are compulsory, this is basically the equivalent of a Junior class back in the States. This is the time that students start to think about what they want to after high school and hopefully have goals and ambitions. So, since we are only a couple hours away from the national capital, I thought I would hear a little ambition from the students. Instead, most of the students just wanted to stay in their little village, even though jobs are scarce and hard to come by. It's this complacency and the laziness that is attached to it that makes me feel like a Whack-A-Mole sometimes. You get an idea, but kind of get smacked back down by the lack of wanting to put a step forward. It's a cultural thing, but one I think that dates back a few hundred years. There were the Soviets but also the Tsars too who basically gave edicts to people and expected to be obeyed. Because of that, I still feel there's a bit of expectation that someone from above will tell you what to do and you do it. This is probably a trait that will take a long time to die. In the mean time, I need to give these kids something to be ambitious about.
The most frustrating thing to deal with in the Kazakhstani educational system is complacency and laziness. These are problems that volunteers cannot single-handedly get rid of. An apt point would be an example. One of the first classes back from IST, I did a lesson on goals. This class was with a 10th grade Kazakh speaking class. Since, only 11 years of school are compulsory, this is basically the equivalent of a Junior class back in the States. This is the time that students start to think about what they want to after high school and hopefully have goals and ambitions. So, since we are only a couple hours away from the national capital, I thought I would hear a little ambition from the students. Instead, most of the students just wanted to stay in their little village, even though jobs are scarce and hard to come by. It's this complacency and the laziness that is attached to it that makes me feel like a Whack-A-Mole sometimes. You get an idea, but kind of get smacked back down by the lack of wanting to put a step forward. It's a cultural thing, but one I think that dates back a few hundred years. There were the Soviets but also the Tsars too who basically gave edicts to people and expected to be obeyed. Because of that, I still feel there's a bit of expectation that someone from above will tell you what to do and you do it. This is probably a trait that will take a long time to die. In the mean time, I need to give these kids something to be ambitious about.
IST
As any organization or business, Peace Corps has us do periodic trainings. Right after Nauryz, we had what was called In-Service Training, or IST for short (we're all about the acronyms here). First I had to get to Almaty from Shymkent. With most of the trains booked, I decided to take a sleeper bus. It was about the size of a coach bus, maybe slightly larger, with 3 rows of beds which are overlapping, so that your pillow is on a bump under which is the next passenger's feet. The beds were also barely wider than a person's body. We were sardines for about 12 hours, but it wasn't too bad. The only thing was that the bus was made in China so it was made to the proportions of Chinese people. There aren't many 6 foot Chinese people like me, so it wasn't the most comfortable trip, but it was oddly relaxing.
Once I got to Almaty, I went and stayed with Kyle, another volunteer that I get along with. We did the normal things, eat chili and swap movies and pretty much just talk. After the stay we had to go to Kok Tobe, the sanitorium where we do all our central trainings. We were greeted by meetings galore. Some of them were helpful, like the grant meetings and the summer camp meeting, some were not. The culture sessions were lots of bitching sessions about our particular sites, but that may be just because we have to get things off our chests temporarily. Just sometimes our ethnocentrism pokes its ugly head through. At the end they gave us new books and new English supplies. Unfortunately, most of them involve the need of a copier, which most of our schools lack. It's the thought that counts. I'd go on for a little longer, but there's nothing interesting about meetings, so I think I'll end it here.
Once I got to Almaty, I went and stayed with Kyle, another volunteer that I get along with. We did the normal things, eat chili and swap movies and pretty much just talk. After the stay we had to go to Kok Tobe, the sanitorium where we do all our central trainings. We were greeted by meetings galore. Some of them were helpful, like the grant meetings and the summer camp meeting, some were not. The culture sessions were lots of bitching sessions about our particular sites, but that may be just because we have to get things off our chests temporarily. Just sometimes our ethnocentrism pokes its ugly head through. At the end they gave us new books and new English supplies. Unfortunately, most of them involve the need of a copier, which most of our schools lack. It's the thought that counts. I'd go on for a little longer, but there's nothing interesting about meetings, so I think I'll end it here.
Nauryz
I know I haven't been able to write a post recently. I'd love to say it's because I haven't had internet, but I've been struck down with a bout of lethargy, so I'm hoping to pound out a few posts to try and catch up. Who knows, I might get it fully updated.
So this first one involves Nauryz. Nauryz is the Kazakh new year, so it's all about the Kazakh culture. In general, this involves eating lots of beshbarmak (boiled mutton and noodles), baursak (fried dough balls) and drinking kummyz (fermented mare milk). To be frank, the Kazakhs are not brilliant culinary masters. I mean, kummyz tastes like a mix of buttermilk and stale beer. The entertainment is a little better. There's kokpar, which is polo played with a headless goat, and kizku (bad spelling), which is a man chasing a woman on horseback trying to steal a kiss while the woman hits him with a riding whip. This would have been great, but unfortunately they didn't do either one of these sports, so some of the excitement was not there.
So, I met up with a few volunteers in Astana and we made our way to Shymkent. To go from the North to the South or vice versa is usually a 24 hour trip, so the only way to keep your sanity is to have a lot of entertainment or some people to chat with. Check on that list. So we arrived there and with a large amount volunteers split into various rented apartments. I love being around other Americans, but sleeping on a floor with 8 other people can fray ones nerves.
Anyway, we went to Turkestan, which is one of the few ancient parts of Kazakhstan. Most of the country was nomadic, so history is a lot of conjecture and hearsay. Turkestan is close enough to the Silk Road. Anyway, in Turkestan was a mausoleum to an imam, which was pretty and interesting in itself. My great genius forgot my camera, so I should hopefully get photos from other volunteers. Anyway, the tilework on the mausoleum was cool, but the interior was plain and barren. The funny thing for me is that the Kazakh Muslims consider 3 trips to Turkestan equivalent to one trip to Mecca. I'm not sure how Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia would agree to that logic. So after a few hours wandering around in glorious heat, which is much better after 4-5 months of constant negative degree temperature, we returned to Shymkent.
As is normal with groups of Americans, we went out to a night club, which was actually a good way to let off some steam. However, as usually happens when people and alcohol are mixed together, drama ensued. I don't feel like getting into the depths of it, partly because it's personal, partly because I don't fully remember all the nights. Suffice it to say Peace Corps is a small community and rumors and gossip tend to fly much faster and much farther in small communities. Toss in locals here who can be a bit eccentric at times and the proverbial can hit the fan.
So, to be able to stay there a bit longer, we had to do a little work. So, Phil, one of the local volunteers, had us do a project with some of his students from college and university. He has a lot of students who will work in the local service industries and as interpreters, so they need practice working with native speakers. So, most of us went on tours with local university students and we wandered around asking questions. I was surprised at their level of English, but then of course my starting point are 17 year olds who can't answer the question "how are you." So it was refreshing talking English and correcting English from a more advanced speaker. Plus it doesn't hurt that she wasn't hard on the eyes. :-)
Finally, the most important part of this trip: FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES!!! Food in Kazakhstan is not like food in the U.S. The seasons are adhered to strictly here because most people buy their food every few days. Also, with most of the country blanketed in snow for long stretches of time, there's none available. So, just the ability to buy fresh apples and peppers and other things that are not potatoes and cabbage was such a refreshing experience. One of my first experiences was buying 2 pounds of apples and eating them right away. It's the little things in life that count.
So this first one involves Nauryz. Nauryz is the Kazakh new year, so it's all about the Kazakh culture. In general, this involves eating lots of beshbarmak (boiled mutton and noodles), baursak (fried dough balls) and drinking kummyz (fermented mare milk). To be frank, the Kazakhs are not brilliant culinary masters. I mean, kummyz tastes like a mix of buttermilk and stale beer. The entertainment is a little better. There's kokpar, which is polo played with a headless goat, and kizku (bad spelling), which is a man chasing a woman on horseback trying to steal a kiss while the woman hits him with a riding whip. This would have been great, but unfortunately they didn't do either one of these sports, so some of the excitement was not there.
So, I met up with a few volunteers in Astana and we made our way to Shymkent. To go from the North to the South or vice versa is usually a 24 hour trip, so the only way to keep your sanity is to have a lot of entertainment or some people to chat with. Check on that list. So we arrived there and with a large amount volunteers split into various rented apartments. I love being around other Americans, but sleeping on a floor with 8 other people can fray ones nerves.
Anyway, we went to Turkestan, which is one of the few ancient parts of Kazakhstan. Most of the country was nomadic, so history is a lot of conjecture and hearsay. Turkestan is close enough to the Silk Road. Anyway, in Turkestan was a mausoleum to an imam, which was pretty and interesting in itself. My great genius forgot my camera, so I should hopefully get photos from other volunteers. Anyway, the tilework on the mausoleum was cool, but the interior was plain and barren. The funny thing for me is that the Kazakh Muslims consider 3 trips to Turkestan equivalent to one trip to Mecca. I'm not sure how Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia would agree to that logic. So after a few hours wandering around in glorious heat, which is much better after 4-5 months of constant negative degree temperature, we returned to Shymkent.
As is normal with groups of Americans, we went out to a night club, which was actually a good way to let off some steam. However, as usually happens when people and alcohol are mixed together, drama ensued. I don't feel like getting into the depths of it, partly because it's personal, partly because I don't fully remember all the nights. Suffice it to say Peace Corps is a small community and rumors and gossip tend to fly much faster and much farther in small communities. Toss in locals here who can be a bit eccentric at times and the proverbial can hit the fan.
So, to be able to stay there a bit longer, we had to do a little work. So, Phil, one of the local volunteers, had us do a project with some of his students from college and university. He has a lot of students who will work in the local service industries and as interpreters, so they need practice working with native speakers. So, most of us went on tours with local university students and we wandered around asking questions. I was surprised at their level of English, but then of course my starting point are 17 year olds who can't answer the question "how are you." So it was refreshing talking English and correcting English from a more advanced speaker. Plus it doesn't hurt that she wasn't hard on the eyes. :-)
Finally, the most important part of this trip: FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES!!! Food in Kazakhstan is not like food in the U.S. The seasons are adhered to strictly here because most people buy their food every few days. Also, with most of the country blanketed in snow for long stretches of time, there's none available. So, just the ability to buy fresh apples and peppers and other things that are not potatoes and cabbage was such a refreshing experience. One of my first experiences was buying 2 pounds of apples and eating them right away. It's the little things in life that count.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The Grind
I’m in Kazakhstan. How many people legitimately can say that? So it’s interesting that this fact does not phase me any more. It’s always amazing when the shine of a new place makes way for the tedium of everyday life. I mean, the first few classes that I had here were exciting and felt amazing that I was actually doing something in a foreign country. Now it’s just the Monday through Saturday grind. But it’s the little things and everyday miracles that you need to remember, so here’s generally how my days in Kazakhstan go.
I usually get up at 7:30 everyday. Well, the actual routine is groan, look at my alarm clock with a venomous glare and hit snooze a couple times before I actually get up. My host mom makes Kasha every morning, which is basically cream of wheat or porridge, sometimes with cheese and fruit, although fruit in winter consists of really bad apples from China that are probably slowly giving me cancer. After that, I do the normal morning things, like brush my teeth, get dressed and the like. Then I tear apart my room for all the odds and ends I need for class because I have absolutely no foresight, and bolt out of the door yelling at Baba Vera that I’m leaving. Baba Vera is the grandma that lives with the family.
So I get to school and start doing lessons or lesson plans. The hope is that the lessons go well but it’s highly unlikely because the textbooks here are horrible. So, I usually just look at what we want to teach them grammatically or with vocabulary, and then I try to use the book as little as possible. Besides, my personal priority is to teach them speaking, not reading. Reading is easy but speaking takes much more time and energy. In there, I usually have one break where I go to the cafeteria and have a cup of tea and some kind of pastry.
There are only 6 classes, but my workday doesn’t end when the kids’ does, so I have office hours and English club in the afternoon. I keep office hours mainly because teachers here don’t. I’m the crazy American, so I’m basically a novelty act, but it allows me to be more involved with the students, so it’s probably a good thing. Anyway, I answer grammar questions and then for English club we play different games to help them practice. Always keep in mind, Mr. Scott, as I’m known here, is a funny, awesome guy. I was working on adjectives with one class and I only got compliments, but I believe it’s only because of the red pen. Power is awesome though.
Afterwards, I go home and change out of the monkey suit into something a little more comfortable. It’s still frigging cold out, so I tend to stay indoors. My array of activities include practicing the guitar, practicing Russian, reading, watching movies and TV shows, or just sitting around and talking with my host mom. Usually my brother is killing brain cells in front of the computer, much like my brother at home in America. It’s amazing how many things stay the same even though the scenery changes. I fit a meal in there somewhere and then go to bed. It’s actually not too bad. Every once in a while I do a small art project for classes, but my penmanship and artistry skills are lower than a 6 year old who just started finger painting. All in all, not too stressful. So that is a typical day in the grind here. Next week is Nauryz, the main Kazakh holiday. I’m looking forward to some headless goat polo. More on that when I see it.
I usually get up at 7:30 everyday. Well, the actual routine is groan, look at my alarm clock with a venomous glare and hit snooze a couple times before I actually get up. My host mom makes Kasha every morning, which is basically cream of wheat or porridge, sometimes with cheese and fruit, although fruit in winter consists of really bad apples from China that are probably slowly giving me cancer. After that, I do the normal morning things, like brush my teeth, get dressed and the like. Then I tear apart my room for all the odds and ends I need for class because I have absolutely no foresight, and bolt out of the door yelling at Baba Vera that I’m leaving. Baba Vera is the grandma that lives with the family.
So I get to school and start doing lessons or lesson plans. The hope is that the lessons go well but it’s highly unlikely because the textbooks here are horrible. So, I usually just look at what we want to teach them grammatically or with vocabulary, and then I try to use the book as little as possible. Besides, my personal priority is to teach them speaking, not reading. Reading is easy but speaking takes much more time and energy. In there, I usually have one break where I go to the cafeteria and have a cup of tea and some kind of pastry.
There are only 6 classes, but my workday doesn’t end when the kids’ does, so I have office hours and English club in the afternoon. I keep office hours mainly because teachers here don’t. I’m the crazy American, so I’m basically a novelty act, but it allows me to be more involved with the students, so it’s probably a good thing. Anyway, I answer grammar questions and then for English club we play different games to help them practice. Always keep in mind, Mr. Scott, as I’m known here, is a funny, awesome guy. I was working on adjectives with one class and I only got compliments, but I believe it’s only because of the red pen. Power is awesome though.
Afterwards, I go home and change out of the monkey suit into something a little more comfortable. It’s still frigging cold out, so I tend to stay indoors. My array of activities include practicing the guitar, practicing Russian, reading, watching movies and TV shows, or just sitting around and talking with my host mom. Usually my brother is killing brain cells in front of the computer, much like my brother at home in America. It’s amazing how many things stay the same even though the scenery changes. I fit a meal in there somewhere and then go to bed. It’s actually not too bad. Every once in a while I do a small art project for classes, but my penmanship and artistry skills are lower than a 6 year old who just started finger painting. All in all, not too stressful. So that is a typical day in the grind here. Next week is Nauryz, the main Kazakh holiday. I’m looking forward to some headless goat polo. More on that when I see it.
Women’s Day
Holidays are a fun time. Number one, there’s no school, or at least shortened school. This is good and bad. Good because I get a break, but bad for the fact that my kids have had way too many days off because of cold weather. But outside of that, it’s fun to celebrate holidays that don’t exist in the U.S. This was the case with July 14th and the Student’s Carnival in France. This was the case with Women’s Day in Kazakhstan.
Women’s Day has the feel of the old Soviet Union. I didn’t ask anybody, but I can probably say with certainty that it’s a holdover for the good old USSR. There’s also a Men’s Day, but as with Father’s Day and Mother’s Day it’s the women that matter and the men don’t. So, you dare not forget March 8th because anything other than adulation upon the womenfolk is akin to social suicide. It definitely was interesting.
First of all, the teachers make all the boy students give the girl students cards or chocolate, which the girls absolutely adore. Then after that it’s the teachers’ turn to kick back vodka and sing and dance with the women teachers. All the male teachers waited on all the female teachers, which was like 5 guys. So we brought the food and the drinks. As per normal, there was wine and vodka. The food wasn’t as good this time as the last few parties, unfortunately. Fat is a way of life here, and they love to add it. I swear to god the number one condiment in Kazakhstan is oil. I’m still scratching my head as to how I lost weight. Anyway, so we celebrated for about 3-4 hours and then eventually stumbled home and drunk dialed a few people.
Finally, we had guests over, women guests obviously. We had a massive feast with bread and cabbage rolls and cake. It was mostly older women, so they were all chattering between themselves about lovely life and wishing good health upon each other. Then it got a little awkward because they started crying about dead sons and husbands. Kazakhstan is a country with a lot of tragedy. These people have been shit on and continue to be, and practically everybody has a sob story about a family member. I know my host mom, Tatyana, has a son and a daughter from two different fathers, and I still haven’t had the courage to ask about it. Most likely at least one of them is dead, possibly both. So, crying babushkas plus me being sick meant I asked to go lay down in my room.
So, in conclusion, Women’s Day is Mother’s Day on steroids. Be nice to all the ladies in your life on this day and treat them like princesses. Every girl deserves a ball I guess. So celebrate away. Next holiday is Nauryz, so there should be plenty for stories coming.
Women’s Day has the feel of the old Soviet Union. I didn’t ask anybody, but I can probably say with certainty that it’s a holdover for the good old USSR. There’s also a Men’s Day, but as with Father’s Day and Mother’s Day it’s the women that matter and the men don’t. So, you dare not forget March 8th because anything other than adulation upon the womenfolk is akin to social suicide. It definitely was interesting.
First of all, the teachers make all the boy students give the girl students cards or chocolate, which the girls absolutely adore. Then after that it’s the teachers’ turn to kick back vodka and sing and dance with the women teachers. All the male teachers waited on all the female teachers, which was like 5 guys. So we brought the food and the drinks. As per normal, there was wine and vodka. The food wasn’t as good this time as the last few parties, unfortunately. Fat is a way of life here, and they love to add it. I swear to god the number one condiment in Kazakhstan is oil. I’m still scratching my head as to how I lost weight. Anyway, so we celebrated for about 3-4 hours and then eventually stumbled home and drunk dialed a few people.
Finally, we had guests over, women guests obviously. We had a massive feast with bread and cabbage rolls and cake. It was mostly older women, so they were all chattering between themselves about lovely life and wishing good health upon each other. Then it got a little awkward because they started crying about dead sons and husbands. Kazakhstan is a country with a lot of tragedy. These people have been shit on and continue to be, and practically everybody has a sob story about a family member. I know my host mom, Tatyana, has a son and a daughter from two different fathers, and I still haven’t had the courage to ask about it. Most likely at least one of them is dead, possibly both. So, crying babushkas plus me being sick meant I asked to go lay down in my room.
So, in conclusion, Women’s Day is Mother’s Day on steroids. Be nice to all the ladies in your life on this day and treat them like princesses. Every girl deserves a ball I guess. So celebrate away. Next holiday is Nauryz, so there should be plenty for stories coming.
Frustration at School
I officially have a much larger respect for teachers. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some bad teachers, but I’m starting to see how hard it is to be a good teacher. The preparation, the discipline, the getting to know your students, it’s all a pain and takes far more time than you would think. Add into that being in a new country and a whole new level of frustration has just been making my life a minor hell. Maybe hell isn’t the right word, but some days you just want to scream.
Part of it is the system here. In America they say that the system fails some kids. In Kazakhstan, I believe this is more apt. This is not to say that I don’t have talented kids. Some of my students are very motivated and being in close proximity to the capital, Astana, I hope they will be able to use there smarts by getting into the government or some business. However, the system over here sometimes tends to rubber stamp kids through. Grades here are done on a five-point scale with 5 being the top and 1 being “you fail at life” and 3 being a passing grade. The problem is you cannot give a kid a 1 or a 2, so there is no fire under the kids rear-end to succeed. You really have to be creative sometimes to actually get kids to come to class. Especially some of the older kids have realized that grades don’t matter, and when that happens the sand castle tumbles all around you.
Now I don’t want to make this seem like a Kazakhstan only problem. This is also a problem in the States too. We are not perfect. This all boils down to the way we keep teachers accountable. It’s a very dicey proposition to tie pay and compensation to student performance because this just breeds a culture of cheating; by the students and by the teachers. If you want to read something interesting about this, read Freakonomics and in the first chapter the authors talk about this concept. The large majority of the people are apathetic.
I chalk all this up to a post-Soviet hangover. During Soviet times, steel and factory workers made more money than doctors. Education was not as important as it is in other countries, even though it is given lip service here. It’s still the case that teachers and doctors are not paid well, still lower than factory workers. Still, I feel it has to be changing a little bit
The general strategy I go with is to key in on the students who want the help. The motivated students will work on their own and the ones who aren’t won’t. Hopefully you can use a little peer pressure through those students and slowly build up confidence.
Don’t get the impression that I want to go home. I’m still interested in staying here, and I have a few things on the docket to do here. I’m going to be doing presentations on how to study foreign languages on your own, and if that gets only a couple students, they’ll be better speakers for it. I also want to start creating a digital English library so that students can do more than just play video games on their computers. That and summer’s just around the corner. This is a long-term project so road bumps are inevitable. In the end, I think it will all go well.
Part of it is the system here. In America they say that the system fails some kids. In Kazakhstan, I believe this is more apt. This is not to say that I don’t have talented kids. Some of my students are very motivated and being in close proximity to the capital, Astana, I hope they will be able to use there smarts by getting into the government or some business. However, the system over here sometimes tends to rubber stamp kids through. Grades here are done on a five-point scale with 5 being the top and 1 being “you fail at life” and 3 being a passing grade. The problem is you cannot give a kid a 1 or a 2, so there is no fire under the kids rear-end to succeed. You really have to be creative sometimes to actually get kids to come to class. Especially some of the older kids have realized that grades don’t matter, and when that happens the sand castle tumbles all around you.
Now I don’t want to make this seem like a Kazakhstan only problem. This is also a problem in the States too. We are not perfect. This all boils down to the way we keep teachers accountable. It’s a very dicey proposition to tie pay and compensation to student performance because this just breeds a culture of cheating; by the students and by the teachers. If you want to read something interesting about this, read Freakonomics and in the first chapter the authors talk about this concept. The large majority of the people are apathetic.
I chalk all this up to a post-Soviet hangover. During Soviet times, steel and factory workers made more money than doctors. Education was not as important as it is in other countries, even though it is given lip service here. It’s still the case that teachers and doctors are not paid well, still lower than factory workers. Still, I feel it has to be changing a little bit
The general strategy I go with is to key in on the students who want the help. The motivated students will work on their own and the ones who aren’t won’t. Hopefully you can use a little peer pressure through those students and slowly build up confidence.
Don’t get the impression that I want to go home. I’m still interested in staying here, and I have a few things on the docket to do here. I’m going to be doing presentations on how to study foreign languages on your own, and if that gets only a couple students, they’ll be better speakers for it. I also want to start creating a digital English library so that students can do more than just play video games on their computers. That and summer’s just around the corner. This is a long-term project so road bumps are inevitable. In the end, I think it will all go well.
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