Russian She-bear in American and British Settings. Юлия Кузьменкова
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seemed to be universal; they served not only as phone cards (which was very convenient because they were rechargeable) but also as keys to hotel rooms and elevator passes – another advantage that saved us the trouble of touching metal which was very unpleasant because of the unusual abundance of static electricity. Taxes were also a real source of confusion as arithmetic is commonly not among EL teachers’ strong points. Dealing with taxes proved rather frustrating because they should be added to prices indicated on labels and to fees; so hiring a taxi we preferred to ask in advance how much it would cost. And finally, tips, one more source of irritation which remained as such till the end of our visit since we never learnt properly whom to tip, how much and what for.
There remained still another vital element of everyday life threatening to ruin the beginning of that promising period of our professional career. What I mean here is an innocent traveller’s check. The project managers probably underestimated the effect that our complete lack of practice in dealing with it would have… The Monday morning programme began rather early but we courageously survived the first three opening speeches succeeded by two lectures and then it happened. We received quite a sum of money to be paid for our living and daily expenses in those travellers’ checks and during a ten (!) minute break we had to learn how to sign and use them properly. And if it were only that! We fell into a trap not uncommon for Russians – we began to convert the sum into roubles and computations though simple were very time consuming. Don’t lose your head, now that you’re incredibly rich – my giggling opponent eagerly prompted me. But for the lack of time I couldn’t get involved into inner dialogues.
The result of comparison was astonishing but predictable – here was a society with higher standards of living (in spite of the fact that prices were often even lower than in Moscow) and getting used to handling new currency was only a question of time. No wonder, one of the lecturers whom we happened to meet later in New York remembered us as ‘those Russian ladies who were absorbed by toying with money for the greater part of the presentation’. Luckily the professor seemed to bear us no grudge – he was well (from our point of view, of course) rewarded for his efforts. He found a good pretext for ignoring our questions after the lecture – he simply handed out summaries to review when our money-shock had gone and busied himself signing a somewhat ‘astronomic’ honorarium, a sum unheard of for a Russian teacher in those days, much exceeding an average monthly salary. For us that came as a sort of an aftershock.
College policies and regulations
Americans’ attitude to college policies and regulations also deserves attention. Russians are often criticised for dogmatic and authoritarian classroom management; our strict approach to maintaining discipline is also said to deprive students of freedom to behave naturally etc. Below are a few extracts from The ELTI Student Handbook for the readers to consider.
Attendance. The ELTI (English Language Training Institute) has a strict attendance policy: you should go to all of your classes but you must attend at least 80 % of your classes to complete them successfully. This does not mean that you can miss 17–19 % of your classes and that will be okay – your teachers will lower your grade if you miss close to 20 %. You may think, “I can miss a few classes and it will be OK.” However, if you get sick later, the classes you missed earlier will add to your absences from illness and you may fail the class. Try to schedule any appointments at times when you are not in class; this includes any trips you want to take.
Punctuality. Coming to class on time is necessary for the class to start when it should. When students arrive late, they disturb the class, and in our culture this shows disrespect for the teacher and other students. Being late for class may affect your grade; in fact, your teacher may add two or three of your tardies (being late) to equal an absence.
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