Eventful Day!

Today I was unexpectedly pulled into an emotional grammar tug-of-war!

I was sitting in the department, wasting time, and in comes one of my colleagues crying. She lets off a string of Russian, of which I understood the words “you,” “ask,” and “may I take a book.” I freaked out for about 5 seconds because I thought she was mad at me for taking one of her books or something and I couldn’t figure out why she was so upset. Once she repeated herself, I realized that she was trying to ask me if she was correct in saying that there is a grammatical difference between “may” and “can.” My colleague marked the sentence the sentence “Can I take the book?” wrong on a student’s test and the student started going off on her in class, saying that she didn’t know English.

I told her that it’s okay in conversational speech, but in terms of grammar it is incorrect to use “can” instead of “may.” We all do it, but technically it’s not right. After she calmed down, I offered to go with her to the class and explain the rule to the student. It seemed like she needed to be backed up by a native speaker because this student wouldn’t let it die. So, we marched together into a class of 30 students staring at us, which was pretty intimidating. I explained to the very irritated girl that gramatically “can” indicates ability to do something, whereas “may” indicates a request for permission. (Somewhat ridiculously, I demonstrated this by running in place to show that physically I “can” run, but that’s not the same as saying that I “may” run.) Well, as we native speakers tend to have the last word on this issue, the girl pretty much had to accept defeat after that and her grade on the test stayed the same.

The whole exchange was pretty interesting to me, although of course rather upsetting. Generally, I think it’s a little silly to teach students to always say “may,” but on a grammar test, I think you have to mark it wrong. There is a particular mistake in Armenian that people always make in speech (using the subjunctive after “to want” instead of the infinitive), but I would never have cursed out my dear Armenian teacher Siranoush for marking that wrong on a test. After all, it is wrong, even if everyone says it. You can use bad grammar all you want in speech, but on a grammar test you have to follow the rules. That’s the point of a grammar test. Following annoying rules.

Let’s see, in other news, one of the Moldovan IREX fellows who studied in the U.S. gave us a lecture on assessment. It was interesting, because she was all about multiple choice, matching, and true/false questions instead of essays. At first I was turned off by this, but I saw her logic after a while. First of all, if you are testing a student on their knowledge of a particular subject in English, it does make more sense to use multiple choice tests. Students who don’t write particularly well in English may still know the material after all, and it’s unfair to test them constantly on their writing skills if the test is ostensibly on another topic (for example, psychology).

What I found most interesting was the defensive posture that teachers need to take when writing tests. The IREX fellow kept talking about having questions that you can “prove” are correct. She constantly stressed objective answers over subjective answers. Teachers obviously must not get much support from administration on their grading if CYA is one of the main goals in test-writing.

Finally, I have to say that navigating social rules is more confusing than it seems at first! One of my students told me yesterday that I am in danger of causing scandal by socializing with male students! Apparently, socializing means spending any time outside of class with them whatsoever. I mean, really. On the one hand, I find this quite amusing because I hardly ever do anything scandalous ever. On the other hand, I’m not exactly thrilled to have moved to Junior High Land.

The problem is having various definitions of what it means to “do my job.” As Fulbrighters, we are asked to go out of our way to help people learn English outside of class and generally be nice and helpful. So, it seems silly to only help out other ladies. (“I’d like to help you on the TOEFL, but unfortunately you happen to be of the opposite gender. Better luck next time.”) BUT, if I am causing scandal, that could probably hurt my capacity to do my job. Obviously, it is bad to lose people’s respect. Hrm.

To complicate things, it seems that people have different definitions of what all of these social rules mean. And some people entirely ignore the rules. And, by the way, there are three different ethnic groups here with (presumably) different rules. I think by the end of this whole affair in Moldova I will have an unofficial minor in Moldovan/Gagauzian/Turkish Anthropology.

As you can see, it was a very eventful day. I guess I’m going out to the disco tonight with the other teachers. Today is Students’ Day, and they invited us, I guess. It should be fun getting down with colleagues two or three times my age.

Accomplishments of the Day

1. Teaching a high school student how to say “bum a cigarette.” I should probably have an ethical problem with this.
2. Finishing Chuck Klosterman’s book Killing Yourself to Live. Very excellent.
3. Getting the ball rolling on learning Turkish.
4. Listening to the Seattle live Pearl Jam concert and remembering the amazing bridge to “Betterman” that you can only hear in live versions. If you think you have heard “Betterman” without this bridge...think again.
5. Writing an improved lesson plan for Critical Thinking class tomorrow. Trying to incorporate a listening component...we’ll see how it goes.
6. Having an ethical battle with myself over reading Paul Zindel’s The Pigman or loaning it to a student first. Sorry, Fulbright, but my love of children’s literature is getting in the way of me actually teaching it. (I don't think this can be counted as an accomplishment.)
7. Posting photos of Bucharest on Facebook with descriptive captions.
8. Figuring out how to put Facebook friends on a Limited Profile list...mwahaha!

Virtual Tour of Comrat, Part 3

These are some of the more mundane sights of Comrat...

This is a rather ordinary street in the center of Comrat.

Hey, want to move to Canada? Apparently a lot of people in Moldova do.

One of our two main markets. I bought a gorgeous scarf here this week.

Some Communist Party graffiti. The last president was a Communist, but I think they're losing power. The political situation is weird.

We have a museum, but I haven't been yet. It's on my to-do list.

This is where I buy most of my groceries. It is pretty cool. It only opened up about a year ago. I keep my fingers crossed that it won't close due to the economic crisis.

This is the electric company. These are the people I blame when I have no electricity.

This street is named Gavrilova. See below...

There are several plaques around the city explaining why streets have certain names. I find this cute. I think this person was a World War II soldier. The picture didn't turn out too legible.

Here's a well. People in the villages get basically all their water from wells, but we have indoor plumbing, luckily!

Virtual Tour of Comrat, Part 2

The virtual tour of Comrat continues with playgrounds and memorials...

A cross I found near the cemetery. There are lots of crosses everywhere. I still haven't managed to catch a shot of one the roadside Jesus shrines.

A playground near the World War II monument. This is just a small part of it. It's a pretty cool playground.

Monument to fallen soldiers of World War II. Everyone who gets married has their picture taken by this monument. People from this part of the world take World War II pretty seriously. Like much of Moldova, the town was under Romanian fascist control during the war, so the street near this monument is called "The Street of Liberators."

Plaque on the monument with names of fallen soldiers. I'm not sure if the names are soldiers from Comrat or people who died defending the city.

Another plaque. People mostly lay artificial bouquets so they last longer.

No town or village in the former USSR is complete without a World War II monument. Almost every village you drive through has two major constructions: a huge sign with the name of the city, and a big monument to WWII. I'm trying to remember where Mesa's World War II monument is located. I know in one of the parks downtown there is a monument to the British soldiers who trained in Arizona during the war. There must be a formal World War II monument...somewhere. (I know there is definitely a monument to the pioneers in Pioneer Park.)

Virtual Tour of Comrat, Part 1

After several weeks of highs in the 40s, we in Comrat have received an unexpected reprieve from winter! Magically, the temperature has soared to a peak of 70 degrees, and I have been grabbing at these last straws of fall the best I can. I've spent a few hours the last few days wandering around Comrat, listening to "This American Life" (ironic, I know), and taking pictures.

So, without further ado, I present a virtual tour of Comrat. Unfortunately, it's somewhat limited by the fact that I feel awkward about taking pictures of people's houses, cemetaries, and other personal places. Hopefully, these picture will give you a better understanding of our fair town!

This is Comrat's city hall. I know my dad will be happy to see that I have taken a picture of it. Everyone at work last week was cursing the mayor's office last week because they started heating this building before the kindergartens. Yeah...some people have no shame.

This dog was very vigorously rolling in the grass. We have a lot of stray dogs here in Comrat. You have to develop stray-dog-blindness in order to not sort of freak out when they are swarming around you. Makes you appreciate Bob Barker. "Don't forget to spay and neuter your pets!

I really like this basketball court. I should see if I can get one of the Peace Corps Volunteers to play some hoops with me.

Memorial to soldiers from Comrat who died in the Afghan War of the 1980s. I find the expression on the soldiers face quite poignant. It always has a lot of flowers.

Comrat's House of Culture. The sign says "Welcome" in three languages: Gagauz, Moldovan (Romanian), and Russian. I guess it used to be a movie theater, but now they just hold concerts and big presentations there occasionally. I think there was a bodybuilding contest there last week.

Here's our lovely statue of Lenin walking boldly into the future, located on Lenin Street. I'm not sure why they decided to keep this statue of him around, but people here seem to view it with some amusement. However, there are still flowers regularly placed on the base of the statue.

This is the Turkish library, named after Ataturk, located directly opposite Lenin. This is part of the Turkish government's charm offensive toward Gagauzia (the Gagauz people speak a language quite similar to Turkish). I'm not sure that Turkish foreign policy is really effective here; most people seem to be fairly indifferent toward Turkey.

Next to Lenin is the lycée/lyceum/whatever you want to call it. I think it's the most prestigious school in the area. This is where I take Russian lessons. The little kids running around when school lets out are pretty cute.

I think I've already posted a picture or two of this church, but it's worth putting up another one. The Gagauz are Orthodox, so this is an Orthodox Church. I haven't actually been inside yet.

I've got way more pictures to post from my walks around Comrat, so keep an eye out for Part 2.

Swine Flu

Apparently, the flu epidemic warranted closing all the schools in Moldova for the next week, giving me a whole week off! I am planning on going to a random place in Romania.

Seriously, I wish they'd just be honest and say, "We're not closing the schools because of swine flu. We're closing the schools because we're too cheap to heat them." I guess in theory this makes sense. If you're not going to heat kindergarten classrooms, at least don't make kids go there and then get sick from constantly fighting the cold.

People here seem to be concerned about swine flu. I am also concerned about swine flu, but my response is to wash my hands more often, not close all of the schools. I feel like all these international organizations think they are doing something by putting up H1N1 posters. Why don't you buy our department a bottle of hand sanitizer? 1) We have no running water in our department so you can't wash your hands the normal way. 2) Washing your hands is a better way of protecting yourself than simply not going to work. 3) Hand sanitizer is totally unknown here so you would be introducing a nice, useful product that could compensate for poor utilities. Sigh.

Well, I can't really complain too much, because it did get me a week without work. How I will finish teaching all the hours I'm required to teach, I have no idea, but I'm getting ready for Romania!

In other random news, my homestay mom and I hosted a Peace Corps Volunteer who got stuck in Comrat when the last bus out of town was full. The expatriot connection network strikes again!

Moldovans are nice

Recently, one of the Fulbrighters mentioned to us that an American she knows in Chisinau had told her that he got tired of the rudeness of people in the shops in Moldova.

This caused general consternation in our group, because we all think that Moldovans are by and large extremely nice.

Of course, people don’t exactly smile at you when you walk down the street. You can’t expect waitresses to beam at you when you order a soda. Nevertheless, you will often find authentically friendly people working in the shops. It is more pleasant because you know that they are being gracious because they want to be, and not because their boss will get mad at them if they don’t. People seem kind of cold when you first arrive, but now that I have started to get to know the cleaning ladies and the copy guy at the university, I will hear a chorus of “Hello!” at the beginning of the day and “Good bye!” at the end (in Russian, of course).

Moreover, when I have been traveling, like Blanche DuBois I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. People on the buses will gladly help me find my way when I’m not sure where to get off. Once people know you are a foreigner, they will even chat with you a bit. One time a woman gave me very detailed instructions and even tracked down a taxi for me when I was trying to hail a bus to get back home from the town of Hincesti. When I said thanks, she replied, “Мы же люди!” (We are people, after all!)

My colleagues have also been quite nice. Last Friday I attended the wedding of Tatiana, one of the German teachers. It was very touching to be invited because I know she didn’t have many spots available because she had to invite all of her distant cousins from all over Moldova. Three of us from the department went as representatives and had a very fun time. Her mom even came by and asked me if I was understanding everything, which I thought was cute. There were about 150 guests and they really put out quite the feast! I forgot my camera, but Tatiana said I could download a photo or two to show my friends, so expect a picture update soon!

Probably the coolest thing has been the enthusiasm of Moldovans who live in America to introduce us to their families. Not one but two Moldovans that I knew through friends in the States have gone out of their way to give me the phone numbers of their families to visit here. Keep in mind, these were people that I knew through the most tenuous of connections! One Moldovan happened to go to school with my cousin in Georgia, and another was friends with the foreign exchange student who lived with my parents’ friends. What is surprising is that people are actually sincere! They will actually get offended if you DON’T contact their relatives.

I think this is one of the benefits of being in a small country. People are pretty tickled that you actually care enough to come here, so they are happy to help confused foreigners like myself.