Alumni

For the past 2 years, I've been living in Vladimir, Russia and teaching at an English language school called the American Home. For many of my students, I'm the first American or English-speaker they've ever met. Sometimes I feel like a celebrity, but the friendships I've made here are genuine, and, in true Russian style, will probably be lifelong. Although I follow a strict grammar and vocabulary curriculum, I have a lot of freedom to design activities and games and to use American movies, music, and slang in my classes. We try to be good cultural ambassadors - celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving, playing football and poker on Saturday afternoons, and attempting to teach the students how to play frisbee (a big hit) and whiffleball (far too complex.) Often my lessons begin in the classroom and finish up 3 or 4 hours later at a nearby café, with all of us joking around in an interesting Russian-English hybrid. I'm often invited to local universities to speak about college in America, and so I frequently find myself explaining how taking Russian lit on a whim sophomore year resulted in my majoring in Russian, and ultimately, landed me here in Vladimir. It's great how these things work out so well! Continue reading »