Yeltsin died on Monday, and today is a national day of mourning, which as far as I can tell just means there's a funeral (actually, wikipedia says he's being buried as I type this). Because I don't understand Russian well enough, I can't tell if the media coverage here is as obnoxious as it is in America when a former president dies. It would be more justified, since he was the first democratically elected president and all, but I do like the fact that he's being buried in a timely manner rather than touring the country. I also appreciate that the Yeltsin critics I know seem to have backed off for now.
There's a lot of nostalgia for the Soviet Union here, particularly among old people and people who are about my age. Old people have lower pensions and less social support under the current economic situation, and I think the people my age just feel nostalgic. They would have been children during Soviet times, and my impression is that they were more sheltered (i.e., less worried about nuclear war) than American children. It is also true that a lot of Russians suffered greatly during the mid-1990's (one student claimed that half the people he finished university with were murdered). People also percieve terrorism to be a bigger problem now than it was before the collapse.* Anyway, the end result is that a lot of Russian people don't have anything nice to say about Yeltsin or Gorbachev.
In happier news, I started teaching at a software company this week. I have to say, as far as business English goes, nerds are probably my favorite demographic to teach. They ask good questions and don't try to pick you up. They tend to be a bit full of themselves, which bothers some teachers, but I just find it funny. One student says "yes, that's correct" every time I tell him how to say something correctly. "Oh, good," I say, "I was worried."
Another student is apparently obsessed with quantum mechanics. I'm not sure what this entails, but I keep using blue and violet whiteboard markers in the hopes that he'll freak out about his electrons' being dislodged.
At another company, one of my students has decided that his next wife is going to be hard-working, a bit of a workaholic, will like to travel, be a bit adventurous and impulsive, younger than him and "probably not Russian." I'm not sure where he thinks he's going to meet this woman.
* - I have no idea if it really is. It doesn't make logical sense to me that it would be, or that it's linked in any way to the collapse of the USSR, but it has a certain truthiness.
If I weren't who's to say
14 years ago
3 comments:
The story here is that the Government there doesn't quite know what to do about Yeltsin's death because he's kind of out of favor with the government. Apparently, he's not too out of favor here, since two former Presidents are attending the funeral.
This seems to be Russia morning on NPR. I just heard a story about the orphans. Pretty heartbreaking.
On the lighter side, your story about teaching the nerds reminds me that I have a student this year who mumbles something under his breath with almost anything I say. He clearly is disagreeing with me. The other day, I told the class that they would be dead at 100 degrees Celsius because their blood, which is basically water, would boil. He mumbled a little too loudly, "That's not true." I said, "Allen, are you going to disagree with everything I say today?" He said, "The blood also contains salts, so wouldn't that slightly change the boiling point." "Yes, very slightly," I said. I honestly don't care that he thinks he's so much smarter than me. He can enjoy the rest of his lonely life thinking he's smarter than everyone. It's the mumbling that gets to me.
I'm curious if you're hearing anything about Rostropovich's death.
LOLAHSI about the dead president touring the country -- remember that friend of mine who said there was a rumor that before the last presidential "election" Reagan was going to die again?
Nothing about that, no. The big news story right now is that Estonia took a red army memorial and moved it, leading to rioting among Russians living in Estonia, and Russians here wanting to cut all diplomatic ties with Estonia.
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