Intro Text: Lipson's A Russian course

[George Fowler]

Greetings, all!
     I took first-year Russian in 1975 at Purdue University in a Lipson course,
and it certainly clicked with me. (That's probably why I grew up to be a
linguist! :-) ) The rest of my Russian-studying career I spent relating new
vocabulary to Lipson's system, which I truly internalized. It made me really
fond of the single-stem verb system, although I do understand the theoretical
and practical drawbacks. One point in Jerry McCausland's posting is crucial,
however: he speaks of deciding to do it whole-heartedly, despite his initial
reservations. If the teacher doesn't really "get" the system, or if s/he
doesn't like the single stem, there is NO way to teach this effectively--the
students will pick up on the teacher's vibes, and resent the book and therefore
Russian. I've seen that happen over and over. A second objection to Lipson that
I think is well-earned, which was expressed by one of my profs at the U. of
Chicago, is that the book is the star in a Lipson course. This prof stated that
HE wanted to be the star: the source of humor or interest. The longer I'm in
this field, the more I appreciate that point of view! The best way I can keep
my energy up is by finding new ways to be entertaining and effective on my own
part. Lipson tends to inhibit that, because there is so much entertainment
built in. 'Course, this is not a problem for students, who only pass through
this stuff once. However, if I had to teach Lipson over and over and over, I'd
probably get utterly fed up with it.
     George Fowler
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George Fowler                       GFowler at Indiana.Edu [Email]
Dept. of Slavic Languages           1-812-855-2829 [office]
Ballantine 502                      1-317-726-1482 [home]
Indiana University                  1-812-855-2624/-2608/-9906 [dept.]
Bloomington, IN  47405  USA         1-812-855-2107 [dept. fax]
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