Russian Acts of Kindness

[Sandy Felton]

     Hello Everyone:
 
     I got on this list to ask a question about a book to teach elderly people some basic Russian, but never got around to it. I think I'm going to drop off the list since I am not really a part of this community, but I will add something to this topic from my own perspective.
 
     I majored in Russian Studies. I studied in Leningrad right after Nixon and Brezhnev opened things up in the '70's. I got into computer software because for me Russian wasn't going to be a career. After the USSR, while trying to start my software career, I spoke a lot of Russian with Russians who came to the US, before they could speak English. I think many of these Russians would tell you that Russians can be very difficult people to deal with, and I can add that many are amazingly suspicious, though I suppose I understand why.
 
     I went to Prague to get my 4-week TEFL certificate in 2011. I intended to go to Russia to work, but nothing came of it. I easily got a job at a university in China, and I just got another university job in China for this fall. It took about 30 minutes, one interview on Skype. I could write quite a bit about what I've experienced trying to get a job in Russia, and it would be quite negative, almost to a point of absurdity. I did get one job that was supposed to start in early 2013, but I backed out because the private school had so much bs and because they misinformed me about when I would get the letter of invitation, and this caused me quite a bit of inconvenience and other things. I had no problems at all with any of this in regards to going to China, though to be honest I had my problems there. Of course had I spoken Chinese a little like I can speak Russian it would have been much better. I could also tell you a story about a volunteer job
 I recently inquired about in the Ukraine that probably wouldn't surprise you - the same old story, ridiculous in my opinion.
 
     You can call me anything you want to, but Eastern European language teachers are often an unpleasant, hypercritical lot. I've studied 8 foreign languages, so I speak from experience. I also know quite a few computer languages, and I say this because I get angry at certain people who criticize my language "qualifications." I don't think they'd last 10 minutes trying to write some complicated computer code. Not trying to be "haughty," but I had a very successful software career and worked overseas a good amount.
 
     I have to go now. I need to return to studying Chinese. Fortunately spoken Chinese is fairly easy, and Chinese people, despite their own difficult lives, are usually much easier to deal with.
 
     (Mr.) Sandy Felton

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