russian is in demand (Accounting!)

[Jack Harper]

At 13:06 6/28/97 -0500, you wrote:
>adam cohen-siegel wrote
>
>>it seems to me that being able to read tsvetaeva or bulgakov or chekhov or
>>hrabal or krleza in the original should be reward enough.
>
>Thank you, Adam. Your argument is the only the only line I have been able
>to use on students recently that actually convinces them to keep studying
>Russian (we have no other Slavic languages/literatures here). In fact, this
>past year the freshmen asked me why our textbook wasted so much time
>teaching them how to repeat their daily schedules when they could be
>learning "useful" (their term, not mine) skills like reading Russian
>literature. The students are brutally honest to themselves about a what is
>possible with Slavic and what isn't. Although their numbers are not great,
>we should encourage those who choose to be in college or university to
>"learn something" because it is interesting or fun or "way cool" to take
>our classes. Those who firmly believe that the purpose of education is to
>get a better job are a lost cause and may be left to enjoy their studies of
>accounting.
>
>Ciao.
>
>
>**********
>
>Denis Crnkovic'
>
>**********
>

Interesting that you should mention the Fascinating World of Accounting on
the SEELangs List...

There is, believe it or not, a strange beauty to a well done accounting
system (what can I say -- I collected stamps as a kid also). I am not an
accountant though I do know how to read financial statements and other
equally exciting things...

One of my more 'enjoyable' and 'way cool' (is that a Sorbian word?) times
was to chit-chat over several beers at around midnight in a smoky jazz bar
in the Former Soviet Union with a former managing director of, of all
things, a bicycle factory about how Soviet accounting worked -- I found it
all quite fascinating (almost as interesting as collecting stamps -- but
not quite).

The differences in accounting philosophies between the 'west' and the USSR
were really interesting. Three years ago when I first started going to the
FSU on business, I rapidly realized that 'western' accounting priciples --
especially things like capital equipment depreciation, amortization and
other equally exciting ideas -- were almost completely unknown -- even to
bank presidents and the like -- they thought purely in terms of cash and
had no idea of what I was talking about. We stared at each other quite a
lot back then -- now days things are different -- they run circles around
me with their accounting systems designed, I think, mostly for 'tax
planning' (evasion?) purposes. Its fun...

Regards to all -- and I hope that I have not bored everyone silly...

Jack
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