Teaching

Many of my days are spent at the Ablai Khan University of World Languages and International Relations (quite a mouthful!!). Three days a week, I have individual Russian language classes with an instructor whose English is severely limited. It’s great—since it eliminates the ability to ask a question in English and forces me to communicate almost exclusively in Russian. She’s determined to get rid of my accent—but I fear she’s fighting a losing cause. But since I’m usually one language behind with my accents (my Russian has a German accent), when I learn Kazakh I will probably speak with a Russian accent. I’m so thankful that I am able to participate in the critical language training program, though—I couldn’t imagine not having the additional language training before attempting to conduct interviews. The research would be impossible.

When I’m not studying or in Russian class, I’m also teaching two separate courses for the university. Originally, I was to teach Geopolitics three times a week (the same lecture each time). It was pretty straightforward, and something that I can easily do. However, another department was upset because the “Fulbright PhD Candidate” was being monopolized by the department of international relations (listening to some of these conversations, you sometimes feel like a bit of a commodity—and a rare one, at that!). So…the end result was that I had less than 24 hours to prepare my new course on American Studies that I teach to 2 sections of students. Am I ever glad that I taught the Geography of the US and Canada last summer! I have all of my course notes with me, and I’m just teaching the exact same class again. As much as I would love to revise the course, I simply don’t have time to do so and to simultaneously focus on my Russian—which is my priority, and what I’m being paid to do at the moment. I don’t mind helping out at all, and I enjoy the teaching—but it’s important to remember what my priorities are.