Speaking American

Not to toot my own horn*, but out here as a native English speaker, I am a commodity. I’ve been snatched by two private language schools. They don’t want me to teach grammar or lessons, they just want me to talk. I am a woman. And I like to talk. It sounds easy, but it’s not. Since I learned how to talk, I’ve been trained to be sensitive to the languages around me. Anyone with foreign-born parents understands this: you translate for your family members, you simplify official documents, you speak slowly, etc. So, I was literally born for my job at the language schools.

Unfortunately, there are some common misconceptions about my being a native English speaker. I cannot just TEACH someone to speak English. It’s not magic. Just because I live in Russia does not mean I will just speak Russian. There is so much work in language acquisition and it requires a lot of personal motivation and discipline. These language schools are being really smart because they aren’t using me to teach but as a practice tool. Plus, I am not practiced in teaching grammar and frankly speaking, I am not here to do that. I am completely fine with helping out with questions and language clubs, but I came here to develop a different skill set.

Parties and other social gatherings are funny because the conversations are usually like this:

Other-Where are you from?
Me- The US.
Other(s)- Whoooooaaaaa. What state/city?
Me- New York.
Other(s)- WOOOOOOOW!!! (Sometimes clapping. Sometimes a phrase or two in English) Why did you want to come to Samara?
Me- (Blank stare for 5 seconds). I wanted to see Russia.

There’s no way I can blend in here, so I stopped bothering awhile ago. It doesn’t mean that I will deliberately draw attention to myself either. My Russian teacher said to me, “People can tell you are a foreigner because your pronunciation of words are too soft.” I thought people can tell that I’m a foreigner because I can’t really speak Russian. Strange.

Side note: I learned how to say “hurry up!” in Russian. It takes me a really long time to say it because it’s a really long word for me.

A small request: If you can think of any English expressions and/or slang, please send it to me. It’s always interesting to teach/learn jargon. Leave me a comment on the blog or e-mail me. Facebook also works, but it’s really slow for me. Thanks much!

*LOOK!!! I used an expression!!!!!