vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #152 / Social life / Reading article...

Maria Marchuk is a fanatic.

Her dedication to English instruction is unwavering, and she talks endlessly about her work if given the chance. It’s startling to see someone so passionate about another language, but you’re inclined to forgive her: If kids are going to get excited about grammar practice while the summer fades outside the window, they’ll need a little inspiration.

It figures, then, that Marchuk herself spent the summer in classrooms, instead of taking time off from the academic grind.

The Vladivostok teacher was the only Far East resident to win a seven-week trip to the University of Delaware on a program which gave thirty Russian secondary school teachers of English and American Studies greater resources for their work back home.

The Professional Development Seminar for Secondary School Teachers in American Studies, paid for by the United States government, organized a schedule of seminars and excursions, and also presented teachers with a variety of recently published texts to replace dwindling Soviet-era supplies.

Marchuk returned with notes from lectures with titles like “Native Americans on the Coastal Plains” and “Federalism and the Birth of a Nation.” She said that she hopes to incorporate these notes into her own class handouts.

She said, however, that soaking in American culture will give her the most effective tools for teaching English. Her colorful tales of life in the United States will help impart that much needed inspiration, especially when the cold sets in, she said.

‘When I show them these pictures, their eyes widen. They then want to learn English and go to America.’

The pictures she brought back offer encouragement as well. In one, she stands before a Winslow Homer painting at the National Gallery. In another, the group crowds together on the White House lawn in a photo with Hillary Clinton.

A third shows Marchuk grinning ecstatically in front of the Statue of Liberty. The flowers are blooming, the monuments are clean, and it’s easy for a Russian child to get lost in these images.

“When I show them these pictures, their eyes widen,” she said. “They then want to learn English and go to America.”

It’s true that Marchuk came back with plenty of souvenirs reeking of the United States’ well-oiled propaganda machine. You wonder if her students will be under the impression that every family in the United States has a 250-bottle wine cellar, as did the home where Marchuk stayed.

Still, she managed to see plenty of genuine Americana as well, including a New York cafe and the most hallowed of United States traditions, the barbecue. And she can now answer students who ask about the price of cars, dressing styles, and father-son relationships on the other side of the world. It was such glimpses — the baseball games, the visit to a Baltimore high school, the interaction with regular Americans — that Marchuk hopes will give her a better perspective about teaching English.

“The English language is like an iceberg,” she said. “By never having gone to the United States and experiencing the culture, I was only seeing the top.”