vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #544 / Vladivostok by Braille / Reading article...

Three weeks ago I traveled to the Far Eastern Russian city of Vladivostok from the Netherlands, on the other side of the continent. At home I found many people asking me why of all places I chose Vladivostok to go to. I must say, I didn’t really choose Vladivostok, Vladivostok chose me.

Here, in Vladivostok, nothing has changed. Somehow people are not surprised by Americans visiting their city anymore. Someone like me, however, coming from a small country so far away, raises eyebrows.

So, here’s the story. A couple of years ago I started studying history at the State’s University of Groningen, a city in the north of the country. I’ve always wanted to be a journalist, and a degree in history sounded helpful for that purpose.

My favorite subject in college was world history after 1945, the most recent period. For one thing, this is the most relevant period in history for events happening right now and therefore very interesting for a future journalist. It should not be surprising that in this subject the most important topic was the Cold War. That’s how I got interested in Russian history.

The United States already seemed very familiar, since the Netherlands, like many other European states, took over a lot of American culture. The US is not strange to us, or at least not so much as Russia. That is what attracted me to Russia. It is not even that far away, but mentally it is a completely different world.

Starting from my second year in college I did some courses on Russian language, but lacking Russians to talk to, everything I learned never stuck. So I really had to go to Russia, to change this fact. The most logical way for me to go to Russia seemed to be an internship, so I started looking for one. With my eye on the future, I sent e-mails to a lot of English newspapers in Russia. And here I must say, I didn’t really choose Vladivostok, Vladivostok chose me.

At first I thought I would end up in Saint Petersburg or Moscow, but they never replied to my e-mails. Vladivostok reacted positively, so here I am. Ready to inform you about my experiences here, struggling with the language, the customs and the people.

Besides my internship I enrolled in the Russian School, to speed things up a little with my knowledge of the Russian language. My classmates are all Asian. It’s probably a healthy experience for me, being the minority for once. It also brings some difficulties.

Obviously, foreigners trying to speak Russian will sound ridiculous and have a very thick accent. Our teachers are very well able to understand you anyway, but, honestly said, most of the time I have no idea what my classmates are talking about. I’m used to a Dutch accent, got familiar to the American accent, and of course Russian Russian, without an accent.

Korean, Japanese or Chinese however, is a whole different story. Just introducing myself and vice versa was most difficult. I bet some Russians could have had a great laugh out of it, would they have witnessed our ordeal. ‘Otkuda ty priyekhala?’ ‘Chto?’ ‘Otkuda ty priyekhala?’ ‘A, ya priyekhala iz Niderlandy.’ ‘Ireland?’ ‘Nyet, Gollandia.’ ‘Hmm, ya nye panimayu’. The two names really confused them, and it took a map to explain my origins…

We won’t mind however, the first pancake is bound to be a failure, so here’s to second chances!