IST-Almaty

March 31, 2008

We got to Almaty early in the morning of the 24th after a long and sleepless bus ride. To be sure the bus was definitely cheaper and faster than the train, but I definitely wondered if the ability to lie down might have been worth the 1000 tenge after all. The first stop when we got to Almaty was the Peace Corps office, which promised free Internet, a shower, and drinking water that did not require a three-hour distillation process. A few hours later after checking email and a breakfast of Ramen noodles we were ready to head out again. IST did not start until the 25th so we had a full day to explore the city as we saw fit, and for the Kazak Language group that meant heading home to Chamalgan to visit our families for the afternoon. I had a great visit with my “mom” and “dad.” I think they were impressed with how much better my Kazak had gotten, and they were interested to hear what I had been doing and Kyzylorda and how much I liked it. I also met a few new relatives. An elderly Russian aunt came over and for a minute she actually thought I was a “blond” Kazak of the North who because of my fair complexion and the fact that I spoke Kazak. Just to give a bit of background, many people in Kazakhstan think that the ancient Kazaks of legend were blond haired and blue eyed before the first Mongol invasions gave everyone more Asiatic features. Thus, my aunt was saying that I reminded her something akin to the Lost City of Atlantis or maybe Troy. After the visit we headed back to the city to check into the Sanitarium and to get ready for long three days of meetings.

Most of the meetings during IST were pretty good, but nothing special. There was however, one session that everyone agreed was pretty mind-blowing. Andrea Schneider, who helps American teachers working in Central Asia, talked about our purpose here in Kazakhstan and our most important responsibilities, to speak English in class as much as possible, to hold our students accountable to higher standards. She argued that we were not just to provide schools with a native speaker, but also to present students and teachers with a grassroots example of and alternative education system. The Kazak system is good but it has a few fundamental flaws. First, cheating is widespread. Students regularly engage in “cooperative work” on tests and important assignments. The bigger problem however, is that far too much responsibility for a student’s success is put on the teacher’s shoulders. If for some reason after cheating on their test a student still fails, the teacher gets yelled for not teaching them properly, rarely does anyone blame the student for simply not studying. Thus, teachers often give students higher grades than they deserve simply because they do not want to get into trouble. The cheating and misplaced responsibility may not seem to be a huge problem like such a big deal, but the unfortunate result is that the diplomas become extremely devalued. I do not know how easy it will be to follow Ms. Schneider’s advice. We are often treated more like guest lecturers than real teachers, and giving grades is almost impossible since we are not allowed to write in the books and the teachers rarely accept the grades we give them. Still, I was definitely affected by her talk and am going to try to turn over a new leaf in the classroom as soon as possible. I believe that making real change is much more possible by making my students accountable than by doing grammar drills and role-playing exercises, and as a bonus I will not be insanely frustrated at the end of two years.