I remember getting a lot of funny looks when I first decided to seriously study Russian. While my parents are (and have always been) super supportive of me and all my wild dreams, there’s a certain amount of “why Russia?” that I still think they have yet to process. And it’s a reasonable question, why did I want to study a language and culture that’s been so foreign to (and vaguely hated by) most Americans since the Cold War?
Anyone who has seen the news lately will tell you Russia is becoming more and more of an important player on the geopolitical stage. But that isn’t why I wanted to study it, at least not really. I’m not interested in perusing a career in politics. I’m interested in studying language and literature. The Russian language is beautiful and unique, and the big Russian authors like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky would tell you that as well. That’s the biggest reason I am still studying Russian as of right now, but it is not the reason I picked it up in the first place.
The real reason I started taking Russian in college is because I got placed in a Russian 101 class and a Russian folklore seminar my first semester. Of course, I did have some prior interest in Russian before coming to Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and I knew I wanted to study a foreign language, but I wasn’t entirely set on Russian. As soon as I realized how strong of a Russian program HWS has and learned that I would have the opportunity to go to Moscow and Saint Petersburg over winter break, I was hooked.
I cannot stress enough how important cultural immersion is to learning a language. While I was only abroad for a total of ten days, just being able to read all the signs around me written in Russian was incredible. It forced me to constantly think about my language, and promoted continuous learning of culture and customs. Being there made all the skills I had been learning in class feel real and practical.
I think that is the primary benefit of going abroad to a country as foreign as Russia and not a country where everyone speaked English or at least knows it well enough to communicate. The point of going abroad is to expand your horizons, interact with new cultures, and experience different points of view. You have to put yourself out there to receive those kind of benefits, and a great way to force yourself outside of your comfort zone is to go someplace where you can’t even properly order food at most restaurants using your own language. It’s scary, but it’s so fun, and you’ll have so many stories to share when you come home. Moments like almost missing your train back to Moscow, being able to effectively communicate with a native speaker for the first time, and getting lost for hours among the canals of Saint Petersburg are things that you’ll never forget, and that force you to grow into a more interesting human being. And in the end, that is what college is really about, isn’t it?