The history of the opening of the 2belingual Russian school in Los Angeles
soroka guest_post, blurb June 3, 2021 1 Minutes
We are starting a series of guest posts on the Soroka blog. We share our experience, ideas and successes. Let's go!
My name is Yekaterina Evdokimova. I am an economist by training; in 2016 I defended my PhD thesis in management at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in Moscow. She worked as a teacher of economic disciplines at an institute, as well as an accountant in an organization in Samara. At the end of 2017, my family and I moved to the USA (Los Angeles).
Seeing how the children of Russian friends forget their native language made me nervous. My son was 6 years old at the time, and I understood that English would be his main language in an English-speaking environment, and preserving Russian would be a problem if nothing was done. We tried to go to a Russian school, but we didn't like a lot of things, so we stopped. For a long time I joked that I should open my own school and make it “perfect”. But it wasn't until the summer of 2019 that I started to think about it seriously; it was scary, but I decided to give it a try.
I wanted to create a space where people would not just study, but make friends, celebrate Russian holidays, discuss literary works, and get acquired with the history and geography of Russia and Europe. In other words, it would be more than just learning the Russian language — communicating, developing intelligence, broadcasting children's horizons, getting to know the cultural component of Russia and talking about the modern face of the country.
I was aware of my organizational and managerial skills. But at first I didn't think that I would teach by myself. It seen to me that finding a teacher would be the most difficult thing to do. Once, while studying the issue of teaching Russian to children abroad, I came across a course on the Internet at the Russian Language Center at Moscow State University “Methods of Teaching Foreign Languages for Children”. The course description fully met my needs and ideas about a Russian language teacher for bilateral children. And I applied for training right away.
I intuitively felt that it was impossible to teach children here using textbooks for Russian schools in Russia; that they needed a specialized approach. During my studies, I learned about authors and Russian language textbooks. I really liked the publishing house “Russian Language. Courses”, where I ordered most of the books for my school.
When the approximate concept was thought out and the training was completed, I registered the business legally, rented space, bought desks and other furniture, a printer, a projector, as well as other equipment and office supplies. I ordered a designer from St. Petersburg to create a logo for the school. Then she did a professional photo shoot to have visual content for social networks, started Instagram, email, domain and hosting. More, I created a website on Tilda on my own, which was a fully new experience for me; I never thought I was capable of such a thing. Later, I learned how to make cute flyers and information leaflets using the Canva website.
Of course, it is very difficult to do everything alone from start to finish, but this is probably the fate of all aspiring businesses with limited capital.
However, at one point, it is clearly easier in the US than in Russia, for example, to register a business. After all, the US is an ideal place for such enemies. In addition, I was very lucky to meet a Russian-speaking business consultant who helped me understand legal details.
Marketing turned out to be the most difficult and still is. Los Angeles has a very large Russian-speaking community, and I, naive, thought that my children would have many people willing to preserve the Russian language at once. However, student enrollment was slow. And 3 months after the opening, everything in our city was closed due to the outbreak of the pandemic. And I also had to close my new school indefinitely.
Meanwhile, I decided to learn to teach online and recruited groups of children. You could say it helped me reach a new audience. Some students stayed with me and went offline. But I am still recruiting students. The situation with the virus is significantly slowing down the development of my project.
On January 19, 2021, my school celebrated its first birthday. During the year of work, I got my own favorite textbooks:
- For ages 5-7 years — “To the Circus” by E. Protasova, V. Khlebnikov (relevant topics for discussion, the manual helps expand vocabulary and develops imagination); “The World Around Us” by L. Samatova, N. Gorina, O. Lavrov.
- 7-10 years old — “By the campfire” by E. Protasova, V. Khlebnikova (the topics covered in the manual are diverse and broaden children's horizons), “Literary Reading” book 1, 2 by I. Safonova, E. Khamrayeva, L. Samatova (it contains short and easy-to-go understand stories with questions to think about), “Communication Workshop” by E. Khamrayeva, L. Samatova.
- For adult newcomers, they like Tochka.ru, Russia Is My Love, and Yulang's materials the most.
- For advanced adults, I also use Yulang materials. There are very interesting topics for discussion, for example, about the education system in Russia, about art, about character traits, about success, a trip to Russia, city tours, as well as lessons about various holidays. To get acquired with Russian literature, I like the comprehensive textbooks by the Russian Language publishing house. Courses”: Mikhail Bulgakov, Lev Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. To study geography — “Geography and Nature of Russia” by E. Orlova, E. Shastina. To study history — “The History of Russia in Events and Fates” by A. Akishina. I haven't used the last 2 manuals much yet, but I think the content is interesting, and it's also important that they include CDs with visual materials.
I hope that in the future I will still be recruiting teachers for my school. I have an idea what they should be like:
- The most important thing is to love children. You can learn anything, but you either love children or you don't.
- Love the Russian language and literature, be well-read.
- Have a wide range of interests and horizons to be able to answer students' questions on any topic.
- Have a sense of humor and artistry.
- It is desirable, but not necessary, to have a humanitarian education and experience in teaching, with texts. But be sure to be competent, put the right emphasis on words and speak beautifully and fluently.
In conclusion, I would like to note that I have been a fan of the Total Dictation project for a long time, back in Russia. I knew it was being held abroad and when I moved to the US, I wanted to write it here. But I didn't find where. It turns out they've stopped spending him here. And I got the idea to become a new organizer! I did my best, contacted the TD Headquarters, my candidacy was approved, and I listened to the entire online course about what and how I would need to do it. And in 2020, she held the Total Dictation for the first time, however, in only 2 formats due to restrictions on holding mass events: we write at home and online. It was incredibly nice to be involved in this project. I hope that there will be more participants on April 10, 2021 and we will definitely also hold it offline. I sincerely invite everyone to write a dictation; I have been happy to do it every year for 5 years.
I wish all Russian language teachers motivated students, lots of new ideas, inspiration and energy. For me, teaching is about creativity. It's so great to write scripts for your lessons, select content, be an artist and host. And, of course, it is interesting to see how students are doing more every day.
And if you are still looking for your life's work, be sure to keep digging in this direction, looking inside yourself, asking questions. Don't be afraid to try new things, even fully unknown ones. Be as active as possible, and you will definitely succeed!
You can contact the school at the following coordinates: