From "Black and White", February 14, 2003

by Mariana Minaya

 

Quackenbush Brings Russian Experience to the Classroom

 

On a brisk afternoon in Russia, English and Russian teacher Michelle Quackenbush sat down on the curb to rest for a little while. Immediately she heard the indignant screams of a tiny old babushka, or grandmother. “I just sat there with a barrage of words hitting me”, Quackenbush says. “She was yelling ‘Get off the concrete, you’ll never have children!’ because supposedly, sitting on concrete makes you sterile.”

As a junior majoring in Russian at the University of Florida in 1988, Quackenbush signed on to a study program in Moscow at the urging of her professors. “You get your own fan club because they want you to succeed so much,” she says. “They know it’s a hard language and that you have to dedicate a lot of time.”

            The trip prompted Quackenbush to continue her study of the Russian language. “It really opened up my eyes to what was going on there,” she says. “I was there during the end of Communism so I really got a feel for all the changes that were happening.”

            Following the three-week study program Quackenbush returned to the region on three separate occasions. In 1991, she traveled to St. Petersburg as the resident director of housing and studies for a University of Illinois semester-abroad program. Her group of students arrived a few days after the 1991 coup to overthrow Gorbachev, finding the country in chaos. “Suddenly there were breadlines and shortages,” she says. “People were panicked. Old people were buying bread and putting it in their refrigerators.”

            Despite the crumbling economy, Quackenbush and her colleagues lived in relative comfort. “As Americans we didn’t experience any of that because we paid for our program,” she says. “It was very difficult because we knew we were getting three square meals a day and we saw people on the street who were starving.”

            Quackenbush says witnessing the poverty and instability of the Russian people changed her perspective on the American lifestyle. “There is more culture shock coming back,” she says. “It’s overwhelming because there is so much to buy. It’s hard to go to the grocery store where you have 50 cereals after being used to having oatmeal every day.”

            Quackenbush’s  financial situation and the lack of material goods forced her to be resourceful while living in Russia. She learned how to can vegetables and make donuts to save food for the winter. “I’ve always called it  urban camping because there you are living more day-to-day,” she says.

            Overlooking the difficulties of daily life proved easy when in the company of her hosts, she says, as the Russian people made her feel welcome. “I think that’s the draw for Americans,” Quackenbush says. “They really make you feel like they’re family. There is a constant flow of people in your life and you spend your evenings talking. In one family we would move all the furniture and end up dancing.”

Quackenbush says she admires the hospitality and resilience of the Russian people in light of their political and economic crises. “It was a very difficult time for them, but Russian people tend to help each other,” she says. “It was neat to be around them as the changes took place.”

The instability of the economy became clear to Quackenbush, who recalls an incident where the price of a can of soda nearly doubled within hours. “I do feel I was a part of history,” she says. “Their economy was in shambles.”

Despite the turmoil in Russia, Quackenbush’s affinity for life abroad led her to enlist in the Peace Corps. She chose to be stationed in Kyrgyzstan because the country had a largely democratic government and better living conditions.

When Quackenbush returned to the region for the last time in 1994 as a Peace Corps volunteer, she says she faced living almost at poverty level. “You could always tell who the Peace Corps volunteers were because they lined up for food at embassy parties,” she says. “But when you do something like that you can essentially don’t have much financially for a few years so the benefit is really experiencing a culture.”

For Quackenbush, the benefits from teaching English at the University of Bishkek outweighed her financial situation and provided her with significant work experience. “The Peace Corps volunteers have a lot of responsibility.” she says. “We lived at the level of the people so to them you are representing your country. It let me see how the government interacts with these countries and how foreign aid is distributed.”

As the first foreigners in Kyrgyzstan in over 70 years, Quackenbush and her colleagues had the opportunity to introduce their students to a new language and new technology. “We started a student newspaper and compiled a book of essays my students wrote,” she says. “We introduced them to [Microsoft] Word and that in itself was a huge leap for them. We take that for granted, but for them it was a very good skill to have.”

The ability to improve her students’ language skills made her feel she had an unexpectedly large impact on their lives. “My students entered contests and they actually got to go to the U.S. for a year,” she says. “That in itself was such a plus because we were bringing them into the international arena.”

Quackenbush says her students in Kyrgyzstan were friendly and respectful. “The best part was getting to know my students,” she says. “They stand up when you walk in the room and they love you, they just love you.”

Helping her students establish vital contacts with the outside world proved very rewarding, Quackenbush says. “It was interesting to see, not the westernization, because that’s not what we did there,” she says. “What we did was give them a language. My former students are doing amazing things they probably couldn’t have done unless they had instruction with a native speaker of English.”

This year, when the Whitman administration decided to expand the language department, Quackenbush eagerly accepted the opportunity to teach Russian. “I have a lot of freedom, which I totally love,” Quackenbush says. “It allows me to figure out a creative way to teach because Russian is hard and everyone learns it at their own pace.”

Senior Alex Pinto says Quackenbush’s enthusiasm for teaching the language creates a comfortable and enjoyable learning environment. “She’s really important to the success of the class,” he says. “A lot of kids aren’t familiar with the language, so they need motivation to learn it and she sparks an interest for them.”

Ultimately, Quackenbush’s Russian experience proved to be a continuing adventure. “I see Russia as the last frontier,” she says. “There was never a dull moment because there was so much to explore. It was such a unique view of what the Soviets left behind.”