14.01.09

the strangest thing happened today; i dont know if its hilarious or just embarassing. i had my first class with a young student i have been anticipating, quite nervously, since i recieved his description. he is perhaps 22, is studying to take TOEFL at the end of this month, and has generally a very academic grasp of english- as well as, seeming at least, to be very intelligent. anyway, sitting in the staff-roomish area, preparing for class and trying to brainstorm activities i decided just to write out a piece of complicated prose in order to gage his breadth of vocabulary and general understanding of english. of course, perhaps i was just also trying to pass some time and daydreaming once again of one day, when i am an author. im not sure if i actually intended to show it to him; but as conversation ran dry, and the impromptu questions i had prepared, i decided just to bite the bullet, and pretend it was written by someone else. he followed as i read, and then i invited him to discuss his impression.

you could say its among my first published pieces of literature, because in the end he determined to takeit home and write a 'response'. but well, i think he was very impressed. the greatest moment was when he, repeating what i have heard a thousand times, described how wonderful russian is (russian is pretty vast, they have a word for everything i.e. 'druge' for friend, but then 'padruga' for female friend. therefore they can express themselves to a far greater extent then english speakers- apparently), but then remarked quietly 'i did not know english could be used like this'. he has probably a larger vocabulary then alot of people i know back home, a better technical authority of english- he has studied it for something like twelve years, and yet seemed quite gobsmacked. concluding as he read back and forth through the piece, 'i could not write anything like this in russian'. haha! English- 1, Russian- Null!