I lived and studied in Almaty, Kazakhstan from August 2023 to May 2024, after five years of trying to do immersive Russian study abroad. Arriving at the airport early in the morning for the first time I never imagined all that I would be able to do in the course of nine short months. In spite of how stressful and nerve racking it was in the beginning, I knew this was the best opportunity to improve my Russian and learn about a new area of the world. Our classes went beyond teaching grammar, reading, and speaking - we also learned how to pronounce and speak like native speakers, commonly used and classical literary expressions, and the history and politics of Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Although a lot of time in any given week was dedicated to classes and our homework assignments, there was also a surprising amount of time in which I could do even more learning outside the classroom: talk with my language partner, visit the Green Bazaar, enjoy a mocha with friends or dine solo, buy and read books, visit the theater, and even go on trips up the mountains.
Even though I studied Russian intensively in one of Middlebury College’s summer programs before, RLASP surpassed all my expectations about advanced language study. It is one thing to learn a language in a classroom and an entirely different experience to learn it in an immersive environment - waking up each morning having to speak Russian and having to go through a daily routine accompanied by tasks, assignments, classwork, even ordering lunch, all this eventually started to change the way I approached the whole program. Learning did not start at 9 am and end at 4 pm. It started when I woke up and ended when I went to bed. I would argue that I had some of the most valuable Russian lessons on the street, in restaurants, in taxis, at the theater, and in the bazaar, and all of these complemented my classroom lessons. From buying lunch to asking for directions, Russian became incorporated into my daily life to the point where I was able to respond without having to think about the right answer. Even though it took a few months, I learned to be generous and forgiving of myself. I came to appreciate that we all learn languages differently, and everyone always had some aspect of their language skills they could improve.
My time in Almaty ended in May - which seemed so far away in September but suddenly seemed too soon in April. After nine months in Kazakhstan I achieved what I wanted from the beginning: improving my Russian language skills so I can use it for a career in analyzing Russia, Eurasia, and Central Asia. My Russian was very rusty before I started the program with RLASP, and now it is so much better and my confidence in rapidly acquiring the language has increased with it. So many opportunities have become available since I took nine months to improve my Russian.
Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Recipient
Title VIII Fellowship for Overseas Language Study and Research Recipient
Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP)
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU)
Almaty, Kazakhstan, Academic Year 2023-24