Way to Russia Talk Lounge

Kerensky

Hi,

I’ve been lurking around here for the past year or so. I love reading about people’s experiences in Russia and/or with Russians. They are both entertaining and informative. I am a university student working on getting degrees in both political science and Russian studies and will be going to Moscow in 13 months to study. Recently, I had a rather peculiar week involving Russians and I don’t quite know what to make of my experience. Confused

From June 26th to July 5th, I was a volunteer for the World Police and Fire Games in Quebec City, Canada. Since I speak a little Russian, I was stationed at the hockey arena where three Russian teams were competing. The events detailed below involve two of these teams whose members normally work for the МВД. I spent nearly 140 hours over the course of those ten days mostly helping or trying desperately to help those guys since they “supposedly” didn’t speak any English or French. Before continuing, I must emphasise the fact that my intention here is not to “bash” Russian people. I am well aware that the attitude and behaviour displayed by these particular Russians are not necessarily representative of Russians in general. (At least I hope so!)

Before the beginning of these Games, I knew that my Russian wasn’t all that great. However, I had done very well in my University classes and thought that with the help of my two dictionaries and three phase books, I would be OK. Well, I have never been more wrong in my entire life. Shocked

They spoke so fast that I couldn’t understand them at all. (Well, logically, I guess they spoke at a normal speed. It was just a lot faster than what I’m used to.) Very Happy

Plus, I would get so nervous around them (hey, they were actual Russians!) that I would forget how to say anything and everything. Sad

Officially, I was supposed to work at the arena as a tourism agent. However, it seemed to me (and to the other tourism agents) that no one who came to the hockey games was remotely interested in going sight seeing. Therefore, I sort of reassigned myself to the Russians. Since there were three Russian teams playing at different hours of each day, I would be at the arena from morning till night (7-8 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next morning).

The first five days were so terrible that upon returning to my apartment at 2 a.m., I would inevitably start crying out of discouragement and disillusionment. Not only had I realised that my Russian was a lot worse than I thought it was, these men, quite frankly, weren’t nice at all. I had every intention of abandoning my Russian studies because there was no way in hell that I wanted to go to a country populated by such people. They were rude, arrogant and never said hello, bye or thank you. They seemed to think that I was their personnal slave and took everything for granted. Crying or Very sad

I’m inclined to attribute their attitude to the fact that since they didn’t understand French and probably didn’t know how things worked in Quebec, they might not have realised how much I actually helped them. For example, since the tournament games were always running late and the shuttles ran on a fixed schedule that stopped at 11 p.m., if it hadn’t been for my interventions, they would have been stranded at the arena at 1 a.m. on three or four different nights. You see, the offices of the bus company closed at 10 p.m. After that, extra shuttles couldn’t be ordered. Therefore, I would always keep close track of the schedule to make sure that no Russians ended up camping on the grass in front of the arena. Instead of gratitude, they would come and see me to complain that the shuttle (the extra one (or ones) that I had obtained for them by calling the bus company) was taking too much time to arrive and that it was unacceptable. Rolling Eyes

Though I truly wish that I could have been of more assistance and that my Russian had been better, I did help them in small ways every single day. Whether it be by calling taxis for them, calling the bus company to get extra buses for them, holding up buses for them, helping them rent vehicles, getting the bus driver to drop them off at their hotel (even though he didn’t have a stop there), calling their hotel to inform them that we were running late, placing calls to their hotel upon their request, getting the arena manager to change their locker room because they considered that it was too small, getting them access to the roof because they had lost their soccer ball on it or explaining all sorts of rules and procedures to them, I sincerely do not think that I was useless (in spite what their initial attitude seemed to indicate).

By day six, I was extremely discouraged. I felt completely inadequate and was very disappointed. These guys were making no efforts whatsoever to help me. If they wanted to place a telephone call, couldn’t they just say “звонить“ instead of giving me twelve run-on sentences that I absolutely could not understand. Anyhow, when they boarded the bus on the sixth day, I was in for quite a shocker… Surprised

Kerensky · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:30 am Post subject:

When they got on the bus, I was already sitting up front. The General (who always spoke way to fast) sat down right beside me (I’m lucky that he didn’t force me to move like he did with another volunteer) and took out his copy of The Globe and Mail! I looked around me and realised that three quarters of the team was either reading The Globe and Mail (an English Canadian newspaper) or Le Soleil (a French, Quebec based newspaper). I was floored!!! Surprised

These guys were not only looking at the pictures. They were reading the articles and commenting on them. Evidently, they f**king understood English and some even knew French. I had spent the past five days trying so incredibly hard to communicate with them in Russian, constantly looking up works in my French/Russian dictionary, when all along they understood English. Strangely enough, from that point on, half of them started speaking English to me. (But only to me. If anyone else spoke to them, then all they knew was Russian.) That’s when things started to go uphill… Very Happy

Kerensky · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:52 am Post subject:

Every time they would see me (which was quite often Smile

), they would smile and say a few words. Nothing complicated, just “Hi, how are you?” in Russian. They suddenly started speaking a lot more slowly (or maybe I was just getting better at this language) and used as few words as possible to express themselves. Their whole disposition towards me seemed to change. Of course, there were no grand gestures. I wasn’t expecting any. But thankfully, I no longer felt like something stuck to the underside to their shoe. I was also proud that as soon as they had a problem or needed something, they would go looking for me.

The last day was great. All of them were so very nice to me. The General hugged me Shocked

, one very drunk Russian who had just won a gold medal spilled his beer on me (I took it as a sign of affection Smile

), half of the young players were actually smiling (something that I had never seen before even though they had won all of their other games), number 27 actually spent nearly an hour talking with me in English, they took pictures of me, they invited me onto the ice to take pictures of them after they had won, they played a little soccer with me and so on. Strangely enough, they remained horribly rude to everyone else and still feigned not knowing a word of English. Confused

If anyone is curious, two of the three Russian teams (the two МВД teams) won gold medals in their division.

On a less positive note, my bad experiences were extremely similar to those of other volunteers, bus drivers, waitresses and hotel staff. Here are a few stories that were told to me (without any prompting on my part) when these people found out that I had worked with the Russian hockey teams :
(...)

Paul Holmes · Lounge Wizard Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011

Kerensky · Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2005 7:59 am Post subject:

- Having spoken with many other volunteers, both during and after the Games, I know for a fact that when the Russians showed up at the Congress Centre to complete their official inscription and get their accreditation cards, the organisers ran into a huge problem. Apparently only one Russian (out of nearly eighty hockey players) spoke English. Rolling Eyes

The accreditation process took over three hours (when it should have taken only 30 minutes) because the English speaking individual had to translate everything for his team-mates. Keep in mind that these were the same Russians that were reading the Globe and Mail on the bus eight days later. Question

- On the last day of the Games, while I was having a conversation with one of the bus drivers in charge of the shuttle service between the Congress Centre and the arena, he told me an interesting story. That morning, upon entering the bus, the Russian General who seemed to be in charge of everyone else discovered, much to his dismay, that there was a volunteer sitting in his desired seat. So, he started yelling at the volunteer (in Russian) and gesturing vividly for her to get out of “his” spot. She got up and was promptly sent to the back of the bus.
Evil or Very Mad

(...)

overseas_expat · VIP Joined: 11 Jan 2005 Posts: 620 Location: Moscow

Russian men ARE very arrogant people. But thay play some mean hockey.

Besides that, what's your point?

Paul Holmes · Lounge Wizard Joined: 12 Apr 2005 Posts: 1011

Kerensky · Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:14 am Post subject:

The goal of my post was not to make a point, buy rather to ask a question. Right now, I’m not sure what to think anymore. I am well aware of the fact that Russian social norms are somewhat different than North American ones. However, the initial rudeness and total absence of appreciation for my help and efforts manifested by a considerable number of these men seems to indicate something well beyond cultural differences. Though I have met many wonderful Russian people in the past and have a couple Russian friends with whom I keep in touch thanks to email, I can’t help but wonder if what I experienced during the World Police and Fire Games will repeat itself or be representative of what I shall experience in Moscow 13 months from now. I would truly appreciate feedback and maybe an explanation or two from other members of this forum.

In reply to what Paul Holmes wrote (thanks for replying), while I am aware that top athletes have the reputation of being self-absorbed, these were not (supposed to be) professional athletes. As the title of the event states, these are the "World Police and Fire Games". Apart from a few guys from Calgary and a team from New England, everyone else was extremely pleasant.

Thanks for reading,
Jamie

Mogsfan · WayToRussified Joined: 03 Nov 2004 Posts: 490

Hi Jamie,
Your story was interesting. With all due respect to this forum and the posters, I suggest to you, Jamie, to email Russians about your question. There isn't enough Russians answering in this forum most of the time. There's only about three or so using this board at any given time.

I have emailed many Russians to learn Russian and quite a few are willing to answer my questions (not geared to language). It's interesting to 'hear' what they say.

Yeah, athletes can be quite arrogant although I think that hockey players tend to be the best out of them all. Canadians, anyway.

Oh, I think Paul misunderstood expat's use of the word 'mean.' Wink

I think expat used the word 'mean' in the context that it was slang. Although, I can say for a fact that a lot of European hockey players use their stick (and don't touch the puck) if you know what I mean. Wink