Teaching in a Russian Orphanage

As mentioned earlier, this year’s trip provided us a new opportunity to teach in an orphanage located in the village of Oktyabrsky. Going in to teach for the first time we had no idea what to expect. We didn’t know how many kids there would be or what level of English they knew already. As it turned out, the vast majority (about 20 kids) were rather young 5-7 years old, however there were also five 16-17 year old girls that did have some very basic English skill. Obie and I taught the more advanced students and the 2 girls on our team taught the younger students. Teaching them turned out to be a test of our ability at improvisation. We were both

trained to teach intermediate level students but these girls were still very much beginners. So we did our best to work through the beginner material and managed to have a lot of fun in the process. Like typical teenage girls, they were giggly and always joking with each other. In the end I think they learned a great deal and had a good time with the lessons. While at the orphanage we were interested to discover that "orphan" doesn't necessarily mean no parents. There were many children that lived at the orphange that either had extremely poor or negligent or abusive parents that could not be trusted to care for their children. In fact, we we're shocked at one point during our lesson when they gave the young boys (maybe about 14 years old) a smoke break. Our translator confirmed that it is illegal for children under 18 to smoke but there is no method to enforce that law out in the countryside and often it is the parents themselves that insist that their children smoke because it is a "family tradition".