I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my Russian conversation partner Iurii. Iurii is a brilliant PhD student at Skoltech Institute near Moscow, specializing in Computational & Data Science, and Engineering. While I have absolutely no scientific background, I loved hearing about Iurii’s work, and we found much in common to talk about on our several Zoom calls.
Iurii and I decided to focus our conversations on different forms of social and economic inequality. We discussed and compared various social problems that Russia and the United States face, and talked about the different approaches our respective countries have taken in addressing these complex social problems. In general, our conversations were broad, varied, and covered complicated social and political issues. Iurii is incredibly bright, and has interesting and exciting ideas about politics and social issues. In addition to our social/political discussions, Iurii and I discovered that we share an interest in poetry, and worked through a couple of English and Russian poems together during one of our calls. We read David Berman’s “The Charm of 5:30” in English, and the opening verses of Alexander Pushkin’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, in Russian.
In our first conversation, Iurii and I got to know each other, and I learned much about his hobbies and interests. We discussed music—Iurii likes heavy metal and Russian rap. I told him about my life working as a musician, and my love of the Kino, the Soviet band. Iurii also described Korean doramas to me, a genre of film he is interested in, which was totally new to me. He told me about how he had designed a new technology for detecting earthquakes—an improvement upon existing seismological technology. I was very impressed by his ingenuity and diligent work ethic. In explaining his invention, Iurii also shed some light on international patent law, which I found very interesting. Given his interest in seismology, I recommended a few films about earthquakes and volcanos, including two Werner Herzog documentaries (“La Soufriere” and “Into the Inferno”). We used Zoom’s share screen function to watch the films’ trailers together.
Before our first call, just via Iurii’s emails, I got the sense that he would be a very supportive and helpful conversation partner. I was right about that. Iurii provided me with detailed corrections and explanations of mistakes I made when writing and speaking Russian. Throughout the entire process, it was a big help to have such detailed feedback on my Russian, and I tried to return the favor with respect to Iurii’s English during our conversations. It was fun to apply some of the skills I learned as an English as a Second Language teacher in Russia—it’s been a long time since I’ve taught, and so I’m a bit rusty, but I was reminded how much I love helping someone understand a particular grammar point or grasp the precise meaning of a new word. I hope I was able to help Iurii learn some useful English words, phrases, and grammatical tools.
Between our first and second Zoom call, Iurii suggested we talk about the problem of divorce and population decline in Russia. We had an extensive conversation about traditional and contemporary family models, how Russia is combatting a declining birth rate with various social programs, and how the country might successfully lower its increasing rate of divorce. Iurii proposed some interesting policy ideas to help solve these issues, including the use of benevolent/positive political messaging to strengthen family values. Overall, I learned a great deal in this call about present-day challenges facing Russia.
From our third call on, Iurii and I zeroed in on the theme of inequality in its various forms. We discussed economic inequality, including inequality between socioeconomic groups, and discussed the problem of homelessness as it manifests in the United States and Russia. We theorized about the root causes of homelessness in the United States, and how the problems manifest differently in the US and Russia. We also discussed socioeconomic class dynamics, including the fluctuation in the size and composition of the American middle class in the last hundred years or so.
Drawing comparisons between Russia and the US’s approaches to social and economic problems was instructive, and revealed a lot about the differences between the two countries and about how we perceive those differences. Iurii certainly had a great deal of Russia-specific knowledge on on these issues, and it was always fascinating and enlightening to hear his perspective. In a later call, we discussed gender inequality, which was another engaging conversation. I learned about a variety of laws and policies Russia has in this area, and about Iurii’s proposed solutions. Even though Iurii and I disagreed on some aspects of the problem of gender inequality, the conversation was instructive and stimulating.
I had a wonderful time getting to know Iurii and hope we can remain in touch. He is full of brilliant ideas and is extremely intellectually curious. These traits, combined with his thorough understanding of Russian grammar and willingness to give language-learning feedback, made Iurii a terrific conversation partner. It was a pleasure getting to know him, and working on our language skills together.
