Romanian language classes had been going on daily for almost two months. Due to my work in the village and my learning 100 new Romanian words a day, I was far ahead of much of the class.
The teacher expressed his concern that the snail-like pace of the Russians might slow me down. To solve the problem, he asked me to consider coming to class only to receive grammar exercises from him that he would assign me daily. That way, I could use the time in class to continue on in the textbook and begin learning at my own speed.
The proposal made me go weak in the knees. I was not convinced that I would be able to learn better without a teacher. But our professor convinced me that staying in the class could actually hinder my language learning, since I was doing so much outside of class anyway. He assured me he would give me enough assignments to keep me busy, a promise that he kept.
From this point on, I only went to class occasionally. Most of my days were spent doing grammar exercises and building vocabulary.
I appreciate the professor’s genuine concern that I be allowed to go at my own speed. He could have easily held me back so that the whole class could move together. But he understood what was at stake and cut me loose, so I could begin to “fly” in Romanian.
During this discussion, the teacher vented some of his frustration, stating that no matter what he did, he could not ensure that the three Russian boys would be sufficiently prepared for their entrance exam. I asked why they seemed so disinterested, to which he took me up to the dry-erase board. With a black marker he drew two brains. Looking to me, he answered, “Trevin, here is your brain,” and then promptly colored in one of the brains. He took a red marker and added a little red dot over in the corner of the brain. “Your brain is black with a hint of red.” Then, he turned to the other brain he’d drawn on the board. With the red marker, he colored in the brain and added a little black dot in the corner. “This is the Russian brain. Red with a hint of black.”
Sighing, he added, “Even with this new generation, the Communist mindset prevails.”
What is the Communist mindset? I’ll elaborate on that in a few days…
