The impressed thing in Tomsk

Culture

For me, the most impressed thing of Russian culture now is smoking and drinking. Cause you can see smoke and drunk people everywhere. It is the first unbelievable thing for me in Tomsk. In Taiwan, less and less people smoke. We even have government policy that set up to prohibit people smoke in public place, and it is hard to find drunken people on the street. Therefore, it is really impressed to see this situation at first time. Truly Russian culture is full of literature and art. Russia is famous in philosophy, ballet, drama. There are a number of museums in Tomsk devoted to various subjects, most notably art, local history and wood carving. I do not have change to look at them. There is only once to see the gallery. I want to go to museums after I well-known Russian language, and I can understand the explanation of guiders by myself. The architecture of Tomsk is also present a Russian culture. It is special architecture and beautiful. They keep architecture pretty well, and these architecture present the history of Tomsk what they been through. I do not understand Russian culture pretty clear and detail yet. I hope I will have much more time to understand and realize the beauty of Russian culture.

Language

Russian language is the tuff thing to learn; even Russian people themselves admit that it is a difficult language. They always said to me that I am brave to come here and start from zero. The first impressed thing of Russian language I remembered is the word “Д.” Both my mother and I wondered one thing that why English letter “A” will sit on a chair. We laughed for a while. Interesting! I learn English for over 10 years and I already forgot how to start to learn a new foreign language. My first Russian class is to learn Russian letter and to pronouns them. For Chinese people, we don’t have “Р” sounds. So, it is really hard to pronouns “Р” at the very beginning. So, I do tongue exercise to train my tongue every day. It is fun when you practice by yourself, sometimes people will curious and look at you. To learn a language, environment is a good external factor to learn foreign language. I am lucky that I have Russian people around me, because I am at Russia. 24 hours nonstop to hear and absorb Russian language. I need to learn how to listen, and then try to speak. It is not easy to learn Russian language. It took me more than three months to speak out a full sentence, even I am in this environment. Russian language has difficult grammar. Each word has transformed over 10 situations and the positions of the words are flexible. It is hard to hear and learn the word from their communication because the words change everywhere. Learning Russian is full of challenge, but it makes me have achievement when I start to understand few Russian.

Security

Security is always the first thing when we go to a foreign country to consider about. Moscow is the capital of Russia, but Moscow is really not safe and stable to foreigners. Most security information of Moscow is not good. So, my parents and I were pretty worried before we went to Tomsk. The information of Tomsk is not that much than Moscow. My friend told me that Tomsk security is fine, and told me do not worried about it. But you will not believe it until you see it. Therefore, before I made decision of studying, I went to Tomsk first with my mother. We wanted to find out what Tomsk look like, and to understand security of this town. Tomsk is a town of education, every five people has one university student. Compare with other cities, Tomsk is safer. After all, it not the country you familiar, it still has dangerous outside. Due to Russian culture, there are drunken people everywhere. Be careful of these people and don’t go outside too late. I think Tomsk is a pretty safe city to study and live.

Education

It is mission impossible if you want to study in Russian without Russian language. There is no international course for foreigners. If you want to study here, you need to study Russian first. So, I am lucky that I can study in English.  Due to my situation, I only can talk about my side. All of my class is one-on-one. However, it is really lonely to learn alone without classmates and friends. People around me are all colleagues; they have their work to do. And they will not have the problem or questions like I have. So, sometimes it is hard to communicate or discuss with them. I think there are advantages and disadvantages to study alone. I need to get used to this. Due to the one-on-one class, I don’t have regular time to have classes. It differs from other normal class. I have English, Russian and philosophy classes. Expect my philosophy class has stable time schedule; my Russian and English courses are flexible. I need to learn by myself. To most of people who study advanced level, it should be a normal thing that to study actively. For me, it is hard to learn Russian by myself. I like to learn with teacher and have a regular class and rule. In the past, I already accept Taiwan’s education for 25 years. I get used to this kind of education. We had regular time schedule to study and exam. I am passively to absorb knowledge what teacher teach and actively to review these knowledge. I seldom learn or study a new thing by myself. This attitude is not suitable for my situation now. Therefore, I need to change my attitude to actively learning.

Food

Of course, Russian food is totally different from Taiwan’s. Brown bread, potato, onion, meat and soup are the main dishes of Russian people. Taiwan’s main meals are rice, vegetables, tropical fruit and seafood. Due to the geographical position and climate, there are few vegetables and seafood in Tomsk. Most of Russian food is salty, so they will absolutely eat soup with brown bread. And they eat beef and mutton which most Taiwanese don’t eat because of the culture. Milk and cheese are cheaper than Taiwan. In Tomsk, they always roast meat with cheese. These are Russian style, and these are the food I eat every day in Tomsk. When you go into a new environment, you need to adopt everything. This is Russian style, so I will enjoy this style. Although I will occasionally miss Taiwan’s food, Russian food is tasty. When I miss the food, I will cook by myself or invite my Chinese friends to cook together.

Science

Russian is famous for military, aerospace, physics technology. Especially the infrastructures in Russia are strong.

People

People always said that Russian people look not easy to get alone. I am lucky. People around me are very nice people. They have patience, and they full of zeal. But these people are only limited in the range of universities and friends who I familiar with. It is really an awful feeling when people around you and laughing a lot; you really don’t exactly know what they are saying and get alone with them. It is lonely and sadly, but it a way that foreigner must been through. Most people will not notice that, but the people around me really care and concern my feeling. They either will translate what they are talking about or teach me few Russian words to let me understand. This behavior is warm for me. Outside of this environment I well-known, you need to be very independent. You need to be truly Russian, because no they will not have patient to hear or wait for you. Even you mention that you only know few Russian, and ask them to explain slowly or wait for you a little bit. The face of these people is not good looking. In my opinion, Russian is not a friendly country for foreigners. They do not have enough experience and preparation to accept diversity cultural in the world.