Using My Russian Skills

A decade ago, I started the long and difficult process of learning Russian.  We were living in Dushanbe the first time, and had already lived in Azerbaijan (where a lot of Russian is spoken) for the previous two years.  Brandon had recommended that I learn Russian, but I was resistant.  Life was busy, I was lazy, and learning Russian didn't sound like it would be any kind of enjoyable (spoiler alert: it wasn't).

But when we moved to Dushanbe, I finally got a tutor for the kids's school and reluctantly attended the three times a week hour-long sessions.  I spend three years learning Russian in Dushanbe and continued in Tashkent.  After three years more in Tashkent, I declared myself workably functional in Russian, and quit to spend more time painting.

When we were bidding on posts after Tashkent, we originally thought to get out of the region, as two posts in Central Asia is enough for most people.  But when we started looking around at other places, I realized that moving somewhere else meant that I was going to have to learn yet another language, starting again from scratch.  

After spending six years making it to functionally workable Russian, it was awfully nice to be able to get around all by myself and get stuff done without having to panic, ask for help, or resort to my phone for translation help.  I could read all the labels at the grocery store.  When someone asked me a question, I could not only understand what they were saying, I could also answer back (even if it wasn't gramatically correct, it was understandable).  I could hold a conversation, even if it was basic.  All of those skills make living in a foreign country a lot more doable.  You aren't constrained by your lack of language ability, and so you're not restricted to activities that limit your language interactions.  It's very freeing.

So instead we bid on Astana.  Astana, the second coldest capital in the world, was always on my anywhere-but-there-list.  However, when push came to shove, it turned out that my desire to avoid living in a country where I couldn't speak the language was greater than my desire to avoid living in a place that is below freezing for a third of the year.  

And after we were done with Astana, it made sense to just keep going with the whole Russian-speaking theme, so we bid on Dushanbe.  Because if you've done Tajikistan once, you can do it again - especially when they're paying you a whole lot of money to do it again.

Having done Dushanbe once with no Russian (gradually transitioning to very rudimentary Russian) and now doing Dushanbe with workable Russian, I must say that it's a whole lot easier to get things done when you can speak Russian, even if it is with incorrect cases and miming to fill in the blanks.  

When I got an orthodontist recommendation from a friend who has lived here for almost a decade, I didn't have to ask if he spoke English.  And when I went to the first appointment and he didn't speak English, I was able to have a functional conversation about orthodontic treatment, x-rays, and timelines all in Russian.

When we had to get x-rays at another clinic, I was able to get registered, pay for (thank heaven now for all of those painful drills with numbers), and follow the instructions at the dental clinic.  

I borrowed my friend's driver - who only speaks Russian and Tajik - this week to go and buy plants.  I was able to have conversations about the costs of plants, borrowing money, repotting plants, whether or not prices were reasonable, and what kind of plants I was looking for.

When I went to another plant shop, I was able to conduct all of my business talking about plants, choosing plants, discussing discounts, where my car was parked, and having to return to pay more money because I didn't have enough (it turns out that houseplants here are very expensive) in Russian - and I didn't even get flustered.  

We've hired a gardener to turn our clay-soil weed patch into grass, and he also speaks only Russian.  We've had lots of conversations about various things he has needed to get, how much it costs, when he'll be back, how to take care of the newly planted grass seed, and various other things around the yard.

It has been incredibly helpful to be able to speak Russian.  I will never sound amazing, and the finer points of what everyone is saying will probably always be lost to me, but my language skills let me get the job done.  And being able to get the job done has made my life here a lot easier, which is a nice thing to have when you're living in Dushanbe.