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Since 1965, Russian has drawn students
(by Sue Hoffman - December 03, 2010)
Since 1965, Russian has drawn students
By SUE HOFFMAN
With all the choices of foreign languages today, Russian continues to draw large numbers of students in the Kenston School District.
"We have the biggest program in the state," Russian teacher Ted Krejsa said last week, with more than 350 students in the middle school and high school studying the language and culture. The district offers five years of Russian at the high school and Russian 1 at the middle school.
"Eighth-graders have received high school credit for Russian 1 for a few years now," Mr. Krejsa said. This year, for the first time, the middle school is offering the study of Russian 1 as a two-year course in seventh and eighth grades, he said. Jennifer Subbotin is teaching that course and a nine-week exploring Russian class for sixth-graders, as well as geometry. Mr. Krejsa is teaching the last group of eighth-graders who are studying Russian 1 as a one-year course in addition to all of the high school students.
Both Mr. Krejsa and Mrs. Subbotin studied Russian at Kenston with William O'Neil, who started the district's Russian program in 1965. They traveled with him twice to the former Soviet Union in high school and continued their language studies and travels to Russia while in college.
Now in his 17th year of teaching, Mr. Krejsa is getting ready to take his seventh group of Kenston students to Russia during spring break. He plans to co-lead the trip with Mr. O'Neil, who came out of retirement to start and teach a Russian program at St. Vincent-St. Mary School in Akron.
Combining the trip with St. Vincent-St. Mary helps with the costs, Mr. Krejsa said. "It's also a better idea to have two Russian-speaking adults with travel experience leading the group."
The study of Russian continues to inspire students like Christian Carter, a junior who was designated as Russian Scholar Laureate by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. He had been nominated by Mr. Krejsa.
Christian said, after taking a half year of exploratory Russian in middle school, he had to decide on the language he would pursue. His older brother and neighbors who had studied Russian recommended it.
"The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to study Russian. I wanted to branch out into something that we aren't as familiar with,"
Christian said. "Russia is the largest country in land area, and Russian is one of the top languages spoken in the world. They're going to become one of the major economies in the world - you can't ignore something like that."
Christian said he loves studying different languages and cultures. Since his family is from Sweden, he also is studying Swedish so that he can converse through Skype with his cousins who still live there. He also has found a student from Russia to talk to online.
A lifeguard in the summer at the Chagrin Valley Athletic Club, Christian said his knowledge of Russian comes in handy in conversing with a couple of families from Russia. When the children are in the water, he gives them commands in Russian.
As far as the study of Russian, Christian said learning the 33-letter Cyrillic alphabet is not especially difficult. He plans on taking a fifth year of the language next year and including it in future college studies.
Mr. O'Neil and his students recently visited Mr. Krejsa's class at Kenston to hear about employment opportunities with the Russian language from representatives from the Ohio State University.
"Any career you can think of can use a foreign language," Mr. Krejsa said.
Several of his students have gone on to use Russian in their careers, including Jesse Menefee, who is working on a Ph.D. in the subject, Mr. Krejsa said. Their careers include using the Russian language in the nonprofit sector, law and consulting work, among others.
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