What Might Have Been
This evening I was reading the latest digest from a Slavic language/linguistics list I'm subscribed to and saw a posting about an opportunity to work as a cook for a Russian-language "cultural village" somewhere in Minnesota. It's apparently an intensive language/cultural immersion experience, perhaps similar to the summer language schools at Middlebury College. The cooks have an opportunity to participate in some of the activities of the village, although the language of kitchen operations is English, probably for health/safety reasons.
Still, reading about it filled me with an intense longing, a wish that the opportunity could've been available to me back in the late 1980's when I was studying Russian. I would've been earning money rather than spending money, which might have made it more palatable to my parents, but I still would've probably gotten a lot more living language experience than I got in the regular classroom -- and maybe it would've made the difference between being able to go on in my studies and having to give up my dream of becoming a scholar of Russian literature and go into other lines of study and work.
Now the most I can hope for is maybe in another lifetime...
Still, reading about it filled me with an intense longing, a wish that the opportunity could've been available to me back in the late 1980's when I was studying Russian. I would've been earning money rather than spending money, which might have made it more palatable to my parents, but I still would've probably gotten a lot more living language experience than I got in the regular classroom -- and maybe it would've made the difference between being able to go on in my studies and having to give up my dream of becoming a scholar of Russian literature and go into other lines of study and work.
Now the most I can hope for is maybe in another lifetime...