Russian culture is more oral than Australian and Canadian cultures. Until about five years ago university exams were all oral. Students would prepare on a number of topics before the exam. Then for their examination they would have to answer questions on just two or three of the topics, all orally. Russian culture has a higher degree of "oral residue" (a term coined by Walter J. Ong). This is because they have had writing and more specifically literature in their culture for a shorter period of time. Attitudes of western superiority may look down on this, but I personally think a strong sense of orality is a cultural asset.
Russians love to tell their kids all sorts of nursery rhymes (stiki) and fairytales (skazki). They have an extraordinary ability (compare to us brain damaged literates) to remember lengthy texts. When I think of our culture(s) I realise that we don't tell nursery rhymes or fairytales to our kids anymore. Our cultures have lost almost all or our oral residue, which I consider to be quite a sad thing. (But we are beginning to reinvent ourselves with new forms of post-literacy, which is a topic for another day.)
One of the ways that the oral residue of Russian culture rises to the surface is in poetry contests. Pushkin and Lermantov, Russia's first novelists, actually wrote a lot of poetry. In fact Russia's first novel 'Evgeni Oniegin', by Alexander Pushkin is written entirely in verse. Pushkin's mentor, Lomonosov (of whom Moscow's prestigious university is named after) only wrote verse. Poetry contests are common fare in the Russian education system. Every student has competed in them.
Of course as western English speakers, the vast majority of us are strangers to a poetry contest. When my teacher asked me to enter in one, I was hesitant. After practicing the first lengthy poem she put in front of me, I decided to reject it with a week and a half to go. She quickly came up with an alternative that was more to my liking. I ended up reciting (or as the Russians call it "reading", even though there is no paper involved; the reading is from memory) a poem by Afinasi Fed (a contemporary of Lev Tolstoy).
Somehow when I got up to perform the poem in front of 100+ students, I wasn't actually nervous. And this paid off because I finished second in the category "Russian language for foreign speakers."
My teacher swears by poetry. Apparently it will help my phraseology a lot. According to her, students who have taken on poetry memorisation have vastly improved in their Russian. Hey, I'm willing to give anything a shot. And I don't mind the odd stiki (verse(s)).
4 comments:
well done!
Verse is far easier to remember - it will help your grammar & whatever they call the relation of words to each other immensely! Through my mother, our lot have been heavily influenced by A. A. Milne (winny the poo), the style & metre, & also Banjo Patterson (Dad) & one of my sisters & I 'Paradise Lost' (John Milton). Our speech & composition are heavily affected, and we consider it part of our cultural heritage. This same, or similar 'groove' can be found in Beatrix Potter, old sea shanties, nursery rhymes, Lewis Caroll (Alice in Wonderland, etc). Enjoy it! Its a real insight into a (large) part of their mind (especially through content also).
It's true that the art of story telling has sadly been lost to a great extent. There are a few relics I think though. The children love the fairy tales of 3 little pigs, goldilocks and little red riding hood. I wonder whether russians tire of telling them repeatedly as much as I do. ;) Another thing the kids love to hear are stories of my childhood. I remember loving hearing the ones of my parents' childhoods and would often ask for these in lieu of bedtime stories. I hope that in many homes this kind of practice still continues.
I often tell Zephyr stories about my life and the lives of other people in our family. I think it's a bit like Aboriginal Dreaming, especially when landscape and story are connected.
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