Gail Monds
asked
Tim Tigner:
Are you fluent in any languages other than Russian and English? Did you do a study abroad in college? When you worked and taught classes in the various foreign countries mentioned, did you teach the classes in English?
Tim Tigner
I'll give you the long answer. I have quite a history with languages. I love them, but they don't love me. My brain is naturally more skewed toward math and science.
The language I took in high school was Latin, but then I spent half my Jr. year of HS in Lisbon Portugal, going to the American School. That included studying Portuguese, where my kind teacher wrote on my report card "Tim is doing fine with Portuguese, but he has problems with his reading, writing, and speaking." A good summary of my talent.
I spent the summer after my sophomore year in college backing through Greece on a philosophy scholarship from the Richter Foundation, but didn't pick up any Greek in the process.
After those experiences abroad, I wanted to work abroad, but was worried about my language deficiency. That, in large part, contributed to my decision to join the Army to work in Soviet Counterintelligence in Green Berets, as the training would include a year of intense Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey CA. DLI has very high attrition rates, and I had to work like never before to graduate, but I did.
A few years later, I went on to get a MA in International Studies a the University of Pennsylvania, with focus on Russia. That included two summers in Moscow. (Rather than the ivy league education, i must admit that It was chasing Russian women that finally made me fluent.) I ultimately lived a total of seven years in Moscow.
As part of my first job out of graduate school, I spent a summer in Germany. I then went on to run a German company in Russia for three years. During that time I became mildly conversant in German, enough to chair meetings in that language. Later in my career, I lived in Belgium for a few years, during which I became very mildly conversant in French, enough to crank out one speech before my team in France. But now I remember very little German or French.
By tackling my weakest link head on, I've come to love language, and I think that intense struggle helped to round-out my brain. I speak Russian at home in California. My wife is Russian -- a math professor, and the basis for the Katya character in the Achilles series -- and my daughters are both bilingual. My mother-in-law also lives with us. I'm hoping to begin spending summers abroad, giving my daughters (now 5 and 11) the opportunity to absorb additional languages and cultures, and gain a deep-seated understanding of just how privileged we are to be living where we do, when we do.
All that said, as a writer I still constantly struggle with grammar. I think with my ears, and misspell and mis-punctuate accordingly. Fortunately, I have lots of friends kindly willing to correct me.
Thanks for your interest, Gail.
The language I took in high school was Latin, but then I spent half my Jr. year of HS in Lisbon Portugal, going to the American School. That included studying Portuguese, where my kind teacher wrote on my report card "Tim is doing fine with Portuguese, but he has problems with his reading, writing, and speaking." A good summary of my talent.
I spent the summer after my sophomore year in college backing through Greece on a philosophy scholarship from the Richter Foundation, but didn't pick up any Greek in the process.
After those experiences abroad, I wanted to work abroad, but was worried about my language deficiency. That, in large part, contributed to my decision to join the Army to work in Soviet Counterintelligence in Green Berets, as the training would include a year of intense Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey CA. DLI has very high attrition rates, and I had to work like never before to graduate, but I did.
A few years later, I went on to get a MA in International Studies a the University of Pennsylvania, with focus on Russia. That included two summers in Moscow. (Rather than the ivy league education, i must admit that It was chasing Russian women that finally made me fluent.) I ultimately lived a total of seven years in Moscow.
As part of my first job out of graduate school, I spent a summer in Germany. I then went on to run a German company in Russia for three years. During that time I became mildly conversant in German, enough to chair meetings in that language. Later in my career, I lived in Belgium for a few years, during which I became very mildly conversant in French, enough to crank out one speech before my team in France. But now I remember very little German or French.
By tackling my weakest link head on, I've come to love language, and I think that intense struggle helped to round-out my brain. I speak Russian at home in California. My wife is Russian -- a math professor, and the basis for the Katya character in the Achilles series -- and my daughters are both bilingual. My mother-in-law also lives with us. I'm hoping to begin spending summers abroad, giving my daughters (now 5 and 11) the opportunity to absorb additional languages and cultures, and gain a deep-seated understanding of just how privileged we are to be living where we do, when we do.
All that said, as a writer I still constantly struggle with grammar. I think with my ears, and misspell and mis-punctuate accordingly. Fortunately, I have lots of friends kindly willing to correct me.
Thanks for your interest, Gail.
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