Two Tongues

So I just returned from visiting Crasnoarmeiscoe, a Russian village in the central part of the country (try saying the name just once, it was a real hoot trying to buy tickets at the bus station). There is another volunteer stationed there, and we gathered to celebrate her birthday over the weekend. She is one of a handful of volunteers who is trained in Russian rather than Romanian, conducting her classes and activities in the former national language. A good time was had by all, and despite the language juggling, we all were largely able to communicate with her friends and family.

Many times in Moldova I have been annoyed by the language barriers I encounter, despite the fact that I have been trained to at least stumble along in the “state language”. Typically my frustrations arise going into town to go shopping or visit the post office. More than once I have had to beg a stranger to help me translate what in the world the Russian post office lady is saying. It is also common at the piata (pronounced piatza) to have the vendors shout across the rows to ask someone to translate into “Moldovski” for me. Most everyone understands basic Romanian here, but not everyone is willing to speak it. There is a large anti-Russian sentiment among the Moldovans because of this, not only for years of occupation, but for the simple fact that Russians who have lived here in country for 20-30 years still refuse to learn or use Romanian. Logically for them, why should they...everyone speaks Russian, why learn another tongue? Since Moldova was a part of the USSR, most affairs were conducted in the “international language”. Russian nepotism kept Moldovans out of public office, and even low level government jobs were handed to Russian immigrants rather than Moldovans, and the problem worsened. Eventually this meant that any interaction with government or business services was conducted in Russian. Thus making the language a de facto necessity for residents of the republic. Thus today, everybody speaks Russian, and depending on where you live, people also speak Romanian, Turkish, & Ukrainian. My “host brother” is nearly qudralingual at age 13.

Why then are 90% of Peace Corps volunteers here trained in Romanian? Because as an nod to the Romanian ancestry of many of the country’s residents, the “Moldovan” language was re-Latinized from it’s standing Cyrillic form shortly after the country gained it’s independence (early 90s). Thus not so tacitly acknowledging the fact that Moldovans actually spoke a dialect of Romanian, a fact staunchly denied by Russian lingual scholars for many years. This was part of a USSR campaign to build a Moldovan identity apart from Romania, and further integrate Moldova into the USSR.

There is literally a 200-page book written on the subject of language and nation building in this part of the world, but I will dispense with the history lesson.

The closest US analogy that I can draw is in the south, and the rise of Spanglish in Florida, Texas, California, and other border states. This subtle mixing of two languages that eventually makes it so that the speakers forget which tongue they are using, and universally adopt the easier or perhaps more melodious version of a word for permanent usage. There are also some concepts that are easier to describe in another language, as there may be something that does not have a direct translation. Volunteers here frequently speak in Rom-English when we are together, mostly I feel because many of the words we use every day are strictly expressed in Romanian, and we find we have easier access to the vocabulary when speaking rapidly. I also find that I may go months without expressing a certain concept in English, or may have only used the Romanian version since I arrived in country. This being my first opportunity to really be immersed in a language, I am continually surprised that I don’t “translate” in my head; I merely accept the word meanings as concepts and do not hunt for their English equals.

Something similar happens with Moldovans, except that they speak Rom-Russ. Many folks don’t even realize that they are speaking in Russian until I inform them that I can’t understand a word that they are saying. In other cases people simply don’t know the Romanian word for things. I had to teach my fifth graders the Romanian word for cheese, and quite frequently my host mother/Romanian tutor sheepishly admits that she only knows how to say certain things in Russian, and she is a Romanian language and literature teacher.

I used to feel great pride in the fact that people assumed that I was from Romania, not America, foolishly believing my language and pronunciation had advanced beyond toddler stage. I now realize though, that people assume this because I speak in Romanian, not Moldovan (Rom-Russ), using Romanian accents, grammar, and vocab. The difference is so profound in my village that my program manager gave me a mandate to study language more, not because I was doing particularly bad, but because she felt it would be one of the few opportunities for my students to hear correct Romanian grammar (talk about pressure).

So onward with language we all plunge, hoping to get to the point where we don’t have to think to talk (there has got to be a jab at a certain US leader in that last phrase), and also to get to the point were we can start learning Russian as well. Not only because I want to be able to go to the post office sans escort, but because it would be nice to know just how rude my 8^th graders are being sometimes, and whether or not the lady selling bread told me to have a nice day or to go jump off a cliff (even polite Russian sounds mean to the untrained ear).

*Footnote – Crasnoarmeiscoe is a Latin alphabet translation of the Russian words for “Red Army”.......who thinks there might still be a Russian influence here????