АРХИВ

On October 22, 2005 at St. Michael's Lutheran Church (9201 Nirmandale Blvd., Bloomington, MN) World Voices hosted a multicultural festival with ethnic musicians and dances, children games and cultural displays.

Russian Educational Center is always happy to participate in such events. It gives our organization a chance to educate Minnesota community about Russian history and culture, learn from other cultures and, what's most important, to make new friends.

World Voices is a music ensemble of voices and world instruments from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It is a non-profit organization governed by a Board of members and audience.

At each of its concert, World Voices focuses on the music of a particular culture or region of the world.

"Thank you so much for the beautiful display! The dances and the children activities for our festival. It was such a great addition. I think the crown making was a huge hit with the little girls... Good luck to you..."

At the time, the idea of creating a Russian school in the United States seemed like an impossible dream to Victoria Sermiagina. But six years ago, her ESL teacher encouraged all the students to practice their English by writing a composition. The topic: Describe your ultimate dream.

"It can be an unbelievable dream," the ESL teacher told the class. "Don't worry if it seems impossible. Just write about it."

Sermiagina found that old composition recently. Her impossible dream was to open a Russian school. But now nearly six years later, she's realized her dream.

The nonprofit center began this summer at Eden Prairie High School, offering Russian language instruction to youth. Its subsequent popularity among the local Russian population prompted its organizers to expand its offerings.

The center will provide classes and activities to help children learn about and appreciate their Russian heritage, language and culture. Russian language class is also offered to Americans who are interested in the language for their own enrichment or for their work.

The small girl

Sermiagina, a native of Moscow, came to the United States in 1990 with her husband, who was going to attend a university in Washington State.

"I thought my life would end there," Sermiagina said. Frightened and unable to speak English, Sermiagina spent her initial time isolated and afraid to leave her home. But eventually, she met some of her neighbors who took her under their wing. She was known as "the small girl," as she is less than 5 feet tall, and has youthful looks.

Unlike the Twin Cities, their Washington State community didn't have a Russian community. During their three-year stay there, she continued to be surprised and amused that despite the Cold War being over, there were still lots of people who were afraid of Russians.

"Is it OK if I touch you?" Sermiagina remembers one person asking after meeting her. She laughed at the recollection.

She volunteered at a local church's store. "Then my life started," Sermiagina said, "and I stopped being afraid." She learned English through a local international club. Eventually, the Sermiaginas moved to Chicago, then to the Twin Cities six years ago. That's when she took her ESL program and was prompted to write down her dream.

Several years ago, Sermiagina met Maria Luzhansky, another Russian immigrant, at a local Russian ballet school where their children take dance. The women became friends and they would often talk about ways they could supplement their children's American education with Russian language, culture and traditions. It's important for children to know their heritage and roots, they felt.

More than a year ago, they decided they should go ahead and start a nonprofit organization that could provide such classes and activities.

"We thought, "We're smart enough to do it ourselves,"" Sermiagina said. They learned about organizing a nonprofit by accessing information through research and online. They wrote a series of letters and phoned public officials including those in Eden Prairie and even to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, asking for their support of the center, Sermiagina said. They made presentations to the Eden Prairie City Council, Rotary Club and local schools.

Last summer, they offered a Russian language class using a classroom at Eden Prairie High School.

"Let's see if people will come," the women told themselves. They had 30 students who enrolled and convinced Sermiagina and Luzhansky they were meeting a welcomed service.

Their campaign to garner civic support was successful and the city of Eden Prairie agreed to lease them space in the city's senior center building. The center opened on Sept. 13.

Talented volunteers

The education center draws on a number of talented volunteers. One of the teachers is Yelena Sukhova of Eden Prairie.

Sukhova, originally from the Ukraine, attended university in Kiev and graduated with a degree in science. Sukhova is the center's director of the Russian Language committee, in charge of creating the methodics, curriculum for the center. She hopes to teach science classes at the educational center in the future, drawing on her extensive science background.

In the Ukraine, Sukhova taught fifth- and sixth-grade science, and later genetics to 11th- and 12th-graders. In the three years before moving to the United States, she was a high school administrator.

Currently, she works at Eden Lake Elementary School where she first began as an ESL assistant working with a number of Russian speaking children, and now works with special education students.

Love of a family legend

Kirby Petersen teaches the ESL classes. She's Eden Prairie High School alumni, and a recent graduate of Columbia University in New York City where she majored in Russian history.

Petersen became enamored of everything Russian after learning about her family's romantic legend, that they are related to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark as well as distant relatives of the Nicholas and Alexandra, the last czar and czarina of Russia.

Imperial Russia is such a fascinating story, Petersen said. She took Russian at EPHS, and continued studying the language in college. After graduating from Columbia last spring, she returned to Eden Prairie where she currently works in a downtown Minneapolis law firm. In the meantime, she's taking a year off to apply to law schools around the country. Eventually she would like to practice immigration law.

She became involved with the center when she read about the summer Russian language program at EPHS. She called to volunteer her services and her ability to speak English and Russian.

Eventually, Petersen hopes to fulfill a romantic longtime dream of traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Embracing newcomers

Last Saturday, the aroma of homemade Russian apple pierogies, which resemble turnovers, filled the senior center. In addition to pierogies, there were small open-faced sandwiches and sliced apples, placed on the table in the center's kitchen.

Seated in the basement meeting room outside the kitchen, was a small group of adults and one child. They were making arrangements to provide intensive English language tutoring for 9-year-old Anastasia Serdyuk, to ease her transition to Eden Lake Elementary School.

Anastasia and her mother Inna Serdyuk have only just arrived in the U.S. Their plane arrived at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport the previous Thursday at 6 p.m. In two weeks, Inna will marry her American fiancé, Scott Collins of Eden Prairie.

Maria Luzhansky, the president of the center's board of directors, pointed out that it's this type of outreach that the Russian Educational Center plans to continue. In addition to helping Russian immigrants with English, providing culture and language courses for children, the center will also be a resource for Americans such as adoptive parents.

Luzhansky related stories of local parents who've adopted Russian children. Often the children will be toddlers, already speaking Russian. It hasn't been unusual for her to get a phone call from an adoptive parent.

"Can you speak to our child? We don't know what he or she is saying? We don't know what they mean," the parents will say.

Sermiagina said that the center is happy to provide support to adoptive parents, especially as the number of Russian adoptees has increased over the years.

Sermiagina, Luzhansky and Sukhova believe that the center will provide a valuable resource for all residents, Russian or not.

"(Russian) kids feel they are belonging to something," Sermiagina said. "When they come here, they feel pride. They learn to speak the Russian language, and they can teach their friends."

Unsie Zuege is a staff writer for the Chanhassen Villager. She can be reached at uzuege@ swpub.com, or by calling 345-6473.

Russian immersion

What: Russian Educational Center of Minnesota

Where: 8950 Eden Prairie Road (EP Senior Center)

When: Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

What: The center offers youth and adult classes in Russian language, Russian culture including art and literature, and English as a Second Language. Students pay a monthly fee to cover the rent, books and educational materials. Teachers are all volunteers from the local community.

How: For more information, contact Victoria Sermiagina at 833-0946 or visit the Web site: www.studyrussian.org.

The students, ranging in age from 8 to 12, gathered around the dry-erase board to write their names in Russian.

"Hey! No stinking boys allowed!" shrieked one girl.

Maria Luzhansky rang a hand bell, and the pupils sat at their desks in an Eden Prairie High School classroom.

From that moment on, every word of their conversation except some hard-to-translate concepts such as "Freaky Friday" and "Chanhassen Dinner Theatre" was in Russian.

Luzhansky is president of the board of directors of the 4-month-old Russian Educational Center, based in Eden Prairie.

"The parents came from Russia, the children went to kindergarten, and of course, it became easier for the children to speak English," Luzhansky said. "We want the children to know their heritage."

Svetlana Mshar, who teaches the third-level class entirely in Russian, said, "Many of the children know English better than Russian, but they are bilingual."

Most are the children of immigrants from Russia or other nations that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Most speak English at home, though some, such as Lana Danilova"s 7-year-old son, Thomas Serdioukov, have spoken both Russian and English from earliest childhood.

Danilova, who reads a Russian-language newspaper while her son takes second-level Russian classes, said her dearest hope is that Thomas will be able to use Russian when he speaks to his relatives in Russia.
Since his preschool years, Thomas picked up English from television and day care, and starting losing his Russian skills, she said.
"We decided he would not only need to understand [his parents], but to speak and write and express himself freely in Russian," Danilova said.

Luzhansky said children with Russian-speaking parents are sometimes ashamed of their parents" accented English.
In her family, the center has succeeded in its goal of making the children proud of the Russian language.
Last year in third grade, her 9-year-old daughter, Leah, elatedly told her mother that she had spoken Russian to her teacher.

But children with Russian-speaking parents aren't the only ones who participate in the center"s educational activities.
Luzhansky said the center is also a resource for families that would like to adopt, or have already adopted, a child from one of the former Soviet states.
Anyone traveling to one of these nations, she said, needs to know at least some Russian, and get some insight into the workings of the nations' customs, laws and adoption procedures.
Russian-speaking children who are adopted by English-speaking parents benefit greatly from forming friendships with other children who speak Russian, she said.
Danilova agreed. "I think they have a difficult time, and it's good for them to have kids around who speak the old language while they adapt to the new society and new parents."

In the third-level proficiency classroom, every activity is done in Russian.
The students keep a journal in Russian.
They play Russian word games.
And, they keep track of their progress in a booklet decorated to look like a Russian passport – which the teacher stamps each week, not with customs stamps but baby animals and cartoon characters.

Luzhansky said the children are not the only ones who learn from the Russian Educational Center.
Her children, Leah and Igor, help her improve her English.
"These kids are different from other kids," she said, "because they speak and think in two different languages."

For more information, visit the center's Web site at www.studyrussian.org, or call Program Director Victoria Anatolyevna at 952-833-0946