Elena

by Phil Houseal, as published in the Community Journal (Kerrville TX) and Hill Country Weekly (Boerne TX) Dec 16, 2009

When I walked into the HEB Floral Shop to buy flowers for my wife for her birthday, I never expected to find an epiphany.

I was window shopping in the flower cooler, bewildered by the array of arrangements, when a young smiling clerk approached and asked what I needed.

She had a slight accent that was unusual for central Texas. When I explained the occasion of my wife’s birthday, she smiled bigger and said, “Then you don’t want these, you want these!”

She placed her hand on my arm, and gently but firmly “guided” me to the next cooler, holding the more elaborate vases. I stopped looking at flowers and instead turned my attention to this obviously confident salesperson.

I had to ask: “I notice by your accent you are not from around here.”

“No,” she admitted. “I am from Russia, and was adopted by a local family.”

A light snapped on. “Do you live in Stonewall?” I asked cautiously.

Now it was her turn to be surprised. She nodded yes.

“And you came here about 10 years ago?” Again she nodded. “I know you,” I said.

It was around 2001 that Galina Hopkins taught a Russian language class for Club Ed. I was surprised at the interest in learning the language here in the hills of Texas, so far from the steppes of Russia.

I particularly remember one lady from Stonewall who signed up. She and her husband were in the process of adopting a child from Russia, and were anxious to learn the language. There was no better place than in Galina’s class. The Ukraine native not only taught conjugation and tense, she taught her native culture. During class, that room filled with music, dance, and the smells of food from Russia. We were regularly called in to sample borscht, sweets, and songs.

That family completed the lessons and the adoption. I remember the day they brought in their beautiful daughter, who was around age 11. Though she could not yet speak English, she communicated her joy and curiosity with bright eyes and beaming smiles.

It was those smiles that I recognized 10 years later in HEB. Elena is now a young woman who had obviously learned not only the language, but had turned the tables and used her marketing skills on me.

Of course I chose the better flower arrangement. As Elena pulled the item from the cooler, her selling was not finished. “Naturally, you want a balloon to go with this.” It was not a question. It was a statement. “You will find the birthday balloons in this section,” she said, gesturing to a rack beside her. By the time we finished the transaction, she had also sold me a card and gift wrapping.

I never so enjoyed being “sold.”

I also enjoyed seeing yet another way that lifelong learning weaves its way through our lives. One never knows how a bit of knowledge picked up can have repercussions decades later. Club Ed literally touches and changes lives, in ways we can never know.

But on this day in the floral department of HEB, I was glad to see another unexpected wave started from a ripple in Club Ed.

XXX

The new spring Club Ed classes are now online at www.clubed.net! Catalog mailed after Christmas. For information or to sign up, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.

Club Ed is the Community Education program of the Kerrville Independent School District. Each year, we offer more than 400 classes throughout the Texas Hill Country, along with online courses, business and individual training, and after-school and summer camps. Comment online at clubedcomments.blogspot.com, or follow us on Twitter @clubedtx.

Ni hao! (nee-Ha-OW - that is hello in Chinese)

Published in the Community Journal (Kerrville TX) August 19, 2008

Those whose interest in the Far East is rising as a result of the Beijing Olympics can add to that knowledge with Club Ed. Next spring we are sponsoring a trip to China, and this fall you can start working on the language by taking Chinese Language.

Tatiana Authement teaches both Chinese and Russian. Tatiana is a native of Moscow, and spent time teaching and living in China, where she participated in a historic first I'll share later. So along with language instruction, she plans to pull back the Iron Curtain to give westerners a glimpse into daily life in the former Soviet Union.

And what a life. Tatiana's parents were dissidents, who actually met while held in one of the gulags. When Stalin died in 1953, the government released her parents.

Both were theater producers, so Tatiana grew up surrounded by artists, actors, and performing troupes that put on local productions.

"We would travel to peasant villages, and give little shows with singing, playing, and comedy," she recalled. Her father directed these shows, which were approved by the communist party line. But it was a way to spread culture to her countrymen. Young Tatiana was often cast in these local productions.

"I was performing bad characters mostly," she explained. "I was always the mischievous one - I played the witch types that went flying across the stage."

She eventually enrolled in Moscow University, and studied International business relations and the Chinese language.

In 1989 she traveled to China, where her life took an unexpected turn and she made a bit of history. Tatiana never particularly wanted to come to the United States, but she met and fell in love with an American. Both the U..S. and Soviet embassies in China refused to marry them, so they were married in a Chinese courthouse by Chinese officials. It was the first marriage between an American and a Soviet citizen ever performed in China.

Tatiana has lived in Texas since 1994. She finds most Americans to be very curious about Russia, but not always informed.

"People ask all sorts of questions about my life," she said. "The everyday stuff interests them. They know about Tchaikovsky and Dostoyevsky, but they don't know what the Russian people are like."

She finds many Americans hold onto stereotypes of Russian people left over from the cold war.

"People say to me, 'You can't be Russian... you don't look like a Russian!'"

To help educate us, Tatiana promises to add in a bit about the culture as well as the basics of the language.

"We have this great soul," she said. "Things like our little traditions and superstitions. If you don't know them, you can't understand us."

She acknowledges that one cannot expect to learn any language in six lessons. But she promises that students will have a better understanding of the culture and even be able to read a sentence or two. She does promise two things: "It will not be boring. And there will be no propaganda!"

XXX

Tatiana will teach Chinese starting Sept 16 at 1 p.m., and Russian starting Sept 16 at 3 p.m. The trip to China leaves in April, 2009, with a free information session set for Tuesday evening, October 21 at the Auld Center.

To learn more about these and hundreds of other lifelong learning classes starting this fall, call 830-895-4386, or visit www.clubed.net.