I may be the only certified public high school Russian language teacher within the Star-Telegram's delivery radius. In fact, I may be one of only a handful in the entire state. Yet I'll bet the majority of folks reading this, including you, know someone who has some connection with Russian, either by name or by vocation (most likely academic or military).
When I meet people at social events, the exchange of niceties inevitably includes, "So what do you do?" When I tell them I teach Russian, nearly every time the response is, "You teach what?", followed by something along the lines of "Is there a need for that language in Texas?"And while I could whip out my hip-pocket litany of reasons for why "Yes!" is the correct answer, I simply smile and nod.I have been associated with the Russian language for about 30 years. Upon my retirement from the Navy with a bachelor's degree in Russian, I took a teaching job as an English-as-a-second-language teacher at Mansfield High School in 2001. The principal who hired me was a man named Jerry Kirby, a forward-thinking, global-minded educator who allowed me to recruit for an inaugural Russian elective class in the spring of 2004.After the success of that initial course offering, I got certified the following fall and did everything I could to promote the benefits of the Russian language to Texas high school kids and their parents.While I have had kids in every level since then, from first-year through Advanced Placement, it's not always been easy to convince folks in these parts that Russian is a viable -- necessary -- language (and culture) for fostering global citizenship. Texas, mind you, is a state where bilingual means fluency in English and Spanish.During a parent night in 2005, the father of one boy eager to take Russian approached me and asked (not at all jokingly), "Why should I let my son take a commie language like that?"The ghosts of the Cold War still haunt some people, I guess.The state's largest Russian-language newspaper, Our Texas, claims a readership of 90 million. According to the 2000 Census, more than 15,000 households in Dallas and Tarrant counties listed Russian as the first language, and of the 20 non-English languages spoken most widely at home, the largest proportional increase was Russian. In 2010, Russian replaced Tagalog as an official census language.In January 2007, while serving as a pastor-intern, I led a first-ever Lutheran worship service (in this area, anyway) in the Russian language, and since then about four dozen individual Russian speakers have visited. And this is a church in southwest Arlington. I'm certain there are probably a few Russian speakers in and around your neighborhood, too.There are many reasons to learn Russian, especially here in Texas. Our state is attracting more and more Russian speakers every day, people in need of a doctor, insurance agent, lawyer, mechanic, etc., who can communicate with them. To my teenage students this need translates into money. An employee with a second language opens up another customer base; a young person who speaks Russian -- even in Texas -- is potentially more marketable than the person who doesn't.Yes, I teach Russian. And as I told the aforementioned dad, it's the only language in high school in which it's culturally acceptable (in the right context) for a student to tell the teacher to "go to h---."That reason alone must have sold him, because I had his son in my class the very next year!E.B. Holschuh III of Arlington is a member of the 2011 Star-Telegram Community Columnist Panel. ebholschuh@gmail.comHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
