In the beginning of September, 2010 Irkutsk American Corner had the opportunity to have a Fulbrighter Kendall Krawchuk.

Kendall helped us during the whole year (which is quite a rare occasion because almost all the Fulbrighters are extremely busy and not always available on a regular basis). At first we decided to have a monthly meetings with Kendall in our Corner. She was eager to know more interesting Russian people and we arranged discussions on varoius topics. Mostly Kendall talked and the audience listened – there is not so much information here about America, their way of living and other common questions.

Kendall helped us a great deal in telling about her country. She shared her photoes with us and interesting stories about her native city. Having her internship in our Linguistic University, Kendall suggested that we should try having English Club – on a weekly basis. So, we enrolled people who would wish to practice their language skills with a native speaker and in spring we started our lessons. Those lessons were educational and fun for the patrons. We discussed a grerat range of topics – it was so easy to overcome the language barrier with such a teacher as Kendall. She is very social and friendly and easy-going. At first, it was her who did the most of the talking. But after a couple of lessons, when everybody got to know each other better, people just get so communicative.

The pleasant fact was that we not only had pure Russian audience here. There were people from Kirgistan and Buryatia, people who didn’t have Russian nationality (there were some Mongol and Chinese international students who participated in our events).

On the 7th of June we are havind our last meeting with Kendall. She is going to tell us about her year in Russia and in Irkutsk in particular. She promised to talk about her impressions of the city and the people, the difficulties she tried to overcome while staying here all by herself, with no one to help her, the language hindrance, the people’s reaction when they found out that she is American, etc.

I would like to thank Kendall on her great help and constant desire to participate in the Corner’s Events, for she did not refuse me once.