March 30, 2004
The following is a letter from one of my best students, to my seventh grade pen pal class in America. I hope you don’t mind his grammar mistakes.
Dear seventh grade class,
Hi! My name is Mirbek. I am 11th grade at the Chaldovar School Gymnasium. I’m 16 years old. My favourite subject in school English.
I am exciting to read all your’s letters, because you are interested about Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyz people. Also, you are interested about Kyrgyz cultures. I can tell you all this with pleasure. Kyrgyzstan is a tiny, but is not industry country. In the Kyrgyzstan there are 7 oblast. Oblast is like state, but is smaller than state. As you know Kyrgyzstans population nearly 5 million. Maybe you are interested Kyrgyz people what kind of person. We have black hair, black eyes and black eyebrows. In our country 98 per cent of people educated, but we have some problems with education. In the Kyrgyzstan there are different nationalities. And Kyrgyz people can speak with different languages. For example: Kyrgyz, Russia, Uzbek, Kazakh, English, Japan, Chinese, French and many other languages. For Kyrgyz people very dear food is Beshbarmak. Beshbarmak means five finger, because this food we eat with our 5 finger. It means we don’t use spoons for this food. I don’t know how you think, but Beshbarmak for Kyrgyz people is more important food. Also we eat different countries foods. In the Kyrgyzstan there are many countries restaurants (Chinese’s, American’s, French’s, Germany’s and many others.) Every day Kyrgyz people 4 times in a day drink tea with bread. We are sometimes drink coffee. We have national clothes, but we are cloth modern clothes like you.
You ask in Kyrgyzstan is there enough water? It is interesting and funny question for me. In our country we have so much water. Even in our village there are 1000 spring waters. Therefore our village’s name is Ming Bulak. Ming –Bulak means 1000 spring waters. In our oblast we have long river Talas. In Kyrgyzstan there are many long rivers. With water we don’t have any problems.
If you are want to get more information, please write to me and you may write and ask anything you want! Sorry for my mistakes.
Sincerely,
Mirbek Rahmatildeev
The following is a letter from one of my best students, to my seventh grade pen pal class in America. I hope you don’t mind his grammar mistakes.
Dear seventh grade class,
Hi! My name is Mirbek. I am 11th grade at the Chaldovar School Gymnasium. I’m 16 years old. My favourite subject in school English.
I am exciting to read all your’s letters, because you are interested about Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyz people. Also, you are interested about Kyrgyz cultures. I can tell you all this with pleasure. Kyrgyzstan is a tiny, but is not industry country. In the Kyrgyzstan there are 7 oblast. Oblast is like state, but is smaller than state. As you know Kyrgyzstans population nearly 5 million. Maybe you are interested Kyrgyz people what kind of person. We have black hair, black eyes and black eyebrows. In our country 98 per cent of people educated, but we have some problems with education. In the Kyrgyzstan there are different nationalities. And Kyrgyz people can speak with different languages. For example: Kyrgyz, Russia, Uzbek, Kazakh, English, Japan, Chinese, French and many other languages. For Kyrgyz people very dear food is Beshbarmak. Beshbarmak means five finger, because this food we eat with our 5 finger. It means we don’t use spoons for this food. I don’t know how you think, but Beshbarmak for Kyrgyz people is more important food. Also we eat different countries foods. In the Kyrgyzstan there are many countries restaurants (Chinese’s, American’s, French’s, Germany’s and many others.) Every day Kyrgyz people 4 times in a day drink tea with bread. We are sometimes drink coffee. We have national clothes, but we are cloth modern clothes like you.
You ask in Kyrgyzstan is there enough water? It is interesting and funny question for me. In our country we have so much water. Even in our village there are 1000 spring waters. Therefore our village’s name is Ming Bulak. Ming –Bulak means 1000 spring waters. In our oblast we have long river Talas. In Kyrgyzstan there are many long rivers. With water we don’t have any problems.
If you are want to get more information, please write to me and you may write and ask anything you want! Sorry for my mistakes.
Sincerely,
Mirbek Rahmatildeev
5. March, 2004
I may have accomplished the impossible and made friends with my bratty brother Eldarbek. We went “running” three times this week. We lapped the small hill that is in front of our house a few times. The second time, two little neighbor girls were waiting to come along. I had actually not wanted to go running that day, since I had just gotten home from Talas, but Eldarbek pestered me until I relented. The girls’ mother came out and informed me that it was great that I was running with the girls and teaching them English (we counted squats to ten in English), but I wasn’t allowed to run at five o’clock because this hill is an old sacred place. There are old burial mounds in the middle of the hill. Apparently, if I run past five the dead people will give me bad dreams. I walked away from that conversation. That hill is the one dog-free place to run. Eldarbek and I also did some yoga. It’s hard to teach since I don’t know the words in Kyrgyz for “inhale,” “exhale,” “stretch,” etc, but he was very impressed by my shoulder stand as well as my camel pose. This budding interest in athletics was followed by a request for an English lesson. I taught him the words for the living room furniture and the letters “M” and “A.” He doubts my knowledge of English - he wanted me to write down the words in Kyrgyz so that his mom could read them later and tell him what they really said. Yeah, he’s still a brat, but maybe we can be friends.
I also had a very interesting Kyrgyz lesson with Kannekay. She taught me some “phrasiologies,” as she called them. The literal translations of “no heart,” “heart of a rabbit”, and “water heart” all mean cowardly. “Hard head,” means stingy. “Nothing in the hand” means poor and “enter with coal, exit with ashes” is how you can say someone is a servant. “Open eyes” means greedy, “white heart” means someone who tells no lies. My favorites were “she raises/exaggerates her height,” means “she’s a snob.” And “put/place honey tongue/language” means “say something really nice/sweet” as in for a toast or to your love. Fun, huh?
I may have accomplished the impossible and made friends with my bratty brother Eldarbek. We went “running” three times this week. We lapped the small hill that is in front of our house a few times. The second time, two little neighbor girls were waiting to come along. I had actually not wanted to go running that day, since I had just gotten home from Talas, but Eldarbek pestered me until I relented. The girls’ mother came out and informed me that it was great that I was running with the girls and teaching them English (we counted squats to ten in English), but I wasn’t allowed to run at five o’clock because this hill is an old sacred place. There are old burial mounds in the middle of the hill. Apparently, if I run past five the dead people will give me bad dreams. I walked away from that conversation. That hill is the one dog-free place to run. Eldarbek and I also did some yoga. It’s hard to teach since I don’t know the words in Kyrgyz for “inhale,” “exhale,” “stretch,” etc, but he was very impressed by my shoulder stand as well as my camel pose. This budding interest in athletics was followed by a request for an English lesson. I taught him the words for the living room furniture and the letters “M” and “A.” He doubts my knowledge of English - he wanted me to write down the words in Kyrgyz so that his mom could read them later and tell him what they really said. Yeah, he’s still a brat, but maybe we can be friends.
I also had a very interesting Kyrgyz lesson with Kannekay. She taught me some “phrasiologies,” as she called them. The literal translations of “no heart,” “heart of a rabbit”, and “water heart” all mean cowardly. “Hard head,” means stingy. “Nothing in the hand” means poor and “enter with coal, exit with ashes” is how you can say someone is a servant. “Open eyes” means greedy, “white heart” means someone who tells no lies. My favorites were “she raises/exaggerates her height,” means “she’s a snob.” And “put/place honey tongue/language” means “say something really nice/sweet” as in for a toast or to your love. Fun, huh?
1. March, 2004
Please donate to Erika's Volunteer Project:
Chaldovar School Resource Center
"The community of Ming Bulak lacks a working library, which is necessary to disseminate the reading resources it wants to acquire. Without access to books, teachers and students lack the essential tools of education. In addition, the community lacks a microphone system, which is necessary to hold concerts and competitions. These concerts and events are part of a school tradition that was established during the Soviet Union, yet they are fundamentally important to the life of the community. School events like these provide opportunities for the community to strengthen its bonds, identify problems, and mobilize to find solutions. These school events also provide community members with the opportunity to celebrate holidays and achievements, and provide a rare diversion from the daily struggle to make ends meet. The proposed Partnership project aims to improve the quality of the reading resources that are available to teachers and students in the subjects of Russian and Kyrgyz literature and English as a foreign language and improve the community's ability to mobilize skills and resources. To accomplish this the community will remodel the existing library and will hold two fundraising events to raise money and awareness for the project. Partnership funds are needed to purchase a microphone system and various books in the Russian, Kyrgyz and English languages."
Please donate to Erika's Volunteer Project:
Chaldovar School Resource Center
"The community of Ming Bulak lacks a working library, which is necessary to disseminate the reading resources it wants to acquire. Without access to books, teachers and students lack the essential tools of education. In addition, the community lacks a microphone system, which is necessary to hold concerts and competitions. These concerts and events are part of a school tradition that was established during the Soviet Union, yet they are fundamentally important to the life of the community. School events like these provide opportunities for the community to strengthen its bonds, identify problems, and mobilize to find solutions. These school events also provide community members with the opportunity to celebrate holidays and achievements, and provide a rare diversion from the daily struggle to make ends meet. The proposed Partnership project aims to improve the quality of the reading resources that are available to teachers and students in the subjects of Russian and Kyrgyz literature and English as a foreign language and improve the community's ability to mobilize skills and resources. To accomplish this the community will remodel the existing library and will hold two fundraising events to raise money and awareness for the project. Partnership funds are needed to purchase a microphone system and various books in the Russian, Kyrgyz and English languages."
