In this Issue…
=> What Russian Men Think About Their Women — article excerpt
=> Love Across Borders (Russia) — text and discussion activity
=> Love Across Borders (general) — discussion questions for subscribers outside Russia
=> Welcome Subscribers from Yakutsk
=> In the Next Issues

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=> What Russian Men Think About Their Women
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According to Russian men, which country’s women Are the the most beautiful? An opinion poll by the Monitoring.ru Center (from www.strana.ru March 3, 2001) offered these results:

73% chose Russian women
7% said French
5% said Ukrainian and Polish
3% chose Japanese
8% were undecided

Why not tell students about the poll and then ask them to guess the results?

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Love Across Borders (Russia)
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But what do Russian women think?

“Over the last 10 years, some 75,000 women have left Russia just to marry American men,” according to an article (from AFP, May 2, 2004.)

<> Class Activity <>

Now, what follows are 6 statements, most of them excerpts from the article. Teachers can write some or all on the board. For each statement also draw a scale, like so:

Strongly ——————————————————-Strongly Disagree

Put students in pairs/groups. Ask each group to put an X on the scale according to how much they agree or disagree with the statement. If students answer, “it depends,” let them express what it depends on. The more discussion, the better.

Afterwards compare the class results.

Statements:

1. The “desire to leave Russia is the only reason [Russian women] marry foreigners.”

2. Russian women marry foreign men because of “the desire for a better, wealthier life.”

3. “Russian women often marry foreign men who have not been successful in their lives.”

4. Russian “women are totally disillusioned with Russian men. In their view, Russian men are ’spoiled and infantile.’” [Note: Russia has 10 million more women than men].

5. “We [Russians] have lapsed into market values. We have forgotten that love and happiness cannot be purchased.”

6. People should only marry people from their own culture/country.

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Love Across Borders — general questions
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1. As the world gets smaller (with more international travel and more intercommunication via the internet) will there be more marriages between people of different cultures?

2. Is marriage between different cultures a good thing or a bad thing?

3. What are the risks? What are the rewards?

4. Would you marry someone from another culture or race or country?

5. Is love the only thing that matters?

6. Do you know anyone who has married someone from another country or culture? Tell about the results.

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Welcome New Subscribers from Yakutsk
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Welcome Yakutsk people!

A special thanks goes out to Larissa Zolotayeva, Ivan, Alyona, and the family for their amazingly generous treatment of Kevin during his visit to the Yakutsk TESOL conference. Thanks too to Natalya Nikolevana, Zarmena, and all the sweet teachers that made Kevin’s stay in the Sakha Republic so easy.

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In the Next Issues
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Issue #64 (around June 28, 2004): Summer Camp Games.

Issue #65 (around July 6, 2004): More business Jargon from Matthew McMillion, and a Russian-hotel-brochure-correction activity.