A Small World
In what way is the foreign exchange experience professionally valuable for you?
Sofronova: First of all, my research facilities were most comfortable and convenient. To have my own desk with an up-to-date computer and Internet access was a luxury for me. At the University in Siberia, the faculty and graduate students share a small number of computers in a common "bullpen" and must provide their own data storage — flash drives. Likewise, the administration of the Sukachev Institute of Forest is unable to provide scientists with up-to-date computers. To get more advanced computers, scientists must successfully compete for research grants, principally funded by Western countries. This is difficult, particularly for younger scientists. A friendly and supportive atmosphere is very important for one's professional growth. If your colleagues call their work a second home and invite you to their "fire family" meetings, it opens the door for interaction and sharing knowledge and experience. I found just such an environment at the University of Montana and the Missoula Fire Science Laboratory.
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I was able to present seminars at both the University of Montana and the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. I also presented seminars at international programs and to the fire and aviation management at the U.S. Forest Service national headquarters in Washington, D.C. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to make presentations to a diverse group of scientists and managers. I was able to hone my presentation skills and gain confidence in speaking to different audiences. My seminars were about Russian fire danger, fire behavior prediction, terminology and my Montana Fulbright experience.
The range of my professional contacts skyrocketed. During a visit to the University of Idaho, the only university in the United States that offers a bachelor's degree in fire ecology and management, I met Dr. Penny Morgan, who is working with European universities to develop an inter-national curriculum for fire science education. Through my seminars and meetings, I met several scientists from the United States and Europe.
The main professional objective of my exchange program was to create a model of a bilingual electronic glossary of Russian and U.S. fire science terminology that could contribute to the coordination of terms within each language and harmonization of terms between the languages. I was extremely fortunate to meet and get support from Dr. Elizabeth Reinhardt and Joe Scott from the Fire Lab, who are compilers of FireWords, an electronic glossary of fire science terminology in the United States. They provided me with their database and up-to-date software for designing a database with bilingual functions. As a result, I successfully created a prototype of a Russian-English glossary. I hope that the idea of creating an electronic extended fire science glossary will find further support and joint effort to make it the first bilingual glossary, with the future prospect of developing it into multilingual reference material.
Ryan: I had the good fortune to visit the Sukachev Institute in 1992. This was early in Perestroika. I met a number of Russian scientists and visited sites where fire research was being conducted. At that time, our Russian translators were linguists without technical knowledge of fuels and fire. This made it very difficult to discuss technical terms and concepts. I came away with the understanding that there were a number of excellent Russian studies in fuels, fire behavior and ecology, but I was frustrated by being unable to tap into that knowledge. Given Tatiana's dual training in English-Russian translation and her scientific training in fire and ecology, the barriers to understanding largely vanished. Through Tatiana, I now have access to Russian fire science and ecology literature and have a better understanding of the cultural context of forest management in Russia.
What cultural value have you derived from this exchange?
Sofronova: My experience was not limited to the classroom, laboratories and libraries of my host institutions. I had many chances to participate in the cultural and social activities, to see the country firsthand, and to enlarge my host community's understanding of my mother Russia. As President Barack Obama said, "Simple exchanges can break down walls between us, for when people come together and speak to one another and share a common experience, their common humanity is revealed."
The United States is a unique country that has its own culture yet accepts, even welcomes, people from other nations and frees them to preserve specific features of their own cultures. Thus, being in the United States broadens one's scope globally. As the luck of the draw would have it, I experienced sharing a university apartment with a woman from the Republic of Georgia at the time when there was conflict between our countries. We could discuss issues freely in a non-threatening environment and find our common humanity. The experience proved that politics cannot interfere with mutual understanding and cultural enrichment. One of my most memorable exchanges was my participation at the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar on Social Entrepreneurship in San Antonio, Texas. About 150 international students from all over the world took part in panel discussions, visited local high schools, interacted with local host families and celebrated this unique meeting.
I enjoyed the ease with which I could interact with any person regardless of age or position. I was impressed with the safety and teamwork that I observed in the lab and field. I was particularly impressed in Guard School, where taking care of each other's safety is the highest priority. I participated in the annual spring cleanup of the Blackfoot River and discovered that ecologically friendly lifestyles are contagious. They make you start reassessing your own habits. I was impressed by the degree to which people with disabilities can enjoy a life of full value by being able to move around the city and gain access to all public places. As a pedestrian, I enjoyed observing generally courteous drivers who stop at crosswalks. I also managed to enjoy the freedom of having a car to explore on my own, a luxury in contrast to Krasnoyarsk.
When I arrived in the United States, I didn't experience a cultural shock because it was easy to get accustomed to everything. When I returned to Russia, though, I did experience a cultural shock because, for instance, I had fallen out of practice of using our public transport, which, as we say, carries people like "firewood." In the new deregulated economy, private bus companies compete for passengers by racing each other to the bus stops, creating a frenetic sea of chaos on thoroughfares. To be on the safe side, each bus has a written announcement literally saying, "To avoid traumatism, our earnest request is for you to take a firm grip of hand-rails." This bus "amusement ride" has the local motto: "thirty minutes of fear and you are there!"
Ryan: All the astronauts and cosmonauts speak of the impact of looking back at Earth from space. They describe the beautiful blue ball that is our life support system. I always enjoy meeting people from other cultures. Differences can often be the source of delight and, yes, occasionally a little embarrassment as we try to communicate. But I am always struck by the similarities. I freely share colloquial expressions and jokes with Tatiana. She almost always has a very similar one in Russian. Likewise, she delights in sharing Russian culture. In the end, you come to appreciate that our differences are quite small in comparison with our similarities. We are all citizens of the world.
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