Experience gained from Teaching Abroad

Ten years ago I became eligible for my first year-long sabbatical leave from Bemidji State University. In deciding what to do, I experienced a chance encounter of a visiting scholar from Ukraine, Dr. Vyacheslav Kudin. Unbeknownst to me, he wanted to re-visit Bemidji a second time and was actively seeking a faculty who wanted to teach in Kiev. He promoted Ukraine and especially his university to me in such a delightful and compelling manner that I decided to take the chance and accept his offer to teach there. BSU had a faculty exchange agreement with Ukraine, but they wanted a Russian speaker. Kudin convinced his Rektor (president) to accept me and I was sent an invitation which I accepted. I had never traveled abroad before and didn’t really understand what it was like to live in a country with a different language. I told myself that since I had studied Russian in college years ago, I would not be completely in the dark. Boy was I wrong!

And so my international journeys began.