Arriving with basically zero former knowledge of Qartuli and barely a week of basic language lessons, myself and my fellow volunteers were plunged into Georgian society and  let loose in our villages and schools.

Knowing so little of the language, having my own “foreign” accent, and having to deal with the use of both Megrelian and Qartuli in my village has made many memorable miscommunications possible.  Add to that the different accents in my village, me and the German teacher having a conversation in a jumble of German, Qartuli, and English, and the occasional conversation in the village consisting solely of gestures, and it’s been a linguistic rollercoaster with ups, downs, and full-on chaos that has made me laugh, cry, and hang my head in embarrassment.

Like asking a 12^th grader if he wanted a big family, instead of a big room, and accidentally saying a Megrelian swear word, whilst trying to say something in Georgian.  I couldn’t figure out why my host mother was laughing so much until she explained what I’d said, barely able to talk. Needless to say, I avoid that word like the plague now, but they still make jokes about it every now and then.

Mishearing words can be just as bad as pronouncing them wrong. I thought my host father said the ghomi (cornmeal for the uninformed) was made of mice, not maize. Imagine my terror, I’ve been in the village two days, still suffering from massive culture shock and I think the people just fed me Jerry from the cartoons. Luckily, they saw I looked confused and looked up the word in the dictionary to show me. The relief I felt at that moment cannot ever be measured.

Language mishaps at school are usually worse, because you can’t explain to a 7 year old pupil  that the innocent word “lollipops”  he had to write, was accidentally transformed into something highly inappropriate just by substituting a few consonants. Keeping a poker face in these situations is vital. It has never been my strong suit, but oh boy, I have learned extremely quickly. Otherwise, fake a cough or a phone call and go laugh outside. Failure to do this will result in having to explain to your co-teacher why you are laughing and it could get awkward…

Miscommunications can be disastrous, dangerous and hilarious beyond belief. Laugh when it’s funny, apologise profusely if you offend and whatever you do, don’t tell the children.

My seventh grade classmates and I had a lot of fun with our Spanish names, so I figured I would do the same with my Georgian students. However, I quickly discovered that many of their names don’t have any ready English equivalent. Sure, there are names like Luka, Mariami, and Giorgi, which are clearly Luke, Mary and George (some of the Giorgis even introduced themselves to me as George without any prompting), and there are names which sound almost identical to some English names, like Lizi (Lizzy) and Keti (Katie). But Eka? Beka? Vakho? Lali? Koba? Tea? Dato? Rezo? I couldn’t think of what names to give them. It seemed unfair to give English names to some and only some of the students, so I abandoned the idea altogether.

But it turns out that things are not quite as bad as I thought they were. The most important thing I learned is that many of my students’ names are diminutives and not full names (although Georgians don’t draw as sharp a distinction between full names and diminutives as English-speakers generally do). Dato, which seemed very foreign to me at first, is in fact a short form of Davit, which is obviously David. So a boy named Dato can be given either David or Dave as an English name. Similarly, Eka is short for Ekaterina and Tazo is short for Tamaz (Thomas), so Eka can be called Kate and Tazo can be called Tom. Keti is short for Ketevan (the name of a Georgian queen), which is a Georgianized form of Ekaterina, so Katie actually is appropriate port of Keti.

Sometimes equivalent names don’t sound similar at all, which somewhat defeats the purpose of finding equivalents in the first place (since an arbitrarily assigned name doesn’t feel like your name). Koba is short for Iacob, which is Jacob, but Jake doesn’t sound anything like Koba (though you could call Koba Coby, if you like that name). Soso is short for Ioseb, which is Joseph, but Joe doesn’t sound anything like Soso. In these cases, the student might be called the full form of the equivalent name, even if this makes the equivalence slightly artificial.

Learning the full form of the name doesn’t help any if the full form doesn’t exist in English. Beso, for instance, is short for Besarion (the name, most famously, of Stalin’s father), which I’ve never heard of being used in English. Rezo is short for Revaz and Vakho is short for Vakhtang, both of which are Georgian names with no foreign equivalents. (By the way, doesn’t Vakhtang sound like a funny name for a little boy? It seems me – and several Georgians have agreed with me here – that native Georgian names, like Vakhtang, Gvantsa, Nugzar, and Emzar, tend to sound like names for old people. The situation is exactly the same in English: Greek and Hebrew names like Katherine and John sound young, but native English names like Alfred, Edith, Edmund, and Mildred sound very, very old.)

For a few names, there is no long form. Saba, a Greek name born by several saints, is just Saba, and though it is popular in Eastern Europe, it does not exist in English. Beka isn’t a diminutive name either, and as far as English names go, there’s little one can do for such boys except to tell them that Becca is a girl’s name. Nino, the name of the saint who brought Christianity to Georgia, is an odd case. In America and probably other Anglophone countries it would be recognized as a man’s name, the diminutive of Latin names like Antonino. A Georgian girl named Nino might be given the name Nina, the feminine form of the Latin Nino, but this is not correct etymologically (the Georgian name may be of ultimately Greek origin, but this not known with any certainty).

Finally, as in English, there are some names (almost always feminine) which come from things. Ia is Violet, Lali is Ruby, and Lili, contrary to the appearance of being a false cognate, really is Lily.

So what is the English teacher in Georgia to do? Personally, I value etymology above other considerations, and so I go with the equivalent wherever I can, even if it means turning Koba into Jake. Where this is not possible, there are four options. The first is to pick a name that sounds similar, such that Rezo becomes Ray and Otar becomes Otis. I don’t like doing it this way, although my seventh-grade Spanish teacher did (which is why my friend Chase was called Carlos). The second is to let the students choose whatever names they want. I haven’t tried this, so I don’t know what success it would have (though my guess is that many of them would want to be called Gangnam). Third, the English teacher can simply refer to the students by their usual Georgian names, but with her native accent. This can be a problem for Americans and Australians, since Tato and Nato will not appreciate being called Tado and Nado. Last, the idea of English names can be dropped altogether and Georgian-sounding Georgian names can be used. I do this much of the time because I was late in getting started with English-naming the students, but a teacher more on top of things could do better.

I live in a small village near the town of Abasha, in the province of Samegrelo. I’ve long been fascinated by the local Georgian Orthodox church that everyone living nearby frequents, especially when it comes to the months surrounding Easter and Christmas.  In my time here, I’ve seen a strong link to the church displayed by the villagers.  It seems especially strongest amongst the young.  The older villagers, aged 35 and above for example, seem less attached to the rituals and traditions of the church.  This is possibly a remnant of the Soviet days, when religion as a whole was disassociated from public life.

The local parish priest and a handful of my Grade 10 students are the subject of my interview today.  I got a few answers to some questions I had in mind, and they are presented in two parts below.  Taken together, they present what I hope is a respectful glance at the practice of religion in modern day rural Georgia. They have been edited somewhat for brevity and clarity, as I’ve had to translate everything into English from the Georgian language.  (I was helped greatly in this by my co-teacher at the Zanati village school, Mrs Rusiko Chanturia.)

PART ONE:  Mamao [*Father] Mikheil Jibladze’s perspective

THANK YOU, MAMAO, FOR GIVING UP SOME OF YOUR TIME FOR THIS INTERVIEW.  FIRST OF ALL, CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF?

I graduated in engineering and economics as a student in Javakhishvili State University in Tbilisi in 1987, and I worked in various capacities during the final Soviet years, until 1991.  In the days following the breakup of the USSR, I got married and returned to my small hometown (Abasha).  I also started regularly attending church in those days, and decided to devote more of my time to it.  In fact, I started studying theology under the bishop of the region at that time, Anthony.

I continued to work, partially in Abasha and partially in Tbilisi, until 2007.  That was when I decided to move permanently back to Abasha and become a priest full-time.  I have two children, one of whom is in Grade 12, and the other of whom is studying at university.

CAN YOU TELL ME A BIT OF THE HISTORY AND INFLUENCE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN GEORGIA?

The history of the Georgian Orthodox [*martlmadidebluri] Church started soon after the ministry of Jesus himself.  This makes it one of the oldest traditions of Christianity in the world.  In the first century AD, the apostle St Andrew the First called four of his followers (Simon the Zealot, Matata, Bartholomew and Thadeozi) to come and preach the gospel in Georgia.

However, the most important date for the founding of the Georgian Orthodox church comes in the early fourth century with the establishment of the ministry of our beloved St Nino.  As a result of her work, Christianity was declared the state religion of the Georgian people in 326 AD. It continued for many centuries until there was a formal break between Eastern Churches and the Western Roman Catholic one.  Since that break, only friendship and cultural relations exist between the Western and Eastern churches.  There is no formal link between us any more.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE TEACHINGS OF THE CHURCH THAT YOU THINK COMMANDS SUCH DEVOTION IN GEORGIAN SOCIETY?

The Georgian Orthodox Church has had a huge impact on society, confirmed again and again in different survey results done by both governmental and non-governmental organizations.  92% of Georgians today identify themselves as Orthodox Christians.

I think this is so because of the teachings of Jesus himself.  All of the doctrines of Jesus are very important, but for me the most distinguished are his teachings about love of God and neighbour, of love of one’s enemies, and of forgiveness.

The Christian rites and ceremonies of Orthodoxy, whether they are to be found in weddings, funerals or all other aspects of civic and cultural life, are very important for our society and for its spiritual needs.  I firmly believe this.  It holds our society together.

TELL ME SOMETHING ABOUT THE OVERLAP OF RELIGION AND STATE IN GEORGIA.  AS YOU KNOW, IN THE WEST, WE TEND TO SEPARATE THE TWO.

It can be said that the history of the Orthodox Church and the State are one and the same, dating back to the beginning of the Church itself, when Christianity was declared the state religion.  The church imposed its presence on the country’s spiritual, cultural, and educational development, as well as other functions, and this is still true today.

The Church has a great role in shaping the nation’s identity and national identity.  I do not think that the Church needs to be confined to a separate sphere necessarily.  In my own life, I have only seen great benefits when Church and society go hand in hand.

As regards the legal and special status of the Church, there is a constitutional agreement between the State and the Orthodox Church of Georgia.  It defines their relationship.  For example, the Church does not interfere with the political activity of the state in any official capacity whatsoever.

HOW DOES THE PATRIARCH OF GEORGIA, ILYA THE SECOND [*MEORE], FIT INTO THIS PICTURE OF CHURCH AND SOCIETY?

I think His Holiness the Patriarch of Georgia, Ilya Meore, is a spiritual father with a great mission given to him by God. For most of his 35 year career at the seat of the Patriarchal throne, the Orthodox faith has been steadily increasing in importance within our society.

As you know, church numbers were on the decline during the pre-independence days. The exact opposite is true now. Hundreds of churches and monasteries have been built and restored since then.  The ministry of monks have increased the number of believers in our congregation.  As for me personally, I am totally devoted to my Patriarch.  I love him very much, and I see him as an honorable leader for our peoples.

OKAY, WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WISH FOR THE FUTURE?

My greatest wish is to travel to Israel and visit Jerusalem,the Holy Land!

********

PART TWO:  The Perspective from the Young

To offer a contrast now with the views of the Mamao, I present here an amalgamated interview I conducted with some of my students from the Grade 10 class at Zanati Public Village School. From these particular students, as a kind of rough sampling, about 15% regularly attend church all year round.  I think their views makes for an interesting picture of religious attendance in a small village amongst young people.

I should start off with a few small observations.  In all my time here, it was the young ones that showed greatest enthusiasm for church and its rituals.  They were the ones who would politely inquire whether I wanted to attend Sunday mass, repeatedly over the year. This is not to say that the older folk neglect it, exactly.  The adults will still never fail to raise a toast to God when doing their ubiquitous wine toasts at parties.  The overall impression I get is of a unified front in favour of religious observance from almost all parts of village society (even if privately they may hold differing opinions on the matter).

IS CHURCH IMPORTANT FOR YOU?

Natia: I think young people like going to church these days.  Our Georgian Orthodox church is the best in the world.

DO MORE CHILDREN GO TO CHURCH THESE DAYS?

Lika: Generally I would say yes.  But a little less go to church this year than they did last year.  Perhaps this is because of the new church building that was built in town (at Abasha).  Perhaps some of the other villagers are going there instead.

WHAT DOES CHURCH MEAN TO YOU?

Natia: For me it is about love of God, but I think that this is not so with everyone.  However, I personally feel that there is a place for all of them as well, as God is big enough to include everyone.  The rituals of church are also important, because doing them shows that you love God.  The special days of the year are the best: Christmas especially.

WELL, THIS MONTH OF APRIL HAPPENS TO COINCIDE ENTIRELY WITH THE EXTENDED PERIOD OF FASTING KNOWN AS LENT [*MARKHVA], LEADING UP TO EASTER SUNDAY (IN MAY).  I KNOW SOME OF YOU ARE FASTING.  WHY DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO GO THROUGH LENT THIS WAY?

Miranda: Last year I was too young to do it, but this year I turned 15 and thought it was important to start this year.  From our class of fifteen students (six girls and nine boys), there are only three of us (two girls and one boy) going through the fasting ritual. This varies among the other grades.  I think it is important for us.  It cleans our sins, so that we become better people.  But it is a difficult thing to go through.

CAN YOU TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT’S REQUIRED OF YOU WHEN YOU GO THROUGH LENT?

Veriko: It’s the annual period of 45 days of fast before Easter.  All through the fast we must refrain from meats and other foods, but certain weeks have further restrictions.  In the first week, for example, we cannot eat any oily foods.  In the second and third week, we are allowed to eat oily foods, but still no meat. In the final week, we can only eat bread and water, if we are able to sustain it.  (If not, we can always say that we tried our best.)  Chocolates, ice creams, and other sweets are also not allowed, except for ones that are specially prepared for Lent.

WHY DO YOU THINK SOME OF THE OTHER VILLAGERS DON’T FAST (OR GO TO CHURCH AS MUCH)?

Mariami: I think that they should do so more often.  I don’t know why they don’t.  It would be good for all children to fast.  Generally, it seems to be more girls that do this than boys.

OKAY, WHO DO YOU THINK PARTICIPATES IN THESE RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES MORE – VILLAGE KIDS OR CITY KIDS?

Lika: I think that more city children fast during Lent than village children.  I’m not sure why this is.  Maybe it’s because the city kids have less physical work and responsibilities to do in their daily lives than us village kids do.

AND FINALLY, IN YOUR OPINION SHOULD RELIGIOUS LEADERS AND POLITICIANS STAY FAR APART FROM EACH OTHER?

Natia: No, they should stay close friends because our country will not remain united if they are enemies.

**********

And that ends this installment.  Nakhvadmis. [*Goodbye]

Fruit trees are blossoming, the snowy blanket covering the mountain tops is rapidly disappearing, sunset is getting later and my trusted thermal vest, gloves and beanie have been relegated to the bottom drawer of my dresser.

The start of a new season and in the spirit of Spring, it seems all the animals at my house and indeed the whole village is having babies. The hen guards her chicks with the ferocity of a battle-hardened soldier, the geese are hatching eggs and our cow is so heavily pregnant, it looks like she’s about to explode.

Our sow is not having piglets, since she hasn’t been given an opportunity to go gallivanting around the village with all the other pigs, but there are plenty of piglets trotting about. The rabbits are doing what they do best and soon I’m hoping to see my first baby rabbits.

The most unusual animal babies in my village at the moment is a pair of brown bear cubs. Recently orphaned by a hunter who shot their mother during a hunting trip in Borjomi, they have been brought to a neighboring family’s house to be looked after.

Seeing them in their cages nearly broke my heart and their crying is just like a human baby’s. Not to mention the fact that they are tiny, literally being the size of a teddy bear, except the teddy I have in my room is twice their size.

Immediately concerned, upset and just plain sad, I asked about the legality and practicality of keeping two baby bears locked in cages in a back yard, as they don’t stay little forever and keeping a wild animal comes with all sorts of rules to adhere to and risks to keep in mind.

Luckily, all the proper authorities have been notified, the babies appear to be well-fed and healthy and the local police even made a house call to ensure the cubs were in good hands. They will stay in the village for a few weeks, then go to a zoo in Tbilisi.

Granted, life in a zoo is not the perfect solution, but it beats the alternatives of starving to death in the wild without their mother, being sold to a circus to learn and perform tricks for massive crowds or being slaughtered for their meat, which is extremely tasty according to my host father.

In short, a new season means a new generation of animals to appreciate and care for, whether they give us sustenance, the pleasure of their company or just delight us with their appearance, sounds and antics.

***

Once school’s done in the afternoons, I sometimes take off on the rickety minibus [marshutka] that rides through the village, headed for the local town about ten kilometres away.  If it’s been a particularly wet couple of days, you see toads hop across fields and front porches and roadsides in a mad sprint for safety.  You might also see cows perched right in the centre of the narrow road (the only road, I might add once again), taking up more than half of the allotted space, defying cars to just turn around and head back for home, defeated by bovine whimsy.  (Newcomer though I am, even I know that getting caught in the crossfire gaze of a herd of cows can reduce IQ points by the minute in the unfortunate bystander.  Laugh now, but you have been warned.)

***

A rumble of thunder in the distance reminds me that springtime in Georgia is unpredictable and capricious at best.  I’m not a fan of the biting cold rain and the sometimes relentless chill wind of March, having experienced three of them in a row now.  They howl through the low-lying region of Abasha, hemmed in by the mountains on all sides of us, battering up against the farm house walls and sending any stray animals that may be around fleeing for their lives. As soon as winds arrive, the entire village power supply cuts out completely, without fail.  These blackouts easily last for three or four days at a time.

***

And it is at those times, perhaps by the time the fourth evening rolls around, when we at the house are huddled around a couple of candles and sit close to the fireplace chatting and laughing late into the evening, that we might be forgiven for half believing that electricity itself was simply a figment of somebody else’s imagination, rather like some quirky half-truth about far away lands that Marco Polo might once upon a time have brought back from the Mongol Khanate to regale medieval Venetians with.  (Marco Polo might feasibly have passed through Georgia in his travels, and I wonder if he might have drunk from the same wine horns, while listening to magical poylphonic singing and answering the ubiquitous questions about whether he had any brothers and sisters back home.)

Computers sold in Georgia most commonly have a regular English keyboard – QWERTY, with Latin characters. Russian keyboards might be a far second, and keyboards with actual Georgian characters printed on the keys are highly scarce. Even so, most Georgians who use the internet (or SMS – phone keypads also generally have Latin, rather than Georgian, characters) have a general familiarity with where the Georgian characters are on their keyboards – that is to say, Georgians can often type proficiently in Georgian, even on a keyboard without Georgian characters.

The implication of that is that Georgians have a mapping – at least in muscle memory, and often also visually – between Georgian characters and the Latin characters that you type to produce them. Indeed, sometimes when talking online, Georgians don’t even bother using Georgian fonts, and will hold entire online conversations in Georgian written with Latin characters, with each character standing in for the Georgian letter that the corresponding key would produce if the user were typing in a Georgian font. In this way many Georgians may actually get more practice reading Georgian transcribed in Latin characters than actually reading English. I call this method of transcribing Georgian using Latin characters “keyboard transcription”; it differs from other methods of transcribing Georgian in a number of interesting ways.

The popularity of keyboard transcription is a blessing and a curse for English reading. In many cases, one of the sounds that a key’s letter makes in English corresponds to one of the sounds the same key’s letter makes in Georgian. This can serve as a memory aid, and in cases where the common English sound and the Georgian sound are close, practice reading keyboard transcription can transfer to some level of English reading ability. This is especially the case with exact matches (b, d, g, h, j, l, m, n, s and z) and close matches (k, p, r, and t), although even in these cases there are complications due to the nature of English spelling. For example, ‘g’ sometimes sounds like ‘g’ and sometimes like ‘j’; ‘s’ sometimes sounds like ‘s’ and sometimes like ‘z’. Most of these letters can be silent, or part of digraphs with sometimes unpredictable results – for instance, ‘ph’ can make a p, v, or f sound (shepherd, Stephen, nephew).

For other letters, there is no phonetic correspondence at all between the Georgian letters and their Latin transcriptions. The ‘y’ key was chosen for the letter ‘ყ’ apparently because of their visual similarity. I do not know why ‘w’ is ‘წ’ – perhaps if you squint you can sort of see a vague resemblance. I suspect ‘W’ was picked for ‘ჭ’, ‘S’ for ‘შ’, and ‘C’ for ‘ჩ’ because those sounds are each palatalized versions of the sounds their lower-case versions make. Fortunately these non-matches don’t seem to interfere at all in Georgians’ reading skills – I’ve never had a student pronounce the letter ‘w’ as ‘ts’ or ‘ch’.

Probably the most difficult, then, are the keys where the Georgian matches the Latin character’s sound in European languages other than English. The Georgian ‘ა’ is transcribed with ‘a’, but doesn’t sound like the ‘a’ in ‘cat’ or in ‘date’ – it sounds (perhaps, depending on your accent) like the a in ‘father’, a comparatively rare use of ‘a’ in English (usually appearing only before r). To complicate matters, in American English the letter ‘o’ (as in got or tom) makes the Georgian ‘ა’ sound.

More problematic is the Georgian ‘ი’, which sounds like the ‘i’ in ‘pizza’ rather than in ‘bit’ or ‘bite’. The letter ‘c’ represents the sound ‘ts’ in many Slavic languages, and so in Georgian was chosen for the letter ‘ც’, which also makes that sound. Georgian ‘ხ’ is transcribed with ‘x’; ‘x’ sounds like ‘ხ’ in a number of central Asian languages (for instance, Azerbaijani) as well as in IPA, and most notably the Cyrillic letter ‘Х’ looks a lot like ‘x’ and also makes the ‘ხ’ sound, which is like the ‘ch’ in Scottish ‘loch’.

My students have, on occasion, insisted on using pronunciations inspired by keyboard transcription. In one of my classes when I was going over ‘i’, one of my students insisted that it must be pronounced like ‘ი’ because it was used to type ‘ი’ on a keyboard. I also have a student who always reads ‘x’ as ‘ხ’ no matter what we do, although it’s not entirely clear whether that’s the influence of the keyboard transcription or of the similarity between Latin and Cyrillic x.

The tendency to resort to keyboard equivalents is especially pronounced when talking about letter names – my students especially tend to call the letters ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, and ‘c’ by the sounds their Georgian keyboard equivalents make, namely ‘ah’, ‘ei’, ‘ee’, and ‘tsuh’. They also recognize these letters by their Georgian keyboard equivalents, meaning that if I ask someone to write the letter ‘e’, odds are they’re going to write an ‘i’ instead, and if I ask for an ‘a’ I get an ‘e’. Some of these might also have to do with transcription and transliteration issues that predate keyboard transcription, but the keyboard transcription is the one that is most relevant to this generation since its where they are getting most of their practice with the Latin script.

In conclusion, I am of two minds about the prevalence of keyboard transcription in shaping my students’ understanding of the English sound system. On the one hand, it familiarizes Georgians with the shape of the letters and, generally, with at least one of the sounds associated with that letter. These types of letter knowledge have been studied in many different languages and settings, and they definitely correlate with reading success. On the other hand, the keyboard transcriptions often seem to lead learners down the wrong path and sometimes make them less receptive to learning the correct pronunciations of those letters, or to learning the complications of English spelling.

Readers, what do you think? Are Latin keys good or bad for English language learners in Georgia?

Tamar the Great ruled in Georgia from 1184-1213, the Georgian “Golden Age.” She is called Queen Tamar the Great by some sources, but during her rule she was referred to as “მეფე,”  or “King.”

I have been fascinated with Queen Tamar’s reign since I first heard of it at orientation. As an American woman living in Georgia, I see the effects of patriarchal values in my every day life. My host brother, a boy of 11 who seems to despise me because I get more attention than him, constantly likes to remind me that I am living in “his house.” Never mind that his grandmother, father, mother, and two older sisters also live here. When he is married, his wife will move into the house, and his sisters will live in their future husband’s family homes. The little moments of male privilege in Georgia can be jarring to a foreigner, and I am no exception. I find the gender roles to be the most culturally shocking element of Georgia, which is why I am prideful that the undisputed best leader of Georgia was a woman.

Queen Tamar proved to be more than worthy of her title during her 29 years in power. Her military efforts had Georgia’s borders stretching into modern Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan with dependencies in all of it’s bordering countries, including the Black Sea coast of Turkey. These lands were held until the Mongolian invasions, which took place after her death.

Additionally, the Golden Age is so named for the major cultural changes that occurred, which we still see today. For example, Georgia wanted to cement their country as a Godly place, which led to the construction of many Orthodox domed churches. If you live in Georgia, or have visited Georgia, you know precisely the architectural style I am referring to.

Women are definitely celebrated in Georgia, which can be gathered by the still undying praise for Queen Tamar, or by the required toast at every supra, or by the Kartlis Deda statue which towers over Tbilisi. Sometimes, it is easy to forget this female adoration exists when men are still in charge of the household and an 11 year old child asserts his dominance over his 23 year old host sister. Whenever my host brother tries to tell me boys are better at something, I remind him of Queen Tamar and the Golden Age of Georgia, which usually puts a stop to his teasing.

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow.
Everywhere that Mary went,
the lamb was sure to go.

It followed her to school one day
which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play,
to see a lamb at school.

1. Warmer: Teach the song! (warmer/presentation/practice, 5-10 minutes): Read the words and have the students repeat. Check pronunciation, especially of “short a” words. Then teach the tune of the song. Sing a few times as a group, until the class is confident or bored.

2. Vocabulary/Translation (presentation, 5 minutes): Teach the meaning of the song. The coteacher may have to translate vocabulary words and full sentences, as the song uses rare words (fleece), idioms (was sure to) and past tense (followed, had, was, went) that the students have not studied yet. Either way, this should not take more than five minutes and students do not have to learn every unfamiliar word, as long as they understand the meaning.

3. Writing (practice, 5-10 minutes): Students should copy the song text into their class notebooks. At this point students may not have had much writing practice, so make sure to check their spelling and handwriting. This activity also varies greatly in duration based on students’ writing speed and ability.

4. Pronunciation (practice, 10 minutes): Write the letter A on the board in capital and small letters. Ask students what the name of the letter is. Then, ask them what sound it makes. Prompt or correct if necessary. List the words in the song with the “short a” sound. Drill pronunciation individually and in groups. Ask what sound a lamb makes. Write “baaa” on the board (with the list of “short a” words and imitate the lamb sound (adjust your lamb sound to the “short a” if it is different).

If students have trouble with short a, write contrasting words on the board. For instance, when I ask my students what “had” means they say “tavi”, or “head”, and when I ask them about Mary they say “gilocavt” (which can be translated as the “Merry” in “Merry Christmas”). You can write out these contrasts, and their definitions, and let the students hear you pronounce “had” and “head” a number of times.

5. Rhymes (presentation, 5 minutes): Point out the rhymes to the students: day and play, go and snow, school and rule(s). Explain that a rhyme is when two words sound alike at the end. The coteacher will most likely have to explain this in Georgian. Present the construction “rhymes with” and drill “day rhymes with play”, “go rhymes with snow,” and “rule rhymes with school”. Check comprehension by asking “What rhymes with play?” “What rhymes with snow?” etc.

6. Performance (production, 2 minutes): Have the class sing the song back to you! Help with prompts as needed.

7. Review and assign homework (3 minutes): Check the previous lesson’s homework assignment. Homework for today is to learn the song and the spelling and pronunciation of the “short a” words. If the students need writing practice, assign them to write the words out in their notebooks a number of times. Assessment:
(to be filled in during/after class)

Notes:

• This lesson lasts around 45 minutes, depending on the level of the students and how much time they need to complete each segment. Different parts can be expanded or shortened as needed. You might even want to divide the lesson into two halves: teach the first verse and the “short a” words in one lesson, and the second verse and the “rhyme” concept and construction in the second lesson. This allows you to also teach an English World segment during each lesson, instead of devoting an entire period to Mary Had a Little Lamb.
• Pronunciation of “short a”: “Short a” is the vowel sound found in the word “cat”. For some speakers, this sound varies to some extent in the words presented here; “Mary”, “lamb”, and “laugh” might sound different from “had”, “as”, and “that”, or other variations might occur. (In British accents “laugh” is pronounced with a completely different vowel and should be excluded from this list.) My students understand and respond much better when I minimize this difference and pronounce all of these words with as close to the a in cat as I can manage.
• Many Georgians have been taught to pronounce “short a” as “short e”: “head” instead of “had”, etc. Part of the purpose of this lesson is to overcome this problem. Because of this fact, often younger students do much better in the pronunciation section of this lesson than older students. You may also find you will have to work with your coteacher(s) on their pronunciation of these words.
• You may find it helpful to discuss the translation of this song with your coteacher before giving the lesson. The same goes for the word “rhyme” and translating the concept of rhyming. I became a little lax about pre-planning songs with my coteacher and we hit a bit of a speedbump when we came to the rhyming section of this lesson.
• Here is a great video of the song in a British accent – note the consistency in the “short a” between Mary, had, lamb, and that – and the different pronunciation of “laugh”:

Good luck, and enjoy!

The first challenge you’re going to face is overcoming the large amount of animals, potholes, mud holes and stares that you will receive. Georgians aren’t used to seeing others exercise. Those who are in shape probably lift a lot of corn stalks and walk great distances with their herds of cows. This means running outside is a great opportunity to teach some local people about the benefits of staying in shape as well as a great opportunity to get out in the community and make yourself known. The stares might be a little uncomfortable, but I usually give a friendly wave and those people who were staring at me like I was Stalin usually respond in an extremely friendly fashion. For me the cows are the worst, as I find bulls a little scary. I mean, I’ve been to rodeos, but Georgian women have always helped me chase off any especially fierce cows or barking dogs. As far as all the potholes go, prepare to get your shoes muddy, very muddy. One of my neighbors now strictly calls me her “dirty girl” as I always end up coming home from a run covered in mud up to my ankles.

The second challenge is going to be choosing where to run. I live in a hilly region so the constant ups and downs killed me at first, but at the same time, I’ve been able to see so much of Georgia’s beautiful nature while on a run. My current route takes me down by a river, where I pass the house of famous poet Mayakovsky, then past fields, through overgrown cemeteries, under the shadows of mountains and across a couple of swinging bridges, which are by far the best part! I feel like I’ve seen just about every part of the local area, and now my kids at school will ask what time I plan on running just so they can be outside to wave to me or give me popcorn and sunflower seeds as I pass by, which brings me to my last point.

The absolute biggest challenge while running in Georgia has been the amount of times locals stop me to talk or invite me in. I love meeting people new people and becoming closer to my community, but there is nothing quite as uncomfortable as dripping sweat, being pulled into a sweltering house and sitting down to drink hot coffee or wine. Believe me; Georgian opinion is that exercise is no excuse not to drink. Call me crazy, but I just can’t run with the same intensity when my stomach is full of sloshy coffee and gooey khachapuri, I just can’t. I need both hands to count the number of times my 30 minute run has turned into a 2 hour supra. The best defense is just to give in. It’s great fun to meet new neighbors or the families of my students and I usually just tell myself that the experience was worth having to run twice as hard the next day.

So there you have it, Leah Quinn’s guide to running in Georgia. Now there is no excuse not to get off the couch, turn off the telanovela, lace up those shoes and hit the streets. Adventure is sure to await if you do!

I’m crazy, and I love myself.

They did pay for my dinner however, and a very fulfilling one eaten at a rest-stop along the road. A quick stop it was, and off on the road we went again.

It was altogether a 6-hour journey, and when we finally arrived at the outskirts of Batumi, I was ready to fall asleep.

But as soon as I saw the twinkling lights of the famed port city reflected in the Black Sea, a rush of adrenaline immediately woke me up.

Batumi is absolutely stunning. It’s one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in, and that’s no understatement. I wikipedia’d it, and Barcelona is one its “twin” cities. I’ve never been to Barcelona, but I’ve heard from many people that it’s beautiful. Batumi is nothing short of that.

Palm trees lit from underneath sway in the breeze, and many majestic hotels beckon. Cobblestone roads wind neatly through the city. Gleaming fountains, golden statues, and bicycle lanes all boast of the city’s sleek modernity and all the while, the Black Sea purrs softly in the distance.

I came at the right time. It’s not anymore the summer and the Turkish, Armenian, and other European tourists that swarm the place then are no longer here. But it’s still warm enough for me to feel uncomfortably hot when my host father took me around the city today.

Thankfully we stopped on a lesser-known stretch of the stony beach and I went for a swim to cool off. It was wonderful. I made a friend with a jellyfish who was washed ashore. I’m sure he’ll be fine. I made sure he was nice and moist.

The Black Sea makes an unfamiliar clack-clack-clack when she rolls the rocks back and forth on her bed. As I lay on the shore and sunbathed, I realized that it’s a wonderfully pleasant and relaxing melody. I’ve mostly seen only sandy beaches. Here, multi-coloured smooth stones slightly smaller than my hand decorate the stretch. They ruin my shoes, and next time I will take them off and walk in bare feet.

We went to the bazaar today. Orientation took us to one in Tbilisi, but it was really just a crowded tourist-trapping market. Here, I followed my host father around the real deal, observing as he expertly handled the intricate bargains with deft, practiced negotiating strategies. He would look at something, ask for the price, and immediately leave when he heard it, occasionally giving a grunt of discontent. He was almost always called back, and was often given samples of food, which he cleaned and passed for me to eat.

Gemrielia? (Is it tasty?)

I always truthfully answered:

Xo. (casual yes)

I tried everything from pomegranates to baby cucumbers to plum-sized apples. He bought me ice cream. I loved it like a little kid.

This morning he showed me his lavish garden, picking raspberries off the bush and letting me eat. Showing me how to pick ripe figs and peel the skin to munch on the delicious centre. He taught me to pump water for use in washing clothes. He showed me the chicken coop and we laughed at the chickens climbing over each other in their haste to eat. He clicked at the family dog (Barsa), and showed me the family’s white rabbit (Barbara) and black rabbit (Rostoma). He’s a funny little man. I like him a lot.

We went to my school, which is only a short walk from my home. The teachers and the Director giggled and clapped at my attempts at qartuli (Georgian). I have my official meeting tomorrow at 11 with them. The senior English teacher speaks excellent English. I’m looking forward to working with her and the other teachers. They all seem very nice.

The house has a piano, which I was absolutely delighted to see. The girls played a bit for me and I played a bit for them. The instrument was a bit out of tune and some of the keys didn’t work, but it was wonderful. Music is a universal language. Using a President’s Choice USB stick, I exchanged my American and French music for the teens’ qartuli music. So excited to listen to it.

The girls and the boy are so great. For the sake of their privacy I won’t reveal anyone’s names. The girls speak decent English so I’m able to have them translate for me. They’re teaching me a lot of qartuli, of which I am grateful. Spending the day with my host father was fun, but it was tough work because I didn’t really understand anything he said.

The kids and I bonded over music, Facebook, and mostly over laughing at my bad qartuli. I’m really glad to have them around. I want to play futbol with the boy (and learn to be interested in watching it as the rest of the male populations seems to do so). The other two girls seem really into photography and music, which I am into also. I expressed my desire to learn Georgian dance and the eldest girl told me she had some friends who knew how to dance. We will go from there.

Tonight they made Adjaran katchapuri for me to eat, along with a hearty scrumptious dinner with fresh vegetables and fruits. I’m living the good life, I’m thinking. Really happy.

//photographs taken and post written during late September – mid October 2012, Group 45, Jackson Tse