Meet one of our first students of NU-Middleburry Intensive program of Russian as in Foreign Language and Eurasian Studies
1. Please tell about yourself
My name is Paul “Markovich” Kleiman. Sometimes I also go by the Russian name Pavel. I am from New York State. I have been studying Russian for seven years. I completed my BA in Russian and English at Oberlin College in Ohio, my MA at Princeton University in Slavic Languages and Literatures, and am currently finishing a second MA in Russian at Middlebury College. (The difference between the first MA at Princeton and the second MA at Middlebury is that the former was in English with Russian texts and the latter was all in Russian.) I intend to write my MA thesis for Middlebury on “the Russian-language representations of [the Kazakh national poet] Ibrahim ‘Abai’ Qunanbaiūly.”
2. What do you like about studying here?
Even though it is very cold in the “Ұлы дала” (Great Steppe) of Kazakhstan, I find the environment on campus very warm and inviting. The students are very congenial and hard-working, and there’s always an event or club going on.
3. Why do you want to study Russian?
I don’t just want to study Russian, I do study Russian! I study Russian because I love, first and foremost, Russian literature. I also like meeting and interacting with new people from areas of the former Soviet Union (in which Russian was and still is widely spoken).
4. What are the expectations from the course? For example, what do you want to master, learn, study, discover?
I have two major expectations for my courses.
First, since I am taking a course in the Anthropology of Islam, I would like to better understand the influence of Islam on Kazakh culture, society and communities subsequent to Islam’s first appearance in what is today Kazakhstan in 751 (after the Abbasid Caliphate, Tibetan Empire, and Karluk Turks defeated the Chinese Tang dynasty in the Battle of Talas).
Secondly, since I am taking a course in Kazakh, I would like to master the Kazakh language and translate Abai into English, for whom— in my modest estimation—no satisfactory translation currently exists.
5. Who else is in your class with you?
Other BA and MA American and Kazakh students.
6. How did you find out about this program?
I was already enrolled in the MA Middlebury program in the United States when our director of Middlebury abroad in Russia and Kazakhstan, Dr. Nana Tsikhelashvili, announced the start of a new program in Astana at Nazarbaev University (NU). In a sense, my colleagues and I are pioneers, because we are the first students from Middlebury to attend NU. We hope it will be a long and robust coöperation between the two renowned institutions of higher learning.
7. Which courses did you like the most? Why?
For the reasons mentioned above, I really like my courses in Anthropology of Islam and Kazakh.
8. Can you tell us about NU (SSH) faculty a little, perhaps you have a favorite one?
I really like my professors Alena Nikiticheva (Anthropology of Islam) and Aidar Balabekov (Kazakh). Prof. Nikiticheva is, coincidentally, from Kolomna, Russia, where I lived a half year while conducting research on the late-Soviet writer Venedikt Erofeev; Prof. Balabekov is a native Kazakh with an abiding commitment to teaching students his native language.
9. How do you spend your weekends? What do you do?
I continue to study, and I socialize with my colleagues and friends. Sometimes I also take a trip into the city to attend a museum, see an opera or theatrical production, or watch a hockey match. Go, Barys!
