U.S. Fulbright Scholar Final Report
Dr. Robert Bergland
5304 Pickett Road
Saint Joseph, MO 64503
(816) 279-1699
English, Foreign Languages and Journalism Department
Missouri Western State University
Saint Joseph, Missouri, 64503
Lecturer in Journalism
Luts'k Liberal Arts University
Luts'k, Ukraine
Feb.-June 2005
Part I. Administrative
I was very impressed with the administrative handling of the grant. From the very beginning, when I was first inquiring about the availability of a grant, my questions were answered thoroughly and promptly via email and by phone. After receiving notification of the grant, ample materials were sent to inform and prepare me for my upcoming visit. The orientation in Washington was very helpful in finding out more about the program, the country and the educational system and served as a good vehicle for networking with past and fellow new grantees. If anything, perhaps having a brief discussion session near the very beginning with grantees going to the same country would be helpful, since that would help people form connections early on.
The February orientation in Kyiv was likewise very useful. While some of the information was repeated from the Washington seminar, it was good to hear most of it a second time. And, there was also much new information, and once again it was good to link up with other spring semester Fulbrighters. Because we were not in Kyiv, it also provided a great opportunity for us to visit the capital city and to have a guided tour of some of the key sights.
Because I was taking my wife and two sons (ages 6 and 8) to Ukraine, I was especially pleased with how the dependent and educational supplement was handled smoothly. The questions about educational reimbursements were taken care of well by Muriel Joffe. Just as important to me was Muriel's foresight in procuring funds for translation in my grant package. Because some of my lectures dealt with complex subjects and terminology, having these lectures translated (putting English and Ukrainian side-by-side on the Powerpoint slides) was invaluable. In addition, these funds were able to pay for numerous sets of documentation to be translated. These translations not only helped my students to be able to use key web and page design software during the semester, but will also help many students at the university learn the software long after I have left.
As for logistics, I found the best way to travel to my city was via Warsaw, since Luts'k is closer to Warsaw than to Kyiv--and, the flights to Warsaw were much cheaper than to L'viv or Kyiv. I travelled by bus from Warsaw to Luts’k when I first arrived, and then back and forth by train later when I met my wife and family. I found it very useful to travel a couple weeks before the rest of my family--it allowed me to focus on my teaching, setting up the apartment, getting oriented and solving problems before they arrived (making their transition easier) and I was also able to communicate what they would and would not need to pack. It was probably also easier on my host to just work with me at first instead of a whole family. I would recommend this strategy to future grantees who travel with their families.
The only main logistical problem came with the sending of books. Since my children were home schooled for half-days (Ukrainian school in the morning, home school with my wife in the afternoon), we needed to send many books. I had sent these through USPS M-class instead of through diplomatic pouch because I was unsure of getting the books from Kyiv and because the M-class postal rates are very reasonable ($1 pound). My problem was that I sent my books to the university instead of my host (a home address) and that I had declared a value of over $250 on a declaration form. Both of those things caused my package to get red-flagged by customs, and I needed to pay a significant amount of money in customs duties. I would recommend using the diplomatic pouch to avoid the customs problems.
The stipend provided was sufficient for our needs. Although the travel and monthly living allowance is designed for a maximum of two dependents, it was fine for paying for the related travel and living expenses for the four of us. Because the price of housing in Luts'k is much more reasonable than in Kyiv, we were able to live in a very attractive and spacious flat for rent which was significantly less than our Fulbright acquaintances in Kyiv. And, the cost of food was also much less. In short, our time at the February orientation made us really appreciate the lower cost of living in Luts'k.
I was especially happy that there is a $1,500 allowance for purchasing books or other supplies to leave in Ukraine. With that money I was able to purchase a new but cheap laptop ($600), an older backup laptop ($150), two document cameras on Ebay ($100 and $200 respectively), and a video projector on Ebay ($400, plus $100 for spare lamps). This technology ended up working wonderfully. With the computer and projector I was able to give Powerpoint presentations not only at my university but at other universities and high schools were I gave guest lectures. The document cameras, which could be hooked up to the projector, were also very useful. And, because my laptop could play DVDs, I was able to show my journalism students clips from American media broadcasts. We brought many other DVDs, and for our movie nights with our English-speaking colleagues and my students, we were able to use the projector to show the movies on the wall of our apartment. More than anything, it was nice to always be in control of the technology, to not have to worry that a change in room assignment or something going awry with the older university computers or larger screen TVs would ruin a lecture. The various uses of this technology also opened my colleagues' eyes to different ways that they could deliver information to their students. Needless to say, my university was very happy to learn that all of this equipment would be theirs when I left.
To handle the expenses while we were in Luts'k, we created a separate account at our bank in the United States. The bank linked the account with a Visa debit card that could be used for purchases or withdrawls. This was a perfect solution. By having this separate account and this card, we were able to withdraw money in hryvna and not have the hassle/worry/lower rate that comes with exchanging money. We had set up our banking online and were able to keep balances in that debit card account low (to limit our losses in case of theft/card fraud) and transfer money into that account when needed. By taking this approach we didn't need to bring much money into the country, we didn't need to mess with setting up a bank account here and we had no trouble getting money from one of the half-dozen ATMs within a quarter-mile of our apartment. We also had two credit cards with us, but in our city many businesses do not take credit cards, and of course the possibility of fraud/credit card theft may well be higher in Ukraine. We never used a credit card during our stay.
While the businesses may not accept credit cards or be as advanced as many of their European counterparts, we were pleasantly surprised by how modern Luts'k, a city of 250,000, was. We had read books such as Culture Shock Ukraine and others which indicated that outside of Kyiv the availability of supermarkets and other convenient stores was limited, and we expected the worst. But, we found a wonderful mid-sized supermarket a block from our flat and a large American-style supermarket a 10 or 15 minute walk away. A huge rynok (bazaar) was located 10 minutes away, too, and we shopped there numerous times, especially for fresh vegetables and fruit. While there is no McDonalds in Luts'k (thankfully for us, regrettably in the eyes of our children), there were numerous restaurants, including a very nice Italian/pizza restaurant but a few blocks away. But, outside of social occasions (welcoming parties, birthdays, etc.), we never ate at restaurants. Because of my wife's efforts and skill--and foresight in packing Mexican, Italian and other spices--we ate much American-style food, in addition to experiencing Ukrainian cuisine. We had fun having fellow professors or students over to our apartment for evenings of American movies and food.
That is not to say that everything was the same as in the U.S., of course. There were some foods that were not available in Ukraine (peanut butter, maple syrup, etc.), some foods that were the same but different (vanilla came in powdered packets, there was no corn starch but we did find potato starch), and some foods which were new (salo!). And, we ended up buying large (6L) bottles of water and boiling tap water rather than tempting fate with water straight from the faucet. But, we saw the differences as an adventure rather than an obstacle. One other difference, of course, was not having a car, although with the swarms of marshrutkas, transportation to many parts of the city was never a problem. Unfortunately, there were no good direct routes to my university, so I walked the 20-25 minutes each day. Again, while there were some chilly days, I chose to look on the positive side of getting additional exercise. Fortunately, my family did not need to discover differences between the U.S. and Ukrainian health care systems, as the worst we suffered was a bout with the flu.
As I mentioned earlier, my children were in Ukrainian school in the mornings. They waited a bit before starting school, so they only ended up being in school from March 1 until May 20. Given that short amount of time, they were not able to become fluent, of course, but they did learn the alphabet and were able to read and to communicate some phrases with their peers. In subjects such as math, physical education and art, they also did fine, as language wasn’t needed much. So, while we may have put them in an English school if they had been in Kyiv, we were glad they were in the Ukrainian school. They were able to make friends and be around other people their age and learn some language and culture, and at the same time the Ukrainian students and teachers no doubt learned some American language and culture. The teachers appreciated having the young Americans in their classrooms. I was very fortunate that my wife had the time, energy and educational background to do a wonderful job with homeschooling the boys during the afternoons. I’m not sure if this arrangement would work for other families and school-aged children, but for us it provided a wonderful experience for everyone involved.
While on the subject of family, I want to mention that I was very happy with how well Fulbright supported having my family come to the host country. Supporting the spouse/additional dependent does cost the Fulbright program more money, but I think it is a good investment. Not only is it good for the Fulbright specialist to have his/her family in-country, but it is also good for the people in the host country to experience interacting with an American family. I remember during my first week after an introductory lecture I was asked, in all seriousness, “Are all American families like The Simpsons?” After almost choking and comprehending the cultural drivel we export and its effect on stereotypes of Americans, I answered a definitive NO (I almost felt like saying “Doh!”). But, much more than my words, it was the interactions with my family outside of our apartment that really helped to dispel the misconceptions about Americans and the American family.
I want to conclude by encouraging Fulbright specialists to involve their spouses in university activities and lectures, if the host university is willing. At the very least, English language teachers at the university (or at nearby high schools) are very eager to have a native speaker come to their classes, either to just talk or answer questions or to give more formal presentations on a topic. I know that my wife became a very valuable asset to some of the university and local school teachers, and by helping these teachers her Fulbright experience was much more positive. She felt useful and valued, and her contributions really helped us accomplish the goals and aims of the Fulbright program.
II. Education Resources and the Academic Program of the Institution of Affiliation
I was surprised at the resources at my institution. After reading the books about Ukraine and some of the previous Fulbright reports, I was expecting a decrepit building with few resources. Instead, the university building was a very clean, newly remodeled, well-equipped facility. There were TVs with VHS players in a few of the rooms, and a huge-screen TV in the main lecture hall where I gave several guest presentations. The university had one computer room and was working on a second room. The computer room had about 15 computers and a large-screen TV that could be hooked up to the teacher-station computer or my laptop, and the room had internet access. There were a few difficulties part-way through the semester as some of the good computers were taken to the new, second computer room, occasionally leaving my room short on computers which had the necessary hardware and software to do the print and web design coursework. This led to some frustration, but it really wasn’t too much of a problem, as I simply put some students together to work in pairs on the computers that did work fine. The university is planning to purchase more computers in the near future as well. Fulbrighters who plan to have their students work on computers should make sure they know the speed, operating system, ports, etc. before they arrive. For me, the internet access and computers were much slower than I was used to in the United States, but were acceptable. Another thing to consider is the operating system language—most of the computers were set up in Russian, and I needed to get used to the general and program-specific menu bars to teach and help my students trouble-shoot problems.
The students did not have funds for textbooks, as expected, so I arranged my lectures accordingly. I put some material on the web and had photocopies made of the software documentation in English and in translation. I also used examples from the web for my web design class and used the aforementioned document camera to show examples of brochures, newsletters, newspapers, magazines, etc. For my teaching area, the lack of textbooks was not a problem; teachers in other areas may want to consider using some of their $1,500 allowance to buy textbooks, depending on the English proficiency of their students.
My university did have a library, although it was one room and small by American standards. But, it did have many resources that would be valuable to students. A previous Fulbright scholar (two-week visitor) donated some texts, so there were some good textbooks in English in my area. I also contributed about a dozen textbooks, many newspaper and magazine copies and DVDs.
The university has about 300 students, separated into the areas of journalism, cybernetics (computer science), economics and business/management. Because the university has a liberal arts focus, there were many other subjects taught by full-time and adjunct professors. There was a strong emphasis on English-language skills, and most of the students were able to understand my basic lectures fairly well.
The small size of the university actually worked very much to my advantage, because I did not have to fight bureaucracy to solve problems. I either talked to the person involved or had my host lobby on my behalf and everything was taken care of. To me, this more than made up for any lack of resources resulting from teaching at a smaller institution.
Some tips for upcoming Ukrainian Fulbrighters using technology:
--bring a couple flash drives (128-1GB) to transfer files from home or between computers at school. These drives, which cost a bit more in Ukraine, make great gifts when you leave.
--consider buying a computer with CD-RW capabilities or a separate CD-RW drive
--many computers cost as much or more in Ukraine—laptops are significantly more expensive. Consider buying a laptop in the U.S. to bring with you, making sure it has the video-out and other ports that you need. Be very careful about theft, of course.
--remember that DVDs are region specific, so if you are showing DVDs, they may have problems running on a Ukrainian device. And, where I was at, many people had VHS but few had DVDs. For me, having a laptop that could play DVDs was invaluable for my teaching
--For many reasons, back up your files on a CD or flash drive that you keep separate from your computer.