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Reflections from the Slovak Republic

Reflections IV: "Looking back"

Fred Ruppel

After 7-1/2 months we are finally looking to the end of our time in the Slovak Republic. We are now only one month until our departure from Slovakia, then another two weeks of travel before we fly back to the USA on 22 June. It’s been a long time, but a good time. The first half of our time seemed to drag by rather slowly. Then winter lasted longer than usual. But the last third has flown by, almost too fast for us to do and see all that we would like. On occasion we have pondered what we miss "back home". Eric and Rachel are missing their friends, and we all miss our stateside daughters, Nancy and Emily (and they miss us!). We are also missing some of our favorite foods. Most of the Slovak dishes are tasty, but sometimes we don’t quite know what we are eating and it seems better not to ask! Carol and I miss our friends also, and we miss English language newspapers and television. We do NOT miss meetings, SACS accreditation, and the countless other administrative details we have been spared this year. We don’t look forward to coming back to all that, nor do we relish the task of reclaiming our stateside lives, including our move to a new house and last year’s taxes. So we will come back with mixed emotion, and we will certainly miss Slovakia when we leave.

I came here with a proposed project, to write a textbook on "Economic Issues for the Slovak Republic". The project changed somewhat in midstream when I was asked to teach Principles of Microeconomics during the Spring semester. Since textbooks are in extremely short supply throughout Slovakia, we decided to change the focus from a one-semester "Issues" textbook to a first-semester Micro Principles textbook, and to then put the Micro book online so the students would have reading material at no cost. I am happy to report the success of that project. I was able to generate twelve chapters, some 120 (single-spaced) pages of text and 89 diagrams. A number of my students from Fall semester volunteered to translate the English to Slovak, and my Slovak colleague is now making corrections and additions to make the book "more Slovak". The completed project will then be a two-column text, with English in the left column and Slovak in the right column. The plan is for the book to be sold throughout Slovakia for both economics and English classes. Certainly the English instructors at this university are looking forward to being able to use an applied economics book to teach English as a foreign language. The further plan is for me to continue to work on the "Issues" text when I get back to Richmond, with my Slovak colleague overseeing the translation and final preparations. For me the bottom line is: Project Successful!

My remaining responsibilities are in the classroom. I teach sixty students in three sections, one 90-minute lecture and three 90-minute discussions per week. We have two more weeks of classes, then final exams, then final grades and I will be through. The Slovak students are impressive. Their math skills are very strong, much stronger than I see in my EKU classes, and their memorization abilities are phenomenal. However, their analytical and problem-solving skills seem less well-developed. All these characteristics seem to be products of forty years of socialism, when textbooks were in short supply and instructors often simply read from the lectern. My biggest frustration with the Slovak students (many, but certainly not all) is their widespread lack of academic integrity. Although I have spoken passionately on a number of occasions about my intolerance of any kind of cheating, it remains rampant in the crowded classroom where they take their exams. Proctoring an exam becomes a police action, exhorting students to "Keep your eyes on your own papers; Stop talking; Stop swapping calculators, rulers, pencils, etc." Even when I announce that there are multiple copies of the exam, students with Exam A will copy answers from Exam B, not knowing that the problems look similar in form but have different numbers or letter designations. I am teaching first-year students and have been unwilling to bring about the more severe consequences for copying on an exam (failure in the course or expulsion from the university), but my frustration with this behavior has hit a high level.

That said, I have substantial admiration for these students. Many of them live with their parents some thirty or forty kilometers from the university. It takes a commercial bus and a twenty minute walk to get to classes -- hot, cold, rain or snow. They are diligent in their studies. Most of them come to class with their homework prepared. Their facility with numerical calculations is stronger than in any American classroom I have seen in my thirty years of teaching. They are courteous and respectful. It is clear to me that they are thrilled to have an American professor teaching them. Time and again they ask my why I would want to come to Slovakia. Although they love their homeland, they are curious that someone would leave such a wealthy country to spend a year in a much more "deprived" atmosphere.

Looking back... We have been well treated. My economics office mates have been friendly and helpful whenever I needed assistance. Carol has also been well-received. She has become a valuable asset to the English (foreign languages) department. She is assisting in two classes where they are introducing writing into the curriculum, a major new effort for most Slovak students (whether in Slovak or in English). The Fulbright office in Bratislava has been wonderful, accommodating whatever needs may arise and doing their best to create a sense of comradeship among us "Fulbright’ers".

But I would say that the most wonderful aspect of our time here has been the hospitality of individual Slovaks and their families. Carol and I (and usually the children) have been invited to more than a dozen homes for meals, parties, celebrations, or just coffee, tea and cakes. We have been to a country garden cottage for homemade open-pit-kettle goulash, to a 200-year-old private wine cellar for homemade wine, to an English faculty member’s home for a very special Christmas Eve celebration, to my host’s winter cottage for New Years Eve, to birthday celebrations and going-away parties, plus personal invitations to Plzen (CZ, home of pilsner beer), to Munich, to Eastern Slovakia, and to a village in Hungary. Americans are something of a fascination for Slovaks ­ they don’t get many here outside of Bratislava ­ but the level of Slovak hospitality has been beyond our wildest expectations.

So, this is my last "Reflections". Our final month will be full of travel and getting-out activity. I/we look forward to seeing many of you when we return. Hopefully we will offer a slide show in the TLC during the Fall semester. And finally, a special thank-you to Doug, Hal, Aaron, and Kumar for hosting me on this site. Do videnia!!