23.04.24: the Minsk syndrome

Before I post the next part on 3rd declension adjectives, I wanted to share a story, and it's a story and an image that I shared with students for many years.

I had just completed my first year of Russian at university. The Professor, Peter Henry, approached me and explained that there was a one month scholarship at the Pedagogical Institute of Minsk in, at that time, the Belorussian Republic of the USSR. This scholarship was offered to second year students, but the candidate couldn't go, and so he offered it to me. I was delighted.

You see that arrow in the image? Two days after I started the course, I sat right there with my head in my hands. One of the lecturers, Yurij Stulov, saw me, sat down beside me and asked me what was wrong. I explained: 'Ya nichevo ne znayu' (I know nothing), 'Vsyo eto slishkom trudno' (All of this is too difficult), 'Ya khochu vernut'sya v Angliyu' (I want to go back to England). More than that, I wanted to give up Russian.

And I felt that way - I felt inferior - because everybody else in the group was in their final year at Oxford and I had only completed my first year. The questions were too difficult, the concepts were too difficult, they could all answer the questions and I couldn't. Yurij clapped me on the shoulder, wandered off and spoke to my lecturer.

The next day, the lecturer gave me easier material to deal with, when the questions were too difficult he didn't ask me, and when he thought I could answer them, he asked me. I changed completely, I felt confident...and not only did I go back to Minsk the following year, I had a further scholarship at Leningrad, completed my Masters and taught the language for twenty years. That one moment, thanks to Yurij Stulov, not only changed me, but I never forgot it and used that incident to emphasise to students that none of us always find things easy.

So, if you find Latin difficult at times, if somebody writes something that is still over your head, don't be disheartened. Go back through the posts, check the alternative site, use the file downloads, use the youtube videos, and ask questions. If, for example, somebody writes here or elsewhere "Ah, that's a third person singular imperfect passive subjunctive in a subordinate clause of purpose" then remember the term I made up: Minsk syndrome. Don't bother about it; if you're not at that stage yet, then leave it. Focus on your own level. A wall starts from its foundations, not half way through.

And the reason I write this is because, in the next post, I am about to state that 3rd declension adjectives are like 3rd declension nouns, and if you're asking "What's a 3rd declension noun?" then the Minsk syndrome has kicked in. But don't sit on a wall with your head in your hands. I'm going to post some references that will summarise the 3rd declension nouns - because they are a major element in Latin - and I am in the process of transferring all of the information on the 3rd declension nouns onto the alternative site.