Alles Normales

I keep stressing that the scope of this blog is misc. profit generating ideas which emerge on an edge of ONLINE and OFFLINE worlds. OFFLINE world is mostly populated by masses of Internet illiterate people who do not speak/understand English - which are plenty in so called Third World countries (*provincial* Russia included - that’s where I’m from).

In this particular post I will tell a story which deals not only with ONLINE vs OFFLINE worlds opportunities but also MODERN technologies vs OUTDATED ones - Internet being the modern one and outdated one is…I’ll tell you that in a minute.

I believe that you’ll agree with me that lately Internet has been considered the cheapest and the most efficient way to learn all things foreign while staying home (this is the essence of my blog after all, too). The reason behind this belief is what cost of Internet connectivity - in most developed countries - is peanuts, or even zero.

Now, listen - cost of Internet connectivity in so called Third World countries (you know the rest…provincial Russia included and so on) is FAR from peanuts (again, I speak about provincial regions, not capitals). E.g. 1Gb of outer traffic costs me (with all imaginable tricks used, like proxies, night time surfin etc etc) about $40 - and what 1GB is in modern day communications?! No YouTube (ouch…it’d be expensive), no podcasts (hmm…it’s gonna cost me a fortune…), no  streaming Internet radio (err…I’d better stick to 30 sec. samples downloads) and so on.

So Internet is NOT the cheapest way to learn all things foreign if you happen to stack in provincial Russia - but it’s still - most of the time - THE ONLY WAY to learn it, since foreign press and literature is totally unavailable in provincial Russian regions like mine is (that’s Udmurtia, the land of ever green tomatos and AK-47s being produced in zillions). And I feel somewhat proud what I figured out both cheaper and better way to study English than Internet is.

Back in my days of helping American gents to communicate with Russian women I would often witness a situation then a US gentleman was bringing his Russian fiancee to the States (to get to know each other better) and his lady all of a sudden felt herself lost - just imagine someone whose English is next to zero jumps to the world where almost everything in English is at full speed!

Going thru my archives, I found this letter of mine to a fellow RWL list member, an American gentleman:

—-
I’m aware of very cheap way to provide Russian Women (or whoever else - it doesnt matter) with an eternal source of spoken foreign language, be that English or another one, to make non-native speaker to “adjust” himself/herself to the language. I tried it on my wife and one more gal in Izhevsk and results are pretty good.

> school has a good reputation. And at $100 for each course of
> lessons (1 course equals 12 1-hour privately-tutored lessons),
> it’s a great price. During these lessons, the student is only
> permitted to speak English.

Of course English lessons are a must, but merely 12 hours (right, half a day doesnt suffice - one needs to be hearing the language spoken very often to be able to comprehend it.

Efficient method would be to study language abroad, but I’m looking for cheap ways not involving traveling - and suitable for people who are unable to spend good deal of their time talking to foreigners (there are places in Russia where foreigners are rare find - my city, Izhevsk, included).

There are some options available:
1) listening to taped lessons on a player
2) watching movies in English (subtitled or not)
3) watching taped TV programs submitted by somebody from abroad
etc.

That’s what I’m after, I decided to collect them all.

I got my very own solution, too. The solution is to become a music addict and listen to awful lot of music with lyrics sung in English. Yeah, that really works - it worked for myself, I’ve been listing to foreign music for last  25 years - but it wont work for an average Russian woman (most of them are into horrible Russian pop music - mind you, that Russian pop music wouldnt even taught them ANY GOOD Russian language).

I got another “KNOW-HOW”, pretty much suitable for women/men of all ages - it makes them “exposed” to stream of spoken foreign language, no Internet or VCR or player necessary, but I’m not ready to reveal it to the list
(while I’d LOVE to discuss it via private correspondence). I estimate it as about $70 one time expense, and I tried it in Izhevsk with two women - that’s why I wouldnt like to make it public.

You see, I didnt feel like sharing that know-how with RWL mailing list, but times are changin’, so here you are - I’m revealing content of my secret Web site which I put up back in 2000.
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Short-wave radio (World band receiver) - both a nice non-typical gift and inexpensive way to get used to spoken foreign language.

If you ever wondered how to help your lady to understand spoken English, world band receiver might be long forgotten but cheap and efficient solution.

You can tune it into BBC wave (Voice of America, Deutsche Welle in English…you name it) and just leave it speaking at level of loudness you’re comfortable with while you’ll be doing your routine stuff at home (or at your summer house).

So you are just leaving native English speech audible in background, and by so doing you’ll gradually become more and more proficient in spoken English - or it would be better to say, skilled in comprehending spoken English.

The problem is, cheap SW radios are almost impossible to obtain nowadays. FM prevails everywhere. Grands of world electronics - like Sony, Grundig, Philips - do produce SW receivers, but solely digital world band receivers, prices start at about $130 min.

This causes some - obscure maybe - problems, of social rather than technical origin.

There are 3 problems:

1 Russian women are known for unwillingness to accept expensive gifts. Digital SW Sony radio is by all means would be considered both pricey and sophisticated - given its almost spaceship equipment look.

2 Even if accepted, this kind of sophisticated device will be taken GREAT care of - I DO DOUBT an Russian woman could bring it down to dacha and leave it playing outdoor while doing some gardening.

3 This kind of sophisticated device - especially known as being obtained thru foreign friend of the lady in question - would generate envy of her female friends, which is no good.

So, digital radios are not the the way to go.

Russian short-wave receivers - well-known and plenty in the past - are not being produced any more, be that analog or digital ones.

What remains is Asian (Chinese, Malaysian etc. el cheapo makes) radios.

They are:
- Usually small crappy soap-box types, short-wave (SW) band not often found implemented
- Even if SW bands available, quality of tuning and sound is pretty bad
- Signal level would be weak and unsteady, it would be tricky to tune into and even more tricky to stay tuned.
- They are hard to find, too - consumer electronics stores (in Russia) absolutely do not carry them, or stock only tiny FM type ones.

Still, proper stuff could be found via tiny operations - for example, I got for myself a decent Chinese radio for use at my dacha - and have to say I’m pretty much satisfied with its operability and quality.

Its advantages:
- mighty amplifier
- big loudspeaker (about 4 inches diameter)
- it tunes in well and “sticks” to found wavelength pretty good - that is there is no fluctuations, I don’t have to re-tune it now and then.

Quality of plastics - the shell, the buttons, everything - is top notch, and being about 1.5 years in operation the set didn’t go malfunctioned not a single time.

Now, this kind of SW radio lacks ALL disadvantages of digital Sonys:
1) it costs under $100
2) it looks pretty much ordinary
(black case with couple of pretty simple controls and familiar looking frequencies panel) - which eliminates all those social problems I mentioned above.

Besides, all other regular bandwidths are present as well - FM, LW and MW, so once tired with spoken English your lady might switch to ol’ good Russian pop music

And it’s easy to operate - few functions leave lesser space for mishandling it, and women, as you know, aren’t that comfortable with consumer electronics. Especially women in provincial Russian towns.

The main problem is availability of quality inexpensive radios. By all means, an ordinary Russian woman won’t be able to find this kind of radio in her town/city.

And this is where I see an opportunity for you - and for myself.

For you - to show what you do care about her
For me - to run a small part time biz.

Having got contacts in the trade, I’m offering you for $70 total following:

- to get an Asian world band receiver of high quality (analog one)
- to supply it with printed out list of radio frequencies and schedules for BBC and VOA broadcasts in Russian (+ I will also give the list of frequencies and schedules to you, so you and your lady could listen to the same broadcast — maybe even while you are on the phone together)
- to provide pack of batteries and power supply (usually comes without these)
- hand deliver it in city of Izhevsk and vicinity
- or, well packed, mail it out to ANY location in Russia.
Delivery to any former Soviet Union country is also possible - for an extra fee of $9 (shipping charge).

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Links:
Chinese Radios
http://www.electronicsbiz.com/search/pages/Regional/China/Electronic_Equipment/more3.html

Filed under: Success stories - Offline meets Online