To Sofia and Back

MEETING KONSTANTINOV ON CHERNI VRAH?

2011-10-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

It's good news for those of us who struggle with reading Bulgarian when a complete English-language version of Bai Ganyo appears! That happened last year when the University of Wisconsin Press issued Bai Ganyo: Incredible Tales of a Modern Bulgarian, edited by Victor A. Friedman. (See: http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?keyword=aleko+konstantinov&mtype=B) I didn't have to read too far into the stories of Bai Ganyo's travels in Western Europe when I came across this passage:
"I know some guys who've spent ten whole years...doing nothing at all but rotting in the smoke-filled room of the Cafe Panah [can anyone tell me where this was?!] with cards in their hands, and right in front of their noses blooms this lovely, this picturesque, urban garden...We sit in coffeehouses and sigh for Switzerland, but all we need is a little energy, and Switzerland, a Bulgarian Switzerland, is right before us--Mt. Vitosha, Rila, the Rhodopes...is there one local...who has ever climbed Vitosha?" From "Bai Ganyo Returns from Europe," spoken by the character "Marcus Aurelius."
I couldn't help recalling my very first post below, when I wrote how much Sofia, with Vitosha Park looming above it, reminded me of an Alpen village. I savored the irony that my literary muse, Staslivitse, felt the same way.
But it's appropriate to celebrate Konstantinov for another reason. In August I joined hundreds of others in climbing up the Cherni Vrah. It was the National Day of Tourism in Sofia, which, I learned, was initiated by our hero Konstantinov about 110 years ago. This explains why there are two hotels in the park, the Aleko and the Staslivitse. Climbers young and old (very young, very old) were joined by an athletic contingent who ran all the way up from NDK in a competive marathon! My wife and I enjoyed socializing with the large crowd at the summit. This included a couple of old-timers who said that had hiked over from a nearby chair-lift, and had departed from Sandanski the day before with a group of 50 souls. It was one of these gents who filled me in on the Konstantinov connection.
If you haven't climbed Cherni Vrah yet, Staslivitse is urging you to leave the smoke-filled room. It's only a short drive away.

Lessons from (and for?) Japan

2011-07-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

I am spending most of this month on vacation in Japan, and have already traveled across the main Honshu Island from a remote resort village in Kansai (a southern region) to tsunami- and earthquake-ravaged Tohoku, the northeastern region of the island. I couldn’t help thinking about how the average Bulgarian on such a trip would react to such a journey, and would like to share some of my thoughts on this excursion.

I should mention first I can get away with the following prescriptions or advice, which I would not do so frankly had I traveled to the U.S., since no one needs an outsider to tell them how much better their country is than theirs, or how much better we do things. But I am not Japanese (though my wife is), and I know that many Bulgarians admire Japan, and were especially impressed by their stoicism, solidarity and gumption in rebuilding without complaint or whining after the triple national disaster (including the nuclear power plant meltdown). They call this “gaman,” usually translated as “patience.”

As we all know, the Japanese islands sit on unstable tectonic plates that make them periodically susceptible to earthquakes, tsunami, and other natural disasters. They do the best they can to minimize the damage, and otherwise get on with their lives. Similarly, because the islands are largely covered by inhospitable mountains, they have been overcrowded for centuries. They have learned to be especially courteous and respectful of their neighbors’ needs, and call this characteristic “wa,” or harmony.

I can’t help noticing that all of us in the West—Europeans as well as Americans—don’t do as well on the “wa” front. Yes, we too come together in the wake of traumas such as the terrorist acts of 9/ll, but it seems that we have the luxury of indulging in too-frequent internecine conflicts or self-inflicted problems (e.g., there is very little graffiti in Japan) because we don’t have to deal regularly with such inhospitable natural conditions.

On the other hand, I also noticed that Bulgaria has an important lesson for Japan. When I enter a Japanese restaurant or shop, even with my “gaijin” or foreigner’s face, the proprietors address me in Japanese, not because they expect me to speak it, but because they don’t speak English. Bulgaria, however, has made enormous strides since 1990 in training a generation of young people to speak English, and to speak it very well. I don’t highlight the importance of speaking English out of American ethnocentrism, but because it is inescapable that English has become the lingua franca of business, academia, and science, and you need to have command of it to succeed in an international career.

I suspect that young Bulgarians pride themselves as members of an English-speaking European community, while young Japanese don’t feel any urgency to work or study abroad. This has become a matter of concern to government officials, and is debated in the national press. It is an issue they will struggle with in the coming years, while on this score, Bulgaria is surely already on the right track.

One final note: I acknowledge that Japanese and Bulgarian salaries are on a different order of magnitude, but still I was shocked to find that 100 grams of domestic Japanese “satonishiki” cherries cost about 10 Euros. These are not nearly as tasty as the plentiful domestic “chereshi” in

Bulgaria

, and the Japanese I met could not believe that you could find the latter for 2 leva per kilo. So, my friends, enjoy your wonderful, affordable fruit!

Bulgarians Who are ABLE

2011-05-24T06:14:00.000-07:00

I’d like to follow up on my boost for Bulgaria’s idealist young students, business people, and entrepreneurs. It seems like every week, I meet a new group of youths who are showing initiative to make Bulgaria a more prosperous and better place. Just this past Sunday, I attended a talk at the American Corner in the Sofia City Library (Slaveikov Sq.) by Dr. Minko Balkanski. The event was hosted by a new student group, ABLE (Association of Bulgarian Leaders & Entrepreneurs). Its goal is to promote leadership and entrepreneurship among young Bulgarians and provide its members with training and opportunities. (For more information on it, contact Demir Tonchev at demirtonchev@abv.bg )

Many Bulgarians already know Dr. Balkanski as the celebrated Bulgarian-French professor of physics at the Sorbonne. Last year, Dr. Balkanski gave a generous donation to the American University of Bulgaria (AUBG) to build a new academic center, which opened in a ceremony on May 15: http://www.aubg.bg/templateT1.aspx?page=2001218469) .

In his presentation this weekend, Dr. Balkanski talked about the unlimited possibilities for young Bulgarians in a democratic society, and about the need to reject negativism and cynicism. He also talked about his life, and about the value of travel and a broad education, which I know Bulgarians of all ages respond to well.
But the professor’s main theme was on improving education here in Bulgaria, especially in the sciences. He has helped young scholars in mathematics, physics and information science. He also mentioned that he has tried to establish a subject in high schools on morality and civic education, but hasn’t gotten school principals to support him.

Professor Balkanski works chiefly through an organization he founded, the Minju Balkanski Foundation (http://balkanski-foundation.org/welcome/index.php?lang=bg, in Bulgarian and French only), which is dedicated to his father. The organization aims to improve Bulgarian civil education and helps talented young Bulgarians get the education they deserve. The goals of the Foundation are to help create a civil society by bringing ethics, personal responsibility, tolerance, and other values into the Bulgarian educational curriculum.
The Foundation plays a terrific dual role of both helping young Bulgarians get ahead and by encouraging well-off adults in Bulgaria and abroad make a worthwhile philanthropic contribution to this cause.

I urge Bulgarian students to look into Professor Balkanski’s work. He was certainly an inspiration to the ABLE students.

Here and There

2011-04-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, after visiting the American College of Sofia (ACS), I was flipping through its fine alumni magazine when I ran across something that caught my eye in the "alumni notes" section at the back. There were entries by two recent graduates talking about how they had returned to Bulgaria from studying overseas and had become active in a group called "Tuk Tam"--yes, Here and There. They described the group as a sort of social and networking club that was encouraging other alumni to return to Bulgaria, take jobs here, and contribute to the country's future.

How should I put this? That I was excited? Very excited?

You may have heard that the initial indications of the latest Bulgarian government census is that the national population will fall below 7 million people, after being up over 9 million not that long ago. What's worse, some of the best and brightest of Bulgarian youth had been part of this flood to the West, since it has become relatively easy for them to study or, with a solid ACS education behind them, find work in Western Europe or the U.S.

I felt complicit in this brain drain since I was serving as chairman of U.S.-Bulgarian Fulbright Commission, which sets policy for the U.S.- and Bulgarian-government-sponsored academic exchanges, which send outstanding Bulgarians to study in the U.S., and of course I'd encouraged many more to go. But with each farewell blessing, I'd try to remind them to return to Bulgaria and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes they had acquired in the U.S. to make Bulgaria a more prosperous, more democratic, and more beautiful country.

Then this is what I found on the Tuk Tam website:

"We are "Tuk-Tam" -- an NGO uniting Bulgarians, who studied and worked abroad, and who have returned or want to return to Bulgaria.

"We are just like you -- active, smiling, ambitious and positive. We believe in Bulgaria and want to assist with what we have seen and experienced abroad.

"Our goal is to create an active social and informational network for our members, so that we can share experiences, develop common interests as well as accomplish various social projects. We aim to create contacts among the young Bulgarian professionals, who have studied or worked abroad."

Since then, I have been in frequent contact with Hristo, Diana, and Vanya. I have happily opened the Sofia American Corner (on Slaveikov Square) to their career-planning and networking events. I recently put them in touch with Junior Achievement Bulgaria (JAB) so that they could contribute to Manager for a Day and Smart Start, a two-day entrepreneurship conference and job-shadowing program for high school pupils and college students that took shape last year. Actually, Milena Stoycheva at JAB and her team already had a wildly successful Manager for a Day program in place for 10 years; I just helped expand it into a networking and training conference to give hope to Bulgarian youth looking for challenging and rewarding jobs in a competitive economy.

I have learned a lot about vision and passion and pursuing what you do best from these Bulgarian partners. YOU can too by checking out their websites:

http://tuk-tam.bg/index.php?page=za-nas&hl=en_US

http://bulgaria.ja-ye.org/pls/apex31mb/f?p=17000:1001:4307183362640240::::P0_APP_LANGUAGE:3

What do you think young Bulgarians need to find career fulfillment here in Bulgaria? Why do they go abroad, and what would bring them back?

Summer "Semester" in the United States

2011-02-01T06:18:00.000-08:00

I’d like to take the English speaking theme a step further. This may seem like American Embassy advocacy, but it’s sincere. And advocacy. The State Department sponsors fantastic opportunities for college students to work and travel in the United States over the summer, which Bulgarians call студентска бригада. We call it Summer Work and Travel (SWT—see http://bulgaria.usembassy.gov/j1_summer_work.html). This is not something fancy like the highly competitive Fulbright educational exchange program (http://www.fulbright.bg/) but a chance for any qualified Bulgarian student to spend a summer in the U.S., earn good money, experience a new job, deploy English-language skills, and then use their student ID to travel cheaply around my vast country.

So why am I such a SWT booster? Well, why am I such a booster of any internship? Einstein complained that the biggest problem with the German educational system of his time was that it prematurely tracked young people into determined professional or vocational fields. The beauty of the internship idea is that it allows you to try your hand at a variety of jobs. Now I’m not going to argue that typical SWT jobs like scooping ice cream for tourists, lifeguarding a swimming pool, or waiting on restaurant tables will help you choose a career, but people who have a variety of job experiences in their youth usually report that they are enriching. You might also learn whether you like dealing with the public, or working outdoors--or pick up insights about the business you end up in, and file it away for later use.

Personally, I did a sort of SWT in my 20s: I was an au pair cook in Paris, meaning that I lived with a French family while preparing their meals. Some 30 years later, I still look back on this period of my life as the most rewarding, and just spent the yearend holidays in Paris with the same family. I learned to speak French, studied French film and theater, and generally ensconced myself in the culture. Admittedly, I was there for more than 2 months, but then again, Bulgaria has one of the highest SWT repeat rates worldwide, so participants obviously like it. It’s not bad to experience the U.S., travel, and earn money to pay your university tuition.

Finally: some of the Bulgarian media reporting on SWT have been inaccurate. Participants will earn at least the U.S. local prevailing wage, but not as much as sometimes reported. Americans tip at 15%, not 20 percent—unless you really charm them, and then who knows?

Let me know if you are considering this and have any questions. It’s a great opportunity.

Why am I Writing in English if I am Living in Bulgaria?!

2010-12-10T06:43:00.000-08:00

Here I am again for my second post, and I’d like to follow up on my first theme of expectations. This comes to mind since I just spent a week on leave in Ukraine, where I was the American Embassy’s press officer from 1997 to 1999. My initial impression there was that things hadn’t changed much over the past 10 years, and I could see that Bulgaria had a clear advantage in funding from the European Union in many development and construction projects that were missing in Ukraine. But this view was really shaped by my first few days in the western countryside, where I visited my ancestral home of Volochysk. After I arrived in Kyiv, I saw that there had been rapid development downtown, some of which would make the residents of Sofia envious.

But my point is not comparisons of infrastructure or commercial development in the urban capital, but rather of the human capital. I’ll start with my host for most of the trip, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, a native of Volochysk and alumnus of the YES high school youth exchange program in the U.S. His ease and flexibility in speaking English was not the case for the overwhelming number of Ukrainians I met, including many young people. So in this area, Bulgaria has a clear advantage since I have been completely surprised by how well Bulgarians in their 20s and 30s speak English. When I arrived, I pretty much expected to have to speak Bulgarian every day to do my job, and yet find myself conducting almost all my meetings in English. Despite their complaints about the decline of public education since “the changes” (Americans usually call this watershed “the fall of the Berlin Wall”), Bulgarians seem to have taken to English like fish to water.

So here I am writing in English. The State Department has an English teaching division and programs that aid English teachers around the world, and though I’ve taught English, I’ve also taken pride in learning foreign languages and using them at work. But young Bulgarians make this skill much less necessary, and this has happened for the first time in my foreign service career. Bravo to Bulgarian youth! But why is this the case? Can someone tell me?

Here are my guesses: 1. Young Bulgarians see English as the ticket to success in international business, government, academia, science, and the arts. 2. Bulgarian teachers and educators see Bulgaria as increasingly integrated in the Euro-Atlantic community, where English has become the lingua franca. 3. English is just cool: Movies, music, and pop culture are embedded in English, and young Bulgarians respond to that, and want to be part of it.

For some context: I suspect that young Ukrainians have an advantage in that their country is still largely bilingual, and in fact many of them speak Russian as their mother tongue. Now Russian is a beautiful language with a glorious literature (and I’m a devoted fan of Mikhail Bulgakov), but I don’t think it brings the worldwide entrée that English does. My sense is that young people in other Eastern European countries are not taking to English as well as Bulgarians.

I welcome your thoughts on why Bulgarians are doing so well.

P.S. I'm hunting for the right "English Spoken Here" photo!

2010-11-08T01:39:00.000-08:00

(with apologies to Aleko Konstantinov)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Thank you taking the time to read this new blog from the Public Affairs Section of the American Embassy. I will be using this space to tell you something about the inner workings of the imposing embassy building on Kozyak St. Although I’ve done some classroom teaching, I don’t like to lecture, or even talk too much about myself, so I am counting on you, my readers, to make this blog interactive.

That said, a lot of Bulgarians have asked me two questions: Why I came to Bulgaria?, and, What are my impressions of the place?

OK, why? Having now lived a year or more in six foreign countries, I’ve realized that it is really the local people, and these people only, who determine one’s experience in the country. I got to know my Japanese wife in Japan, so naturally I like Japan (J), but I also met a young Bulgarian diplomat who made a very good impression on me about her country. I was duly impressed not only by how well she spoke English, but also how well she spoke Japanese! Now this would have been enough to pique my interest, but actually I also met a young Bulgarian physician in West Berlin some 30 years ago, who has since become one of my best friends. (His German wife calls him “Toshko” for “Todor.” My wife and are tickled since this is also a Japanese name—for women!) So the answer to the first question is easy: I came here to learn about my friends’ country, and to meet more Toshkos and Lizzies.

Impressions

I’ve often been asked what expectations I had of Bulgaria before I visited for the first time, which is a good question, and “correcting misperceptions” –what living abroad can do-- is a cliché of public diplomacy. Since I had already lived in Hungary and Ukraine, I expected to find a country more or less in this Eastern European model. I didn’t know the Balkans and wasn’t sure how Bulgaria would be different from them. Since my wife and I like to read and play piano, we hoped to find a place where people appreciate books and music. I expected to find a thriving folklore culture, since I knew of musicians and music-lovers who spent their summers in Koprivshtitsa and Varna for folk festivals or classical training. I’d also seen the map showing tall and rugged mountains, but I had no idea that the magnificent Vitosha would tower over Sofia. Every day now as I cross Cherni Vruh St. on the way to the embassy I look up at that glorious peak and draw inspiration—and have to remind myself that I’m not in Switzerland! I sometimes wonder if the residents of Sofia appreciate how spectacular the Vitosha Park mountain peaks are.

So let me ask you: What do you recommend that foreigners see or do in Bulgaria? And, if you have visited America, how did your expectations change after you stayed there?