Trip to Narva with a Busload of Ambassadors

This is the first in a two-part post about my recent trip to Estonia’s easternmost city: Narva. In part 1, I’ll share some details on what was an enjoyable and informative journey to this historic city thanks to the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. Part 2 might get a little heated as I would like to generate some discussion about the role and effectiveness of integration through language immersion programs.

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Thanks to several office casualties resulting from cold and flu season I was given the chance to represent the Birtish Council Estonia at the Annual Study Tour arranged by the Ministry of Education and Research (MoER) here in Estonia. The focus of the trip was to showcase the progress of Estonia’s efforts to get its large Russian speaking minority to speak Estonian.

From my perspective it was my sleepy-self and a busload of diplomats, ambassadors and ubiquitous cultural attaches rolling from school to school meeting students, teachers, politicians and absorbing enough powerpoint presentations to make Guantanamo detainee recoil.

I joke. Honestly it was an amazing day; supremely coordinated to offer maximum insight in a very narrow timeframe. I can’t stress this enough. The whirlwind event could not have exposed us better to the efforts of MoER and the uniqueness of the city. Congrats and thanks to the organizers for all of their hard work.

When we rolled out of Tallinn in our bus at 7:30am the weather was hurricane-y and awful, it was dark and most of us were half asleep. Thankfully the driver was awake, otherwise Estonia would have lost half its much of its diplomatic corps and given CNN international a story to trump those Chilean miners.

After a brief stop for coffee at Purtse Castle we arrived in Narva. I suppose I shouldn’t sugar coat this… Narva is not exactly beautiful. Not only is Narva the easternmost city in Estonia, it is the easternmost city in the European Union. Thanks to this strategic position Narva has been fought over so fiercely, by so many powers, it has been built, levelled, rebuilt, razed and destroyed more times than its inhabitants can remember. As a result it is flat, grey and lacks the medieval whimsy of Tallinn for the intellectual poise of Tartu. But… it also gives Narva a profile that is wildly interesting even today.

Narva was selected for this particular tour because as Estonia’s third largest city with close to 70,000 people it has a population that is 96% Russian speaking. This is pretty much Estonia’s elephant in the room. The discussion about integration happens often and is always heated. You can read opposing viewpoints  here, and here… so I won’t get into it until part 2 of this post.

Our first stop was Narva Kesklinna Gymnasium (Narva Central Elementary School). There we were treated to several presentations outlining the schools efforts to promote the Estonian language through immersion programs, events, trips and cultural activities. It was a very impressive display. We were even treated to two song performances by some talented students from the school. A snack was proffered and we were all allowed to sit in on an immersion classroom. I chose art. Students were learning the names of fruit in Estonian by painting and printing them on paper. It seemed like a fun time and kudos to the kids for not being distracted by a bunch of tired-looking internationals lurking in the corner.

Please check out the British Council Youtube Channel and British Council Estonia at Flickr to see some great videos and photos of the event!

It also started to snow at this point which had everyone fairly excited. From what I gathered the next day, Narva was the only place in Estonia that got snow that morning.

We got back on the bus and headed to our next stop, the Narva Vocational Training Centre, for lunch. Again… the school was a really impressive place. With brand-new facilities (thanks to help from EU structural funding) which include machine, auto and wood shops and a publishing lab, the school seemed outfitted extremely well. The mandate of the school was also impressive. It accepts students ages 16-65!

 

A mostly blown-up Narva

 

We were treated to a gourmet lunch of salmon, veggies, potatoes and pear cake prepared in the school’s cafeteria/culinary training centre. It was awesome. Also awesome… people were referring to us (even me I imagined) as, ‘your excellencies.’ I have to admit it was a real treat hanging our with career diplomats. Rarely will you find a more confident, sociable and articulate group of people. They were sharp, witty and always knew the right thing to say.

 

Model of Pre-Blown Narva

 

Our third stop at the Narva Youth Centre was followed up by a visit to the Narva Town Hall where we were treated to an enthusiastic run-down of Narva’s turbulent history. Thankfully we were able to check out the amazing massive scale model of Narva as it existed in the 16^th… no 17^th… ummm… the past. There was some discussion as to the time period the model was repping. Very cool.

Finally we made the short trip to the edge of the city and Narva castle. The castle in itself was interesting, but where the chocolate really hits the peanut butter is that just opposite Narva castle, on the other side of the Narva River seperateing Estonia and Russia is Ivangorod Fortress. By other side of the river, I mean a legitimate stones throw away. Besides being an explicitly visual example of the clash of these two civilizations, it also conjures images of a Monty Python sketch. I couldn’t help imagining centuries of soldiers yelling at each other from opposite ramparts.

“We’re going to finally destroy you this year!”

“Oh you…. you say that every century.”

Seriously, though. The symbolism was not lost on anyone of the tour. The juxtaposition of the castles really underscored the magnitude of what the MoER and Estonia in general are up against. The mere length of a hockey rink away is a neighbour radiating a powerful cultural and linguistic gravity that can’t be ignored. And who are we to ignore it. Stay tuned for another post where I make ignorant arguments about the state of language and integration here in Estonia, and people who actually know what they are talking about set me straight.

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