Now that I’m in Tbilisi a little longer, I may as well learn some more about the country that won’t let me leave. (see yesterday’s Vit V)
The book I’m reading these days is, Life In Soviet Georgia.
It’s a really interesting read.
The Official News
One story made me think of my students.
In the early 1990s, a Georgian school boy got the opportunity to live with an American family and attend an American school.
One evening, he asked what station the news was on.
The father told him he could find the news on channel 4, channel 7 and channel 9. .
The boy looked confused.
He wanted to watch “the news.”
How could people know what to believe if there was more than one news?
Grammar Is A Dictator
Sometimes I feel that way with my enemy, the grammar book.
The grammar book is the dictator.
He looks like your favorite uncle, but he’ll knock on your door at three in the morning and take you to Siberia if you make a mistake.
I say, try this method, try that method.
Use what works for you.
And if you decide the grammar book is your cup of tea, perhaps you would also enjoy a holiday in North Korea…
It is lovely. I have been in Georgia in 1969 just after 2 years of the 50th anniversary of the Great October Revolution. I know what means news on one single channel and not the grammar book was the only dictator.
Wow. It must have been a totally different place back then.
I was in Tblisi, in a trip, in 1985. Not only there was only one chanel of news on TV but in the main hotel in the town we couldn’t watch Tv in every room because there was no Tv. In the even on the hall of the hotel there was a room for watching TV. The men, especially, gathered and watched soccer. The news were always the same. 😀Then I found out that to travel from a republic to an other in Soviet Union it was not posible without an authorisaton. Bad times!
In the book I mentioned, one story said that you needed permission just to visit another hotel guest in his room.
In 1985 in the Soviet Union, as in other countries of the Communist camp, there was great poverty and the lack of many goods – food, clothes. When I was going on a trip to the Soviet Union people had a few things in their luggage to sell – sport shoes, glass cups, cotton shirts etc. Our authorities allowed us to go with only a little money, insignificant. Everything was under control. In the Soviet Union a lot of people, illegal traders followed groups of tourists with the help of those who worked in hotels. They knew we had something attractive to sell. They told us they needed permission to cross from one republic to another. Most of them came from Moscow and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). In addition, I had a colleague who made a trip to the Caucasus mountains. He needed an authorization from the local republic.
Interesting
Errata – In the previous posted I wanted to say “the even floors of the hotel, there was a room with TV”
I born in the end of soviet union, in my small memory of my childhood I have no nothing bad. it wasn’t perfect how I think as adult today. but people weren’t naked or hungry. but after 1992.. war.. civil war.. it was really very bad time in Georgia..