About Genevra Gerhart
Much of the material in The Russian’s World came from direct, and long
association with Russian and Russians. I graduated in 1950 with a
"linguistic" major in Russian and thereafter spent an additional year
and a
half completing the Russian course at l’ Ecole des langues orientales
vivantes in Paris, France. (More Russian was actually learned at home from
my landlady, Mme. Tchebotarevskiy. Monsieur T. was a Paris taxi driver who
spoke neither English, nor, for that matter, French.) Then, the U.S.
government employed me for two years for my ability to read Russian; and
another branch of the same office required my ability to understand spoken
Russian for two more years in London.
(This space was filled by family affairs).
Advanced degrees in Slavic linguistics were not an option in about 1958, so instead
I went on to a teaching certificate; and as luck would have it my first teaching
job was in fact at the local university where I discovered that there were many
questions yet unanswered by my extensive training and experience. The first edition
of Russian’s World appeared in 1974. The second and third edition is much
larger, and therefore much closer to my goal of describing what is meant when
something is said, in Russian. By now I have made many trips to Russia and even
taught (English!) there at both the secondary and college level. Currently, a
constant stream of visiting Russians helps keep my Russian au courant.
Email Genevra Gerhart at genevragerhart@gmail.com