Foreign teachers in the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation: Samantha Corns

Samantha Korns, a young teacher from the United States, has been working at ASU since the beginning of the academic year. She came to our university under the Fullbright program offering grants for students, scientists and teachers participating in international educational exchange. Samantha says: “It took me about a year to prepare for the program. I had to prepare all necessary documents and pass several interviews in both English and Russian. It was especially difficult because I chose Russia, so I had to prove my level of Russian, and an ability to handle various stressful situations that may occur during classes.”
MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation have weekly classes with Sam to hone their speaking skills, discuss acute issues and share their opinion in English. Samantha takes preparation for her classes very seriously. She wants to engage students in a lively discussion of a topic provoking their lively interest, thus making them speak English as much as possible. Topics for discussion proposed by Samantha are diverse. For example, the students have recently learned about the problem of excessive consumption of performance-enhancing medicaments in the United States. The young teacher does not limit the scope of her classes to urgent topics discussion: the students often participate in quizzes and do various practical tasks at the end of the classes. “Discussions and dialogue are what I like most in working with master students. it was really interesting for me to learn everything about Russians’ attitude to different issues and I guess the students were the same interested in the first-hand information about America”, Sam points out.
Samantha also teaches bachelor students of the Law Department because her major is political science and international law.
Unfortunately, students will have to say goodbye to their American teacher in June. Samantha confesses that she loves Russia very much and she doesn’t want to leave. We hope that the experience of teaching obtained during this year will help Sam realize her plans and continue her professional growth in the US.