Visit to Taraz

11.02.10 (backlogged)

In mid-October, I finally paid a visit to the capital of neighboring Zhambyl Oblast, a pretty southern city that now goes by the name of Taraz.  Examinations for the prestigious FLEX Program were being held, and a few of us Americans were signed up to help proctor.  FLEX stands for Future Leaders Exchange Program, and it sends a select group of Kazakhstanian high schoolers to the U.S. for one year of exchange study, all expenses paid.  I personally think programs like these are the best public diplomacy tool we have in our box, and it is abundantly clear to me the benefits for both our countries to allow talented young people the opportunity to be cultural ambassadors for Kazakhstan in the U.S. (much like we PCVs are for the U.S. here!).

The FLEX program is run by the American Councils in Almaty, and they do quite a rigorous job with the testing.  There are three different stages: a simple, 16-question multiple choice test of English vocabulary, grammar and reading; a series of essay questions followed by a much longer “SLEP” English language test similar to the paper-based TOEFL; and finally an interview, which focuses on content and most of which is actually not conducted in English.  The first stage of the test alone is quite rigorous, testing knowledge of English idioms and conversational rhetoric along with fast reading comprehension – only 30-40% of applicants make it out of the very first cut.  Altogether several thousand apply every year, and only a little over 100 go – making the program just as selective (if not more so) as getting into the most elite colleges in the U.S.

Helping to administer the test was quite an interesting experience.  There was a sea of excited young people and I think we were all touched at how many of them valued the idea of an American education, were interested in English, and wanted to participate in the program.  We struggled to control the masses, get everyone to stand in a line, not push, and fill out their documents correctly. Sipra came up with the ingenious idea to not let anyone have a “card” (a ticket to entry into the exam) unless they were still, waiting patiently and not shoving or reaching over others to grab.  Eventually we even held an American trivia game to keep the students occupied during what ended up being several hours of waiting for many – we asked questions like “What is the biggest state?” “Who was President of the U.S. during World War II and the Great Depression?” and (no one got this one correct though, sadly) “What is the name of our national anthem?”

[crowd of students at the FLEX testing!]

Several Shymkent students that we knew passed the first round and were very excited --all of them of course had worked very hard and were very well-deserving.  Cheating turned out to be not as much of a problem as anticipated, though students were of course not very used to the strictness of our proctoring. ;)  Because it is Kazakhstan, everyone got one red X warning for any signs of cheating (looking at someone else’s paper, starting early, not finishing when time is called), with the second X resulting in disqualification (no need here to mention how this compares to the no-tolerance policy in the U.S….can’t imagine a strike system for cheating there!).  Luckily we didn’t have to throw anyone out during our proctoring sessions. ;)

After a long and tiring day of testing on very little sleep (I had gotten up at around 5 a.m. that morning to catch a ride to Taraz with my counterpart and her son), we got to rest up and explore the city a bit the following day.  Thanks to fellow PCVs Mark, Michael and Courtney for hosting and showing us around!  I saw the old mausoleum, central square and “lover’s lane,” hung around the bazaar, had a stereotypically confusing Kazakh dining experience (in which the restaurant was half-diner half-buffet so it was unclear whether you were supposed to serve yourself or be served; the waiter stood around awkwardly while we were in the middle of talking but didn’t come for ages when we were ready to leave; and of course, the bill came out wrong with higher prices than were originally marked), and window shopped at a local boutique.  Taraz is much smaller than Shymkent but is very clean, green and pretty.  It was a gorgeous fall weekend and I very much enjoyed the trip!

[At the Taraz mausoleum(s)]