Archive sections: ‘Life In Kyrgyzstan’
“Houston, we have a problem …”, that is how the astronauts aboard Apollo 13 reported the incident, in 1970, when an explosion on board ruptured an oxygen tank … and led to the abandonment of the mission which was to have included the third lunar landing. “We have a problem …” is a phrase that [...]
The other day I was talking to some colleagues about the provision of tour services in the Kyrgyz Republic for the disabled. In particular, we were discussing wheelchair access. The situation in Kyrgyzstan is not very good … it is not exactly “wheelchair friendly”. Many buildings have built into their facades steps … and ramps [...]
A few years ago there was a lot written on the internet about “alcoholic terrorism” in Central Asia … a phrase which has, fortunately, gone out of fashion in the aftermath of September 11th. The idea was simply that any event can be seized upon as an excuse for a party – which will inevitably [...]
The end of March – the end of Winter and the start of Spring. Although we had experienced several days of bright, warm, sunshine, the weather had turned and it proved to be particularly chilly. Bright sunshine had been replaced by dark, overcast, skies which were divesting themselves of rain … at least it wasn’t [...]
There is a Russian phrase, “Tika yedish, dalshe budesh”, which roughly translates as “go slowly and go further”. I suppose the English equivalents might be something like “Take it Easy” – or just, “Slow down!”.
The other day, a friend asked me for some advice. Isn’t it nice to be asked for advice?
This page was written in 2003 and was one of the most popular pages on the original ianbek.com site … and people still refer to it, even though the site has been down for a long time. One person even claimed that they chose to visit Kyrgyzstan because of it … and I forgive her [...]
The English tend to be very lazy when it comes to learning foreign languages. This could be a result of being an insular island nation — but is probably more a feature of the fact that English is more or less accepted everywhere accepted as the modern “lingua franca” — the universal language of business, entertainment, the internet, and so on. Why should we waste our time learning other languages when everyone speaks English?
