"Meet Comrade Student"

April 19, 2023 12:04 AM

A 1962 Soviet school documentary. PT.1 and PT.2.
posted by clavdivs (4 comments total)

As someone who has been involcved in teacher training in the ex-USSR this video is quite entertaining.

The English lesson - "Who is on duty today?" "What is the weather like today?" etc etc - I have observed countless lessons exactly like this, first hand.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:09 AM on April 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Although this is obviously propaganda, it's fascinating to compare it to High School (1968) by Frederick Wiseman. Two sides of the Cold War student experience!
posted by EllaEm at 6:10 AM on April 19, 2023 [2 favorites]

Wall bars! They were a vital part of my European childhood PE experience, but nobody I've asked who grew up in the US knows what they are.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:14 AM on April 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think of myself as something of a student of accents and the story here is an absolutely fascinating mix of sounds.

I watched it a few times when this was posted and then forgot about it, but today it popped back into my head and I found myself trying to repeat the story in my head, phonetically, like a song.

Sometimes when I see people in old films like this I wonder what their lives ended up like, and how fascinating it would be to hear in depth about one or two. It's a strange kind of time travel to jump that far through history so quickly.
posted by Flaffigan at 4:39 PM on April 21, 2023