Manas Airmen put Russian skills to test Published May 14, 2008 By Lt. Col. Adriane Craig 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs MANAS AB, Kyrgyzstan -- Manas Airmen tested their newly acquired Russian language skills during a local day trip to Bishkek May 12. Several students, recently "graduated" from their volunteer Russian class accompanied by their instructor, Staff Sgt. Alex Kryvenia into the city. The day trip included shopping, lunch and a visit to Ala Too Square to see the Changing of the Guard ceremony. The trip was the culmination of their three-month long introductory Russian class taught by the linguists in the 376th Coalition Coordination Office. Two classes totaling almost 60 students signed up for instruction at the beginning of the rotation. Students started with the alphabet, which was unfamiliar to most -- Russian is based on the Cyrillic alphabet, so the letters are different. The class quickly moved into greetings and phrases. As ops tempo increased and personnel started to rotate out, the classes grew smaller. Many had joined just to learn the pleasantries and so when grammar and more in-depth instruction began, attendance tapered off. But about seven stuck it out until the end. And a few, said Sergeant Kryvenia, actually developed some pretty good language skills. "There were quite a few people who did really well and were able to apply the knowledge learned in the class to their mission," said Sergeant Kryvenia. He would know. Born in Belarus, Sergeant Kryvenia is a native speaker of the language. Now a medical technician with the 96th Medical Group at Eglin AFB, Fla., he immigrated to the United States just five years ago, moving there with his wife and two sons after receiving a green card. He joined the Air Force shortly thereafter. He taught the class with his boss, Major Boris Gershman, who was born in Moscow, and immigrated to the states when he was four years old. Both are deployed as Russian linguists and coalition coordinators to the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing. In addition to providing linguistic support, they are also the liaisons to the French and Spanish Detachments at Manas Air Base, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense and coalition forces transiting the base. Manas Airmen are in a unique position to interact with host nationals every day. With several hundred local contractors helping perform the base's mission as the premier mobility hub supporting operations in Afghanistan, local language skills are a bonus. It was for that reason that Tech. Sgt. Teresa Russell, 376th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron, took the class. "I always wanted to learn Russian and this was the perfect opportunity for it and it helped [for working] with the local community," said Sergeant Russell. For her the language was not as hard as she thought it would be; the tricky part was the memorization and trying to grasp which endings should be used with what words. In Russian, all words have a gender and that affects how you make the word plural or change its tense. She's been able to use her skills during community service visits to local schools as well as for ordering in restaurants and reading signs downtown as they did on their class trip. Accordingly to Sergeant Kryvenia, the 376 Air Expeditionary Wing Coalition Coordination Liaisons offered the class at the request of the 376th AEW Commander. He suspects it will continue to be a recurring course at Manas Air Base. Sergeant Russell recommends it and says she'll stick with the study of the language after she returns to her home station of Peterson AFB, Colo. "The instructors were awesome and they provided great insight to not only the Russian language, but the culture as well."