This course has been an interesting opportunity to think about the subconscious ways that I will process various aspects of my Russian host culture while being abroad next year. As someone who loves learning languages, I particularly enjoyed reading the Bennet piece about how language informs how we process everyday life . One particularly funny incident that came to mind was that in my first-year Russian class, learning the various verbs for “to marry” really underscored the gender dynamics of which the Russian language is a product. There are seperate verbs for “to marry” for men, women, and couples, and what particularly shocked us progressive American students is that the literal translation of the verb “to marry” that applies to females is “to go behind the man.” The idea that that sexist verbage for females getting married initially upset us exemplifies how our own cultural understanding informed our perceptions of Russian culture. It seems to me that language is both a gateway and a resource to better understand different cultures. When I am in Russia next year, I think that aside from being more aware of my own cultural lens, the idea in the Oberg reading that it’s in trying to explain the reason for your pain that learning happens will help me a lot.