Tallinn School vol.1: The Premise

In order to understand what i'm doing in Estonia, you must first know a few things about Estonia, and a few more about the realities of the emergent global marketplace.

so, a quick guide to Estonia from someone who knows practically nothing about it. Estonia, like the other balkan countries as well as Poland and Finland,is a low-lying country with very cold winters, but decent farmland and several good harbors. As a result, it's been relatively desirable, but largely indefensible. the population has watched wave after wave of outside power wash over its borders and claim its allegiance. In a process i don't understand, this somehow lead to the development of the three baltic regions as distinct cultural and linguistic zones. yeah, that baffles me.

In modern history, the area has been banded about between major european powers like a chunk of the African coast, leading one travel writer to jest, "it seems the British always confused the baltics with the balkans, and treated them in accordance." Estonia enjoyed a brief (and first) independence following WWI, but that ended within the opening salvo of WWII. The subsequent occupation by Russia and forced enrollment in the USSR never settled well in Estonia, and the baltics continued to be an odd ideological thorn for the soviets. none of the violence of Chechnya, but always very sympathetic toward the west and suspicious of Soviet "solutions."

Following the soviet collapse all three countries rocketed to adopt western priorities and economies with ridiculous success. Look at your cell phone, odds are it's Baltic or Finnish in origin. Nokia, Ericson, apparently not Japanese afterall.

so there's Estonia. An incredibly small country with an old, small, and wonderfully metropolitan capital, Tallinn. How small? This city of 400,000 still has most of its citty-centrer enclosed by medieval walls, but with ample bus and even tram service throughout its nearby suburbs. Even a long tram ride is technically walkable if need be, and taxis are plentiful as well.


so here we have a super tech-savvy city with cobbled streets and free wi-fi everywhere. I don't think it even qualifies as "post-soviet" because it was never very soviet to begin with. the controversial removal (still referenced with pride) of "the russian statue" is a good illustration.

now to be an international player, especially in the world of high tech gizmodgetry, the one prerequisite is not a devoted WoW population, but a thorough English fluency starting at an early age.

And that's where I come in.

The school is called "In Down Town" and it is well-titled. This thing is not only within the thick stone medieval walls, it shares a corner with some of the hippest late night pubs and other establishments of lesser repute. So by day it's 40 kids (age 9-13) being marshalled about by 8 untrained volunteers, and by night (though not by dark- there is no sunset in the Estonian summer) it's the abode of dozens of zombie-like drunkards being nudged along by their slightly less-inebriated girlfriends.

the school is a language camp, so rather wealthy children come to practice their already incredible language skills and to get more "international exposure and understanding." ok, that last part is hard to swallow, but what it means is that we aren't teaching them grammer, we're just making them converse in English and get some practice and listening opportunities while we otherwise keep them busy and out of their parent's way.

still with me?

ok, let's call that good for today.. now you know a little something new about estonia (which may or may not be accurate), and quite a bit more about my camp than you could possibly have cared to know.

stay tuned, more of this riveting novella to come.

Weber (on the lamb)