Russian students adapt to life in America

On the first day of school, junior Nicole Helena Arbuzova, a Russian immigrant who moved to America in 2015, walked into her first-period French classroom, her heart racing with both anxiousness and excitement. Sitting down in her assigned seat, Arbuzova analyzed her surroundings, staring with curiosity at the blank piece of paper in front of her.

Although nothing was noticeably different about the paper to

Arbuzova’s peers, one glaring difference stood out to her nonetheless. Both the size and thickness of the paper were radically different from the paper she had been used to in Russia, where A4 paper (8.3 x 11.7 inches) is considered standard versus the Letter size (8.5 x 11 inches) used in America.

Having recently immigrated from Moscow, Russia, Arbuzova is one of a handful of  Russian-born students at the school. Originally moving to America due to her father’s job relocation, Arbuzova has noted both many cultural and physical differences between her life in Russia and America.

Culturally, Arbuzova said that the main difference she has noticed is the politeness of Americans. By contrast, she said, Russians are generally much more ill-mannered on the streets.

Compared to his home country, Russian-born junior Vladimir Kataev said police officers on the roads are generally much more generous in America.

“If you were stopped in America for a minor road violation, you wouldn’t normally receive a lot of serious consequences,” Kataev said. “The same couldn’t be said about Russia, though, as police officers are much meaner and generally more corrupt.”

Academically, Arbuzova feels that the connection between students and teachers is stronger in Russia. This is largely because students are taught by the same teachers throughout high school.

“In Russia, my math classes were only taught by one teacher during my entire schooling,” Arbuzova said. “So, the bond I had with my teacher was much greater than the bonds I currently have with my teachers at Saratoga.”

Arbuzova also noted that cheating is taken much less seriously in Russia.

“Even if a teacher saw that two students were cheating, they would not give both students zeroes or even report it,” Arbuzova said.

While many students who move from other countries to America find the language barrier to be a challenge, Arbuzova experienced quite the opposite. She learned English at an early age in Russia and has found the transition from speaking Russian at home to using English at school to be relatively simple.

“Students at my old school were taught how to read, write and speak in English in first grade,” Arbuzova said. “I am actually really happy that I paid attention back then since it’s been, as you can imagine, extremely useful to me now.”

Although there have been certain cultural and academic difficulties that both Arbuzova and Kataev have had to overcome, both agree that their life in America could not be better.

“Overall, these last two years have been great as I have had the opportunity to learn much more about the American culture and way of life that I had previously not known much about,” Arbuzova said.