| How does the education system work there? (Not necessarily relating to the fact that it is the coldest city on Earth; I'm just curious about places outside of the U.S) | At the age of 2-5 we go to kindergarten (or however you call it). It is not necessary. People are not really being taught anything there. |
| At the age of 6-7 people go to elementary school where they study basic math (up to muliplying, dividing and something more, I don't even remember), Russian, somewhere English, literature, drawing and PE. |
| After studying four years in elementary school, they transfer to middle school, aka 5th-8th grades. There they start real studying. A lot of new subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, German/French (it's your choice which one) and some others. |
| After that they get transferred to High School, where they study three years (9th to 11th grade). Also, at the end of the 9th grade every student muss take an exam for various subjects (math and Russian are required, some are by choice). This exam is very serious - it changes every year, it's the same for the whole country and it determines whether you can go on or not. If you fail, you have to wait another year to retake it. At the end of the 11th grade you take the most important exam, which includes Math, Russian (and soon English) as required subjects and other subjects that you choose depending on where do you plan to move on. There, you get from 0 to 100 points. If you pass all the exams, you can go to university. |
| At the university you will have to show your portfolio - what you have achieved, your final grades and, of course, the exam results. There you study from 3 to 5 years after which you get the highest edication and you can use it to get a proper job. |
| What is Yakutsk culture like? | It's quite unique. The Yakut/Sakha people were originally a completely standalone nation until Russians came in. Our religion is sort of complicated, I don't even fully get it. We have a pagan religion, meaning we have multiple gods, such as Bayanai - the god of hunting, and many others. People always note that our buildings are sort of unique, too. It is kinda hard talking about it being a part of it yourself, so I'm just gonna link to the two internet pages about the culture, as it will certainly be easier for both of us: Encyclopedia.com, Cosmicelk.net. |
| One thing I should definitely note, though, is the Olonkho. It's sort of our epic poem. And it is really epic, by which I mean its length. The best known olonkho is "Nyurgun Bootur the Swift", which consists of more than 36,000 verses. According to various sources, the olonkhos are sung during a period of up to seven nights, so yeah. And one thing about it is that the words almost never repeat themselves. Neat, huh? Although it is only like that for the original version, told in Yakut language, and I can't speak/read it. |
| How old are you? You speak very good english, how come? | I'm only 15 and the situation around my English skills is very funny, really. |
| When I was only 3-4 years old, I had a PC and my parents didn't limit me the time I could use it for, because they knew that if I grow up like them, I'll have trouble living in the future (a phrase from the song Red Flag comes to mind - "The kids of tomorrow don't need today when they live in the sins of yesterday"). So I had like two games teaching basic English, like the alphabet and the pronounciation, which lead me learn the English alphabet faster than my own one (Russian). That aside, back then almost no game had a Russian translation, so I had to grow up playing games in English. Specifically for that my brother bought me a dictionary and I started learning quite a lot of English words. When I finally went to school, there English was taught from the first grade and I got a wonderful teacher with whom I study to this day. After several years I got internet connection and I finally could connect with the rest of the world. This required English, so I started studying harder and now I speak English so much that I even think in English and that feels super weird. |
| If English is taught from first grade, does that mean that most people can speak English? | Sadly, no. Not every teacher is as great, and not every student is willing or has the needs to learn. They can speak basic sentences, so they will be able to survive in foreign countries as tourists, but they can freely speak it. |
| What kind of clothes did you wear and sleep with? | On winters, when I go outside I always wear down jackets with maybe sweaters and hoodies underneath it. And by down jackets I mean really warm down jackets with fur hoods and stuff. If it's December-January, I also sometimes wear down pants above my regular pants that might even have leggings (or however you call them, I don't know the translation) underneath them, too. Though in February-March the temperature warms up to -20C (-4F), so I only wear something like a normal jacket like this one and any normal pair of pants like jeans and stuff. Summers are super hot, too - they can get from +30C (+86F) to +40C (+104F), so I wear a T-shirt and a pair of shorts. However, because winters are so cold, we warm up our houses so much that I can sleep just in my underwear while it's freezing outside. |
| What do you do all winter as a kid? | I was never really limited to the use of my computer and videogame consoles, so I used to play games most of the time, as it was too cold to play outside. Hell, I'm still the same now. |
| How many people live there? | The city's population is around 260k. Though, in the republic of Sakha (Yakutsk is its capital) there are 950k people living there. Still not enough to get a golen play button from YouTube (hahaha, I'm too funny). |
| What do you when you need fuel or anything in the mid of winter? | When you need fuel, or food, or anything, you basically go buy it. No matter what people may tell you, we are pretty okay with temperatures like this. It's nothing special for us to go out in -40. |
| How would it feel to move to California or Florida after up there your whole life? | I don't know much about the climate of California or Florida. but I've heard it's hot. Though, our summers are hot, too, so I would appreciate some more precise info on that. The winters, on the other hand, will feel super weird. It would certainly feel uncomfortable to move somewhere with such warm winters. |
| What are your favorite video games? | Oh, there's plenty. Of course there's classic like Half-Life series, I'm also into MGS (well, any Metal Gear, really), and I'm a huge fan of Sam Lake's works (Max Payne, Alan Wake, Quantum Break etc). If a game has a neat story and/or gameplay elements - I'm sold. |
| our summers are hot, How hot? | Varies from +30C (+86F) to +40 (+104F) and above. |
| Pretty much in so cal the weather can be explained as such in the winter you can go surfing in the morning and snowboarding at night. Ha. | Seems like fun. My organism wouls go nuts trying to readapt, though. |
| What are your dreams and aspiration and why do you pursue them? | My dream is to become a doctor. No idea why and what kind of a doctor. Maybe it's because I have a very low immunity and got ill a million times already (my hospital records are already bigger than those of my parents). |
| What matters to you most and why? | To me what matters most is probably how much fun does one have. If life isn't fun, then what's the point? I don't mean to say "What's the point to live if nothing is fun - let's just kill ourselves", though. |
| Why do you think we exist at all and what our purpose is? | We exist to evolve into such state where we question our purpose and then kill ourselves because we can't find the answer. |
| What makes life so worth living? | Just the fact that we live is already worth not dying. I don't really know what else can there be to it. |
| What's the best thing about living in Yakutsk? The worst? | The best thing is that it's kinda small (122 sq km/47 sq mi, if Wikipedia is to be trusted) and everything is really close to each other. The worst thing is that it's kinda small, which makes it forgotten. We don't even have McDonalds or any other thing like that here. By the way, check this out. The word translates as "Kebab". It always cracks me up. |
| Also, a good thing about living in Yakutsk is that you can brag about your winters, which I am basically doing right now. |
| Do you feel more turkic or more russian? Do you still speak your native language? Do you still have shamanic rituals in your community? | I feel more Russian, but I look more like a Korean. Because I didn't learn Yakutian/Sakha language when I was a child, I find it extremly hard to learn it now, so I can't speak my own native language. Most of the times I can understand it, though, since everyone around me (including my family, except my brother) speaks Sakha as well as Russian, plus Sakha has a lot of words that sound like their Russian analogs or are completely ripped off from Russian. |
| Shamanic rituals don't happen on a serious note, they are either for performances or for some superstitious people. |
| Yeah figured it out, your name is also Russian. What about the people there? How do they identify themselves? Are turkic roots completely wiped out in the public sphere? | You can easily tell the difference between native/half Yakuts and Russians, and more than a half of Yakutsk's population are Yakuts. We may not follow the culture completely, but I believe we are still completely different from other nations of Russia. |
| Can it be said then that Yakuts are culturally assimilated by Russians? | Basically, yeah. They kinda invaded us, but we also were super agressive to them. But if it weren't for Russians, I can't imagine who we would be right now. |
| EDIT: I misunderstood that question. However, the answer remains the same, kind of: "Basically, yes". |
| Well, you would not be Nikolai now. | Yup :D. |
| I would probably be something like Ayaal. |
![Yakutsk, Russian Winter (Photo by Alex Vasyliev) [1600 x 1200]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/6O3_DPm1kIRqNs7wVShP_-hQJaKQb4Mnvzs-1AyAyAg.jpg "Yakutsk, Russian Winter (Photo by Alex Vasyliev) [1600 x 1200]")
