Seeing Moldova, Russian Style

As a person who has spent some time in Eastern Europe, I get a certain amount of grief for my decision to learn Russian. Including from my Romanian colleges at the embassy. After my trip to Moldova I am immensely glad that I decided to do so. This is not because I have any great love for ‘Mother Russia’ but because I have often thought of the language as a kind of common linguistic currency in Eastern Europe nations. My trip to Moldova confirmed this view. If I had no knowledge of Russian I would have gotten ripped off or totally screwed on more than one occasion.
From the time I got on the train I essentially found myself in a speak-or–die situation. When the conductor took my return tickets I had to speak Russian explain the problem and get them returned. If I hadn’t been able to do this, I would have had to buy a completely new reservation in Moldova, if one was even available. I ordered most of my meals in Russian. It allowed me to get the local price many restaurants, as I was able to speak enough to get the local Russian –Romanian menu (English menus have double the prices, a common scheme in the Former USSR). Many times the wait staff didn’t speak English at all. Once I overheard a conversation between my waiter and his manager. I realized that they were trying to rip me off and walked out of the restaurant. I am of Slavic heritage and look a lot like the locals, so the authorities left me alone. But speaking Russian helped here too. After I gazed at a sculpture in the Soviet victory memorial a bit too long, a stern solder blew his whistle at me, and motioned for me to come over. I did so and innocently said “Что проблем” (what’s the problem). The soldier softened and said that nothing was wrong. Even though most people can obviously tell that my Russian is not that great there seems to be attitude among most Moldovans that if you speak you are an “o.k.” person and should be treated well. This was true with most restaurants as well.
On a lighter note, the fact that I was able to speak Russian allowed me to have a better time. My Bulgarian driver for the two days I was there spoke only Bulgarian and Russian; we were able to chat in the car. My guide to Orhei Vici figured this out and we spoke mostly Russian on the way back.
My guide was impressed that I was able to speak so much after only one semester of classes. Frankly, so was I. My Russian is still very broken, and when I’m missing the word for something I have to insert a phrase of Rusified-Polish, but I was happy that I could make myself understood when it mattered. As my guide said, “the only way you will ever learn a language is to have to speak it”. I felt like I spoke as much or more Russian than English and it wasn’t because I hardly talked.
I think that having even a small knowledge of Russian was a major part of why I found Moldova to be a pleasant country that I would not hesitate to return to, or even live in. That being said they do like to rip off ignorant western tourists. If you go to Moldova without at least enough knowledge of Russian or Romanian to understand a restaurant menu, you will probably have a much worse time, and form a much more negative impression of the country than it deserves.