Rentsenhand
Basic information
Interviewee ID: 990131
Name: Rentsenhand
Parent's name: Baldandorj
Ovog: Aga Buriad
Sex: f
Year of Birth: 1945
Ethnicity: Buriad
Additional Information
Education: higher
Notes on education:
Work: retired / teacher
Belief: Buddhist
Born in: Bayangol sum, Selenge aimag
Lives in: Bayanzürh sum (or part of UB), Ulaanbaatar aimag
Mother's profession: seamstress
Father's profession: accountant
Themes for this interview are:
(Please click on a theme to see more interviews on that topic)
work
education / cultural production
foreign relations
family
travel
Alternative keywords suggested by readers for this interview are: (Please click on a keyword to see more interviews, if any, on that topic)
childhood
schoolchildren's life
sports
work appointment
Russian language teaching
secondary school
retirement
To read a full interview with Rentsenhand please click on the Interview ID below.
Summary of Interview 080905A with Rentsenhand
I was born in 1945. I was born when my elder sister was 15 years old, therefore I was a long-awaited child. My dad completed the so-called ‘rabfak’ school. He is a Buriad, who spoke Russian. Though he was trained as an agronomist he used to translate for Soviet specialists and later he was a deputy darga and such jobs. I was born when my dad was working as an interpreter to the railway service bosses, right when the railway was being constructed in Bayangol sum. I went to school when my dad was appointed a general accountant to Bayanchandmani sum of Töv aimag. At school, I wrote with a dipped pen and the ink would freeze. It was tough to study in the countryside school.
About two years later when my dad was appointed a general accountant of the brick plant of Ulaanbaatar and he was shifted to the city, I went to the 8th school of Amgalan. We used to study in the former temple building, and the girls wore green deels and the boys blue. There used to be very effective teachers at that school. I completed the fifth grade and shifted to the 14th school. At that time, in the 1960s, we studied in a building with heating and we started to wear brown uniforms. Then the classes had 30-40 schoolchildren and the classes were full. The 14th school had a sports hall and there were a lot of sports. I played volleyball well when I was in 8-10th grade. When we completed the tenth grade we didn’t take enrollment exams, but the representatives from the Ministry of Education appointed the children to the schools by their academic grades. It happened only once and it coincided with my school completion. In 1969 I entered the Russian language faculty of the University and graduated from it as a Russian language teacher/translator.
After graduation I was told to go to Selenge to work. But at that time I was acquainted with the father of my children and I was three months pregnant. Therefore my acquaintance talked me into staying in the city, and I stayed to teach at the 22nd school of Gandan hill. The children of that Gandan hill used to study at that school and there were 40 children in one class. The classes were over at 8-9 pm and I went home by bicycle. Then I moved my ger close to Gandan. At that time the first edition of a Russian textbook Raduga 1,2,3,4 was issued. The Russian was taught as a second language and we taught it 5 hours a week. I taught for ten years and then went to Irkutsk to enhance my qualifications for a year and then came back, becoming a very good teacher. Later I had additional training in Leningrad for 45 days.
I had been working for twenty years when the Ministry sent me to the countryside due to the lack of Russian language teachers and I went to Arhangai aimag. I took my youngest daughter to the countryside, and she was in the fifth grade then. I went to Tsetserleg sum of Arhangai aimag and lived in one room of the girls’ dormitory. I had worked there for one year. The countryside people respected the teachers very much. Then, coming back from the countryside I went to the Ministry to give a petition asking to teach at the Soviet vocational school. It was proposed that I take the construction vocational schoolchildren to Rydni city and I agreed. In such a way in the 1989-1990 academic years I took the Mongolian students who studied at the city construction vocational school to Rudni city of Kazakstan. At the beginning of 1990 the consumer goods had begun to be given by coupons in Russia. We were given twice the norm as foreigners working there. Butter, soap and children’s goods were distributed and I saved them and shipped them all to Mongolia. At that time there was lack of food in Mongolia. Though I went with a five-year contract, I returned after two years. Back at the Ministry I was told that there were no more Russian language teachers. And the year before, all the teachers completed English language courses. So in 1992 after having worked for twenty years I retired as a mother of more than three children. I had worked for 24-25 years and all my children had been grown up and I was just eager to work. But right then I retired.
