About Galina1975

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Personal History

October 1998 was a turning point in my life. In one night, my family lost all our savings in the midst of the Russian financial crisis. To make matters worse, my mother and my husband, the two income earners of my family, lost their jobs. As a result, our sheer survival was at stake.

I had graduated from Moscow State University (MSU) in June 1998, but nothing in my previous life could prepare me for what was happening to me and my family in that October. All my undergraduate and graduate experience at MSU led me to believe that I would go further within my chosen field to the Doctorate Degree in Geography at MSU. I then would have ultimately gotten a job as a space-image interpreter in a private or state-owned company and concurrently pursue a teaching career at MSU. My plans were totally wiped out, however.

Just to help my family survive, I decided not to proceed with my doctoral studies and instead look for a job. The choice of potential jobs in my field was grim, however. Many small and medium-sized companies were going bankrupt, and big corporations suspended their big research projects indefinitely, while academia did not have sufficient resources to pay a salary, adequate enough for their employees to survive on.

I started working as a business manager in a consulting company dealing with currency trading. To begin a career in an industry I knew so little about was not easy. I had to take a number of corporate courses in technical analysis and economics to embark upon this new path. As a result, my practical knowledge and horizon in economics and finance broadened.

To become a successful currency analyst and broker, I also learned how to make decisions efficiently and under strict time constraint. Moreover, I was entrusted with a number of responsibilities related to human resource management, including interviewing prospective candidates for a job and teaching introductory courses for incoming investors.

After working as currency broker for three years, I realized that the profession was not for me, despite its apparent dynamism and future promise. I wished to go to a graduate school, conduct my own research and lead more scholarly life. Years spent observing the dynamics of FOREX market attracted me to the study of political and economic determinants of socio-economic development.

In November 2000, I was accepted to the Graduate School at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies (the Far East Institute) of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a research student. I also was offered a position of a junior staff researcher, which was a very helpful way to finance myself through graduate studies. Staying for two years with this institution helped me grow as a researcher. I always desired to study abroad for better opportunities, and especially I was interested in going to East Asia.

I found out about the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management, a top-notch international graduate school in South Korea, which specializes in retraining mid-career public officials, corporate officers and scholars. My application was successful, and in January 2003, I moved to Seoul.

Upon my graduation from KDI School, I was investigating still better opportunities to enroll in a PhD program. At the same time, I was offered a full-time teaching position at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (www.hufs.ac.kr), in which I had been teaching part-time since 2003. The job offered good benefits, and I accepted. Taking time to earn some money and acquire substantial teaching experience seemed a good choice.

In September 2004, I started working as a full-time instructor (courses: Russian language for economists and Russian Economy) at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul (HUFS). Concurrently, I worked for KBS World Radio (Russian Service) as a writer and an anchorperson for several programs (Korea: Today and Tomorrow, and Business Watch, http://world.kbs.co.kr/russian). Living and working in Seoul for two years was a challenge: I did not speak any Korean at first, and every day was a struggle in communication. Only after my Korean improved, life became much more enjoyable, and every day brought something new in my life.

In 2006, I was offered another full-time position in Chosun University (Gwangju, ROK, www.chosun.ac.kr) as an instructor (Russian language and Introduction to the Russian Economy and Law). In total, I have been teaching for more than 5 years, including 2 years at Moscow State University. My teaching experience has been great and enlightening. I really enjoy talking to students, and when they come back to me with words of gratitude, that makes my day.

I am committed to academic excellence. Since I have never had sufficient financial resources to follow the shortest path to my goal, it took a little longer than expected for me to find the way to my future. But because of that, I believe I have gained a broader and deeper perspective in life.

Indeed, I have been working in many different capacities: as a manager, a cartographer, a scholar, an international student, and a foreign faculty in two different Korean universities, and every time I grew not only professionally, but also personally, developing compassion for other people and “emotional intelligence”. I am a much stronger person now than I ever was.

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Location:

Russian Federation

Primary occupation:

Teacher

Dream occupation:

Political Science Professor

Hometown:

Moscow

Schools attended:

Moscow State University

I like:

Books and movies

Favorite writers:

Murokami, Bulgakov, Dostoevsky, Alison Weir, Dan Brown

Favorite books:

"Eleanor of Aquitaine", "Demons"

Favorite newspapers:

"Financial Times", "Wall Street Journal", "New York Times", "Vedomosti", "Rossiiskaya gazeta"

Favorite magazines:

"Forbes", "The Economist"

Favorite music:

"Cranberries"

Favorite movies:

"Pulp Fiction", "Troy", "Lord of the Rings", "La Reine Margot"

Favorite TV shows:

"Friends"

Gender:

F

Religion:

Christian